Type research

Type -

Having looked at the origins of my adjective, shy, I decided to look more at its origins and see what else there is to find. I looked at Germanic type which is also known as 'Fractur' or 'Gothic' which is the term applied to blackletter typefaces or broken script, these types are normally calligraphy style, these letter forms are very artistic and were used a lot in old literature, being a commonly used type within German speaking countries and soon this type spread in popularity over europe for some time until most of the continent switched to Antiqua, a similar but much simpler clearer type, yet German speakers kept to the Fraktur style for the centuries time.

Having looked at a number of variations of Fractur I realised that only some aspects of these styles could be incorporated into a typeface based on 'shy'. These styles are very bold and brash, the purpose of them are mainly decorative, especially in modern standards they represent old languages and cultures, they have very little relevance in todays life.


My type-

For my type I have decided to use a serif font because it has more constraints than a san serif font, and a shy person would usually feel like they are constrained and held back, serif fonts give less freedom and I feel that by using serif it can be an element to put across for shy. I also want to use serif to try out some elements of the Fractur style on a typeface.

I have decided to look into Caslon and Bodoni as start off fonts, firstly looking at there uses and design qualities in further depth.


Caslon -

I looked at Caslon and really liked its simplistic design and form and its legibility in a range of sizes, it can be altered and still understood. Its sleek design makes it a very nice looking type, I feel it could be an interesting type to use for shy as its bold sharp serifs make it constrained like my adjectives characteristics.

I looked at the structure of the lettering looking at the thickness of the vertical parts of the type and the way the curves go very thin. The serifs are quite thick on the type but that can add to my idea of constraining the text. I feel that I could work well using this type, the design in each character is precise and attractive.









I looked at the different uses of Caslon and found these already slightly edited versions of the type face in use, both for magazines, I like the way the type has had sections of it thinned, I could look more into this by experimenting with the width of line in the type, this can represent my type through parts shying away sections of the type hidden or kept small, it could also represent shrinking feeling that a shy person would feel in a situation they are uncomfortable with. 

I found this piece of art which used all the characters of the alphabet in Caslon, the different coloured overlapping piece is really vibrant and interesting, I would like to attempt something like this to showcase my work. I shall look more into colours which can be related to my adjective.

Bodoni - 

Bodoni has a bold striking design which is widely used in magazines, and in advertisements. This serif font is thick and clear with some aspects of singular characters being thin which makes it clearer and visually pleasing. This characteristic of Bodoni is something I can relate to my adjective, similar to Caslon I can do aspects of each letter hiding away or very thin to give the the feel of shy next to bold, overshadowing aspects of the type yet remaining legible.

I looked at Bodoni being used and found many print media forms using the type. Above I found this advert in a magazine which is advertising Russian vodka, the Bodoni type gives this advert a simple feel of class and a clear legible look that does not take any focus away from the image or main topic of the advert. This type works well in this context especially with the slightly tighter kerning within this advert I feel that this is a sucessful use of kerning, keeping legibility and keeping class.

I feel this type is classy and legible but possibly too bold for the adjective shy, I want to use aspects of this type such as thinning certain strokes, curves and bridges as I have explained to create a shying effect on singular characters, I want to mute it in a sense yet also keep it legible and visually pleasing.