OUGD403 - Studio Brief 02

Typeface Digital Development
10 / 11 / 15

Once I had finished the initial designs of my typeface on paper and had tackled the letters which are more complex and require more development, it was time to to start recreating these ideas on CAD in Illustrator and seeing how the letterforms were going to work structurally and functionally on a computer. I began simply by using the original Baskerville typeface as a stencil for me to start creating around it. Using the pen tool I used the original typeface as a guide and then began working into the letterforms characteristics, developing them to communicate my adjective 'vast'. These characteristics included...
   - Consistently squared off joints and stems making appearance          sharper and more regular
   - Large rounded counters & 
   - Hollowed brushstrokes with contrasting thin strokes 
       - 2 above both increasing negative space (hence 'vast' open            space)
   - Sans Serif represents more widely used, neutral typefaces like      Helvetica. Thus making the typeface more 'versatile'

The letter q proved to be one of the more difficult letters to develop a response to which was consistent with the rest of the typeface. I produced a couple of my initial ideas on CAD and just didn't like their appearance so gathered some opinions on how I should present the letter. The majority of people were very keen on the decorative, fancy tails on original Baskerville 'Q', however I felt this was only present due to the fact it is a serif typeface, and I have aimed to remove all the serifs so need to come up with a new response. My crit session suggested a single line running out along the baseline and other suggestions included a more simple diagonally running tail. I used the last design option on the right in the end as I feel it does best communicate the concept of boundless space and it does sit most consistently with the rest of the typeface.

I decided to go ahead with my idea of having the main typeface response hollowed for use in Headings and Sub-Headings and display text, etc; but also thought to provide a second version of the design but filled in more like the original Baskerville typeface. As Baskerville states to be a refinement of an old style being popularly used in book design, I thought by having both it would make the depth of my response greater making it even more versatile to use, also not only as display text but also use in main bodies of texts aswell.