SPECIMEN BOOK Specimen Book By Zoe Todd By Zoe Todd IDEAS Out of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

CLARENDON TYPEFACE Clarendon Typeface SPECIMEN BOOK Specimen Book By Zoe Todd By Zoe Todd

IDEAS Out of all of the typefaces we were given, I was really drawn to Clarendon and Rockwell. They’re both very similar and I love chunky slab serif typefaces. I chose to work with Clarendon because the research was a lot easier to carry out and I thought of a very nice concept along the way, whereas with Rockwell, research and finding in depth information was a bit harder and I wanted to gain enough information for my book. Clarendon is also used in a lot of business and companies today compared to Rockwell.

MY RESEARCH When starting my research I turned to the internet to see what I could find and I found a lot of background information about how Clarendon was created and extended over the years. I also checked out what was written about slab serif fonts and Clarendon in Just My Type and Thinking With Type. I started off with the history behind slab serif types and their alternative name, Egyptian typefaces. Slab serif typefaces got their Egyptian name from a cultural fascination with everything to do with Egyptians. This was started by elaborate furnishings and paintings. Even though slab serif typefaces are nothing like Egyptian writings there was a confusion between this cultural fascination and our typefaces and this then lead to our slab serif typefaces being named Egyptian or Egyptienne.

MY RESEARCH The term “Egyptian” came from a craze In the 19 th century, about Egyptian artifacts throughout Europe. Thus inspiring type founders creating slab serif typefaces and calling their typeface designs, Egyptian. The Clarendon family does have bracketing within the typeface, which most other Slab Serifs don’t. The sizing of the serifs are also different compared with most other slab serif typefaces. When looking at what companies had used Clarendon, the most famous was Starbucks Chocolate and that’s when my ideas really kicked in. I started thinking of concepts and colour themes quite quickly.

MY RESEARCH The other companies that Clarendon was used for, I was particularly familiar with as they were all American companies. I have also been looking at previous type specimen books of not just clarendon but other typefaces and seen some very good concepts and formats, which I have written all about on my blog. Clarendon is an English slab serif typeface that was created in England by Robert Besley for Thorowood and Co. Thorowood and Co were a type company, but Clarendon wasn’t officially published until 1845 when Besley became a partner in the business. Designs for wood type were also made for Clarendon in the mid 1840’s. Clarendon was used mostly by the government and the Germans in the first world war but was also seen in a lot of American West WANTED posters.

EXPERIMENTATION Here is some of my mood board that I have collected for research/ experimentation. The full version is on my blog. I found lots of different specimen books and will take note of each to generate further ideas for my own book.

EXPERIMENTATION Here is my first sketch for a front page. I just wanted to jot down any ideas I had so I could experiment. By using the sharp edge boarder and other aspects of Starbucks design, it already looks like Starbucks menu style. I also sketched out the Clarendon typeface just to get to know the letters and their serifs so that when it comes to my book, I know the most I can about my chosen typeface.

EXPERIMENTATION Here is my sketch book with layout designs and plans. I have yet to do research on layouts and grids, but from my research so far on existing specimen books and their layouts, this is the kind of thing I’d like to come up with. Now I have these designs, I can work around them and research grids and layouts further to get more ideas for my book.

AESTHETICS/TECHNICAL I've come up with the idea of making my type specimen book with the Starbucks colours (Green, white/cream and black) and formatting the book to look like a typical Starbucks menu. So by writing in columns and taking ideas from the Starbucks menu, it will give the book a different twist and hopefully make it stand out from the ordinary layout that most books will have.

OUTCOME I would like to make a conceptually strong book, which includes the right content and explains Clarendon and its history, as it should. To do this I need to process my ideas further and establish a workable and successful plan to work forwards with. I believe I have a strong concept and ideas which will help my specimen book to be different from most others. From here, I will continue to develop my ideas and progress my sketches in order to start making the book. I will also have to consider what type of print method and binding I want to work with before I start making my book.