OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award (Norwegian Wood) - Image and Type Experiments

In order to think about the use of space and how type would fit around the developed imagery, it was decided to experiment with some initial compositions through placing type and image together. For these initial experiments, a bold san-serif typeface was utilised in order to match the bold characteristics of the pop art aesthetic. However, it was found that the type, even in the darkest black colour, did not work that effectively with the halftoned background and gave off an effect which was quite harsh to look at. It was decided to manipulate this halftone so that the dots appeared less and at a larger size in an attempt to overcome this problem, however if was found this still produced the same effect.

In order to try and overcome this problem, one idea was to reduce the shape and size of the white halftone to only feature around the imagery and instead place the type in a strip of colour which had already been layered underneath the halftone in order to make the type more legible. Another variation was to get rid of this halftone altogether and have the imagery sit on a solid red background, which was thought to help both the type and imagery stand out much more. A further composition experiment was to place the imagery within a frame, creating a scene of which the type then surrounds. This was thought to contain the imagery much like the concept of the jar itself to represent feelings of being trapped.