Communication Design Fundamentals Project 3
Type Specimen Poster
Project Introduction
This project is focused on designing an informational poster about Times New Roman and its history. Using the gestalt principles and other variables such as line spacing, color, and typeface weight, I will be able to create a final type specimen poster.
Before starting the project, I conducted a short typographic exercise to understand the use of typeface better and how a typeface can affect the way a word or phrase is interpreted.
Typographic Voice Exercise
9/22
Given the word “rebellion”, I experimented with different typefaces to try to evoke the feeling of rebellion and reinforce the meaning of the word. The five typefaces that work well for the word “rebellion” are options 6, 7, 10, 11, 16.
- Option 6 (Impact) uses small caps and tight kerning which makes “rebellion” look more dramatic and impactful; These are words that I associate with the act of rebellion
- Option 7 (Silom) has looser kerning but more squarish features which make “rebellion” look sharp and straight-forward; These are words that I associate with leaders or members of a rebellion
- Option 10 (Arial Black) has normal kerning but high contrast letters which cause “rebellion” to look dark and dynamic
- Option 11 (Sans Serif Italic) has a similar look to option 10 but with italics, “rebellion” looks more emphasized
- Option 16 (Luminari) has an old script look which is what comes to mind when I think of historical or famous rebellions
Out of all the options, the Sans Serif Italic typeface best represents the word because it evokes a bold and strong-minded feeling that looks like it could be used for titles on an official rebellion poster.
Research
To understand the history of Times New Roman better, I did some research on Google about its designer, why it was created, and its form. Then, I did a short write-up of the content that I will include on the poster.
Times New Roman was designed in 1929 by typographer, Stanely Morison and advertising artist, Victor Lardent.
Times New Roman was designed for a newspaper, so it’s a bit narrower than most text fonts to fit more text per line. Morison and Lardent conceptualized the new typeface with two goals in mind: maximizing the amount of type that would fit on a page and readability. To achieve efficiency, Morison raised the x-height of the letters and reduced the tracking between each letter, to make a more condensed typeface. To protect his second goal of readability, Morison had to alter the shape of the letterforms to have a rounder, more legible look.(https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/12/09/times-new-roman).
Optional Tagline: “A classic typeface that’s lasted throughout time”
Other than looking at the history and background of TNR, I also looked at Behance for some typeface poster inspiration. Some of the inspiration that helped me think about ways to break away from traditional poster formats were:
In these designs, I like how the designers used different numbers of columns to present content, differently angled text, and different weighted text.
Sketches
With some background research about Times New Roman, I was able to understand what kind of typeface Times New Roman is and what kind of feelings I want the audience to have when looking at my poster design.
To begin the design process, I started off by sketching some different directions that presented the information in different hierarchical order and tried out different layouts.
Typographic Hierarchy Exercise
9/24
After doing some initial sketching, I wanted to better understand how typographic variables can clarify a message. To do this, I conducted a series of explorations by using different line spacing, weight, and horizontal shifts for already provided content. This exercise was helpful to understand what are the different aspects of typography that I can manipulate to create a strong final poster design.
In the linespacing explorations, I explored separating specific types of information. In the left composition, I added a space before each seminar’s date so that the audience can easily see the date of the seminar, title of the seminar, and who is speaking at the seminar. In the right composition, I added a linespace before and after each seminar’s date. This is to help the audience easily distinguish when a certain seminar is to help them decide if they can attend. In my opinion, the left exploration is more successful because people tend to view content in groups. It’s easier to see that a certain seminar and speaker is related to that date if they are all grouped together (as opposed to separating the date out).
In the typographic weights explorations, I explored using weight to highlight important information to the audience. In the left composition, I highlighted the organizers of the seminars and the dates of the seminars. In the right composition, I highlighted the organizers of the seminars, the dates of the seminars, the speakers of the seminars, and the price of admission. In my opinion, the right composition is more successful because it highlights more pieces of important information while still maintaining a simple look.
In the typographic weight and linespacing explorations, I explored using weight to highlight important information and separating different types of information using linespaces. In the left composition, I used a bold weight for the seminar title, the dates of the seminars, and the price of admission. In the right composition, I used a bold weight for the organizers of the seminar, the title of the seminars, seminar speakers, and the price of admission. In my opinion, the right composition is more successful because it is easier to see specific speakers and seminar names for the audience which is helpful for them to decide if there’s a topic that catches their interest.
