a type specimen by Sophie Kirk
contents 01 strategy calculations grids
04 5 9 15
02 typefaces expressive typography
folios paper
41 45
05 23 27
printing oversights
49 51
03 imagery colours
31 37 3
01 strategy The Wonderful World of Wes Anderson is a study of the creative influences behind Wes Anderson’s cinematography. It is dedicated to the designers, creators and artistic practitioners that helped to make Wes Anderson’s films into the timeless classics that they are.
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The reason I chose to look at Wes Anderson’s work is not only due to my admiration of the films themselves, but also because of the unavoidable style and design that is prominent throughout each piece. My inital research included secondary articles and interviews with Wes Anderson, and with the recent release of The Grand Budapest Hotel, these were not difficult to find. Failing to contact the man himself, I began searching for interviews that presented the most interesting research in terms of his personal influence and direction when creating his films. After further investigation, it became clear that despite Wes’ ingenious creative style, there are plenty of other creative minds that assist in making Wes’ films become as visually appealing as they are.
With this in mind, I have created this publication as a dedication to those people. It has become apparent that without such innovative and outstanding creations, added to Wes Anderson’s diligent attention to detail, his films would not be valued as timeless pieces of cinematography with such strong imaginative or aesthetic appeal.
This instigated further research into creative aspects of Wes’ cinematography. I considered his directive use of typography, camera angle, scenery and composition. I began to identify artists and creators that had contributed to many of Wes’ films. To extend my research, I contacted Annie Atkins who had worked with Wes as the lead Graphic Designer for The Grand Budapest Hotel. She was really helpful and answered some of my questions, but also pointed me in the direction of more sources of information. Having sought after genuine primary research, it was pleasing to know that contemporary design practitioners were willing to assist in a project like this. I continued attempting to contact people of similar creative influence, but these efforts were not reciprocated.
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01 calculations To assist effective design, it is necessary to generate a logical basis. Calculating rationales for each typographic element supports the overall design impact.
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01 The primary stage of design for the publication prompted the issue of relating form to content. Providing justification for each aspect of the final publication proved difficult, as it was hard to visualise the final outcome.
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WES ANDERSON by Sophie Kirk
The publication focuses on Wes Anderson’s films, looking at the design features and cinematography. It takes particular focus on typography, props, setting and post- production, with interviews from some of the designers who have contributed to his films. Wes Anderson was born 1st May 1969. By using these figures, I created a ratio of 6:9, which deduced to 1:1.5, or 1.15. This enabled me to calculate my text and page sizes. Ultimately, other aspects of the publication could be derived from certain parts of Wes Anderson’s films and creative style.
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Rotating the page from landscape to portrait also provided more room for a suitable grid system, enabling me to include more text. The landscape images could become double page spreads if necessary, but would still have enough room to not look discredited if they remained on a single page. Allowing a 3mm bleed was a print preference, as it prevents anything close to the edge of the page from being rescaled to within an automatic margin.
The initial draft of the book was A5 landscape. After a peer-review session, I concluded that this was a good decision as it meant that the book mirrored the dimensions of a screen (16:9 aspect ratio), which related to the cinematography side of the subject. However, this size restricted my design, as images were too small, and some text was illegible. I revised this size by using the calculated ratio, which lead me to increasing the paper size to 230 x 264.5mm. This size allows large image spreads, particularly still frames from films, to be enlarged and appreciated as focal points on the page.
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The Margin and Gutter calculations are derived from the initial 1.15 value. By doubling (using the value of 2, symmetrical camera shots are fluent within Anderson’s films), I reached the Gutter value of 4.6 (1.15x2=2.3, 2.3x2=4.6). Continuing this provides the Margin values of 18.4 (4.6x2=9.2, 9.2x2=18.4), but the inside margin is 24mm to allow room for Perfect binding.
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01 grids The publication is set to a seven-column grid. Seven-column grids provide maximum flexibility and also allow for asymmetrical placement of elements, which tend to be more visually appealing than a symmetrical layout.
