Bodoni Type Specimen Sheet Examples

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I managed to find and show a collection of Bodoni Type Specimen Sheets which I thought displayed a range of layout styles. Some of which have opted for a traditional grids and column style layout which is more era specific then the style used on the first example. The brief allowed us to take more of an illustrative approach as well as one which predominantly focuses on the functionality of the specimen sheet.

I find the 3rd and 4th example to be the most effective because I feel it is important for such an aged, traditional font to use styling which takes influence from it’s design era. They both feature a template grid which all of the type specimen falls into which allows the design to be more functional then one which has taken a more illustrative approach.

Examples of Type Specimen Sheets

I have compiled a collection of Type Specimen Sheets found on various websites featuring a wide range of different font styles arranged in effective layouts. I will later post examples of Bodoni Type Specimen Sheets.

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My favourite Type Specimen Sheet found in my research was one created in Brighton for the font Filthy Black. The name of the font adds irony to the process and materials used in the poster. The spot laminate is a beautiful finish as it really emphasises the letterforms and characters from the poster. This is something I may consider; finding ways how I can use materials to make the typeface really stand out from the poster itself.

I also like the idea of how a poster could potentially be folded down. In my Reading Week Research Task I created 8 page right angle fold booklets which folded out to show the reverse side being a poster. This is something that I could potentially incorporate into my A2 poster.

References to images in Bibliography.

Type Specimen Sheets

The Unit Handbook:

“Traditionally, the purpose of a type specimen sheet was to provide the designer with the visual examples of how specific fonts performed in a variety of point sizes, weights and leading measurements. It also displayed how the Upper and Lower Case settings, numeration and punctuation styles looked. Other information that was sometimes included was the type designers name, font classification, date of font release and the foundry that was responsible for releasing it.

Contemporary versions of type specimen sheets have extended to conveying the mood and the aesthetic sense of the font. Therefore addressing the emotive, pictorial, poetic and/or pragmatic nuances. Type Specimen Sheets remain a crucial way of explaining and promoting typefaces to designers who may want to buy and use them.”

Being given the font Bodoni to work with, I will start to conduct primary and secondary research into the past and present examples of Type Specimen Sheets. I would like to focus a part of my research of Type Specimen Sheets from the era which Bodoni was released; finding examples of type specimen sheets using fonts in the same style and from the same era will help inspire me to create a new poster which is era specific but distinguishes itself from it’s competition of the 18th Century.

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FF MARK (2014) Types of Their Time [online] [image]

Available at: http://www.ffmark.com/

[Accessed: 09/12/2014]

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PRINTED MASTERCLASS (2012) Type Specimen Sheets [online] [image]

Available at: http://printedmatterclass.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/type-specimen-sheets-homework-assignment/

[Accessed: 09/12/2014]

Assignment 1

Brief

Type Specimen Sheets and TV Idents

“This assignment is split into two parts. Part One is a printed type specimen poster and Part Two is a three second TV Ident”

I was briefed to use the font Bodoni, designed by Giambattista Bodoni in 1798, for this assignment.

PART 1 Specification and requirements

• an A2 Type Specimen Sheet:
  • name of font, designer, era, classification and characteristics
  • a quote about Visual Thinking e.g. gesalt, semiotics etc.
  • must use a broad range of 4 different point sizes
  • experiment with positive and negative leading and kerning
  • must include both uppercase and lowercase letterforms
  • must show two types of alignment e.g. ranged left/right, centred or justified
• DEADLINE Thursday 8th January

PART 2 Specification and requirements

• TV Ident (animation and motion of type and logo)
  • no more then 3 seconds in length
  • produced in Adobe After Effects
  • must relate to Bodoni
  • must use the same visual styling as in the print format
  • include sound
• DEADLINE Friday 16th January

Reading Week Research Task

In an attempt to create a resource which would be more useful to reflect on in the future, during my university reading week task, to watch Helvetica the movie, find out the key points about the Bodoni typeface and read up on the terminology surrounding typography, I created the following 8-page right angle fold booklets.

This project can also be found on my Behance portoflio.