OUGD403 - Studio Brief 3 - Alphabet Soup: Typeface 2

Choosing a Font

Taking into consideration everything I have found out about Eva from speaking to her I began to look through Adobe Font Folio and picking out typefaces which I thought appropriate by taking into consideration:

• Serif 
• Calligraphic 
• Black
• Elegant
• Natural 
• Calm 
• Friendly
• Traditional
• Neat
• Decorative 

After speaking to Eva we decided that the most appropriate font for her would be Cochin Bold as it has the qualities of traditional typefaces, it is bold and black relating to the black letter calligraphy. Its not as harsh or intense as some of the other typefaces due to the rounded letters and elegant adjustments in line weight especially in lower case letters.    

Here are a few examples of manipulating the existing typeface using a marker pen and tracing over the letters. I started by using Eva's name as part of the brief is to create a name badge and I wasted to first see how the letters could work together. 

   

I would like to incorporate Eva's handwriting into the typeface to make it more natural and also as calligraphic lettering and script fonts are her favourite. I have experimented with adjusting the letterforms to suit this concept. 

I have thickened the line weight on the stems and ascenders/descender of the letters and removed serifs to match the handwriting while trying to keep the overall structure of the original typeface the same. I also included a thin serif on the end of the letter to represent delicate and decorative, and so I could connect two letters together. 

Crit

Sergey Shapiro

I found this project on Typography Served which shows how he has used sketches and hand written lettering to create this type. I think this specific project of his relates to what I want to end up achieving as the individual letters work in conjunction with one another resulting in a smooth calm typeface.       

   

Additional Inspirational Fonts

Manipulation of Type 

I began to trace over the font I had picked (Cochin Bold Italic) making adjustments which I thought would be appropriate. I focussed on rounding the typeface, leaving the just the ascenders and descenders with a flat edge. I chose to make these changes because I wanted to still retain an aspect of the blackletter type through the even line of the marker pen but also make it softer and smoother to match Eva's personality and handwriting.

Original Typeface (Cochin Bold Italic)

Above are some initial ideas of what I want the typeface to look like. I traced over the font above an made some adjustments. I have shown these letters as they are what I am going to base the other letters on, using the same width in the counters and making sure the shoulders and terminals are the same on each letter form so the typeface is consistent and works as a set.  

     

Finished type after manipulations which I filled in black. I changed the line weight to be consistent in the letters F, G, J and Y. For the glyphs I took parts of other letters to maintain consistency, for example the exclamation mark uses the dot from the I (which I have also used as full stops and commas) and extended it. 

   

OUGD403 - Studio Brief 4 - Message & Delivery 2

Interim Crit 28/10/13

We were put into small groups for this crit where we each went through the research gathered from the news story we had decided on using. It was helpful to see a variety of other stories people had been looking at and the different perspectives the stories had been viewed at. 

I presented the story I had chosen and focused on the early reports and the way it had been reported through the headlines and tone of voice in the article. 

As my research was from the week before the storm had started I found a lot of the articles trying to make the predicted weather as dramatic as possible. These headlines were what drew me to the story initially and found as I read through the articles it was only speculation. This lead me to look at other peoples opinions and I picked out some sarcastic and jokey comments people had made regarding how bad the storm would actually be which is the direction I thought I would take the project. 

In the crit it was suggested that I make comparisons to the before and after of the storm and see how the nature of the reports changed along with the publics reactions. Also as the storm had been compared to the 1987 storm in headlines, make actual comparisons between the two based on various statistics that had been gathered such as wind speed and rain fall in the form of an info graphic.      

Aftermath of St. Jude Storm

A lot of the reports of the storm seem to have greatly exaggerated how bad it would be which left a lot of people over prepared. This is an interesting contrast to the reports of the 1987 storm which prior to it happening wasn't anticipated as a big threat resulting in the aftermath being far more shocking.

This could have been down to the technology at the time or the fact that a storm like the one in 87 hadn't happened for a long time.

Quote from the article: 'We talk of “hurricane-force winds” simply because some gusts are over 72mph, which is Category 12 – the highest – on the Beaufort scale. But in a hurricane, such wind speeds are sustained, often for hours on end, with the gusts reaching 160mph. At its peak, Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, had maximum sustained winds of 175mph and gusts of 215mph.The hurricane analogy was pushed further when the storm was given a name. A bright spark with an ecclesiastical calendar noted that yesterday was the feast day of St Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of lost causes.' 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10409362/Was-St-Judes-storm-really-that-bad.html

I found it interesting that the storm had been given a name and been referred to as a 'hurricane' as this doesn't commonly happen in the UK which again shows that the storm had been exaggerated in early reports. 

Some examples of others opinions on the storm. These comments show a lot of peoples attitudes on the storm. 

