Today we was show more on colour theory from this lecture i learnt that monochromatic colour schemes work in a harmonious way meaning they are less problimatic than chromatic colour scheme this is because they are of a single hue and only change in tone. I also learn the proportion of colour when one colour is much more vibrant that the over can change the effect of the image on the eye. Having a smaller proportion of the more dominant colour evens out the image. Warm and cool colours juxstipostioned can also create well contrasted pieces. For me however the most interesting thing I took from this lecture was how colours take a slightly different tone when boundaries between colours perceptually vibrate. I found this fascinating and is defiantly something I will be experimenting with at some point.
We was then set a study task this was to create a three piece colour scheme for a children's book. we had to use our least favourite colour, black and another colour of our choice. The idea behind mine was to use colours of the different tones to create a more harmonious piece.
For this brief we had to create a font 'Based on one of Müeller-Brockmanns classic and lead typefaces, create your own bespoke typeface, which should effectively communicate your given adjective.'
To begin I created a mind map of my own interpretation of angry then looked up the meaning for angry and added onto my original thoughts. This lead to a ton of different meaning however they did not mean much to me so I had a dig around online. When I had a look into angry graphic design online I found an interesting site publishing work created as a dig back at clients, using ridiculous quotes they had said. I liked this idea of designers frustrated with there clients however I struggle take it much further than the idea of having a similar quote within my specimen to present the work. With maybe a name such as ‘the client pleaser’. This idea for me lacked depth and I decided to move on leaving this as another option. I then decided to look into illustration and how people can make these aggressive, I came across by Gemma O’brien charging into battle. This gave me the idea to create a font which can be used in a similar manor for game console covers or maybe film posters. This would mean taking a more literal approach to the word similar to how Gemma O’brien has made the font look battered and damaged this gives it a look like its been in a conflict which has connotations to war, anger, fighting. This Idea all came about relatively quickly so I decided to put them to the side and researched slightly more.
Gemma O' Brein
Looking into Type.
I read Müeller-Brockmanns book Grid Systems to get a better understanding of the 6 fonts we could chose from this help me to make a more informed decision when choosing my font to begin. I was veering more towards a San-serif as research showed this was better font for reading however I decided to look into some serif fonts also.
Caslon, was designed and cut by William Caslon, It is slightly bigger than Garamond and I would say slightly bolder. As it has thicker strokes matched with thin lines, however both fonts are similar in form.
Garamond, Was designed and cut in paris in 1535 by Claude Garamond. It was the first to be created in Roman and italic style. Something I did not realise about these fonts is how old they are I learnt in a lecture on fonts that Garamond is one of the first fonts ever created that we still use today, this is fascinating that it has lasted as long as 485 years. This shows much could be learnt from garamond from its harmonious clear strokes which have ment it lasting till present day. It as been made available for film setting and adapted to a light, semi bold and bold style. The light face is often used in small sizes for marginalia and captions to pictures. The semi-bold, bold and italic styles are mostly used as display faces, even larger bodies are used for titles. Ideas that come to mind with this font would be old battle posters, tending not to fit my purpose but still a grand font.
Univers, Designed by Adrian Frutiger from 1957-1963 has become one of the most widely used San-serif faces. The face is available in light, medium, semi-bold, bold, Roman and italic sizes. This makes it a good choice for designers due to the versatility. Its used in a wide range of application such as corporate branding, sign age, maps, standardized testing and consumer electronics devices. Univers is also used on tests and exams in the UK’ This is one of the fonts I am considering to use within this project due to its applications as they relate to the applications of my font ideas. They are all places where a dyslexic version would be very beneficial especially in tests and exam. This in particular is a plus as I am aiming in this direction, to aid students in reading.
Berthold is a font created in the image of 19th century fonts. It has almost equal thickness strokes horizontally and vertically through out. Its interesting form means it was used particularly in industrial advertising. I am not keen on using this font as I am after a font with stronger use of strokes as I want each letter form to have its own personality to increase individuality. I feel the consistency of strokes is nice aesthetically but lacks in difference.
Helvetica’s letter forms were based around Berthold. Characteristics of the font are the horizontally cut ends of letter such as c, e, g etc this is in contrast to Bertholds, as they are cut radially. This improves legiblity, This characterists stuck out to me. I feel that helvetica’s bold insynce forms create a personality which creates a big statement making it popular font in the world of advertisement. The curves all flow very similarly together throughout this creates movement within the font. However this can be tricky for people with dyslexia to read as letter forms are so similar. Causing mirror an example would be the n which is a unside-down u.
The impact of Helvetica. From Helvetica Documentary.
So looking at the three san-serifs I had to chose from I decided on univers my reasoning for this is because its used within UK exams and testing as its preferred for the clear distinction between similar characters, These are all aspects i want within my typeface this gives me a perfect starting platform as i can just simply increase distinction within the letters. It is created to have shorter ascenders and descenders just by increasing these I can make it more readable to my target audience, this means from just subtle changes i can increase important characteristics needed to fit my new typeface. On top of this it is widely used in advertising something my font could be used in as an addition contribute.
