Navigating Typography

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Navigating Typography

Navigating the many typographic terms and rules is not easy. Hopefully this poster about the various details of typesetting and letterforms can help. I made this for my Typography II class while studying under Professor Mark Laughlin.

My Role: Student in Typeography II Class.

Timeline: Spring 2020 Semester

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Contents

Overview

I went through many iterations and explorations in the process of creating this poster. I started with the idea of wanting to focus the type exploration on the public signage we see every day in the streets. I wanted my poster to emulate the chaos of the signage in the street. I photographed many signs and experimented with creating a streetscape with letterforms. After receiving a lot of useful critique from my classmates I decided to scrap the sign idea and just stick with the letterform streetscape to maintain readability and structure in my poster.

Final Poster

Final Poster Designed for Print. 24in by 36in.

Iteration Process

Throughout the semester I tried a variety of different layouts and concepts. I originally wanted to focus on all the typography you see on the signs in the streets; however, since the streets in the U.S. is all labelled with Highway Gothic (Interstate), I could not find enough examples of the typographic concepts to create a full poster. I pivoted sometime within the semester.

This is the first draft I started with. I cannot believe I threw this together and actually presented this for critique. Needless to say, it got roasted.
I made some changes on the poster from the first week. I created more layers as I wanted to create the sense of chaos and randomness you see in city streets.
Here I added some color into the design. I also changed the layout of the information a little.
I went back to the idea of a map and used letterforms to create the "streets."
I tried distorting the "streets" to create a sense of depth. Looking back, I did not distort the shapes enough, I should have directly used an object warp or something like that.
I liked the layout from the previous week; I did actually increase the depth of distortion, but the informative content was not obvious enough so I added some highlights.
I went to more traditional map colors so that the idea would be communicated more clearly. I tried a number labling system, but it was confusing to navigate. I also added in some texture using dingbats; I was trying to make the impression of grass.

Jump to the Final Draft

It was nearing the end of the semester and I was getting frustrated as the design still did not feel complete. Overnight, I actually started from a blank canvas and cooked up the ideas for the final design in one go.

© 2024 Oliver Hu