Typesetting: Filosofia

Sketching Page Layouts

To begin designing a spread featuring my typeface Filosofia, I sketched out some initial ways I could break up my composition. Taking notes from research and additional websites that gave tips about typesetting, I was able to get an idea and understand some of the guidelines stepping into designing the spread.

Analyzing the Typeface’s Characteristics

The typeface Filosofia has very unique characteristics and personality, and I decided to print out some text in different weights and analyze the quirks and ways the lines connected, flowed, and ended. Some of the letters I noticed that had interesting properties which led me to come up with adjectives, were the letters g, k, and y. Other letters like a and r had also similar formats and curving lines with rounded ball terminals that I thought was feminine.

• Filosofia regular “k” : demonstrates a sense of proportional balance and has an upright stance. The angles create spaces that can be filled by triangles and simple geometries. Compared to Bodoni, serifs are more comforting and rounded.
• Filosofia italic y : reflects a mature and modern tone with the grace of the tilt in the axis. With less length to the tail than Bodoni, Filosofia has a more humbler and calming personality.
• Filosofia bold “g” features graceful curves with a flowing elements and seamless transition to the tail. It’s elegance reflects in the tips and gradual changes to the stroke weight. Compared with Bodoni’s bold, there is ease to the eye with less drastic contrast.

Gathering Photos

For my spread, I browsed Unsplash.com for images that were natural, floral, feminine and gave off the ambiance of comfort. Taking inspiration from cafes, succulents, study aestethetic, and a homely feel, I collected these pictures.

Spread Iterations 1:

Taking the concept of highlighting 3 key letterforms and their geometries, and also using a slightly bright pastel color scheme, I made these iterations, each having some subtle variations.

One challenge I came across was experimenting with laying my text into columns and breaking the grid . I tried to experiment by using the InDesign techniques from class like using paragraph styles, and using that as a system to create subheadings.

Essay Feedback

After receiving my essay back, here are some of the points I needed to consider, and edit them:

• Your narrative relies heavily on comparisons to Bodoni. It will be interesting to see how you visualize this — both on the spread and in your type video.
• Consider talking a bit about how Filosofia is being used today — what kids of projects is it employed for and for what types of institutions?
• Finally, have you looked carefully at individual glyphs (letterforms) in the typeface? Are there any that have a particular flare or signal that reveals Licko’s personal style or objectives?

Fixing Essay, Using Smaller Print, and Adjusting Body Copy

After meeting with my TA Jaclyn, one helpful suggestion she gave was that if Filosofia was originally created for body copy and ease of readability, it should be explored with, and and it could potentially be what the body text is set to. Originally, it was Avenir, but I decided to use Filosofia OT Regular. Additionally, I revised my color palette and considered the suggestions to make comparisons to Bodoni’s letterforms.

I used a lighter shade and created the same letterform in Bodoni and put it as an underlay to highlight some of the serif and curve differences between Filosofia and Bodoni. I played with using blocks of background color to indicate where one could begin reading the columns.

Meeting with Vicki

After having an office hour critique with Vicki and one of my classmates Francis, I received some more list of points to think about:

• the number one most important factor to consider is readability. I was treating my work like a poster rather than a spread, and this posed some problems because when the two pages fold in a magazine, the crease falls right on the text, or a staple will cut off some letters. I need to use the gridlines and pay attention to where text is placed.
• The image is not as communicative because I was forcing the color schemes and layout based on the image, perhaps also forcing the adjectives based off the image rather than from the typeface itself. Some people may make the connection to the adjectives and the typeface because it is explained on the spread, but others may not think of those adjectives particularly from solely the image itself.
• By treating every element on the spread equally, it clashes with the viewer’s decisions because they do not know where to draw their attention to. The body copy in separate chunks makes it hard to follow where to start and stop.
• Color everywhere may cause problems printing. For body text, it should be limited and not a very specific color that isn’t dark enough or a variation of black.
• The letterforms overlapping makes it hard to make the connection, so possibly having it side by side can show all the variations between the two typefaces rather than hiding them.

After considering all these points, I changed my image because it seemed less cliche. In this image, the colors are more vivid, and there is an interesting play on perspective with the pillars. There is balance shown in the pots and there are curves which speak to the graceful parts of Filosofia’s letterforms. There is structure to the plants and circular as well as straight edges in the environment. This helped me show more of how there is that elegance, balance, and sophistication, similar to the letterforms.

Bringing the Bodoni letters to the side and setting it to a smaller type, I was able to make it more visible and able to be compared to the Filosofia letters. I pulled the navy blue color from the pot in the image and used that as a underlay shape to accent some of the parts of the letterforms. Additionally, I payed more attention to the grid and adjusted where my text fell so it doesn’t get cut off when folded.

