Despite popular demand of my classmates I went with my instructors suggestion of working from my third digital rough. I took another suggestion of trying colors purple and yellow from another classmate. Using digital rough 3 I used the basic grid for the design. A few changes I made were:
1. I had many complements on the large name upper and lower case that was placed on the cover of my last project submission. I though placing the name large at the top would be a great adjustment.
2. I used the entire alphabet upper and lower case to create the hair effect. I thought this was better than the enlarged characters in the rough. I liked how the shape had a similar look to the characters.
3. I removed some of the large letters to simplify the design. In stead uses repletion and a gradient to fade in to the focal point.
4. I added the number characters in a nice little space created at the top with a gradient.
5. I moved the symbols to the bottom.
This file crashed only 2 times when I was working on it. I found what worked best was to create symbols out of my different layer groups. This allowed me to keep the file much smaller.
Q • What influenced your choice to retain or change elements in your rough layout before rendering your final design?
I would say that my instructor’s suggestion to continue to refine this concept was the main draw. I initially liked this concept, but my classmates seemed to suggest other directions. With my instructors encouragement to continue to refine this concept as it had a great focal point and really captured the essence of the font. I knew is that I needed to simplify the look. I also had a fellow student suggest this color combination, which I think works well. I also wanted to have the name of the font very large and clean.
Q • What do you think are the strongest and weakest features of your specimen sheet design?
I really think the strongest part of the design is the focal point. The shape created by stacking all the characters in the alphabet, which created a sweeping hair shape. I also think the title that is very large and clear at the top of the page is another strong feature. I think the color scheme works, but if the file were more flexible I would have like to add a few more subtle color variations aid in leading the eye a bit better. I think the weakest part is the complexity of my font, which causes major issues with processing. I have found ways to make it slightly easier to work with, but it is defiantly not ideal.
I am not wild about the location of my symbols at the bottom. I think I should not have created so many. It made it difficult to fit them in the design.
Q • What was the most difficult aspect of designing a type specimen sheet?
Once again like a broken record, the complexity of the design and detail makes these characters very difficult to work with. I only had 3 crashes where I lost this project on those occasions and had to start over. This was better than the last project, but defiantly the most annoying and difficult part of this project.
Rapunzel Specimen Sheet
Designer: Spyke Fleming
Designer: Spyke Fleming
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