Our first project for IxD102 was creating a Type Specimen Screen for a typeface. The typeface that I chose was Helvetica. In week 1 I conducted some research on Helvetica, sketched out some designs, and created a few mockup designs on Figma in black and white. You can view all this here:
In week 4 we had a class critique for our Type Specimen Screens. We all looked at each others designs on Miro, and were able to leave feedback on peoples work. We also all got feedback from our tutor which was really helpful and insightful. You can look at my critique blog here:
Week 4 - Type Specimen Screen Critique
I ended up going back to the drawing board as I wasn’t satisfied with my final design. I wanted to get rid of the squares throughout and make the design clearer and simpler. I stripped down the colour scheme, and only used one shade of purple, black, and white. I also made the alphabet larger and removed some other text. I think it looks much better and I am far happier with it. I made sure that I was very particular and careful ensuring that I was aligning everything. Using grids and the ruler feature I lined up all the elements so that nothing was out of place or even slightly off.
Overall I am happy with how my designs turned out. I think that all of them pretty good, and represent Helvetica as a simple, clean typeface. I think that my final design looks the best as I kept it as simple as possible, reducing the colour palette to only 3 colours, and also only including what I needed for a Type Specimen Screen. I really enjoyed this project.