OUGD403 - Studio Brief 02 - Research: Type Specimen Posters

Fig. 1. Helvetica Bold.

Type specimens are used to display typefaces and can come in various forms, such as a poster or booklet. They often include a rationale of the typeface, which explains why the typeface was developed, it's applications and a description of some of it's defining characteristics.

Along with the research into newspaper layouts, in helping to produce my own type specimen I researched various specimen posters. Looking at these specimens showed me that it is important to create one which best communicates the personality of said typeface. For example, Fig. 1. shows a specimen for Helvetica Bold. This reflects the clean and neutral personality of the typeface through keeping the poster very minimal and structured.

All specimens also make use of the typeface itself to showcase it's qualities. This often includes large versions of particular letterforms, numbers or glyphs, with the information about these characteristics working around these.

The colour schemes of these two specimens in particular both relate to the purpose and functionality of my developed typeface in that they all use quite neutral, greyscale tones that are typically found within newspapers and other such publications. Elements such as these, I will take across to produce my own specimen that effectively communicates Caslon Slimline.

Fig. 2.