Ted talk by Mathew Carter on Typefaces
Feedback lead me into thinking about what can cause anger, then I had a think at what sometimes causes me to get angry one thing that came to mind was public speaking or reading in general as this is something I struggle with due to dyslexia. This sparked an idea maybe there is a way to aid this through typeface. So I decided to research into this with the question in mind 'Can typefaces have distuqiushed features to help people with dyslexia read then easier'. The answer was yes, so I began to look into this with more depth.
To begin what is dyslexia?
Britain has two million severely dyslexic individuals, including some 375,000 schoolchildren. 10% of people using ‘Romance’ languages are coping with a reading difficulty. Dyslexia is a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning process, displaying a wide range of difficulties. Dyslexia can occur despite normal intellectual ability and teaching, and it is independent of socio-economic or language background. The British Dyslexia Association
Research showed it is also estimated 1 in 10 people suffer from dyslexia making this a important matter. Reading being problems people would have is Letter’s mirroring so for instance a b would be seen as a d. Ways around this are to increase individuality between letters, so adding a inverting a stroke on the d or maybe increasing stroke weight at certain points. Feature which increase legibility are things such as increasing ascenders and descenders b, d, f, h, k, l, t, etc. Increasing the x height of each letter-form Rounded g as in handwriting. Letter-spacing, e.g. r, n together rn should not look like m, (‘modern’ may scan as, or sound like, ‘modem’.) My primary research I did was print all of these fonts out with the sentence, the fox jumps over the lazy dog and then timed myself reading each one. I then also picked the one I found most easy.
For my secondary research I looked at two main pieces on the subject: Robs font thesis on the creation of font selxiad and a study The best fonts for dylexia by Luz RelloNLP & Web Research Groups Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain. The thesis by Dr. Robert Hillier for his font Sylexiad. A typeface for the adult dyslexic reader. In relation to creating a name for my font I liked the name of this I thought it was clever, as is dyslexia jumbled up, to imitate somebody with dyslexia reading it. This sparked ideas for my font poster recreating something which would be seeing through the eyes of someone who would struggle with the issues I am focusing on. I found sources of Research from the 80’s and compared them to more current research and theory’s. “Sans-serif type is intrinsically less legible than seriffed type” (McLean, 1980, p.44). more recent studies contradict this point. A study in Spain says San-serif was both more legibly and readable. Readability and comprehensibility were analysed via eye-tracking and comprehension tests, respectively, using the latter as a control variable. “Well-designed Roman upper and lower-case is easier to read than any of its variants, e.g. italic, bold, caps, expanded or condensed versions” (McLean, 1980, p.44). From the same study I found information which back this point up. It said that San-serif, Roman, mono-spaced fonts were significantly more readable to people with dyslexia. ‘Words should be set close to each other (about as far apart as the width of the letter ‘i’); and there should be more space between the lines than the words” (McLean, 1980, p.45).’ I will take this into consideration as I have found research backing that the spacing between letters should be large however nothing on the actual word spacing. I found earlier studies tended to contradict new studies however some points did match up and these I will keep in mind while designing my new font. From newer theory’s I learnt the word shape is no longer important because now the dominant thinking is that individual letter shapes play the lead role when somebody try s to read. From this I know that I will need to create each letter form to be more individual. This could be a problem however as it may mess with the flow of reading although i am sure there are ways around this.
My second body of research was a study in Spain. Researchers published results that determined which fonts had the best readability for individuals with dyslexia. It was based on 48 subjects aged 11-50, reading 12 texts with 12 different fonts. Reading performance was best when sans serif, mono-spaced and Roman fonts where used, Italic fonts significantly impaired readers. From this info I learnt the best ways to increase reading ease are sans serif, mono-spaced and Roman. So I decided to incorporate this into my first typeface drafts. I was worried about mono-space however because I felt this would make each letter seem more similar something I was trying to avoid. The study also showed OpenDyslexic a free font specifically designed with dyslexia in mind but in fact it did not help. The study showed that when recording reading speed OpenDyslexic came near the slowest. I took this into consideration when creating my font. Helvetica, Courier, Arial, Verdana and Computer Modern where all recommended over open dyslexic but it seemed people tended to chose fonts based on preference rather than actual ability to read however apart from opendyslexic no fonts created to help with dyslexia where actually used.
Dyslexie Was the second font I looked at. This was a massive help within my project as it showed a range of ways in which a font can be manipulated to increase the readability. However I felt the font looked slightly messy with a hand written feel this is something I wish to avoid. Id like to create a smart font with subtle alterations which from research I have learnt can help.(http://www.dyslexiefont.com)
A study showed that monospaced is preferred however this contradicts each letter looking individual and it makes each letter look slightly similar. These are some monospaced typefaces I looked into.
