OUGD404 | Study task 03 - Type Setting

After a helpful session on the rules of type-setting, we were asked to apply what we had learned to the layout of a poem. One layout was do be created in a modernist style, the other in a post-modernist style.

The extract was challenging in that it featured a poem and a non poem section. As a group we felt we needed to display the poem in a style which was readable as a poem, rather than a block of body copy.

In the rush of the task, we forgot to place the titles on both pages - we would have corrected this had we realised. For the modernist layout, we aimed to keep it simple and to the point. We placed the type in the top right hand corner to provide plenty of space. I felt we should have made the column wider, but in the rush of the task this did not happen. We tried to make the rag as straight as possible with the text we had. Due to the variation in line length in the poem, we split each couplet into an individual paragraph. This still created a dip in the rag, but after a lot of modification this was our best result. The group then decided to place a mouse made out of glyphs on the page - I disagreed with this decision as I felt it did not have the simplicity of a modernist layout, however I had to go with the majority.

Our post modernist layout was more successful. We placed the type in a mouse shaped head to reflect the theme of the poem. We adjusted the type to fit this shape to show the mouse head clearly. We chose a script font as we felt the ascenders and descenders in this typeface were like the tail of the mouse. I dislike the layout overall, but perhaps this is because I prefer the modernist style.