OUGD603 - The Batsford Prize - Initial Typographic Composition Experiments

Based on initial ideas and visual research, it was decided to start experimenting with some typographic compositions which could be utilised within my designs. The first ideas utilised a traditional serif typeface which was thought could potentially communicate the time in which the debate began and was most prominent, since now, generally people appreciate that both nature and nurture influence each other. These first experiments all use justified text alignments which spreads out the type across the whole shape. It was thought that this would potentially work more effectively when overlayed with imagery since the negative space amongst the words and letterforms would allow more of the imagery to appear through rather than if the text was all concentrated in the centre of the design. Based on visual research into Basil & Ford's typographic compositions, it was decided to also experiment with ways in which the words could be separated for more legibility or impact of certain words, for instance separating the words "blank slate" from the the rest of the quote or only having one of two words per line.

Further experiments looked at combining different type styles to separate words. In these compositions, it was decided to place the most important words of the quote in a bolder, san-serif typeface in order to make these stand out, whilst the least important, 'filler' words like "is a" and "upon which" were placed in a serif typeface at a smaller size. For the most part these also continued to used justified text alignments, however in some variations the alignment has been mixed, centring the shorter 'filler' words so that the negative space appears more evenly amongst the composition, whereas when these shorter words were justified, this left a huge chunk of negative space at the top of the design.

Based on the initial idea of intertwining type with imagery, further typographic compositions utilising a different, more relevant quote for the idea were produced, this time experimenting with a more sporadic nature of type and letterforms. These letterforms would potentially be interwoven with imagery of human cells, with the sporadic composition of the letterforms representing the idea of movement and the idea of living cells in the human body, with the cells communicating the idea of human nature.

Although it is felt that some of these compositions work better than others, this is largely dependent on the quotes used, since some may be longer than others therefore not all of these compositions would work as effectively with other quotes. For this reason, the next step in the development of this project should be to research and figure out what quotes will be utilised within the final designs and then create further typographic compositions using these. The designs should perhaps utilise one quote based on the nature side of the debate, and one quote based on the nurture side of the debate.