Title:
A choice of 2 possible questions not quite sure which question yet???
Are serifs merely an unnecessary encumbrance from the past soon to be phased out for good? Or do they really improve the overall legibility of a text?
Or
As history has marched on, the structure of type has changed but does that mean we have no need for the discipline of using serif and sans serif typefaces?
An abstract:
From recent findings and the discussion I had with my group today I have come to the conclusion that I could possibly look into how sans and sans serifs typefaces have changed and how or why they read different.
The feedback I received was interesting, useful and pretty much straightforward. The group all stated that when reading books or any large piece of text they do notice that a sans typeface is more commonly used for the main body text than a sans serif and asked why?
Do you think it would be harder or simple to read both within a piece of text as headings and body text? What about the people with learning difficulties such as those with dyslexia how would they read the two different typefaces?
So I have decided to conduct a set of experiments using the two different typefaces. Basically I would as a number of students maybe also non-graphic design students to see if they also have the same opinion as the professionals. Using two sets of paragraph one in a sans typefaces and the other in a sans serif I will see how the legibility is and time them to see just how long it takes to read both pieces.
Possible chapter headings:
The history
A couple of well know typefaces in sans and serifs
What do you prefer san or a sans serif typeface?
What typeface?
Action plan:
Firstly I would like to continue researching a little more to be more specific in what I want to achieve from my findings/experiments so I am more confident writing my report and designing it. In order for that to occur I need to:
- Find specific evidence that will help me answer my question such as:
Typographic books, blogs, online interviews or face to face etc.
- Conduct interviews, experiments, and investigations maybe over a series of days to see what I come up with. So each person is treated fairly and not rushed or pressured to answer my questions.
- Journals or a diary
- observations, filming
Bibliography:
Websites/blogs:
www.Linotype.co.uk
http://www.ilovedesign.com
http://www.ilovetypography.com
wikipedia.com
Books
1.‘The ultimate sourcebook of classic and contemporary sans serif typography’
By Cees W. De Jong
2. ‘The Thames & Hudson manual of Typography’ by Thames and Hudson
Natasha
http://ffffound.com/image/88848187d1468e94dbd714fcb111dcbc66c2f953
ReplyDeleteI saw this and it made me think of your project, hah.
- Liz
Hello Natasha,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have a reasonably clear idea of what you want to do overall - which is good to see. You now need to flesh out a bit more detail for the proposal for Friday. Come and see us for a tutorial today if possible.
I think you need a shorter, snappy title to capture what you are aiming for – how about adding to yours with sthg simple like ‘Serif or Sans Serif: an Investigation into Legibility’… You can change it later if your emphasis changes as you progress through the project.
For your abstract you will need to remove all the aspects of text that are referring to your conversations with the others. I like your approach of asking a series of questions that you intend to explore – this is something to build upon. Perhaps write a long list of all the questions you can think of around legibility and the choice between the 2 styles of typeface. You could then edit this list into a readable abstract.
It would be great to have a couple of maybe opposing quotes in your abstract from famous graphic designers about serifs/sans serifs. There are lots of type books in our office so come and have a browse later.
It would be interesting to do a visual history of the development of serif/sans serif instead of a written one.
With your chapters, I would suggest the following alterations:
Introduction: a visual history of the development of serif and sans serif type
When to use what: what the type gurus advise [this can be a literature review style chapter, pulling together your findings from what you read in the type journals/articles/websites etc – this could include material about dyslexia]
The Serif Challenge: experiments exploring public preferences [exactly as you have outlined it already! It would be a good idea to outline a couple of egs for the proposal in a bit of detail]
Conclusion: bringing together advice from designers, and new primary research the report will conclude with some simple guidance for graphic design students to consider when selecting appropriate typefaces.
You also need to develop an action plan (separated out from the rest of the text) and an idea for the design. The stuff you came up with yesterday sounded good, so start playing with that and post up anything you want feedback on.
Hope this helps.
Catherine