If the face fits (Part 1: Type specimen book) Lust

7th May 2021Leave a comment

Script Typeface called “Lust”

When it comes to decorative/ fun or “gimmicky” typefaces I am not very knowledgeable! In my work I mostly use Sans-Serif which is why I have made my specimen book “Sans heavy”! For this section of my specimen book I had to do my research and look into different typefaces that I could use for Script fonts. I started by looking at Adobe fonts on Typekit. I found one called Lust which attracted me the most and the name of the typeface gave me scope to use that in my design.

Lust was designed by Neil Summerour in the USA. There is limited information on this typeface other than letting the look and name of it do the talking!

The typeface is very modern and looks very feminine to me, just like its name though it manages to lure you in with its swirls and curls and fancy serifs. I wanted to design around “lust” and my first thoughts were of a seductive image or an intimate couple. To help give me a better idea I searched Pexels.com for any relevant images I could use on my layout. I actually searched for the image I used on my final piece in my work time on my work laptop.. the image download was called “Erotic shower” (**shocked face!! – just hope my workplace does not check internet history!!) LOL!

The original “Lust” (Erotica shower.. **embarrased face!) photograph! Downloaded from Pexels.com courtesy of Tim Samuel

This design surprisingly was the most developed piece I have done; I seemed to trial many versions of this before I got to the final piece! The piece was originally in Black and White until I realised it looked very cold considering it should be about love and lust and all things warm and fuzzy! – I took the original photograph and put a reddy- pink filter on it and that improved it greatly!

I also had the idea again to use a phrase or quote instead of “The Quick Brown Fox….” for some reason when I see this image and read “Lust” it reminds me of a Lana Del Rey song called Burning Desire, I used the chorus from that song in my early development to replace “The Quick Brown Fox” but it looked too busy, eventually I settled on having it in small inside the photograph. It seems like a little thought bubble or moment between the 2 people now with the location I have put it. It adds just another little bit of interest to the piece.

Digital Design Development

The Final design

The Final Mockup

If the face fits (part 1: Type specimen book) Didot

6th May 2021Leave a comment

This was the typeface I was quite looking forward to designing for! Didot typeface is very elegant looking and is used in glossy, expensive fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Didot is named after the Didot family who were artists and printers. Didot was inspired by Baskerville which is another reason why I have used it as part of my type specimen book.

Didot is most famous for being on the cover of Vogue as “Vogue”, because of this I wanted to create a layout that represents high fashion magazines. Vogue magazine always has a celebrity or a fashion model on their cover so I wanted to include a similar thing in my layout. I went onto Pexels website and typed in “Vogue” and it came up with an image of a woman in fashionable clothing holding a Vogue magazine close to her chest. It seemed like the perfect image to use for this design!

There were a few more variations of this photograph as well which I downloaded in case I wanted to use different images on my layout:

Photographs courtesy of Dziana Hasanbekava (pexels-dziana-hasanbekava-5480694) from Pexels.com

The next step was to import the photograph into Photoshop and then adjust the colours. I wanted it to have a Sepia filter to it; Black and White photography suits High quality fashion magazines more and looks good on a layout for contrast. I wanted to put the “Didot” heading on my layout but didn’t just want to place it on the page with no creativity.. I decided to make the D part of the photograph by using layer masks again to mask part of the D out to look like she is carrying the D as an accessory in the photograph. I think it works well! I decided to do the rest of the layout in a similar style to a fashion magazine with the text in 3 columns and one column talking about the history of Didot.

Digital Development

The final mockup

If the face fits (Part 1: Type Specimen book): Futura

6th May 2021Leave a comment

Futura is the last Sans-Serif typeface in my collection! I chose this one because again it is a classic and it also ties in well with the Bauhaus era along with the other Sans-Serif typefaces that I have chosen.

I did take a more modern approach when designing this layout though; instead of staying with traditional Bauhaus colours (Red, Yellow, Black, White) I was inspired by a German slogan “die Schrift unserer Zeit” (“the typeface of our time”) It gave me futuristic/modern vibes and I decided to play off this when designing my layout!

Futura reminds me of “future” and the future is modern and a mystery to us yet… I designed Futura around the theme of modern, futuristic space vibes with vibrant colours and an interesting layout.

“The Futura is now“

I had the idea to create planet-like orbs using Photoshop by using my brush tool and layer masks. I used this technique on one of my posters that I did for the “365 a poster a day challenge” I started a few years back. I masked the orb area out and making my paintbrush big, airbrushed different colours over each other to create a planet effect. I then copied it twice more create 2 in both corners. I really like the effect it gave. The bright colours contrast against the black to really make the design stand out. I also created contrast between small and big text.

Design Development – The stages of reaching my final design and layout!

The final page layouts

The final mockup

If the face fits(Part 1: Type Specimen book) Univers

6th May 2021Leave a comment

Another typeface I chose for my Sans-Serif collection was Univers. I have already used Helvetica and Akzidenz Grotesk and this is the third typeface that relates to all those; they are all based upon Akzidenz Grotesk. Univers again played a crucial role in Swiss style. I did worry that by doing all three of these typefaces that they would be too similar as they are often mistaken for each other but if I am creating a specimen book for my own personal use I would use all 3 of the typefaces in my work.

I tried to make the design for this slightly different to the others that I completed to date; Univers referenced the periodic table and Adrian Frutiger took a different approach to designing it then anyone ever had before. He wanted a table system that showed the different typeface weights and variations as numbers instead of names. Frutiger has since used this method in more of his type designs.

55 was crucial in the design of Univers; how Frutiger designed the whole typeface was to design “55 Roman” first and then base the other variations and weights around that. I decided to use this as the main design in my typeface book. I tried to be more experimental with this layout, using the 55 as part of the negative space in my design. I did want to bring in the periodic table element but struggled to keep it looking clean and simplistic. In the end I used blocks of colour to represent the periodic table influence on the typeface and I think this worked well.