Collaborative Branding 03 - Serif experimentation

Despite the overall consensus to use a sans serif typeface for the re-brand. I decided to experiment with serif fonts to see if there were any unexpected results. 

Within the 6 given Vignelli typefaces: Times Roman, Century Expanded, Garamond and Bodoni were the serif fonts. 

 Times Roman

Above is my experimentation with Times Roman. On different iterations of the brand name, I tried out different fonts of the typeface, adjusted with the tracking and kerning, whether it was italicized or bold and the casing of the letter forms. Out of all the iterations I have tried, 'HeatFirst' in bold stood out for me. It was the closest in my mind to resembling a sans serif font i.e. Helvetica Bold and was the only iteration that did not look entirely out of date in relation to the company's image.

 Century Expanded   

I adapted the same changes I made on the Times Roman to see if it would work better with Century. There are subtle differences between the two fonts for example the tail on capital R in Century Expanded has a distinct curve at the end as compared to in Times Roman. 

Garamond

Right is my experimentation with Garamond. And much like the first two serifs fonts I fail to see any combination that stands out or would be suited to represent the 'HeatFirst' image. 

Bodoni Std 

Above is my experimentation with Bodoni Std. I liked the visual appearance of this font on first impressions due to its relationship between its straight brackets and contrasting thick and thin stems. It implies solidity and stability yet having a form of elegance.

When experimenting with the tracking on Bodoni I noticed that that the strokes across some of the lowercase letters would not line up.

 

To quickly fix this issue I adjusted the vertical scale on illustrator which ended up in a 'visually  smoother' word and phrase. 

After experimenting with all Vignelli's essential serif fonts I was hoping to find a combination that represented Help-Link's history of central heating services and their ability to bring modern hi-tech solutions to common households. Therefore I feel that it is not the serif typeface which is the problem but the context of which it is being placed in. More often than not, a serif font upon first glance evokes a feeling of age and tradition. Help-Link are a rather young company that was formed in 1998, so to use a serif would be misappropriate. Furthermore Help-Link are in a trade where they are providing the latest technology from central heating and boiler companies to their households. Serif typefaces often represent publications, artisanal food packaging, vintage wears and others which want the consumer to feel there is a form of tradition within the product and a feeling of yesteryear.