Project 3 Reflection

From this project I learned a lot about paying attention to detail. My challenges were not fully being able to see my spread printed in person to see how it looks. I also believe having time to iterate a little more may have allowed me to explore different color schemes and layouts which possibly would have led me in a different direction. Overall I feel that studying the letters and making close analysis helped me learn about the way Licko developed the typeface, and I enjoyed trying to fit my own interpretation and observations in a communicative spread format. While this spread can still be pushed further, I feel I’ve learned a lot of technical skills and developed a keener eye for observation that I will implement in my future projects.

Final

Project 4

For project 4, I started off by making adjustments to my script based on the editor notes I was given.

Refined Script:

In 1996,

Emigre created

Filosofia,

an elegant,

contemporary,

balanced,

and lower contrast version

of the Bodoni typeface.

Created for

longer passages

and ease of readability,

Filosofia

resembles the

symmetrical harmonies found in Bodoni

with a more stylistic

and rounder touch to the serifs.

Next I moved to make an initial storyboard using procreate. I hand drew the animation and just quick drafted a concept. I also chose to use the adjectives elegant, balanced, and contemporary, instead of sophisticated because this typeface is one of the newer ones and I wanted to highlight that aspect.

Below is the video split into two parts (because of the Procreate limit on frames per video).

Meeting With Vicki Office Hours

• “longer passages”… repeating over and over is cliche
• try to include and show the list of weights the typeface comes with
• flourishing detail- is it necessary and really communicative? Or is it more decorative and an embellishment just for the sake?
• color- explore more and fix to have a little but more life to them than being dull

Finding Music

After browsing piano, lofi, and chillhop genres on youtube, I came across the artist Ikson, and I enjoyed the brightness of his songs and the positive mood. I ended up choosing Lights for the more bright and playful feel it had.

Refining Color Palette

Exploring Pinterest, I found these examples of color schemes. I tried to go for something that was more colorful and had a mix of warm and cool colors. I went with the combination of teal, purple, rust, yellow-gold and light pink.

Chosen Color Palette:

Video Draft 1 Critique with Vicki:

• make copyright smaller or give Zuzana Licko credit
• delete punctuation because when using type in motion- one thing to consider is that you are controlling the pace and have that power, whereas in a spread not so much
• animate elegant slide and make it have that feel
• fill counters in “contemporary” with colored shapes rather than the same light pink
• b to d transition off- attempt at flipping is there but if it’s not working keep the falling letters standard
• white on white- letters standing on blocks blend together and cannot tell distinction
• “lower contrast version of the . . . Bodoni typeface” = irregular
• show longer passages
• show ease of readability
• show symmetric harmonies- lines with different color annotations to indicate the symmetry rather than the same
• stylistic- forgot the t
• unicase needs more of a grander finish, or show the characteristics in a more engaging way at the end

Updates

For the “version” transition, I tried to experiment with zooming and changing scale, position, and anchor points in After Effects after getting to see some of my classmates’ work. I chose to highlight the parts that showed that lower contrast in Filosofia in terms of the transitions and thickness changes.

I also wanted to so something more creative and visual, so I created these book illustrations and animated a page turn for more interaction.

For “unicase” I animated a circle bouncing, switching colors, and spreading in a highlight. I used the same color scheme and made the circle bounces in 3 of the colors I did not use yet (yellow, rust, and purple).

Final Critique Suggestions from Dylan and Q

• color palette works sometimes, others not so much, for example when when yellow an pink clash
• pale pink on turquoise contrast not the best
• some scenes engaging but others need to be able to feel more(elegant)
• color blinking effective when moment sticks with you

Plans to Move Forward

• get rid of yellow on pink moments
• change the large pattern on elegant
• on contemporary change the counter fill color to not be yellow (clashed with pink)
• edit pacing more closely

Reflection

After implementing some of these minor changes I realized that it would have been easier to modify my assets if I brought them into After Effects by retaining the layers and composition settings. Because I missed this step and brought my assets as pngs, it compromised on final video quality. Going forward I learned I need to make sure my original setup is proper so it doesn’t hurt the process down the road.

From this project I also learned the importance of the way time and movement affects how viewers understand the information presented to them. Some areas I need to improve upon personally are experimenting more with After Effects, different transitions, and ways to create effects. I stuck simple and used the system of basic animation I’ve learnt before or tried inventing on my own, some of which worked, and some which didn’t during the process, so I had to stick with what was more communicative. I felt though my risk taking to try was helpful in realizing errors early on, which helped me edit better going forward. This project was really fun once music was introduced, and it helped me realize that I enjoy storytelling through motion and want to get better at it.