Type Personality Exercises

Font Selfie

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​For our first workshop task, we had to choose a typeface we felt suited us - using our favourite character from that typeface, we then had to decorate it to represent our personality.I chose Forte as my typeface; with its bold thickness yet neat calligraphy-like strokes, I feel it is as self-contradictory as I am. I can be loud and outgoing, and often adjust the way I project myself to fit in with others - but really, I'm kind of a hermit nerd who just wants to write stories at my little white bureau and talk about Latin etymology. Which tends to kill a conversation.

As for the decoration, I decided to go simple instead of overfilling. Nature is the theme that resonates most with my personality; it is where I feel most connected to myself, and where I feel the most energy. I feel more at home in the woods than I do in my house! My favourite place has to be the near-untouched forest of Abernethy and its ancient pines against the mountains, as I've tried to show

here. I kept the colour scheme pale and cold - muted greens, blues and lavenders - because the highlands always seem to have that misty hazy that gives everything a cooler tone. The sky phasing from light to dark represents the idea of beauty in both sides of the coin - clouds by day and stars by night - and the shadow with the Celtic knot was a nod to my pagan roots.

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Type Quiz

​1. Match the typeface to the description.
- Fraftur was born in 16th Century Germany and is a heavy metal favourite.
- Mistral looks like handwriting.
- Bembo is named after a Venetian poet, literary theorist and cleric.
- Colonel was inspired by stencil printing on army supplies.
- Didot is often found in fashion magazines for its sophisticated looks.
- Courier is inspired by letters produced by a typewriter.
- Helvetica is popular for signage but can seem boring and clinical.

2. Classification/Style Examples​

3. What is the difference between a typeface and a font?
The typeface is the broad "umbrella term" for a complete matching set of characters with the same design. Fonts are subfamilies found within a typeface - a version of it that perhaps has a different style, weight or size.

4. Typefaces from oldest to newest
Baskerville, Franklin Gothic, Futura, Gill Sans, Times New Roman, Rockwell, Verdana, Gotham

5. Find the "antonym typeface" for each of these words.

6. Summarise this article.
As a typographer, you have a lot of control over your work; how well it projects, how it comes across, and what it implies. You must not only think about the typeface you are using, but also how you format it. Kerning, line spacing and alignment can make or break the legibility of your work/article, as can your choice of font/mixes of fonts.

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Ampersands

Here are eight ampersands that attracted my eye. From left to right:
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• 1st Century Roman Cursive - the ampersand itself can be traced back to its earliest form in Roman script (debatably sometime between 45-79AD). It was originally a ligature of the letters "e" and "t". The particular example pictured was unearthed from the ruins of Pompeii, preserved on a wall beneath the ash - it caught my eye because of the more ancient/primitive look it has compared to most others.
• Goudy Stout - this typeface was designed to appeal to the merchant whose signs required a bolder, more bizarre and fanciful look. I suppose catching my eye is therefor what it was supposed to do.
• Algerian - developed in the early 20th Century, the Algerian typeface has an eye-catching contrast between thick, bold black and a white shadow (hinted at by a thinner black line). This 3D effect gives it more body, which attracted my attention.
• Gigi - this is a pretty little typeface developed by Californian artist Jill Bell. It has the thin-thick curvy strokes of calligraphy ink, adorned with intricate curlicues. The tight curl below the ampersand's centre and the flick at the end of its tail made me smile because it reminds me of my oldest gerbil (who has a kink in his tail near the end).
• Brush Script MT - I really love the look of traditional ink calligraphy, so this ampersand naturally appealed to me with its elegant, sloping form.
• Baskerville - designed in the 1750s, Baskerville is a stunning old-style typeface developed in the hope of transforming the appearance of book text to give the best look possible. Though it is consistent and easy to read, it does have a certain beauty in its subtle serifs, particularly in the ampersand.
• Hoefler Text - another old-style serif font released later in 1991, Hoefler Text takes influence from classic fonts like Garamond. It is a legible body typeface but some characters and fonts within it are adorned with swashes and look a little more fanciful. My eye was drawn to the ampersand because it reminds me of the body of a treble clef in sheet music.

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Bauhaus Street

Garamond Garden

Futura Teatime

For the second part of the ampersands exercise, I chose these combinations of typefaces and themes for my quickfire sketches:

​Bauhaus : My Street
The Bauhaus ampersand is very thick and chunky, with a lot of space for illustrating the inside. It so happens that I live in a weird, curly little street that could resemble an ampersand if you squinted at it from above. This gave me the idea to draw a rough, quirky little map, with my house highlighted in the typical tourist board "you are here!"

Garamond Bold Italic : The Park/Garden
This ampersand is quite elegant, with delicate calligraphy-like strokes sloped to the side fancifully. It reminded me of a town park - circular little ponds enclosed by the upper bowl of the character. I used watercolour pencils and added some finer detail in pen, but all in all, it was somewhat of a wild experiment that didn't turn out right at all.

Futura : Afternoon Tea
Futura has a very simple, clear and curvy appearance - the strokes are very narrow, so I admittedly took a few liberties here regarding shape and style. However, when creating the image of the teapot, I did try to stick to the original appearance of the Futura ampersand.