OUGD603 - Photography Book - Type Developments

From initial type considerations, it was decided that the two typefaces 'Russo One Regular' and 'Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Regular' worked best in communicating the intended themes, with 'Russo One' being utilised as the title font due to it's squared characteristics which were initially thought worked effectively to represent typical designs of 24 hour stop signs and petrol station signs, with its square characteristics also giving it a sort of industrial feel which continues to work with the context and themes of the book.

Initially, it was thought that this typeface would work on its own with no additional details in order to keep it simple and clear as to what it is trying to communicate. However, it was considered that perhaps for the cover this could be stylised in some way. Based on this, some visual research was conducted into the typical designs of 24 hour signs. From this it was found that most of these tend to be neon designs, since these must be able to stand out when it is dark outside to show people that a place is still open. These vary slightly in their type design, however one thing which was found to be consistent throughout was that these tended to have more rounded characteristics which have simply been predetermined by the typical structure of neon tubing.

Based on this visual research, it was decided to therefore experiment with creating neon typographic effects in Illustrator, however utilising the typeface 'Russo One Regular' rather than a typeface with typical rounded characteristics, in order to make this more playful and still communicate the more industrial themes of the book. In addition, simply to see the contrast in design and whether or not it would potentially work, variations of this typographic effect were also produced using 'Arial Rounded' which has more round characteristics closer to the traditional style of neon signage. These were experimented with in a variety of colours which I thought would potentially relate to the colour featured in some of Akshay's photography. However, overall it was thought that this effect did not work as effectively as I would have liked it to, with it not giving much of a glow to help it stand out and be clear as representative of neon text. Instead, the effect looks as if the text is blurred slightly, which may then diminish the quality feel of the book.

Instead, it was decided to experiment with a more simple design, which shows off the characteristics of the type clearer. It was also thought that this simple clarity was more representative of the typical type designs of petrol stations and 24 hour stores when not using neon signage. This type was highlighted with a red ring, used to create an abstract representation of a clock being 24 hours. The type was also changed to red to match this ring based on looking at the typical colours of these sorts of signs in which red seemed to be one since this is a bold colour which helps it stand out. However, it was thought that this looked a bit odd to the eye.

This design was therefore manipulated in changing the type to black and keeping the abstracted ring in the same colour red. It was thought that this worked much more effectively in creating a contrast between the two colours that highlights the text and makes it stand out. It was also thought that this more simplistic design worked better with the context of the book and ideas around this in which it communicates themes of isolation in its simple design.