A Deep Dive into the Creative Process with Mika
The Project So, the project is simple. Create a booklet, a layout that perfectly encapsulates a specific type face of our choosing, using the elements of the typeface to our advantage and giving both visual eye candy and information in the process. Not that bad, right? Well, I honestly had no clue what to do, where to go, how to begin. So I threw myself into Adobe Fonts and searched for ages for a font, a typeface that spoke to me. There were a few options, Proxima
Nova, Raleway, Futura. I felt like they were too casual, too normal. So I stumbled upon Acuta near the end of a long journey, and fell in love. The typeface is beautifully constructed, honestly. There’s just a certain air to it that makes it fun to read, nice and pleasing to the eyes, visually and graphically workable, and I knew this would be my type face going into the rest of the process of this project.
Step One Step One was research. A lot of it. Initially I had figured that simply researching the person behind the typeface should be enough, with some creative visual inspiration to tag with it, but I soon realized I had no clue what a type specimen booklet should do. Thankfully, I like and enjoy spending time just looking at imagery, whether to feed my research or just to see new things people are coming up with and figuring out what I should do. The research led me down a path of mostly simplistic versions of type
specimen books, between Google Images, Behance, and Pinterest. The same few typefaces would show up and each time I’d be a little less inspired by them. Though, I can’t say entirely that nothing inspired me. There were a few that actually managed to catch my attention, and I enjoyed them. I’ll show them in just a moment. The next part of my ideation involved specifically about Elena. I will also show that here in just a moment.
Step One Continuation Elena Albertoni is an Italian designer with a particular interest in crafts and letter forms. She made the first steps into the profession at LucasFonts in Berlin, assisting Dutch type master Luc(as) de Groot. Besides her own foundry Anatoletype, Elena now runs a sign painting and lettering studio called La Letteria. This had been my initial notice of Elena. (It is found on Adobe Fonts when you look at the creator for Acuta). Now, that isn’t really a whole lot to go off of, I suppose. My initial versions of this booklet had just gone off the information of both Elena and the typeface (in her words), so I wanted to expand some more here, showing you other things. So along with Acuta, Elena has made a few other fonts. Deja Rip (a collaboration with another type designer by the name of Fred Bordfeld), Dolce, Dyna Pro, Nouvelle Vague, Sckitta Nuova, and Kiragara. Now, aside from Deja Rip, the rest of these typefaces share a similar, handwritten, robust feeling to them. Acuta is almost an outlier in design for it, which I love and adore. It makes it unique and interesting, and an eye catcher among the others. I can use this knowledge to fuel my decisions about color palettes, which I did in the remastered version of this piece, but more on that later.
So, about that typeface. Elena makes it clear that the typeface is designed for readability, which can lend itself useful for book designs and other text heavy content. I combined her wording with my own concepts and understanding of the font, concluding my research with the following: Acuta is a new all-purpose text serif with a good readability and a contemporary, robust look thanks to its low-medium contrast. The differences between thicks and thins are less strongly marked than in old style text faces; yet the diagonal stress needed to facilitate reading is partly provided by the letter shape itself: sharp angles and italic construction give the right dynamism to the text. Acuta becomes very distinctive as a headline, while its big x-height makes it suitable for texts at rather small sizes too. The family consists of seven weights & correspondent italics, with a large character set. The Book and Medium weights, relatively close to each other, can both be used as “plain” weight depending on the size of the text, background color or back lighting. Small caps, old style and tabular figure alternates, superiors and inferiors and ligatures are available in all styles through Open Type features. The real italics include unobtrusive swash alternates to emphasize the written feeling.
Step One Visuals
Step Two So step 2 becomes this: what are my visual elements (the typeface, imagery?, Are there specific glyphs I want to implement into my idea?) And how am I going to set this up in a way that is both visually intriguing and easy to follow? I didn’t know exactly the color scheme I wanted to go with, so I tentatively played around in gray scale with two and three column grids in an unconventional page format (I think my first tests were square, and then they became 8x11, until my remaster landed on A5). The first final version of this project lands on Letter sized paper, which, mind you, I think was too big, hence the smaller size when remastering. That being said, 8.5x11 with a six column grid was a fun challenge for myself. Though, I do think I didn’t end up utilizing an actual 6 column grid by the end, but maybe a four column set up with 6 columns to work in.
My first editions of this project are, something. Once I settled on 6 columns and Letter paper, I began by jumping straight into it. I’ll show you the very early edition to this in just a second, along with my reasons for why I decided to change paths shortly after. I want to say as well that I find nothing inherently wrong with the layouts I first worked with, nor do I think the colors were particularly bad. I don’t want it to seem like I genuinely hated my first ideation, because I don’t, and in fact without these first sketches, you could call them, I wouldn’t have landed on the final version or even the remaster. I would like to preface the works onward with, I only made simple, small changes from feedback after a while, instead of taking a step back to really focus on the work, and if I’m accomplishing what I really want to. So let’s take a look at the next visuals.
