Conquering Type

A collection of typography inspiration and why I was drawn to them.

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package design

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changes in perspective

lines and more lines

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unusual treatment

3D elements on a 2D page

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“boring” design

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package design inspiration: the relationship between text and space Package design must consider the relationship between multiple planes of space. Each plane must have its own purpose and draw in the consumer in multiple different ways. While the type itself may not

The other packaging examples I

be 3D, it is being showcased on a

include on the next spread also do

3D product, so that is another fac-

a good job of selecting a unique

tor to consider. On the next page

font that will differentiate the brand

I share an image of the Youth

and its packaging from others. The

to the People skincare package

layouts are clean and organized.

design.

The type and context on all sides

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I was especially attracted to

of packaging is also important

the typeface of this packaging,

because you want consumers to

because I think the serif works well

recognize the brand/product from

for the attractive minimalism this

all sides. I always pay attention to

packaging is trying to achieve.

what designers choose to include in

It’s pretty effective in my opinion.

their packaging and where.

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spective design on the right for a

few reasons. First of all, the text itself

is changing a lot in perspective, but

mainly because of how the words are

being rotated. It’s also helpful to see

another example of design that sac-

rifices the readibiloty of some text.

The text in the center of the spiral is

extremeny small but the repetition of

the title is so effective. I also enjoy

how the black text shadows or mirrors

the white text, and if you look long

enough, you can even begin to

interperet the perspective in many

different ways.

tive to make text more appealing

is not that difficult. What makes

it difficult is figuring out how the

change in perspective assists what the

text is saying. I decided to include

perspective design in this collection

of inspiration becase I too enjoy

using perspective to spice up my

designs. Ever since I discovered the

enevelope distort tool in Adobe

Illustrator, I’ve been addicted to

using it for simple type assignments. In

graphic desgn class we made a cou-

ple album covers and posters, and

I used the envelope distort tool to

piece even more interesting.

combined with illustration to make a

perepctive can be used on its own or

morph the text into headphones. So

I really enjoy the example of per-

I feel like at its core, using perspec-

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memoir cover. Did you make the

a bit as inspired by Nick Flynn’s

even played around with the title

be very fitting for the topic, and I

to read this text! I thought it would

have to physically turn the book

of this page so that you would

As you can see, I rotated the view

I thought this example of perspective use was really interesting as well. It adds a bit of depth to a poster but still prioritizes the title and dates.

Because of its size it also frames the small text quote well. There is quite a bit of negative space which works well to counter the large and dense text throughout the rest of the spread.

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contrast, which helps the perspective

reading “child.” Both designs are high

top reading “curve” and the bottom

effect connects two words, with the

ist says. On the right, the warped

have to focus the eye to read what

cause the letters almost blend in; you

one on the left really interesting be-

letters are more warped. I find the

perspective because of the way the

extreme examples of changes in

These next two posters are more

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This piece on the left simplifies the shape of this type by outlining the basic shapes in thin, almost fragile lines. The designer added some dots as well which match the theme of point and line, but also add some depth to the text. I find this design quite satisfying because the shapes used for the circular letters are not fully circle; instead, there is a bit of a rigid, geometric approach. In a way, this layout feels naked.

Lines are so versatile! I often resort to them for a lot of my designs because I enjoy how clean they can make a design look. I find that it also adds a whole other element when you use arches and more curved lines. In the inspiration I gathered here, though, many of the lines come from repetition in the text and variation

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lines and more lines and more

inspiration:

in weight.

the various ways lines can be implemented in design

Unlike the last example of linear type, the piece at the bottom is easy to read. I wouldn’t say that the typeface is particularly linear, because the “G” is still round.

The line repetition comes from the repetition of each letter form, and it makes a cool design that kind of reminds me of snakes! I don’t know when this design was created, but looking at the image in color reminds me of older design styles.

When making a layout like this, make sure that it is easy to understand the order of the letters.

The example of type on the left caught my attention because all that it does is play around with the line weight of the letters. The change in line weight can mean so much, especially if you understand the context. For the text on top, all of the lines that make up the letters are straight and of the same with. The layout of the letters kind of makes this page look like a maze. It also takes a bit of time to

lines and more lines and more lines and more

figure out what this text says.

