Based on one of Müller-Brockmanns classic and lead typefaces, We have been asked to design our own bespoke typeface effectively communicating my given adjective.
My Adjective: BRAVE
Synonyms: Courageous, Plucky, Heroic, Bold, Daring, Adventurous
To kick start this project I've decided to look into examples of bravery in human history. Bravery is seen all over the world on a daily basis and has been demonstrated throughout human history. The most obvious and well known examples of bravery in Human History include things like World Wars, Battles, Protests and Revolutions.
Below is some imagery associated with these examples and also images on how these events can be relevant to my typeface design.
WARS & BATTLES
PROTESTS
REVOLUTIONS
These images are well known examples of when mass bravery has had an affect on human history during battles, protests and revolutions. These events show clear sings of bravery which is why I've decided to research into them. More specifically, I will look into the propaganda involved in these historical events and what effects they've had on the success of them.
I then aim to take influence and make informed decisions from these images when starting my initial development on my typeface design.
Propaganda throughout history has always been an affective go-to method of displaying and, more importantly, spreading information.
Posters and billboards have been the most effective way of persuasion, especially before the growth of technology like TV and radio.
The examples on the right show that propaganda posters all have a very similar use of text and imagery; both very bold and hard-hitting in order to grab the audiences' attention.
I will be aiming to produce a typeface that is suitable for display usage such as on posters and billboards. For this, the typeface will have to be bold and robust as it will have to work on a larger scale and be legible from a distance.
On the right is some examples of propaganda from the Chinese Revolution.
The text featured on these posters is extremely effective in grabbing the audiences attention. The imagery and text work together due to the shared use of colour.
I will therefore aim to add some elements to my typeface similar to characteristics of the Chinese alphabet.
Müller-Brockmann's 9 typefaces.
My next decision is to chose which of Müller-Brockmann's 9 typefaces I will be exploring to communicate my given adjective.
Out of the 9, I've decided to take forward Garamond, Caslon and Clarendon typefaces for the following reasons.
Garamond
- Old-style font
- Unique characteristics include small bowl of the 'a', small eye of the 'e', long extenders and top serifs have a downward slope.
- variation in stroke width is restrained to resemble handwriting - organic and unadorned
- Good for printing body texts and books
Caslon
- irregular characteristics similar to Dutch Baroque types
- unique characteristics include short ascenders and descenders, bracket serifs and Robust texture
- italics have a rhythmic calligraphic stroke
Clarendon
- Slab-serif typeface
- first registered typeface
- Associated with WANTED posters of the American Old West
- US national signage, Ruby Tuesday's logo, Great British Railway sign plates
My hand rendered work...
Using pen and paper, I've looked closely at each of the 3 fonts I've taken forward. I have highlighted in red all the key characteristics of each font that make them unique to themselves, e.g. the shape and size of the serifs, terminals and bars.
I have decided to take forward the Caslon typeface as a starting point.
My initial development work, seen above, is a few letterforms and numbers I have manipulated using Adobe Illustrator. I have aimed to recreate the chosen font into a typeface with the purpose of grabbing the viewers attention, on a poster or billboard, as well as being easily readable and legible from a great distance.
Above is my initial development work into creating my desired typeface. I have taken influence, primarily, from the war posters of the Chinese communist revolution, more specifically, the characters in the Chinese alphabet.
Manifesto
The typeface I aim to design is one that is easily readable and legible from a great distance. This is because the typeface will be designed to be suitable for display purposes such as on posters and billboards. This also means that my typeface must work well along side bold imagery and colours. It must hold some sort of authority in its form as it will need to persuade the audience to think or feel differently. The typeface must have similarities to the Chinese characters featured in my research, such as it being a hand-rendered typeface. It must be attention grabbing, bold and robust to be suitable for any advert or propaganda poster in order to be affective and useful.
The Typeface will be primarily designed in bold as well as being in upper case. This is because that is the style in which the typeface will be most useful and suitable. The typeface may not work as well on a smaller scale and I will therefore not design a lower case typeface.
Above is my completed typeface named 'Reform'. The name comes from my research into revolutions as well as being relevant to the actual brief; as the task is to 'reform' or 'redesign' a typeface.
With this project, I have aimed to create a typeface suitable for large text sizes such as on posters and billboards. This typeface should also denote aspect of Chinese characters. I have achieved this by giving the typeface a hand-painted look. This typeface is also attention grabbing and authoritative as it needs an element of persuasion to be used on posters such as propaganda.
The sentence above shows how each letterform works next to one another in a different order than the normal alphabet.
I've implemented my typeface design onto a poster format to show how it would look. I've used an iconic image that has been used historically in the U.S for army recruiting.
I have then shown how my typeface would look on a modern day billboard. I've used red for the type as it's a colour typical to China and my typeface design has taken a lot of influence from that country and their unique alphabet.
My type specimen above is further demonstration into how the typeface looks along side imagery and colour and showing how they work together as a typeface. The typeface has a successful amount of authority to it and would work well on an advert to persuade the audience in some way, shape or form.
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