Pioneers of Modern Typography Reading Response

This reading gave a nice overview of all of the movements that lead us to what we now consider as modern typography - active typography rather than passive. While each of these movements was essential to getting us to where we are today, not all of them appeal to me.

I appreciate Futurism's interest in machines and movement, however, they are a bit too abstract and violent for me. Although, I do think it's interesting how they played with sound and making everything they created have a meaning and "intensify the content" rather than just to be edgy or different.

Dada's concentration on satire is interesting, and I think it's always important to look critically at the world around you and be able to point out societal aspects through humor. However, a lot of Dada seems to be pure shock value, at least to me personally, and I think that can get a bit tedious.

De Stijl's simplification of formal qualities really appeals to me. I think a lot of the best design is when images or ideas can be made as simple as possible. I think that simplification makes for a really effective design in that it can portray a lot of meaning to an audience very quickly and concisely.

I appreciate the Bauhaus's work at uniting art and industry to create art that was also utilitarian. When art can also become a useful part of everyday life, I think it makes art more approachable and appeals to a wider audience.

Constructivism, in a similar way to Dadaism, used art to make statements and criticism about the world around them - specifically politics. I also like how Constructivism, more than the others, brought photography into their working medium. Historically, photography was seen as very objective and thus the message came across as more truthful and impactful. I think this was an incredibly smart strategy for Constructivists to make their statements more credible in the public's eyes.

Final Poster and Booklet

I learned a lot from this project. This project taught me that every typeface has a sort-of personality but also that, that personality can be altered by how it is presented. For example, we had two students in class do Raleway but presented it in a VASTLY different way. Same with Cooper Hewitt (and they both presented it radically differently than it has historically been perceived.

But through my work on this project I really had to focus on making the piece cohesive, enticing to a viewer, and fit the "brand" of the typeface. I learned a lot about setting type to make it look good in context as well as make the point size and leading to fit the size of the document it is placed in. 

Final Poster 

Booklet Cover

Page 1-2

Page 3-4

The flag-captions on the side of the page have changed since the last draft. Both the text and box have reduced in size to make them more of a footnote rather than the main focus of the page. Additionally, I reduced the opacity of the border image to help the red (and blue on the body copy pages) flags stand out better.

Page 5-6

Page 7-8

Page 9-10

Page 11-12

These pages changed the most since the previous draft. I added examples of different type sizes and leadings to better display the body text in action. The problem I had to solve with this page was how to display the caption for the point and leading sizes. I knew that the side flag-captions were too small to include this part of the tag in and I wanted to keep that consistancy throughout the booklet. I tried having the captions at the end of the paragraphs but since different paragraphs cut off at different points depending on the size, weight, and leading I found that putting the caption at the beginning was the best solution for this problem. Also, to make the caption stand out I put it in Trirong ExtraBlack (one of the weights I didn't include in the book) and in red. 

Page 13-14

Page 15-16

Page 17-18

Back Cover / Mailing Label

I wanted the mailing label to have the same feel as the booklet so I included the imagery from the front cover and make the return label and address label areas match the color scheme while still adhering to postal rules and requirements

Updates since Final Critique

After the Final Critique yesterday, I made some of the changes suggested. I changed my poster by making the Thai wording and reflection larger and making the "By Cadson Demak Foundry" smaller with a heavier weight. Additionally, I edited the Background Information / Designer page layout to better fit the copy and made the text a smaller point size to fit the space better.

I'm still working on finding appropriate text for the body copy section. I've been trying to find poems about Thailand but so far I haven't found anything.

Revised Booklet Design

At the beginning of class yesterday I found that adding the blue and red tinted images as a border really made the middle pages work a lot better and make the booklet overall seem more cohesive.

Then we had individual critiques of our thumbnails and I made some changes based on that. You mentioned that the essay page at the front seemed like a very large block of text and recommended that I try and split it up into columns. I made it into 2 columns but I'm not quite happy with how it looks yet. You also suggested that I make the caption flags a bit smaller, so I downsized them a bit.

Booklet Design First Draft

For my booklet design, since Trirong means "tri-color flag" in Thai so I wanted to incorporate the three colors of the Thai flag - red, white, and blue - into my design. I altered the colors slightly - to a light grey, more muted red, and deeper blue - to help with contrast and make the colors less harsh on they eye. I really like how the cover, first two pages, and last two pages look. I feel like they look like a part of a cohesive book, but I feel like the middle pages (blue and grey) don't look very good and don't fit well with the rest of the book.