LIBRARY RESEARCH 16 WEEK REED LIBRARY RESEARCH ON TYPOGRAPHIC DESIGN
WEEK ONE
When we were first introduced this project, I did not know what to expect. I was quite confused on what it actually meant to go around and find examples in the library. I began with the photos that are shown above. I found four examples of minimalistic covers with simple type design.
WEEK TWO
This week, I decided to research more in depth about the covers of certain book types. I found those shown above. I realized that older books are very interesting and all over the place. Nowadays, publishers know more information about typographic hiearchy and know that certain things do not look as well as they would have thought in the pass.
WEEK THREE
This week, I continued to look at books in detail on how they were designed. I really enjoyed the simple look of the Helvetica horizontal type alongside the left example’s spine. And for the right, I believe this is so outdated and absolutely horrific, this definately needs a new design pronto.
WEEK FOUR
These are HORRIBLE!! Personally, I am not a fan of these type of books and never will be. I know that the people who are interested within these books know that they have a certain look to them so they can easily spot them out on the shelves.
WEEK FIVE
I found these spines that intrigued me from how the spines were designed. The simple type against the solid color spine. Even the gold foil letters look good as they are an eye catcher.
WEEK SIX
The left example is similar to how the first week was from the simplicity of the cover between the type and space used. The right example, just like my design within the 16 week process, I love to see white on black.
WEEK SEVEN
This week, I researched more on magazine covers within the library. I noticed how certain magazines used the ability to add color within their designs to grab the viewers attention quickly. These are the choices that I chose from the book shelves shown at the library. All of the other magazines were not as visually interesting as these were.
WEEK EIGHT
The reason why I chose this cover was because of how the lines make a vibrating sort of look to the cover when you look at it. Very interesting on how the cover is printed well between glozzy and matte.
WEEK NINE
This week, I reserached again on spines. These two series really caught my eyes by how they made a whole as they looked sitting upont the shelves in the library.
WEEK TEN
Within designs that catch my eye, I am the biggest minimalist. I love everything that has to be simple. These covers are great examples of what I like. The use of positive and negative space is done perfectly in both examples.
WEEK ELEVEN
Throwing it back to last week, I decided to continue my research of positive and negative space while looking for covers containing little to no type and this is what I came up with.
WEEK TWELVE
As for last week, I continued the idea of little to no type within the book covers that I had found. I like how these covers are simple yet so inviting for me to pick up and look at.
WEEK THIRTEEN
Thank god my grandparents never got rid of the ratty old books they didn’t want. The spines they had on their shelves are all random for the most part. Medical self help books are easy to pinpoint because of how they are shown within the covers and spines. And bigger novels are often found with large font sizes of the author on the spines.
WEEK FOURTEEN
Childrens books and more cook books! Of course the cookbooks are were trying to show that they contain recipes in them, the childrens books were very different. From the books I used to look at daily as a child, I noticed I wore them out pretty well. I also noticed that the color schemes and pictures all represented a smaller age group audience to ensure that a child would easily pick it up. You wouldn’t see a child pick up a James Patterson book anytime soon....
WEEK FIFTEEN
Cookbooks..... how relevant to how we ended the semester with making a cookbook! I went through grandma’s cabinet and found two examples. The left is from years ago and the right is recently published. Comparing them together showed me how different examples could be made within cookbook cover designs.
WEEK SIXTEEN
To conclude the past 16 weeks, I found two more magazine examples. Both seemed to be more graphic design based which entrigued me because of how I have grown to like looking at design since I have began researching design.
Why? All semester, I have been asked many questions regarding my design choices. All of these questions contained the word “why�. Why did you choose that typeface? Why did you choose those colors? Why did you do that and why did you do this? Why, why, why, WHY????? After all of the research we have done the past few weeks, I have decided to put these PDF together to represent what I have learned. Although, I always have an eye out to catch good photos or design because of being an artist, I liked this project because of that. I chose the typeface Bebas for my titles because there is something about it that makes it my favorite. I love the way it looks and I chose to use Avenir Book for the body type. I chose the black and white color scheme because of how I have started to see in black and white over the past couple years. When I take photos, I always see how they could look in black and white and always find myself to editting color photos to black and white no matter the circumstance. Also, I inverted the black and white from the normal black on white because that is something that is used often as a default. The layout of how I have shown the examples from each week, I have lined up within the center along with the text all to make sure its even with the next page. This semester has really taught me more about typography and how it is supposed to look within books. Although I do not see myself going into publishing within my future, I am glad I have learned specific skills within InDesign this semester.