OUGD406 Book Cover Typographic Treatment, Study Task Three (Studio Brief Two)

For study task three, we were asked to use the information that we received from studio brief two and create further analysis and idea generation for our own book designs. Firstly, we were asked to turn the negative words that we had received into positives. My responses are below.

Boring/Dull/Tedious  >  Simplistic
Contradicting  >  Approved
Ironic  >  Sincere
Dark  >  Light
Misrepresentation  >  Relevant
Gothic  >  Apparent
Slapdash  >  Careful

We were then asked to take these positives and find a typeface that could be relevant and relate. From the word 'simplistic', I knew that I wanted to use a sans serif typeface as personally I feel that serif's sometimes complicate and I don't want my book design to do this. The word 'approved' made me think of Vignelli, who said you only really need to use around 6 basic typefaces through-out your whole career as a designer. These typefaces are Helvetica, Futura, Bodoni, Garamond, Times Roman and Century Expanded. As I didn't want to use a serif type, I knew it was a choice between Helvetica and Futura. I decided to use Helvetica as it's an incredibly simplistic, neat typeface and I think it will really work for the aesthetic of my book design. I think it could also be considered as a 'relevant', 'apparent', 'careful' and 'sincere' typeface, so I think it's a successful type choice to improve on the original book design's typeface.

I then looked into what I wanted to stand out on my book design. I decided that the title should be the most important information on the book cover, so I think this will be first and it should be quite a big size. I then wanted to add the title 'the typographer's bible', even though this wasn't actually featured on the original cover design. This will be second, however it will be in quite a small font. I then thought the author is important as well, so this will go next. It will be in a bigger size than the sub-heading, however it will be further down the design.

I then created how I would picture the type for one of my designs. This is below. I thought, as the books content is quite modern, I would focus on what modernism consists of. I used Helvetica and Left-alligned text, as this is one of the keys of the modernist theory. I also made sure that there was a lot of negative space, as this is key for modernism also.

The next part of this task was to go around every persons design in the class and leave a small comment/word of the feel that we gained from their designs. My comments are listed below. 

• Simple
• Conveying a message (all caps)
• Straight forward
• Sensibly elegant
• Ordered
• Modernism
• Minimal
• Good amount of white space
• The type sizes are all slightly different, but are very simple and effective

I found this task really useful as I now have an idea of how to lay out my type and also know which typeface that I would like to have on my front cover. I was also struggling for ideas for my book design, however I think the subverted words will make my responses really focused which I think will help me with idea generation.