Step Two Visuals
Step Two Visuals
So why the change? What was I so unhappy with that I decided I needed to scrap this and try again? Well, it wasn’t me. I know that sounds ridiculous, and in many ways it is. This project isn’t about me, but it is designed by me, and it was important for me to not only capture the aspects of this typeface with accuracy and good representation, it was also important that I felt proud enough to call it my own design to slap my name on it. Firstly, I thought the color just wasn’t fitting for such a typeface. The blue-green is fine, it’s a pretty color, but it feels like it belongs more to a mono-spaced typeface
in a more digital or old technology format, not for a typeface that could be the very fittings of a book design. Secondly, I didn’t like the overuse of the letters. You get it, this has the English letters, the Roman numbers, and seeing it a dozen times doesn’t actually show you the typeface as much as it does repetition. Thirdly, the shapes just weren’t it. The diamonds are part of the typeface itself, but the hexagons and boxed nature of the first page just didn’t feel, right. So I took all of this in mind and came up with a new color scheme, and approached it differently. On to step 3.
Step Three I promise, we’re getting there. Step three, as I said, begins the process of changing the design (for the better) and relaying out the design with the typeface and my inspiration in mind. So, as opposed to the blue-green, I chose a lilac purple color. Instead of stark black, I chose a dark grey. I stuck with the 6 column, Letter paper as I said, and chugged along nicely. Actually, there isn’t anything I really dislike about this version of the project, but I had gripes and issues that I addressed in the remaster. I also focused too hard on reaching minimums for the assignment, rather than just letting the booklet create itself, so I felt rather limited by what I could showcase and create.
Instead, I chose a new approach to showing the weights and italics of the font. Words. Yes, words. Hear me out: I chose movie titles, and words that I felt could showcase the type well. Later in the remaster, I chose one word that I felt described Acuta overall, but that’s for later. So that being said, the visuals of the book were nice, they were easy to follow, to read, and there wasn’t any glaring issues. However, since beginning this project, I had learned other techniques and better layout structures, so after showing you the visuals, I will explain what I thought could be improved on before giving you the remaster. I’ll go spread by spread this time, if there is something I didn’t like about it. That way my thought process might be easier to follow.
First Edition Layout
The first edition had these more spaced out on the page, bordering the sides. I thought it was too hard to follow, so I instead chose to center these pieces. I also figured that the about the typeface should have a showcase of the sleek and modern approach to it, more as visual eye candy to the blurb. I also thoroughly enjoyed the use of the glyphs at the top,
using them as a cutout of the purple color, leading your eye down the page to the text. I decided that for the remaster, this could be combined into one paragraph, and simplified down. The explanation could be visually shown, rather than in words, which is the purpose of a book like this. I also had since learned about proper page numbering, so the page numbers were since fixed in the remaster. (Thank goodness, because trying to make sure each of those small text boxes were in place was a nightmare on it’s own.) I also learned that smaller typeface can lend itself useful in avoiding these heavily ragged edges, which was another issue I had with these two pages.
First Edition Layout
Both of these pages had been approached similarly. Use words to showcase the typeface instead. I didn’t properly study the x-height for the “Qa” section, so it appears off, and was later
fixed. I also worried a lot about copyright, so I omitted using well known names for the future version. The ligatures page was fine, but could use a lot more fun, so I changed my set up on that later, too.
First Edition Layout
I had no issues with this spread, actually. I think the showcase of the typeface on the left is fun, it’s unique, and this page actually leaks into my remaster, too. The numbers/symbols page was simple, but it ready nicely, even from far away, and the
gradient effect of going from the Acuta Fat to Acuta Thin was really fun. I just figured like with the first process, that this felt repetitive after a while, and could be improved on.
Why redo it? I’m sure a question you might be asking me right now is, why would I redo it? I mean the project is about a year old now (made in 2021, this process book is being written in 2022) and it shows growth just compared to my other pieces. So why redo it?
I didn’t know what to do with the back cover, so I opted for the asterisk in Acuta and used it on it’s own. That isn’t bad, but if this is the back of a book, you’d want to know about the author, the creator, and possibly more information about the typeface and where to find it.
Well, I loved this project. That’s my only and honest answer. I thoroughly enjoyed this layout process, in finding a way to showcase a typeface to someone who might not use it or know about it, and I think that is one of the only reasons I need. I said before that I learned a lot of new things since making it the first time, and I wanted to improve it with new knowledge, and that’s a part of it too, but honestly it’s just because the project had been fun and I couldn’t not redo it, given the opportunity.
