Design Principles: Study Task 3- 'Speech Made Visible'

For the Design Principles session, we had to prepare either a Gothic or Roman font that has a font family which has a direct distinction between the light, regular and bold weight choices.

Gothic Font Choices: Gill Sans & Helvetica

I was torn between Gill Sans and Helvetica as they were the main fonts thatv had a full set of the font families. Due to the fact that the font family had to have a visible, distinct difference, I decided to choose Gill Sans as I felt it was the most distinctive and strong in its identity.

Gill Sans Light, Regular & Bold in Point Sizes 24, 36, 72 & 144

These were then printed out and had to be cut into individual, seperate words

Printed and Cut into Seperate Componants

Readability, Legibility & Hierarchy:

Symbiotics: Sign, Symbol, Signifier
Visual: Metaphor, Metonym, Stnecdoche

"Work the Metaphor. Every Object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for."

Visual Metaphor- Used to transfer the meaning from one image to another
                         - Convays an impression about something relatively unfamiliar by drawing a comparison
                            between it and something familiar

Visual Synecdoche- When a part is used to represent a whole
                            - It only works if the image is universally recognised

Visual Metonym- Symbolic image that is used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning
                         - The viewer makes a connection between the image and the intended subject
                         - Bear a close relationship but not intrinsically linked

Hierarchy- eg. Newspapers-Name & Headline
               - Editorial Design- Controlling where you put your eye
                                         - Breaking the Hierarchy of Information
                                         - What jumps out and what receeds

Visual Dynamics- Emphasis, Pace and Volume (Visual Representation of Hierarchy in Speech)
                         - Shown in Written word as well as in Motion Type Videos

We were asked to mix up the different weights in order to produce different volumes to show the visual dynmaics that could be made.


Mixing up different weights to produce different volumes

From this, we then had to physically speak aloud the sentences we had made, emphasising the different weights that we had used for each word to make a dynamic sentence.

'Who are you?' Speaking Exercise 1

We then had to mix up the different weights and point sizes together in order to add emphasis to particular words and pace to out sentences. Also, we had to physically say these aloud as well to demonstrate the different visual dynamics that our sentences created.

'Who are you?' Speaking Exercise 2

Then we had to think of scenarios in which this sentence would be used and practice saying it in our head. Then we had to say it in that way to the people on our table, who then interpreted the visual dynamics for it using the words.

Study Task:

For the next session, we have to collect the sentence 'Who are you?' however we have to present how we think the accents of certain places translate through the visual dynamics and aesthetics of the chosen fonts. These 11 accents have to be presented in an A4 Landscape Printed Format:

1. Scottish
2. South African
3. Italian
4. Texan
5. Mexican
6. Cockney
7. Somerset
8. Brummie
9. German
10. Chinese
11. Swedish

The trouble is, there is no font that will represent an accent as people are born with the accent that they have. Fonts are used to visually represent the area that the font is from, usually in a stereotypical manner therefore I am going to just use fonts that have the same characteristics as the accents themselves and manipulate the appearance of these standard fonts to produce a phonetic translation of the accented sentence by the physical appearance of the font.

I found a very useful website that allowed you to listen to different accents and variations of words called http://www.soundcomparisons.com/ .The downside was that it didn't have the necessary words that I had in my sentence yet it meant that I could make notes on the characteristics of the accents and be able to try and tailor the font choices to the accent characteristics.

Then I looked through FontBook to see if there were any fonts that I could use to go towards producing a phonetic interpretation of the accents:

Scottish- Traditional yet informal tonally. Distinctive split of words into 2 parts- short followed by long

Scottish

I chose the Font 'Copperplate' as it would be Traditional in style yet informal in appearance compared to other Roman fonts. Mixing the choice of Medium and Light weights means that I have managed to split the word 'Are' into 2 parts as well as provide a distinction between the sections of the sentence as they would be spoken, evidenced further by the change in point size for the scale.

South African- Distinctive Proper Pronunciation. Emphasis on the Constanant and Elongation of the vowel. Cuts off word end.

South African

I chose the font 'Orator' as it is very distinctive and specific in its letterforms. I used slanted and medium weights in order to put additional emphasis on the constanants. The Vowels have stayed at a smaller scale so that they aid the tailing off of the sentence at the end.

Italian- Fluid yet decorated. Emphasis on the end of sentences and questions

Italian

I chose the font 'Zapfino' for its fluidity and handwritten aesthetic, making it seem ornate and decorated which goes with the melodic style of the Italian accent. I used a larger point size for the end of the sentence to put emphasis upon the end of the wording.

Texan- Higher at the end of a question. Monotonous. Elongation of Vowels. Lazy Pronunciation.

Texan

I chose the 'Stencil' font due to the monotonous characteristic and lazy pronunciation of the Texan accent. I graduated the point size of the letterforms as the accent gets higher at the end of questions and allows for the elongation of the vowels.

Mexican- Fast pace and A Lot of words all at once. High pitch. Higher towards end of sentence. Emphatic.

Mexican

I chose the font 'Brush Script Std' in order to provide my accent with a fast pace which is aided by the handwritten aesthetic element. I decided not to have any spaces between the words as it would help with the accent being so emphatic and fast paced. The scale and point size gets higher towards the end to show the higher pitch towards the end of a sentenced.

Cockney- Friendly yet Broad while being rough around the edges.

Cockney

I chose the font 'Bernard MT Condensed' as it is a roman font which gives the impression of being quite a British traditional aesthetic yet the fact that this font has softer, rounded serifs and a naturally bold face goes with the characteristics of the accent. The definition is placed on the end of the sentence on the vowels as this is usually elongated.

Somerset- Softly Spoken and warm but with a distinct elongation of the vowels

Somerset

I chose the font 'Gloucester Condensed' as it is a traditional looking English style font but I didn't want it to look classy or sophisticated as I wanted it to appear warm and friendly. Due to the font being naturally wide, it will aid in the elongation of the words which is natural to the accent. The vowels have more emphasis and elongation to them therefore they have a larger point size and have a bold italic to them.

Brummie- High in Pitch and tails off higher at end of a word. Has a ring to it. Slightly lazy in pronunciation.

Brummie

I chose the font 'Wide Latin' as the Birmingham accent is quite high and rough so I thought that 'Wide Latin' represented a friendly, approachable accent yet it doesn't have the most sophisticated approach.  The lazy pronunciation is highlighted by the use of bold weights and the small point size for the rest of the letters, allowing the sentence to tail off at the end.

German- Harsh and Striking. Quiet in the middle. Emphasis on first letter.

German

I chose the font 'Kino MT' as it is bold, striking and definate in its appearance. The disjointedness in the capitals is quite harsh on the eyes which reflects in the harsh sound of the German accent. The small point size for the middle of the sentence highlights the quiet in the sentence yet there is a large emphasis on the first letter on each word by changing the point size.

Chinese- Bit Melodic. High Tenor. Same pitch. Higher pitch at the end of a question.

Chinese

I chose the font 'Lucinda Calligraphy' as I knew that the Chinese accent was quite melodic and vocal which is highlighted by the fluidity of the font. I used different point sizes with italics and bold weights to emphasize the higher pitch at the end of the question.

Swedish- Quite posh, proper and formal. Very deep in tone. More emphasis on the first letter than the rest.

Swedish

I chose the font 'Trojan Std' as it is quite a serious and formal font that makes the sentence seem proper in pronunciation. I used a Bold weight in order to give the accent a deeper, thicker tone and I capitalized the rest of the first letters to put emphasis on the beginning compared to the rest.