Thursday 28 April 2011

Opposites brief: Choosing my Typefaces.


Now persuing a new direction in the way of cress-growing, I have decided to choose typefaces which I think both represent the chosen words 'life' and 'death', but also a bold enough type to be distinguishable in the growth- having sown my cress seeds through a cut stencil of the letters...


For 'life' I wanted to choose quite an elegant and graceful typeface- whereas the 'death' typeface would be far more blunt and bold. Justus Italic felt appropriate, not being too decorative to completely clash with the 'Death' design and therefore not sit well as a design series.


I then went on to experiment with the 'death' typeface, to see how it would sit with the 'life'- and choosing Gill Sans MT as the 'and'- a relatively neutral typeface, with fine width acting as a balance between the curvature and elegance of the 'life' and bold, sans serif style of the 'death'. 

The three typefaces I chose to experiment with for 'death' were (from top) Bebas Neue, Century Gothic (with -60 kerning), and Franklin Gothic Book. I felt that the second, Century Gothic looks best and feels like the most appropriate representation- bold without being excessive, with a heavy weight, creating a darker and more aggresive aesthetic. I will now go on to print these designs on an A4 format (at least, as a starter- if I have time, and the experiment is successful I could go on to up-scale), cut out the type as a stencil and then sow the seeds- photographing the seeds in stages- the 'and' at new seed...the 'life' at it's "peak growth" and "death" when the plant is wilting, having left it unwatered and with oxygen restrictions.

Hopefully, this time the type will be a lot more representative and hopefully a real learning lesson and test of experimentation for me- what the first year of my course really is all about!

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