Baskerville

Baskerville is a serif typeface, which is 'transitional', a refinement of the 'old style' by John Baskerville and cut by John Handy. Tapered serifs mean that the axis is shifted and the letters seem more upright. John Baskerville was a wealthy industrialist and wanted to offer a high-quality method of printing books as in the 1700s books were made of poor quality.

Corresponding to the typeface three kinds of  posters were produced.

One variation (type size and thickness) :

a) 

For poster a), using one font of the typeface Baskerville, it was challenging trying to choose a font that will give sufficient boldness whilst still fitting the larger words on the page. I wanted a simplistic traditional aesthetic combined with a manipulation with the way I have arranged letters, subverting conventional layouts to make it more playful.

Alternate lines contain indents so that the rows of texts sit comfortably, also the indents create irregular spacing that alludes to the layout of text produced from a typewriter. Considering that Baskerville demanded for books to be printed in high quality, a semantic field of books within the posters would be relevant.

By altering the way the date can be read, positioning in a right angle, this not only frames the block of text but encourages viewers to read at a different angle.

Some may say the leading and spacing needs to be made more consistent so it is neater and easier to read but I wanted to explore a liberated and fluid approach as well as the conventional.

b)

Two variations:

c)

d)

 

Poster d), applying two sizes/thicknesses to create a sense of juxtaposition and striking impact.

Taking the plunge by dissecting a large word in half and combining the two parts of the word to create an abstract hybrid. After noticing that the ‘e’ from the first part ‘Basker’ can be matched with the ‘e’ from ‘ville.’ Although after doing this I have realised that the leading should have been kept the same throughout, by piecing the ‘e’ together closer than the rest of the letters makes the composition more random and messy than intended.

To counteract the hectic focal point, I left and right aligned my text accordingly with the larger characters of the hybrid to balance the weight.

e)

In poster e) I thought of another way fragmented lettering can be arranged on a page and it is the solution for words that are too large for a thick font. Treating the letters like puzzle pieces, glyphs/characters that should sit nicely or have a comfortable relationship between them.  Through my arrangement the form that the letters dictated reminded me of smoke coming out of a chimney, correlating to the fact that Baskerville was a successful industrialist and creator. Left aligning the rest of the text strengthens the base of the illustrative form above, providing the layout with stability. I found that by using ‘em’ spaces to separate to groups of text makes it easier for people to read and is also decorative to the page.

f) 

Three variations:

g) 

Poster g) demonstrates another way of positioning fragmented text to display movement and draws attention to important information that is situated in the centre.

Using three different thicknesses enabled me to do multiple ways of the hierarchy of text, especially integrated within blocks of text. ‘Em’ dashes here have been used for their function, which is using them as a bullet point, however the one I used was very thick and heavy so I balanced this by attaching an ‘em’ dash of a different thickness and size to close the block of information and balance the distribution of typeface weight.

The more sizes and thicknesses used makes it easier to arrange text as I became less restricted, rather than being committed to one font. Using one font type requires consideration so it is compatible with the typeface.and that with type hierarchy certain words can be read as bold without having to use different thicknesses/sizes. Diversely using one font focuses on display and the accuracy within the alignment that allows a crisp portrayal. However when using so many fonts combined there needs to be a thickness and size balance so that the weight and negative space is evenly distributed on the page. Moreover when using multiple sizes it is recommended to use two or more complete different ones so that the drastic change means a clearer and more confident juxtaposition, fonts too similar can make the aesthetic look accidental otherwise. Most people found that using two font sizes was the best but I found that three works even better. I can understand that three or more can overcrowd the page, making it inaccessible and convoluted but using an intermediate font that can blend with the two contrasting fonts creates a smoother line of read.