OUGD603 - The Batsford Prize - Type and Image Developments

In starting to bring the newly developed imagery together with the various typographic compositions I had initially produced, it was found that the full quote did not work as effectively on this imagery since it was found to cover too much of the image and took some focus away from this as a concept. Another variation was done where this quote was made smaller and placed in the centre of the image, however the blocky nature of this composition still meant that too much of the image was covered and the use of black text also meant this overpowered the image.

In addition, the typeface was changed since the original type used in initial compositions were found not to work effectively with the imagery in that the style was too different to the style of the imagery. For this reason, it was decided to use a rounder typeface, in this instance Cooper Black, which worked better with the round nature of the imagery.

For the reasons above, it was decided to take a more minimalistic approach, picking out the main pieces of information from the full quotes and centring this in the image. It was found this worked a lot better in allowing both the imagery and text to stand out in their own right, whilst not compromising the concept behind the design. It was also found that text worked better in white since it made the text a bit more subtle as well as more consistent with the colour scheme of the imagery being paler in colour.

Experimenting with variation, other design developments explored using the imagery with black outlines and white text, as well as exploring the use of the opposing colours used for other image variations relating to the typical colour scheme of a human brain. It was thought this worked in one instance in the fourth image below in that lighter colour text on top of a darker image gave the effect of this text being printed or stamped onto the image without this inverted colour overlay compromising the legibility of the text, however the use of black in the other variations was found to take focus away from the design as a whole.

Similar text and image developments were explored for the opposing design which featured an abstract image of human cells, experimenting with the different colour variations. Text has been composed in the same way, using justified text alignments to represent the sporadic nature of human cells and DNA, simply using the words 'blue print' taken from the full quote to communicate the concept in a more minimalistic style that does not compromise the design as a whole and creates an element of consistency with the style and composition of the other design development relating to the human brain. Again, white text has been used in all these variations, creating another small element of consistency, as well as working more effectively to not overpower the imagery.

Another typographic composition experimented with in these set of design developments was due to the nature of the text in this instance not being the same amount of letters on each line. For this reason, I also explored composing the top letterforms between the bottom ones.

In addition, digitally recreating a de-bossed effect of type into the image was also experimented with to gain a sense of how this method would potentially look if recreated physically. Digitally this effect makes the text very hard to read and is almost completely hidden by the image when not looking close, and does not work effectively with the newly developed imagery, since this effect was found to work better when there is only one background colour which makes the effect look more realistic. It was also considered that doing this physically would also be challenging since to emboss/deboss, the paper has to be made wet, which would potentially cause a problem with ink running off the printed imagery.