Type Specimen Booklet

A Gill Sans type specimen booklet that was made to showcase the typeface and it’s various applications.

Brief

The goal of the project was to create a compelling presentation of the typeface with the hope of promoting it to designers. The book was required to have at least 8 pages, though they could be any size. I chose to make the book 8”x8” so that the square format could stand out amongst other publications. It had to contain information about the typeface including the name of the designer, its type classification, the full alphabet, samples of body text, and the year it was designed.

Research

To begin the project, I researched the History of Gill Sans. The typeface was created by Eric Gill in 1928 and was an immediate success. It is a humanist sans-serif typeface that was used to create legible work. Gill sans uses the classic forms of a and g but provides a more rounded c, e, and f. These unique elements are important to point out because they make the font more marketable.

I also spent time researching typography based spread designs. These helped me gain a sense of what elements of design intrigued me the most. I found myself drawn to bold layouts that highlighted one main aspect. The type design was the primary focus, and the text information was seamlessly intertwined. I tend to aim for more colorful designs, and was surprised to prefer the simplicity of mono colored designs.

Inspiration

I loved the idea of connecting the booklet to the theme. Gill sans is a very versatile font and as a result, there are many media and historical themes to consider. My main ideas included:

Toy Story: The font was used in the iconic logo
Art Deco: Gill Sans’ geometric shapes are typical to the art deco movement
Simple Design: This was mainly inspired by my favorite Pinterest research

These themes all interested me because they either provided a unique design idea or had significance to me. I love reading and watching Disney films, which made the second two themes stand out to me. I looked through Pinterest to find visual images to represent my idea. I also added potential color options since it would help make my designs cohesive.

Design Process

Comps

When I started designing I started by integrating my theme ideas into the booklet. I began with doing a cloud design for a Toy Story and an art deco inspired piece. However, I felt too limited by the theme and then decided to do a comp based on my ideal spread layouts. The third design idea ended up being my favorite.

Although I loved the layout of the final composition, I received feedback that the black and white was a bit stark. Therefore I began playing around with adding color back into the design. Although these options had potential, I still felt like something was missing.

The Final Design

In the end, the toy story theme came full circle. I was speaking to other designers and the idea of using accent colors from the film arose. I was initially apprehensive because I didn’t love the idea of designing with blue, red, and yellow. The logo consists of the primary colors and I felt like that would be too jarring to viewers. I then realized that I could focus on a different color scheme in the film.

I chose to create an accent color scheme based on Buzz Lightyear’s colors. He consists of purple, green, and tan. These colors complement each other very nicely and provide a nice contrast to the darker background. I also altered the black background slightly so that it was a dark gray instead of being black. Having a shade that is further from black helps with the legibility of the design. It was also really nice because once I figured out my theme I added “To Infinity and Beyond” to the back cover to add context to the color choices.