OUGD403 - Studio Brief 02 - Development Ideas

All my initial ideas made use of serif typefaces, in particular Caslon and Clarendon. Whilst it was regarded during feedback as a "too safe and obvious" route to take, I decided to work with a few initial ideas using these typefaces to see how they would inform my designs, rather then disregarding them before any experimentation.

Fig. 1. shows experimentation with cutting out the characteristics which make it a strong typeface and leaving behind the 'flimsy' characteristics attached to their serifs. The serifs had to be kept for this due to some letterforms looking too abstract and illegible. I used Caslon for this as the contrasts between thick and thin strokes meant that it was easier to pick the typeface apart. In lowercase, I took away the thinner strokes to make it stronger and got rid of he thicker strokes on uppercase to make it weaker, almost seeming to reverse their roles.

To develop this further I will experiment with adding even thinner strokes where I have cut some out. These will only be visible when blown up to a large enough scale, and become barely visible again when brought down in size, as if the type is falling apart. This could be used for display and branding purposes.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2. Picking apart the thick and thin strokes, and shifting them so that the
type looks unstable, inadequate and almost clumsy.

Fig. 3 shows some initial idea sketches using Univers. In this I have kept either the top or bottom half of the letterforms constant, and then shifted the other half to one side to give it the effect of the letterforms falling over or falling back on themselves. I feel this idea works best when used in lowercase, and the top half of the letterforms are slanted and the bottom half is kept constant. When used in uppercase, the letterforms are too strong that the slant is still quite subtle and does not make much of an impact.

Fig. 3. 

Taking more inspiration from Fabian Fohrer's Sneak Type, I decided to reverse this sketch to see how this would affect the type (Fig. 2). Some letterforms became more top-heavy like in Sneak, whilst others changed letterforms completely. For example, a capital G turns into a lowercase e and a lowercase g turns into a double-storied a. Although this idea works for some characters, it does not work for all and is too similar to not only Fohrer's typeface, but also to the original typeface in use (Univers).

Fig. 4.

Fig. 6. continues to make use of Univers, however brings in elements of Caslon whereby there is more of a contrast between thick and thin strokes, which makes the 'flimsy' characteristics of the typeface stand out more against the stronger characteristics. This can be developed further through experimentation with changing the axis of the letterforms, which as a result will change how the character is weighted on each side.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Other type experimentation:

Fig. 7. Type cut off at the bottom. Some had to be cut less than others as
certain letterforms looked too similar when cut directly in half, eg.
L and I, O and Q, E and F.

Fig. 8. Cross strokes and tittles lowered on some letterforms. Others
have no changes at all - too similar. How can more be cut out of the
forms? Needs more defining characteristics. Does it reflect
flimsiness, being unstable?