Ganit:A geometric typeface
category
brief
Type Design
Editorial Design
tools
Paper & pen
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Fontself Maker
Typography is a crusial part of any design. As part of our final project for Typography class, we were assigned to understand and read the Adobe Type Primer. Following which we were asked to use our judgment and design a typeface for the cover of the book. and re-do the content of the book.
Design Period: Oct 2017 - Nov 2017
Individual Project
approach
Firsty I decided to study the Trajan typeface. Then I did a thorough reading of the type Primer and jotted out my notes.
After which I decided to start it like using the big WH questions & jotting them down. I also approached a few other design students and got their input for some of the questions I had written down.
Based on all the collected data and studies on using typeface led to the final typeface.
process
fundamentals
Setting the foundations of the typeface
hand & paper
Create basic layouts on pen and paper
draft
Moving it onto the system
convert
Finally converting it into an installable file
studying Trajan
As the first step into understanding Tajan I decided to sit down with pen and paper. Initally trace drawing the alphabets of the typeface, I was able to perceive the curves and follow the design thats based on the letterforms of the capitalis monumentalis.
Then after a few trace drawings, I decided to move and try drawing it free hand. I did meet a lot of difficulty doing so, as it is a combination of complexity and subtlety and has distinct proportions and geometry
Trajan has long been an inspiration to many artists and students of lettering. Designed for display, specifically for use in large sizes, Trajan by Carol Twombly has become very popular and is seen in movie posters, book covers and more. It is a classically styled serif typeface.
This process also helped me brainstorm on ideas and lay foundations for my upcoming design.
laying foundation
We were provided with full freedom to design the typeface and present it finally at the end of the semester with it being used on the cover of the redesigned Adobe Type Primer booklet we submit. I decided to lay the foundation by jotting down all the related WH questions and finding the answers to them. Also, Asking around the class I received some great inputs which helped in the sculpturing the design.
What? When? Where? How? Who? Which? Why?
After thorough reading of the Primer, & researching the usage of serifs and san-serifs, I narrowed down on the design.
Main questions that contributed to the design:
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Serif or San- serif? Why?
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Old style, Transitional or Modern? Why?
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What kind of Serif/ San-serif?
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Would there be contrasts?
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Would the typeface be all caps, have families?
geometric factor
The characteristic that makes this typeface stand out is that it is not only mostly visually balanced but also geometrically balanced to scale. The 'O' is a perfect circle, the strokes and ends of type are met by horizontal finish.
Though designed by scale and geometrical instruments on paper, there were instances where I had to resort to freehand for visual balance.
The type is all caps and does not include numericals or glyphs for now.
Calling the Adobe Type Primer as Type Companion was ignited by the fact that this is a guidebook, it would present the information about what and how to use type. Rather than a rule book it is TYPE 101.
Finally I decided to design a San-serif typeface. Having read the book I concluded that this book is a guidebook that has been in use, is being used and will be used in the future as well. San-serif is generally used to convey simplicity, modernity and minimalism. Sans are clean. To be more precise, I decided to dive a little deeper and design a geometric San Serif typeface, with hardly any contrast.
This also helps draw the attention to the context rather than the font itself which was my primary goal. Unlike serifs that have traces or lines extending from the edges of letters and alphabets. There are curls while the sans serif letters appear simple and rounded.
For redesigning the content of the book, the magazine anatomy chart was provided- a tabular chart that details the font theme of the document. The font, font size, & leading of elements like heading, subheading, pragraph, etc had to be mentioned.
