In class you’ll be assigned a typeface. Set a total of 26 letters printed at 11×17" using the ➺ InDesign document. Replace Helvetica with the Regular weight of your typeface while maintaining the letter and case. Adjust the guides layer to match your typefaces cap height, x–height, baseline and descender line found in Master Page A.
Next annotate any four characters of your chosen typeface. Each character must have at least three annotations. Look for consistencies & variations in the letterforms. Analyze their shapes, stroke widths, optical adjustments, etc. Be a detective, find design details hidden from the naked eye.
Design a specimen poster including all upper and lower case letters, numbers and major punctuation. Your poster must also include, in your own words, a three paragraph description—around 300 words—about the typeface from your analysis. Focus on it’s history, why it’s relevant and why you like (or don’t like) it.
TYPEFACE LIST
1Akzidenz Grotesk 2Century Schoolbook 3Futura 4Univers 5Garamond 6Caslon 7Times New Roman 8Bodoni 9Clarendon 10ITC Avant Garde 11Gill Sans 12Akkurat 13Franklin Gothic 14Sabon 15Roboto 16Gotham 17Calibre 18Post Grotesk 19Theinhardt 20Pitch
Background
There are a few resources I would highly recommend to get you started. You should get Karen Cheng’s Designing Type or take it out from the library. It’s an amazing resource for anyone interested in the subject and a huge advantage for this project. Make sure to research type anatomy terms so your notes follow convention.
Also read through some review on Font Review Journal. They do a fantastic job of analyzing a typeface and highlighting interesting characters. Take inspiration from their detailed writing.
Lastly, Illustrator is a great tool to analyze letterforms, especially if you outline the type and view the vector shapes in ‘outline’ mode (⌘Y).
