Type samples

Posted on by Craig Roberts Design

Find as many examples of type as you can from a range of sources, including newspapers, magazines, flyers, leaflets, online, and printed ephemera. Broadly classify them into serif and sans-serif groups. Explore your computer to see whether you have any of the typefaces mentioned on the previous page. Find other examples on your computer that relate to these classifications. Print these off and begin to create a collection of type samples.

Identify
Choose five different typefaces from your classification collection and now look for examples of how they can be used for reading in different contexts. For example, which typeface would be appropriate for a magazine, a science book or newspaper? Have you collected a typeface that might be suitable for all these subjects? As a way of testing out which typefaces might be appropriate for a particular job, also consider them as inappropriately as you can – find contexts in which they don’t work, look ugly or feel ‘wrong’ in some way. Do this by experimenting visually with your typeface choices.

Reflect
Consider and reflect on the nature of the type you are collecting. Examine and annotate printouts with your own impressions of the letterforms. Use descriptive words that express something of the form and character of the typeface. Follow the same process for your ‘wrong’ typefaces as well.

Develop
Trace some interesting, unusual and everyday letterforms onto clean paper. This will help you to understand the distribution of weight of line within a particular letterform. Draw over the tracing to enhance the line and fill in the letterform with an even dark grey tone – HB pencil is fine – to recreate the impression of print.

Document and present
The work you produce for this exercise will feed directly into your assignment, so collate your notes, printouts, traced letterforms and samples of type you have gathered. Consider how these could be inventively and visually integrated, and how your ideas could be creatively developed further for your assignment.

Type

I have a lot of fonts and typefaces on my computer. I picked a few to categorise them into the classes mentioned.

I also collect some type examples from around me.

Layouts

I decided to use a Devon Life layout from a previous exercise and substitute the type for 5 different font combinations. The 5 combinations I chose were:

  • IKANSEEYOUALL with Publico
  • Rockwell with Raleway
  • Above and Beyond Script plus the Serif version with Futura
  • Helvetica Now with PT Serif
  • Baskerville with Times
IKANSEEYOUALL makes a great heading font but wouldn’t work for body copy as the bold style of it would make it illegible. It gives a relaxed and playful feel to the article. It also works for the drop-cap. Publico Text is a very clear and readable serif font for the body copy with minimal leading(10pt type with 11pt leading). There is also a Headline version of Publico which has more rounded characters.
Here Rockwell gives a straight to the point, no nonsense headline which gives a more serious impression of the article than the previous version. Using Raleway, a sans serif font, for the body copy gives the article a more modern feel. However, the type needs the tracking increasing to make it easy to read as the eye finds it more difficult to recognise the word-shapes.
For this version I added another font into the mix as I wouldn’t be able use the headline font within the article. As well as a script version, Above and Beyond has a serif version which seemed logical to use for the body copy as it was ‘related’ to the headline. I then used Futura for the subheadings to give them more contrast with the body copy. This gives the article a relaxed and informal feel.
For this version I went with the newest version of one of the world’s best known fonts Helvetica Now. I used this for the headline and drop-cap in its Display weight. The body copy is PT Serif which is easy to read and contrasts the bold, angular headline. This version of the article feels very formal and important.
Baskerville and Times. What more can I say about this combination. It gives an air of class and sophistication and is easy on the eye. The Avenir drop-cap is in direct contrast to these 2 serif fonts and helps to add some sans serif variation to the layout so it doesn’t feel too stuffy.

Tracing

Tracing the fonts gave an insight into the construction of the letters and forms; how elements of the type are repeated across multiple characters; and how line thickness was important, even on the more dodgy-looking typefaces! It took me back to my diploma days in the 90s huddled over the lightbox in the corner of the Graphics Studio. This exercise is nicely timed as I’m currently reading In Progress by Jessica Hische about hand-lettering and the construction of letters and type.

Source: Amazon.com

Reflection

This exercise reinforces how much type can influence the feel of a piece of work and your perception of the contents. I hope to get more involved in designing and using hand-drawn type as I have a keen interest in lettering and typography.

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Published by Craig Roberts Design

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