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Using a seven-column grid allows blank space, which enabled me to stick to a minimal design throughout the publication, even on pages with a large amount of text. This type of grid also regulated the space between text and images, ensuring that my pages weren’t overfilled. This challenged use of the grid in an array of different ways, establishing effect design across single pages and their correlating spread.
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Using a baseline grid meant that all text was fluent and aligned correctly across each spread. By using the original 1.15 ratio, the text size was calculated to 12pt (1.5x2=3, 3x2=6, 6x2=12). This meant that the leading was 15pt, as it is generally 3pt larger than the text size and also related to the ‘.15’ from the initial rationale.
By using master pages, templates were created to assist orderly page design. This ensured that each section was laid out similarly, to assist a coherent visual narrative. The following pages show examples of the different ways in which the seven-grid system has been used.
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With intentions of consistency, it is clear that using an image as a central focus or slightly off-centered text are ways in which this publication mimics Anderson’s cinematographic style. This is achieved by using different variations upon the seven-grid system, and highlighting a clear visual focus on each spread.
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02 typefaces The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading, kerning and many other factors. These all contribute to the legibility and contribute to the aesthetic appeal of an area of text. The typefaces used throughout the publication are coherent with Anderson’s films. The selected typefaces are featured in the credits or on the film posters.
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Titles Headers Folios Accreditations
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Body copy Cover page Captions Accreditations
FUTURA BOLD
ARCHER
Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that reflected visual aspects of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–33. Futura is used by Wes Anderson throughout many of his films, starting as early as Bottle Rocket. Anderson uses Futura to pay homage to cinema influences such as Stanley Kubrick.
Archer is a slab serif style digital typeface designed in 2001 by Hoefler & Frere-Jones for use in Martha Stewart Living magazine. It combines antique and geometric typographic styles, suggesting historical influences such as typewriters. It is only evident in Anderson’s most recent film, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2013).
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
A B C D E FG H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XY Z abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 25
02 expressive typography The purpose of the enlarged quotes is to display some of the humour and emotion from the films. Wes Anderson uses blunt delivery to express important emotional truths, playing on irony and humour to present complicated and genuine issues. The quotes I have selected are sourced from different films, but state issues that I perceive as relevant to Wes from the research conducted. For example, the quote from Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) is an attitude that the majority of critics (including Martin Scorcese) share for Anderson’s work. The longer, paragraphed quotes are selections from interviews with creative practitioners who have worked on Wes’ films, as well as quotes from Anderson himself, discussing relevant information about each sub-section.
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CINEMA
PROPS
YOU KNOW YOU REALLY ARE FANTASTIC
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The digital intermediate offered the usual opportunities to match shots that were filmed under different weather conditions, from bright sunlight to cloud cover, but Anderson used the color-correction tools to manipulate the image more than he has before. For the dramatic ending scene on the roof of the church, Wes decided to desaturate the color and give the scene a bluish feel. With the addition of some vignetting, it almost has an old-time, silent-film feel. I encouraged him to keep pushing it.
— ROBERT YEOMAN
Scenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Mrs Felicity Fox, Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) 47
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(2013) before and after digital editing
Cinematographer
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03 imagery A crucial part of film analysis is imagery and screen shots. This forms a large part of the publication. By using the page width (within the margins), full page images and double-page spreads, the images can be appreciated in a high quality manner.
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DESIGN
From scenery to props, costume to camera angle, each Wes Anderson film relies on a meticulous amount of design detail to provide the finished, signature, “Anderson” style. Wes uses a combination of typography and still-shots, along with other quirky aspects such as stop-motion and script, to provide his viewers with a clear representation of his ideas and the alternative realities that he creates. He has devised a style that is extremely prominent and well-considered, giving each of his films their own personality that reflects aspects of his own. Film-making (like many other creative industries) is subjective, and so the ability to create films that not only entertain an audience in a physical and emotional way, but also supply an aesthetic ambience, is a talent that Anderson maintains throughout his work and deserves to be acclaimed.
Scenery from Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)
This section of the book will analyse Wes Anderson’s diligent use of design through typography, props, scenery, colour palettes and camera use.
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Simple scenery images form effective banner-style features for the introductory pages.
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Full page images provide a focus point for smaller section introductory pages.
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Double page spreads allow a break between sections.
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03 colour Indicated by the section within the publication focusing on colour palettes, keeping a consistent style is key. The title text in the publication is Futura, and this typeface is prominent particularly in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). The Futura-focused credits are in a bright yellow, similar to that of the scene changes in Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). In keeping with this, I explored different shades of possible yellows to use within the book, particularly on the section changes and the cover. Many of the images also contain a yellow hue, but this is due to the nature of the colour palettes edited within the cinematography, not to personal editing.
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140gsm
135gsm
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04 folios The page furniture is fixed positionally throughout the document. It includes headers and page numbers, and sits centrally throughout the entire document. This is relative to the symmetrical theme that is recurrent throughout the entire publication. They are not used with pages on which the imagery is the focal point.
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CINEMA
WES PART ONE
The centered headers on the left-hand side pages indicate the current section; either Design or Cinema. These are fixed on all pages except those with large images as focal points.
A segment from an interview about The Darjeeling Limited. I’m sure you’re aware, there’s a perception of you as being somebody who goes into everything with a very detailed plan. And here, in an interview after interview petaining your films, you tell me that you really don’t have one. You have the script, but in everything else after that, there’s a degree of winging it. And I don’t mean that you don’t know what you’re doing at all, or that you deliberately try not to know what you’re trying to say. That’s certainly true. My habit is to get the script locked down—I don’t like to leave things open in the script. And usually we tend to do what’s in the script.
Verso
By not leaving things open, you’re referring to the plot, the dialogue, things like that? Not the meanings? Not the meanings. I don’t do scenes where it says, “The taxi driver gives him directions.” I don’t put in, “He talks on the pay phone for a moment and then hangs up.” We put in all the words. And I plan the shots. Some of the shots I plan when we’re writing the script. And many things you figure out when you get the location. I usually have a vague but clear plan of how to make the movie, but the themes, the meanings? I don’t like to field the question at all, even to myself. And also, with The Darjeeling Limited, we definitely made it part of our system for producing the movie to accept whatever happened that did not follow our plan—to try not to fight it. 72
Page numbers appear on all pages except those with large images and the cover page. They are fixed centrally.
CINEMA
CAMERA The camera operator is responsible for physically operating the camera and maintaining composition and camera angles throughout a given scene or shot. In narrative cinema, the camera operator will collaborate with the director, director of photography, actors and crew to make technical and creative decisions.
Recto
The centered headers on the right-hand side pages indicate the current sub-section, for example Typography within the Design section. These are also fixed on all pages excluding those with large images as focal points. 91
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04 paper The choices for final print material were dependent on the printers’ stock. It was necessary for the weight to compliment the content.
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170gsm
200gsm
300gsm
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05 printing The publication was printed at Hello Blue in Bristol. It cost ÂŁ80 for 2 copies, unbound. The quality of the prints is appreciable, and the staff assisted in the recommendation of binding techniques. With a 2 day turn-around, it was beneficial to have the publication completed with extra time.
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05 oversights The unnintential failure of noticing certain incorrect aspects, and noticing said incorrections post-production of the publication, is an annoyance. Reflection upon these mistakes can lead to efficient progress in the case of returning to this project, for future references. Upon reflection, there are a handful of aspects I would like to have edited correctly. Productionwise, I would have liked to have made a larger edition of the book, as I feel that some of the images are still not exemplified favourably.
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CINEMA
I’M SORRY I NEVER ACKNOWLEDGED YOUR EXISTENCE ALL THOSE YEARS. IT WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN - Bill Murray, 2013 64
Full page spreads are lower in quality due to the resolution of the original scans.
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The date is incorrect in this caption.
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The intention for the section title pages was for them to be embossed. Unfortunately, due to a lack of access to the Fabrication area, this could not be achieved. However, this could be rectified in a revised edition of the publication.
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