OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Type Considerations

Research into the various typefaces of Barcelona, it was found that there is a mixture of both serif and sans-serif fonts used, either separately or combined. Ciutadella Rounded is one typeface found, which has links to design in Barcelona, used as the dominant typeface for the project 'Barcelona Inspires Design' aimed at promoting the 'Barcelona brand' at the Business of Design Week held in Hong Kong in 2015. Gotham has similar properties, being a sans-serif typeface, with strokes of a similar thickness and the letterforms more rounded in nature. Both have contemporary elements to them, which could potentially reflect the ever-growing art and design scene in Barcelona.

Bohemia, on the other hand, is a serif typeface, which more 'traditional' characteristics. This typeface was used for the brand identity of Barcelona Century Hotel, and takes inspiration from elements of Barcelona's heritage, such as street and block layouts, patterns and hydraulic tiles. The use of this or similar typefaces could potentially be used within my own publication in order to reflect the history of Barcelona's architecture in a similar sense, as well as mimicking the style of type found on traditional Barcelona street signs.

Based on these considerations, it was decided to use a combination of serif and sans-serif typefaces, reflecting Barcelona's relationship between the traditional and the modern. A typeface pair which were found to work well together were Caslon 540 and Franklin Gothic.

Caslon was designed to resemble handwriting with a pen and thus established a tradition of engraving type, which could relate to the combination of such type used on street signs produced in stone throughout Barcelona. Due to the characteristics of this typeface, this also makes it practical for use with extended passages of text, which includes the main body of written text given by the author of the publication in this instance.

Franklin Gothic, on the other hand, has been used in a variety of medias, including book design and for newspaper headlines. The properties of this typeface were inspired by earlier nineteenth century models of similar typefaces, linking it to the period of time in which some famous elements of Barcelona's heritage were constructed, such as street and block layouts, which also inspired the production of other typefaces. The name 'Gothic' comes from a contemporary term used to describe 'sans-serif', thus linking the typeface to more modern design. Due to the bold nature of this typeface, this will be used predominantly for display elements, such as headings.


The weights I have decided to work with are Caslon 540 Regular and, either Franklin Gothic Demi Regular or Heavy Regular since it was felt that these produce a suitable contrast between the 'traditional' and the 'modern', and can be used clearly to communicate a separation between body text and headlines producing a clear hierarchy of information within the publication.