Project 3: Typeface Spread

Vista Sans—a humanist yet pragmatic semi-serif

Research

• designed by Xavier Dupré
• inspired by hand lettered shop signs in Sumatra
• published in 2008
• inspired also by blackletter
• a family consisting of 36 weights (has both narrow and normal styles)
• same family as Vista Slab

“The designer’s intention was to create a typeface family for text and display that would combine the humanist appeal of calligraphic forms with the pragmatic simplicity of the sans.”

Citations:

https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/vista-sans#about-section

https://www.xavierdupre.com/vista-sans-slab

Typeface Spread

I listed out potential components I want to include in my spread:

• Headline: Vista Sans
• Subhead: designed by Xavier Dupré
• Body
• Image
• Citations
• Footnotes (?)
• Letter Analysis (?)
• Pull Quote (?)

Type Explorations

For headline and subhead, I want to use Vista Sans to show that it’s a good type for both display and text. For body I tried out different serifs and san-serifs to see which one matches with the headline & subhead the most. I printed them all out to judge the readability better in context.

In the end I decided these three typefaces are the most readable in this context (left to right): Source Sans, Avenir, Futura

When printed out, Source Sans feels too serious and Avenir feels too light-hearted. So I went with Futura, which was a good middle-ground. In addition, I think both Futura and Vista Sans are clean yet expressive, and both are relatively skinny fonts, which made them a good match.

Type Proportions

Another interesting thing to consider is using the proportions of a letter from the typeface to inform the placement and proportions of the body copy columns. Blowing up the capital “A” to fill the whole page from top to bottom, and using natural elements of the type for hang lines ( such as the top of the lower case “a”, the crossbar, the top of the counter etc.). I used the letter “a” because that’s the designers’ favorite glyph, and letter he considers seals the soul of Vista Sans. I prefer the narrower columns to the fatter ones because they seem more playful and responsive to the skinniness of the typeface.

Thumbnails

I sketched out some thumbnails on the template’s grids. Some considerations/ideas I had:

• Displaying letters at a large scale to show all the subtle details that makes Vista Sans a “humanist” typeface
• Tie into calligraphic inspirations through layout or imagery
• Show that the typeface was inspired by shop signs’ hand lettering (how to give it human quality?)
• Exploring both simple and complex compositions (this is more of a personal challenge)

Layouts

Trying out my thumbnails in digital. I like the top one in the middle the most, as I think it responds to the quirkiness of the typeface the most without taking away from the typeface (like the last one).

A Lesson on Parining fonts

When I talked with Jaclyn, I learned that it’s best not to pair similar typefaces together because they might compete with each other. And that when it comes to the body copy, readability should always come first. This is why I decided to switch from Futura to Source Sans for my body copy. Futura isn’t bad when it comes to readability but it isn’t the best option. Also it has too much personality and competes with Vista Sans.

Adding Imagery

I don’t think any of the images I found really clicked with the typeface, so I went on to explore using the type itself as a graphic element.

I really like the last one in terms of concept. Because Vista Sans is all about the balance—where humanist calligraphic forms meet pragmatic simplicity of the sans. So I continued exploring this spread.

To make the spread more “humanist”, I broke through the margins with the headline and also tried varying the width of the body columns. For the marks highlighting the bulging stroke ends of the letters on the left page, I also tried making those marks myself instead using the pen tool. Vicki also suggested that I put some asymmetry into the spread to make it more “humanist”. I tried putting only one column on the left page and the rest on the right, but it just didn’t look right.

I made the columns skinnier and grouped them in the middle of the spread, so that the left and right page seem to “meet” with each other.

I struggled a lot with the color palette, because I can’t quite pin down what a “quirky” palette looks like.

Final for class critique on Thursday:

I opted for a more muted complementary color palette. The soft pink background on the left feels humanist to me, and I liked how the green interacts with the bright yellow.

Feedback on my spread:

• colors not quite there (can try a black & white palette with one spot color)
• strokes on the left page: varying weight draws too much attention
• diagram on the right page: pull one more thing out

General Takeaways:

• Contrast something with its opposite (ex. making some elements strict & on the grid to highlight the way others are playfully rotated/scattered)
• Drop cap doesn’t have to be the same typeface as the body
• When using all caps, the tracking always needs to be adjusted
• When pairing typefaces, it’s generally easier to pair sans with serif; when pairing two sans or serifs together, make sure they’re really different (significant contrast); otherwise might as well use the typeface for all.
• Using photo to inspire layout but not actually using it for the final
• Always ask “what can I pull out?” at the end, to counter the additive process.

Revisions for Final:

Color — After trying a variety other options (such as black and white, orange-teal color palette from my video). The black and white contrast was too stark, and the orange-teal provided too much shimmer because they’re both saturated and near complements of each other. In the end I went with a muted yellow-purple complement, which isn’t too loud and is a bit more nuanced than just white and black.

Symmetry—I pushed one column to the right page to break up the symmetry, which felt too rigid for a font that’s “humanist”

Drop Cap—I made the drop cap jut out for a more accessible entry point to the article.

Details—I fixed some details, such as decreasing the size of the footnotes to differentiate them from the body. I also moved everything up on the page a little because the bottom was feeling a bit cramped. Lastly, I fixed the rags of the body text so it’s not so distracting, and the text doesn’t cut off at weird places between columns.

Final Spread: