As a part of my layout development, I began to test a few typefaces in heading and body copy style. For this test I selected a few of the typically better typefaces such as helvetica (assuming that these would be best for my book) , as well as some typewriter style fonts. This is because I was inspired by a similar typeface used for the Go Penguins newspaper article. The fonts I used were helvetica, Futura medium, American Typewriter, Andale Mono and Gill Sans. For body copy I placed all of these as 12pt, this was because I have read and heard that this is the ideal size for readability.
I typed a number of headings and paragraphs using all of my chosen fonts. I typed my headings in uppercase as well; this is because from my research I have found that headings are often uppercase which separates them from the body copy and this appears to have more of an impact.
I used one of my facts from my research for my body copy. I feel that it was important to use text and words that have come from my research as this will give me the best idea of legibility and readability for my particular topic. For example, the word Superlambanana is quite a mouthful, and so I need to find a typeface which makes this easy to understand.
I placed my colour palette on the sheet as this enabled the class to visualise the typefaces with these colours. I have selected yellow tones to represent the colour of the original Superlambanana, as well as blue tones which I feel represent the docks themselves, which Liverpool is well known for, as well as the docks playing a part in the meaning of the sculpture. I placed a Lambanana shape on the sheet out of personal style, however this became helpful for explaining what my project is about.
The difficulty I had when selecting fonts was that there are so many styles and ways in which you could edit the typefaces. I decided to use the basic typefaces, partially due to time constraints but also because I felt I would be making the project far too complex .
After printing my sheet, I went round the whole class and asked them to put a mark by the heading and body copy they felt was the best (for whatever reason they felt appropriate). I allowed people to vote for more than one as some were struggling to choose, but I feel that this has given a more accurate vote. As people voted, I received a few compliments on my colour scheme and they agreed that this was ideal for my book.
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| My original document |
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| The votes! |
The results-
American Typewriter lowercase was voted the best for headings with 10 votes, closely followed by Futura lowercase with 8 votes. These were the clear winners for headings with some receiving no votes at all. American Typewriter received the most positive verbal feedback, it was stated that it related well to my theme and one person stated "It reminds me of bananas".
As for body copy, Gill Sans was voted the best with 11 votes. Closely followed again by Futura with 10 votes. American typewriter (voted best for headings) came 3rd with 7 votes. Interestingly, my favourite body copy typeface received the least votes- those who voted for it wondered why it didn't receive more. Perhaps it was good that I did not decide to use this font without getting feedback first.
As the votes for both body copy and heading were close, I feel I have the choice to choose between these typefaces. I am more willing to choose typefaces voted by other people to step out of my comfort zone and explore typefaces I perhaps wouldn't normally choose. I plan to select which typeface to use as I create my layout - I feel that this way I will find it easier to visualise what the final outcome will look like.
My next step was to begin testing the top body copies on the colour palette backgrounds. This is because from my research I have seen many examples of text on colour backgrounds which have inspired me. I used circle to test my type as I have also seen the use of circles in layouts and plan to experiment with this. I placed my most voted for heading at the top of my experiments so that I can visualise my theme coming together.
As a result of the quality when saving these images, the background has come out grey when it was originally white. I have taken further inspiration from this as I feel it works well against the colour palette, so I now plan to bring this into my scheme.
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