OUGD404: Type Hierarchy

The session began with a review of the previous task set: see designs by clicking here

Through a class discussion of the designs created we figured that rather than using A4 portrait and landscape; a square format worked best because it is a neutral background and doesn't demand a set alignment of text (due to longer length of sides).

It was also discussed that the font themselves were difficult to work with in terms of making each "the quick brown fox" readable. Block fonts are crafted to work at a certain size (bigger) and therefore once they have been made into a small point size, they begin to appear much like a large block of black ink and are incredibly illegible and are not easily read. These difficult fonts however still have their uses such as block and script fonts, as a class it was discussed that the majority preferred either gothic or roman fonts. Script and block fonts still have their place firmly in Graphic Design because they make incredibly beautiful headers and work well in a larger point size. 

The most used fonts within Graphic Design are gothic these are highly readable, legible and reliable fonts however they have their purposes and can be seen as neutral and perhaps lack character, this is when other fonts can be used such as block and script.

The use of block and script fonts therefore are still kept because they have personality and a vast range of fonts can be used for different purposes. The quote "Type is speech made visible" reflects this accurately; these different and unusual fonts can be used for their different technical aspects. An elegant and delicate script font could be used on the signage on a more upmarket restaurant to give connotations of wealth and perhaps different cuisine such as French or femininity. 

From looking at point size in terms of scale, placement on a page and its format this has confirmed the fact that Graphic Designer who use specifically typography control information that is received and read. A designer can break the conventions of information being read left to right, top to bottom. 

The control of a Graphic Designer on how something is read is incredibly important in layout design in both for screen and print. To investigate this I chose a page from a newspaper to closely look at type choices. Texts can have two type hierarchies, how something is initially read within the text and then the text itself from a Graphic Design point of view- how fonts work as a hierarchy once removed from the text/article. 

Example:

To continue these tasks I must complete the following investigation: