Theory to Practice//Crit

Since we did our presentations before easter we haven't had any other studio time with a tutor on this brief up until today which was the last crit before our final one where everything has to done and produced. So this was our last chance to get any questions out of the way and get the complete solid idea as we only have 2 weeks left on this brief.

To start with we used the DIET exercise to evaluate where we were up to at the minute within this brief:

Describe - So far i have decided on the format of my publication which is in two parts. The first is a A4 publication which informs you about the history of type through a timeline, this timeline has info on fonts, designers and key events. From this it moves onto the classification of type, the make up and styles of a typeface and the anatomy go type. The second part is a font dictionary which relates back to the timeline and describes 30 fonts, with history of, designer year and purpose of each. I have produced DP spreads from the publication and mock ups of the font dictionary

Interpret - My publication is about the history of type and how type has changed through time. Talking about the different stages and how type has changed throughout these. The font dictionary is there to illustrate this as it has all the fonts in the timeline. The rest of the publication describes type and how it can be classified, the make up and anatomy of type. Basically is it the history and brief knowledge of how type is and what it is made up of.

Evaluate - So far i have only produced 2 DP spreads from the publication and mock ups of the font dictionary, which i am unsure of at the minute. But from what i have done i have decided the colour palette and started to design the style/look of the publication through these two DP spreads.

Theorise - My problem to start with was to inform about typography and the history behind it, showing how it has changed over the years.
I think what i have planned on doing is covering the basis of all these problems.

After this we were put into groups of 5, in which we would talk about our concepts show any work/visuals we had and ask any relevant questions to the rest of the group, we had up to 15mins each for this.

I explained my concept and then went through the way in which i was going to produce this, talking through my different ideas and how i have finally come the latest decisions on how to present all the information.

My main questions to ask and get opinions on were:
If the font dictionary was a good idea and if it was right to do it in the format of the cards
If the other information i.e classification, styles anatomy was needed within the publication.

My feedback was very positive and i was really pleased with what everyone was saying about it.
- The font dictionary is a very good idea, they liked this element the most, but think that the publication is needed to back up the cards and has the majority of the theory in this part.
- Like the font dictionary as the cards format because you can flick through and have something physical in you hand instead of being in a book, you would be able to lay them out on a table to see everything.
- The style of the visuals i provided were strong and liked the look of it.

Things to include/points raised:
- In the font dictionary have a vary of style of fonts
- Increase the card format to A5
- Make sure the purpose of the typeface in on the cards - makes a good resource to graphic designers if need to find a font for a specific design piece.
- Put the cards and publication into some sort of packaging - As a type pack, with the cards and a user handbook; the publication.