In the typographic weights and horizontal shift explorations, I explored using weight to highlight important seminar information and using horizontal shift to separate seminar dates from seminar topics. In the left composition, I used a bold weight for the organizers of the seminar, seminar titles, and seminar speakers. Then, I used a horizontal shift to further emphasize the speakers and seminar topics. In the right composition, I used a bold weight to highlight the seminar series title, the seminar dates, and the location of the seminar. Then, I used a horizontal shift to further emphasize the date and time of each seminar. In my opinion, the left composition is more successful because the audience can easily see each seminar’s information since they are separately grouped and then after picking one seminar, they can also easily see the seminar topic since a horizontal shift is used.
Digital Iteration 1 — Exploring a Breadth of Design Directions
9/27
After sketching various different directions to explore and doing the two typographic exercises, I began to translate my designs digitally in InDesign. Currently, one challenge I am facing is that there is a lot of content and it’s difficult to determine where is the best place to put each section.
For the first iteration, I explored ways to layout the content and to invoke a “magazine-y” or “newspaper-y” vibe since Times New Roman was designed specifically for reading. In the left and right compositions, I explored making the year the biggest piece of information and then the title of the typeface. For these compositions in terms of hierarchy, I wanted the audience to specifically notice the title of the typeface, designers, and year first. For the middle composition, I wanted the audience to notice the title of the typeface and character set first.
Digital Iteration 2 — Exploring the Possible Addition of Color
9/30
In this next round of digital iterations, I injected color into the background and words to see how each color can emphasize the feeling of the Times New Roman typeface. In terms of hierarchy, I wanted to explore different sizes for the Times New Roman title, the designers, the character set, and the year Times New Roman was created.
In the top compositions, I explored a three column grid for the content so that the audience can easily read from left to right. I also explored different angles to put the Times New Roman title, year, and designers.
In the bottom compositions, I explored having the title bleed off or more aligned on the left side of the page. In these explorations, I used a two-column grid for the content
Class and 1:1 Feedback Sessions 1
10/1
Today we had a feedback session where I was able to get a lot of good feedback from my peers and professors about places I could improve and the strengths of my current iterations.
One place for improvement would be exploring the alignment and width of the content further to better represent a balanced composition. One strength was the hierarchy was established well in each composition so that the audience looks at the title, year, character set first, and then the content and designers. Some of my peers pointed out that the designs with large titles reminded them of a newspaper or magazine; This was the vibe I was going for since Times New Roman was designed for reading so those designs are definitely ones that I want to further explore.
Digital Iteration 3 — Refining the Layout
10/5
Based on the feedback I got last class from Anna, Ji, and my fellow peers, I decided to remove color from the equation and just focus on establishing the layout first since I didn’t feel like my base layout was strong enough yet.
From the ones that my peers and professors pointed out that they liked from the previous iteration, I explored various ways to expand on those designs. In the top left, right and bottom left, right posters, I kept the three-column content on the top and explored different font sizes and different angles for the designer, title, and year. In the top middle and bottom middle poster, I explored spacing between each section of content to give the content some breathing room and maintain a sense of balance. Anna also gave me feedback that maybe it isn’t necessary to add color at all since TNR is a typeface that reflects more a serious, “newspaper-y” tone. I agreed with this feedback and decided in my next iterations to just try sticking to black, white, and gray colors.
1:1 Feedback Session 2
10/6
Today we had a 1:1 feedback session which was really helpful to limit down some options to further explore and to get some feedback about the general hierarchy and craftsmanship of each option.
One important piece of feedback that I received from Anna was to possibly explore breaking the designer information from the title so that I can write out what type of relationship the two designers have with each other and so the title of the typeface can stand out more. Another helpful piece of feedback that I got was that I can explore pushing the typeface title to the right and experiment with putting other types of content in the bottom left corner.
Digital Iteration 4 — Exploring Two Main Design Directions
10/7
For this next iteration, I focused on expanding on the design of the main two layouts that I talked about with Anna during the 1:1 session.
For the bottom two posters, I explored pushing the typeface title to the bottom right corner and breaking the year and title apart. I also moved the designers to the top left corner so that I could write out the relationship between the designers as a way to better utilize the space available. For the top right poster option, I explored bolding the year to better emphasize it and fixing the spacing between the title, designer, and paragraphs.
Group Feedback Session 3
10/8
Today’s group feedback session was very helpful to hear some feedback from my peers and hear from different perspectives on areas where I can improve.
At this point, from the feedback and reflecting on my own, I think a good direction to move in would be more iterations of the left poster since the flow of information is clearer to read for the audience and the hierarchy is better established in this poster layout. Some of the places where I could improve for the right poster are:
- The paragraph/content on the top is a little small and might be hard to read from a distance
- The alignment of the paragraphs on the top should be fixed
- The designers’ names and character set could stand out more
Digital Iteration 5 — Narrowing Down to One Design Direction
10/11
After the group feedback session, I chose the left poster (from the previous picture) to iterate on and refine.
Some of the main changes that I made in this iteration were:
- Experimenting with moving the year that TNR was designed in different areas of the poster
- Using a bolder weight for the typeface title and italicizing the designers’ names so that these two pieces of information stand out more compared to the rest of the content
- Moving overall content more towards the middle of the poster
- Breaking up content into two columns to allow for easier readability for the audience
1:1 Feedback Session 4
10/13
Today’s 1:1 session with Ji was very helpful to hear her thoughts about how I can further refine my designs.
She mentioned that she liked the bottom two compositions the most. Some of the feedback she gave me about the bottom two compositions were:
- Look more into utilizing the negative space better by, for example, decreasing the leading between the Times New Roman words.
- Increasing leading between lines in the paragraph to improve readability for the audience
- Trying different width sizes and font sizes for the paragraph to improve the rag on the right side
- Add in missing punctuation for the character set
Final Design
10/14
For the final poster design, some of the main design decisions that I made were:
- Putting the year that Times New Roman was designed in the right upper corner to balance the left alignment of the rest of the content
- Use of only black and white to emphasize Times New Roman’s history of being used for the printing of newspaper and how back then they only used B&W ink; B&W also reinforces that traditional and classic feeling of TNR
- In terms of hierarchy, having the typeface title sized the largest since this is the most important piece of information. Then the year, designers, character set, and paragraphs (in decreasing sizes/importance). Having each piece of information be sized differently helps the audiences’ eyes flow through the information easier
- Using weight to distinguish between different types of information. For example, the title is bolded to emphasize that this is the topic of the poster while the designers of TNR are italicized to show that they were an important part of the conception of TNR
- Decreasing the leading for the Times New Roman title so that it reads as one piece of information and looks more separated from the rest of the content; Decreasing the leading also utilizes the negative space better so that the overall poster looks more balanced
- Increasing the width of the paragraph so that the right rag of the paragraph is aesthetically pleasing to the audience and to reduce the amount of space between the paragraphs so that the audience knows that the paragraphs are meant to be read one after another
- Increasing the leading between each paragraph line to improve the readability and legibility of the information
Final Critique
10/15
Today’s final critique was great to hear feedback from Anna and Ji about strengths and further opportunity areas for my poster design.
One main strength that was talked about during the feedback session was that there was a clear and intentional sense of hierarchy of the content. If I had more time to continue working on this project, some of the opportunity areas of the poster that I would address would be:
- Adjusting the kerning between the numbers in the character set so that the alignment matches the right side of the paragraph
- Changing the weight of the date so that it’s bolder and matches the title of the typeface
Reflection
10/16
Overall, I really enjoyed this project in exploring the Times New Roman typeface and how to best visually represent its background as a poster to an audience. When I first got my assignment of TNR, I only had a bit of background knowledge of the typeface (basically that TNR is used mainly in essays or for reading). After doing some more in-depth research, I discovered that TNR does have a lot of interesting aspects that make it special such as how the character forms were specifically created to improve efficiency and readability, and wanted to incorporate those aspects into my design. Throughout the design process, I appreciated the continuous feedback from my peers and teachers so that I can gain different perspectives from people of various majors/backgrounds. It was also useful to implement the use of linespacing, font weights, and alignment to better understand how to effectively present information through the use of typographic variables. In the future, I will be able to take these skills that I gained from my TNR poster project into any type of print/poster project I might be a part of.