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inspiration: the funky, unconventional pieces that don’t quite fit one aesthetic.

This chapter is all about the unusual treatment of text. These examples may not be unusual to others, but I found that they are really interesting and not like what I usually find when looking for inspiration. This collection of work has remined me that your design doesn’t need to be complex to be great, it just needs to follow a specific direction and succeed in its purpose. On that same note, I find that proper brainstorming is really important because that’s the step where you can make or break a design decision. It’s better to draft all brainstorming by hand and rely on software only when necessary because when you work digitally it’s very easy to stick to your first choice. I, howwever, have gotten better at drafting on illistrator. I say all of this because I depend on either method or brainstorming to get a good idea of what my concept will be, and sometimes, drafting more “unusual” ideas like these requires

an understaning of how it looks digitized. In fact, i will say that I am not always good at getting my ideas out on paper. I find that my imagination is more creative and far-reaching then my technical abilities allow, so a lot of the time my designs end up a bit less complex than what I hoped for. Seeing these examples also helps me remember that I need to work on my technical skill so that I don’t always have to sacrifice an idea because of it.

I want to point out the image on the next page.

I find this collage of letters really interesting and I wonder if it’s supposed to be legible. I can understand the letters but I’m not sure if they form words.

Nonetheless, I think this is a very intricate and bold design, and I’m sure it took a very long time to figure out exactly how The designer wanted these letters to connect.

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I thought this design below was also really interesting, especially since I still can’t figure out how the designer created this effect. The letters themselves are outlined and organized very neatly on the page, but what adds a bit of depth and drama is the red blob-like brushstrokes that passed through and in golf the letters and what also looks like the page. I think this is a really playful yet organized design, and it looks like something that would really work well for the front cover of a magazine. I also think this work is very inspiring. I hope to try out an idea like this someday, because the designer used a very cool technique to add a bunch of adapt to the peace, without doing too much to the page background itself.

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I also had to include these three examples on this page, because I found all of them super inspiring. The first one on the left forms the letters of the type with the page, and the shapes are cut out to reveal a galaxy background. I think this is really cool, and it matches the title of the book as well. Right below it, we have a similar concept, except I would say that the shapes that form the letters are a bit more experimental. This looks like an alohabet, and I wonder how many ways designers could incporporate these letters into design. To the right of that, we have what I believe is a page in a book where some letters from the top text get exponentially larger and physically crash into the text at the bottom. I think this is a really cool way of making a 2D design more active.

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inspiration: It’s like a whole new world!

Get lost in it.

I find that a lot of the examples of type inspiration that I included in this collection overlap in terms of their theme, but all of that is up to interpretation. Even though a lot of my previous examples also include 3D elements on a 2-D page, I found that these examples stood out to me the most in terms of the depth they included on the page. What I loved about these examples is that they kind of draw you into a world of their own. No matter how simple or complex that world is, it makes me feel like walking into the poster and discovering so much more. I love that the type is integrated into the scene, and in many instances, the type looks like it was always meant to be there, especially in my last example, the AT&T Tours of the Future ad. I’ve always been attracted to a ton of detail, so I had to include these examples. I made most of these images larger scale, because I want others to also imagine these worlds where text is larger-than-life.

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“boring” design inspiration: minimalism isn’t always boring!

Minimalism design is becoming increasingly popular, but that doesn’t mean everyone likes it.

Take logo design, for example.

As brands simplify their logos, they run the risk of losing the unique qualities that diferentiated their logo from others. In other forms of graphic design, I sometimes feel ike boring minimalism just follows the rules without adding a compelling visual aspect to it. I even find that my design does the same thing sometimes. Because I learned about the rules of design first, I felt like good design was technically sound. Now, as I am taking more design classes and critiquing work with my peers, I am learning to think outside the box. And that doesn’t always mean NO minimlism, that just means adding your own twist to things to make your work more unique. On the right here, I think these examples of design use a combination of good type and imagery to create unique styles.

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To check out these images in color as well as the sources, refer to the Pinterest link below. There is also more inspiration that I ended up not sharing in this collection.

https://pin.it/OQIPCkM

Or you can search for the “Typography Weekly Inspo” moodboard, whichever you choose.

Thanks for reading!

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Crystal Sealey