Studio Brief 02 - Final critique

In preparation for the final critique session I placed my typeface onto various forms of context to receive comments on what aspects worked well and what didn’t.

Here were my 3 questions:

• What letter forms in your opinion are too partial? Why do they not work?
• What is the most suitable form of context for my typeface? What other forms of context could you see "Mysterious" being used on?
• How effectively does the typeface communicate "Mysterious"?

They identified that M, V, N, X and R were problematic. It confuses the reader because of its one stem letter form which is too ambiguous. This reduces the overall legibility and limits the scale of which the typeface can still be readable. The partiality also relates to a kerning issue. If the letter forms are placed too close together, they will mislead the reader to what the actual word is. For example in the AKIRA movie poster, it was often read as AKRA. Hence the common comments I received stating that the typeface worked given large tracking. To combat this issue I will adjust these letter forms, adding serifs or adjusting the thickness of the stems.

Given the examples I displayed, they agreed that movie posters, book covers, fashion magazine mastheads and perfume adverts were suitable for my typeface. There were also comments that it could work on gallery branding or stationary.

Overall the ambiguity created by the design communicates mystery. The partial letter forms create that mystery for the reader through its negative space which makes the reader think. And much like the characteristics of Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica and Univers, the typeface only reflects the atmosphere of the subject when placed on context. For example despite my typeface's aim to convey mystery, it does have connotations of elegance and formality due to its similarity to high fashion magazine mastheads such as Vogue and Vanity Fair.