Hierarchy of Type.

For this task we were told to select three posters, magazines and newspapers that had to represent good, bad, and average design.

Posters

For my first example of good design I chose this poster by Drew Marshall. I really like the use of contrasting colour and interesting composition. I found how the piece has been split up into segments very interesting. There are three separate styles of type throughout.

The first two which makes up the top piece of type in the image is the large letters in cyan and magenta. As well as the bigger size I think the overlay of colours also makes this part, the title of the festival, stand out the most.

The next is the type that is used for the date and introduction. It is very small within the composition but I feel the capitals and contrast of colour with the background help it to stand out.

Finally are these selections, very similar to the example before just in lower case. I had a hard time distinguishing between the two as I felt that even though this wasn't capitals because it was used more in bulk it was still quite visible on the page.

Next is this poster by Danny J Gibson. Even though I usually like hand rendered design, I feel there is too much going on in this particular piece. Some of the type is hard to read and there is lots of information which makes it hard to know where to look.

As you can see there are lots of different styles and sizes of type on this poster, seventeen in total. Apart from the title there didn't seem to be much of a pattern which I think adds to the confusion. When putting the type in order I looked at size and boldness.

Here is the poster I have chosen for the bad design category. All the type is very similar but each has been distorted in a strange way which breaks the consistency.

There is a total of six differing font hierarchies here. Again the title is the boldest of them all with the date and location further down the list. I find the background here very distracting which does't help the type be as readable as it could be.

Magazines

Here is the first magazine I have selected which I have chosen for the good design category. The use of image and text works well because of the good balance of white space. The publication is Canon Professional Network, CPN.

I found this set very easy to distinguish the hierarchy. I think this is because the styles of type used are very similar, which makes the different levels a lot clearer.

This is my next piece, I still think the design is good, but it is just a bit more cramped than the one before. This magazine is Harpers Bazaar.

There is a lot more variation of typeface in this piece, eventhough I still think they work successfully together. There is a total of twelve styles used which go down in size for their hierarchy.

 This is Look Magazine chosen for bad design. I feel that even though it appeals to the target audience there is too much going on which makes the composition look over crowded and busy. There is also a lot of different colours which adds to the lack of focus.

This page spread had a total of eighteen different typefaces. Not only is there more than the other two, this selection also has the greatest variation between them using handwritten styles, serif, sans serif, bold, italic, condensed and a variety of colour which makes it hard for your eyes to flow across the pages.

Newspapers

My first newspaper I have chosen is The Independent. I think it demonstrates the highest spec of design. I think the limited colour palette helps with clarity.

 There are eighteen different typefaces here. Apart from the odd sans serif they are all very similar and appear to stay in the same font family with the variation coming from normal, bold, extra black, point size and colour.

 This extract of pages is from the Evening Post. Although I still think it is presentable and successful I don't think it is as easy to read as The Independent because a lot of the content is more cramped together. There also seems to be less consistency with the choice of type.

This piece has twenty different typefaces. Apart of from the body all the type is sans serif which is different to the previous piece.

 Finally I have picked the Daily Mail, to be the worst designed. There is a lot of imagery which has made the type need to be more bold and in your face which has led to a messy and confusing composition. I'm not looking forward to counting the different styles as there is so many!

 As you can see there are a lot more styles for this newspaper, thirty four in total. The typefaces seem to have little or no link at all with each other. Serif, sans serif, script, gothic, illustrative, bold, italic... the list goes on.