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.

Poster Update

Since last class my poster has changed dramatically. After researching some more typographic posters I decided to include an image in mine. The picture is of a temple in Thailand that I edited to be duo-toned red and blue (the two main colors of the Thai flag). Then the Thai chracter set is featured with the English character set reflected in the water. I think this poster really communicated the atmosphere of the origin of the typeface and showcases the Thai characters that are so important to this typeface.

Trirong Poster Ideas

For all of my posters I wanted to tie in the red, white, and blue of the Thailand tri-colored flag. I also wanted to showcase the Thai characters since this typeface was designed with them specifically in mind.

This one is probably my least favorite of the 3. The red white and blue are in the arrangement of the Thai flag. The image of Thailand is behind and "Thailand" is written in Thai on the side. 

In this one I wanted to showcase some of the details of the typeface - such as the divet in the top of the lowercase "t". Also, all of the Thai characters are in the background as well as overlapped in red, white, and blue within the "t".

This one has the Thai characters that they specifically had in mind when designing the font overlapping in the background

Preliminary Booklet Ideas - Trirong Font Family

Below are the JPGs of my initial booklet. So far the only formatting is the typeface and the typeface styles that I plan to use. I haven't done really anything with the grid yet because, even after the Brockmann reading, I'm still not clear on how the mathematics for figuring out the grid works.

As far as types of paper, it looks like the most well-known Thai paper is Mulberry paper so I may look into using that for my booklet since my typeface is so closely tied to Thailand - but  I'll have to see if that paper is suitable for printing and how expensive it is. Otherwise, it is a modern typeface - created in 2015 - so the type of paper won't rely on any historical context.

"Trirong" means tri-colored flag in Thai and represents Thailand's flag. The colors of Thailand's flag are red, white, and blue so I plan on weaving that color scheme throughout my booklet to tie the typeface back to its meaning and Thai roots.

Project Statement

Project Statement: To highlight the details and cultural significance of my typeface, Trirong.

According to the blurb on Google Fonts, "Trirong means “tricolor flag” in Thai, and represents the flag of Thailand. A serif Latin and looped Thai typeface, it is characterized by thick and thin strokes, and its narrow and tall structure echoes that of traditional Thai typefaces. It saves space while preserving readability and legibility with its oval-shape looped terminal. This looped Thai and Transitional serif Latin works well in formal contexts."

"The similarity between some glyphs such as ก ถ ภ ฤ ฦ, and ฎ and ฏ is something to take into consideration because it might lead to confusion when typesetting very short texts. Trirong takes a specific approach in how it deals with the thick and thin strokes in Thai glyphs."

This typeface was created with a heavy focus on being able to work with Thai letterforms and I believe that is important for me to highlight in my presentation of this typeface since everything about it is so deeply tied to Thai culture.

Dracula Book Project Synopsis

Choosing a Text

When I chose to use Dracula as my source text for my book, I knew that this text would help give me some direction as to how I would format my book. I took a Gothic Literature J-Term class two years ago in which Dracula was one of our required readings. Knowing this book came from the Gothic era helped me make some informed decisions for my book.

Choosing a Layout

Dracula is a piece of Gothic Literature. I looked up what book layouts were used during the Gothic era and the Golden Ratio is what came up, which was helpful since that was what we had learned in class.

Choosing Typefaces

Dracula was published in 1897 in England. When choosing text for my body copy I knew I wanted an English typeface that would have been around during that time. I chose Baskerville, Caslon, and Clarendon as my typeface options. In the end I chose Caslon because I thought the wide x-width and serifs made it easy to read in long paragraphs as well as the fact that Calson is an English typeface that existed at the time of the publishing of Dracula. I experimented with various different font sizes and leadings and found that Caslon at 11 pt size and 14 pt leading was the most legible. 

For my headings I knew I wanted a more classic gothic style font. Initially I chose Olde London, but after some discussion thought that the typeface had some elements that were a bit too delicate. From here I chose to use Fraktur - a gothic typeface but without those delicate features. Also, Fraktur has a nice "f" and "p" with terminals that look like daggers, which fits into the more sinister themes of Dracula quite nicely.