Erik Spiekermann -https://vimeo.com/19429698
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http://www.robsfonts.com/Resources/thesis.pdf (research into dyslexia) (http://alexpoole.info/blog/which-are-more-legible-serif-or-sans-serif-typefaces/) Webpage on which is more legible serif or san-serif https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gqus1wEbmA (video on dyeliza type face) http://blog.dyslexia.com/good-fonts-for-dyslexia-an-experimental-study/ http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/sites/default/files/good_fonts_for_dyslexia_study.pdf ( study in spain\) http://www.dyslexic.com/fonts http://www.readregular.com/english/regular.html ( font created with dyslexia in mind) The impact of Helvetica. http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/sites/default/files/good_fonts_for_dyslexia_study.pdf __________
Today we was given the task: 'Using your developing understanding of colour theory and typographic design/usage produce a graphic reinterpretation of your given Agatha Christie novel as part of the Guardians celebration of what would have been the authors 125th birthday.'
My novel given to me was Sparkling Cyanide. The first thing I decided to do was look into Agatha Christie and a brief summary of sparkling cyanide. Sparkling cyanide is a expansion of a Hercule Poirotshort story called yellow iris, its the forth and final series of books containing Colonel race, a fictional character created by agatha christie. It is a crime novel about a murder.
(Word Definitions)
cyanide
ˈsʌɪənʌɪd/
noun
CHEMISTRY
a salt or ester of hydrocyanic acid, containing the anion CN− or the group —CN. The salts are generally extremely toxic.
sodium or potassium cyanide used as a poison or in the extraction of gold and silver.
sparkling
ˈspɑːk(ə)lɪŋ,ˈspɑːklɪŋ/
adjective
1.
shining brightly with flashes of light.
"her sparkling blue eyes"
2.
(of a drink) effervescent; fizzy.
"sparkling wine"
Born
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller
15 September 1890 Torquay, Devon, England
'Six months later, her husband George receives anonymous letters saying that Rosemary was murdered' I took this from (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkling_Cyanide) my reason for posting it is i had a quick idea from this maybe use the letters to hold the typefaces on my front cover.
The plot of this novel is an expansion of a Hercule Poirot short story entitled "Yellow Iris,"
This was played on bbc Radio, as a drama also. I really like this style of cover the subtle icons around the edge give a quick idea of what the book will be about without taking to much away from the author and the title.
Author: Agatha Christie
Country: United States
Genre: Crime Novel
Publication Date: February
This is the first ever publicised Edition of Sparkling cyanide and in america is called remembered death, its illustrated by Hy Rubin. This is a us version of the book and was publicised in February 1945. The illustrations for this are not brilliant and defiantly outdated.
This is there current English Edition being sold and was published in 2002. The title although i think is not very legible is in fact agatha Christie's signature.
Colonel Race Book Series by HarperCollins Publishers
A review into Sparkling cyanide:
('In 1939, Agatha Christie published a short story featuring Hercule Poirot, entitled "Yellow Iris." A few years later, she expanded the story into this excellent novel, changing the detective to Colonel Race. Having read the story before the novel, I immediately recognized the similarity of the setup (right down to the name Iris). I assumed, therefore, that I knew how the murder was done, and in fact that aspect remains the same. However, if you think that reading the story will make it pointless to read the novel, think again! The murderer is someone completely different, and I was wrong in my suspicions and shocked at the ending. I know it's a 5-star Agatha when she reveals the murderer and I smack myself on the forehead and yell, "Holy crap!" out loud. Sparkling Cyanide is such a novel. I was blindsided by the ending, immediately kicked myself for not seeing it, and went back to re-read earlier passages that contained clues--or significant omissions, for there is a touch of Roger Ackroyd-style omission here.
Sparkling Cyanide is one of my favorite Christie titles, by the way: it suggests the glamour of the elegant 1930s nightclub where the murder takes place, and certainly the idea of cyanide in the Champagne is a dramatic and memorable one. I also have to give Dame Agatha credit for introducing me to the verb "cyanosed" (i.e., killed via cyanide), which I now want to work into a conversation sometime. I think it might supersede "defenestrate" as my new favorite violent verb. ')
From this review I took a few helpful points but one that stuck out was 'by the way: it suggests the glamour of the elegant 1930s nightclub' I thought I could research into this era and scene.
Here is a video I watched from this era (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR2jLotxoQA).
The first thing I noticed is the clothing they wear is very formal, there is also many tables more like a ballroom rather than a nightclub of our era.
(Looking into the era it was published 1945) For this I decided to take inspiration from The original hercule period short story series that this book originated from but with a more contemporary twist on it
These where my posters for the day session however i was not happy with the amount of depth behind them so I decided to redesign them.
Firstly i looked at Anna kovecese a Illustrator who created a series of crime novel cover. I sketched up a few design for a similar idea taking inspirations for the geometric shapes used however i decided against this approach due to the amount of time I had considering this was a quick study task and i had more time consuming projects to get on with.
So I moved onto looking at cyanid poisons and the labelling. I began with this image and then played with the theorhold then turned it into a vetor and got rid of the back ground the creat a siluet of the bottle. I played around with this on diffrent back grounds and font however could not get it to fit the bill. So i decided to look into the chemical compound of cyanide.
So I took the compound and recreated it on illustrator I used yellow for the sign and font to suggest warning and neutral background to create a easy to read contrast, the dark grey also implies mystery and death.
I then submitted this to the guardian Drawing the detectives competition.