I also thought that the last two pages could be combined into one, and could be the back cover instead.
So something I didn’t touch on when showing the first edition is the cover and final pages. I suppose I can explain now. My initial thoughts for the cover was to make Acuta as big as possible, even sacrificing partial readability to make it more visually interesting.
Looking at it a year later I found that lavender just wasn’t the color. The purple is pretty and everything, and it looks nice with the dark grey, but it isn’t Acuta.
A part of my changes was to add more flow, more blank pages, because there needed to be some padding between visual elements. I found this in an example on Behance, about Diamond Grotesque by Beatriz Lima, Marco Antunes, and Mariana Braga. Their piece is a bit of an editorial to it, rather than just a booklet, but the mock up is the same.
That’s where I began with the remaster.
Remaster Part One I defined my main issues with the piece first. • The pages were too big. • The font wasn’t being showcased to its full potential. • The color scheme just didn’t match. • I wanted more content, more thorough showcase. • The cover needed work. With this list in mind, I got to work. My first decision had been to find more visual interest and examples, so I spent about an hour glancing through different
books made by other designers, and that’s where I found Diamond Grotesque I mentioned earlier, among others. These aided in allowing my mind to open up to the idea of minimalist approach, which I think fits the typeface well, too. On top of that, it gave me the motivation to let the type speak for itself, for the colors to compliment, and for the use of empty pages to help with flow and reduce over stimulation to the eyes. (This is something I am constantly trying to keep in mind in my work as I struggle with dealing with this myself.)
The Cover
The new approach to this had just been as simple as wanting to use the name of the typeface to my advantage. The mustard yellow color compliments well, allowing for there to be visual contrast without it being extreme or hard on the eyes.
Combining the last iterations final pages into one solid back cover allowed for the inside to be full of Acuta in it’s glory. The front cover is followed by a duplicated inside cover with inverted colors.
The Remaster Layout Let’s continue.
The next page is a contents page. I figured with an extended set of pages, a contents should be a little more necessary, and it allows someone to glide
through the booklet and find exactly what they’re looking for. I also combined the “Who is” pages from the previous version together to make it easier and more compact.
A study of Anatomy I found this page the most fun to create. As I said, I thought the use of pangrams or simply typing out the typeface repeatedly was simply too much and too annoying, so I got straight to the point.
I also made sure to keep the pages to a minimal, utilizing white space as a part of the design, keeping visual elements from overwhelming and overstimulating the senses.
As I said, I wanted to choose a word that I felt described Acuta well, which for me was “Minimalist”. I used this for this spread as a way to introduce the viewer to it’s visuals in the standard sizes, and it’s 14 different type styles.
This spread is one of the spreads I think should b taken as a testament to my strengths in design instinct and understanding of layout and consistency.
I shall let the next few spreads speak for themselves on the following page, letting you take them in and seeing the new changes and additions to the layout.
The page after shows the ligatures in daily words, which I thought was a really fun way to express them, in case someone doesn’t full understand what they might be looking at or reading. Using two weights was entirely a decision made as a result of the specific ligatures used in the text.
I will add here that I found that the new ligatures page is fun, and presents them in a manner that isn’t too formal, because while Acuta is a minimalist, and simplistic, easyto-read approach, I find that formalities didn’t lend itself to the design for it.
Some Final Thoughts The last set of pages are simply grey, with nothing more than the diamond shapes, mimicking the page before the contents.
As I stated earlier, the page with the outlines of the text and the “Acuta” letters filled in made a return in the remaster. I had to rearrange some of it just a bit to get it to blend in nicely with the new page structure and layout. Speaking of the layout, this remaster is formatted in an A5, 4 column structure, allowing for some more freedom in structure and lending itself to the overall design. I also decided to show the typeface in a book style format, though I think I could’ve allowed for the page to be just the paragraph, and give the title a different location. I think the text wrap and justified paragraph setting aren’t blending nicely with each other. The final page is a quote from Elena herself, expressing her own creative thought process and what leads her to design, and what led her to design Acuta in the manner that she had. I thought that this should be important, and should be in the type specimen booklet in its own right.
I think this book, both the first edition, and the remaster, taught me a lot. I found unique struggles in both versions, and found unique and worthy workarounds to articulate my design and how this typeface should be appreciated. Given the chance, I want to expand this into a even longer project, with poster examples or package examples, or something to show what it should and would look like in the real world setting, as opposed to just digitally. I apologize if this is in any capacity a bit hard to follow. I have trouble properly explaining my thought process because my brain just goes. This book was certainly a nice reminder that explaining and over detailing might be necessary in come cases, especially for someone not living in my brain 24/7. I do hope that this sheds light and insight on my work process and flow, and my design strategies and solutions. Thank you for taking the time out to look through this.