On social network sites/blogs:

    

Comparisons to the 1987 Storm

The Great storm of 1987 became synonymous with BBC weatherman Michael Fish as he understated the nature of the storm by saying the weather would get 'rather windy'. This perhaps links to the heading from the newspaper article at the top of the page 'why didn't they warn us?' 

1987

St Jude (2013)

Weather Statistics

Gusts of 70 mph were recorded in London.

Maximum wind speed of 99 mph was recorded at the Isle of Wright, second nearest was Langdon Bay, Kent with max gusts of 82 mph.

Highest rainfall 50 mm.

• 3 people were killed by falling trees, 1 boy was very sadly swept out in rough seas on s coast in the lead-up to the storm
• 147 flood alerts, 17 flood warnings issued by Environment Agency, including our own River Mole
• In the English Channel and approaches there were 20-30 foot waves and storm force winds.
• power cuts in SE across 270,000 homes, some for 2 days
• 5 train companies cancelled all their trains in SE
• 130 flights from Heathrow cancelled, delays at Gatwick
• Port of Dover closed, horrifying stories of Channel ferry crossings
• crane collapsed onto Cabinet office
• Major bridges were shut in high winds including Severn Bridge and QE2.
• Dungeness B nuclear powerstation had a power cut in 90mph winds and had to shut down both reactors
• In Suffolk a double decker bus was rolled over by a gust of wind
• Clacton pier helter skelter was blown down
• 1000′s of trees blocked roads and caused travel delays and closures

An interesting area to look at regarding the storms would be the anticipated compared to what actually happened. As reports came in over the days up to the storms the wind speed of the storms varied. Some news reports suggested at first there would be 70mph winds which then changed to 80mph then 90mph and gradually back down as it got closer to the predicted day of the storm as more information had been gathered. 

Blown out of proportion 

OUGD403 Studio Brief 4 - Message & Delivery: Research

Brief 

Create a body of visual research in response to a story, issue or theme found in the national press tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd October.

Background / Considerations 

The willingness and ability to formulate informed opinions about your subject matter is an essential skill for a graphic designer.

In addition to being aware of events, concerns and the (un)popularly held opinions of the world around you, you also need to consider the tone of voice with which they are reported.

It is important that you read the stories thoroughly and research issues that are raised fully before committing your self to a visual opinion.

You can be serious, humorous, questioning, opinionated, bold, or subtle.

UK Storm

I started by looking at how the story had initially been reported and the tone of voice used. A number of the papers such as The Guardian and The Independent wrote about it factually providing information from the met office and interviews with newsreaders. 

Just by looking at the headlines it is clear how different the story has been reported. The Daily Mail and Daily Express are far more hard hitting using words such as 'devastating' 'volatile' and 'chaos'.     

These are a few comparisons of articles I picked out and some comments from the webpages.

  

Links: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2474792/UK-weather-Worst-storms-1987-winds-80mph-predicted.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24674537

http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/25/uk-weather-biggest-storm-since-1987-threatens-to-strike-this-weekend-4160968/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/worst-weather-since-the-great-storm-of-1987-uk-braces-for-hurricanestrength-winds-8901530.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-weather-severe-storm-warning-2644915

OUGD403 - Studio Brief 2 - Alphabet Soup: Illustrator Workshop

The pen tool is used to create vector paths in illustrator and can be manipulated by the positioning of anchor points and handles. Adjusting the handles with change the direction of the curve on the line

Here the handle after the first curve as been removed by pressing alt and clicking on one of the handles from the last anchor point. This enables another curve to be formed on the same path without it relating to the first curve. 









The pathfinder tool has a number of options, the Unite button will clear the overlapping lines below is an example of how this can be used. Two rectangles have been drawn over one another and then united by using the pathfinder option to create one shape.  

The width tool can be used to adjust the width of a path without effecting the rest of the shape. The path can be scaled up or down depending on direction the width tool is moved. 

The stroke window can be used to change the features of the stroke such as creating a dashed line and adding arrow heads. Changing the Profile shows ways the width can be manipulated and adjusted.

As well as editing the the line the corners of a shape can also be changed. A miter corner is the default right angle but can be changed to a round join or a bevel join  

The eraser tool can be used to cut into a shape and is another way of manipulating and object. The stroke can be turned on or off meaning that the path will continue into the cut out section of the shape or terminate at the point which has been arranged.   

The shape above was created by duplicating a path around an anchor point in the centre using the rotate tool. It can also be applied to letters and shapes. 

cmd + T - Character menu 

Text boxes can be created by clicking and dragging the type tool across a space you want to fill. The red box in the bottom corner indicates that the text has continued past the area of the box and isn't being displayed so the box can either be extended to fit in the remaining text or shifted to another text box by using the selection tool and clicking in the blue box at the corner of the box. 

shift + cmd + O - Convert to shape, enables paths to be adjusted on a letter.