Exercise: Directing People

Brief

Select a town, city, or location near you, to base your project around. Using your local knowledge of this place, choose something that you feel is significant but overlooked, and draw or design a set of six signs to direct the public to that location.

It could be the location of an event in social history that more people should know about, the oldest tree in a park that is overlooked, a distinctive piece of utilitarian architecture, or something entirely different.

Think through the route people will need to take from a main point such as a bus station or high street. Ask yourself these questions:

• What information do you need to put on your signs to be both functional, enticing, and quick to the point?

• What kind of font might be an appropriate font?

• How can you apply your learning about type?

Paula Scher (Abstract: Art & Design) 1

Upon watching Abstract: Art & Design, I wanted to make several notes of importance and some inspiration for this exercise, the one takeaway from this was the reliability of font and how font can make or break graphic design.

There is so much to play with font, like the thickness of a typeface, the taper of letter, the line place, or type of font itself. Playing with that can have a greater effect on what the font looks like and what the font means to it's branding.

By playing and pushing the limits, you'll find yourself naturally finding what's best for your illustration; Paula Scher found herself working better riding in a taxi and constantly sketching and thinking dynamically for the next illustration.

Plan/Research

I picked out the Picturehouse in Ashford as the destination from the Ashford International Train Station; i chose this because I feel the Picturehouse is really underrated, it's a great spot to watch a movie, eat and drink-- and personally, I would like the cinemas/movies to get the recognition it deserves.

I did a bit of background on the Picturehouse and found some really good research that'll help me for the signs; the Picturehouse is described as "the heart of their neighborhoods" and that each Picturehouse "are distinct, full of personality"2. I know personally, that the Picturehouse shows a much wider variety of showcases than most cinemas. Showcasing films from different countries, different genres; they show ballet, opera, concerts and they do seasonal viewings of older movies.

Planning sheets

Font (and annotating)

Thumbnails

I want to aim to create design with this type of post in mind a classic 70's sign post that reminds me of the mixed old-fashioned and modern style interior of the Picturehouse.

Before font

Final signs/illustration

Map and signs

Evaluation

This exercise aim is to create several signs to a location, the intention is to learn about font and graphic design-- thinking about the appropriate font and the functionality of the font.

My design was to create signs from the Ashford international train station to the Picturehouse, and I wanted to use the first four signs as classic sign-post from the 70's and so I used a font that is legal but fitting for the Picturehouse; I added a icon of a film projector to bring out the brand's name. The last two post are welcoming post into the car park and the actual Picturehouse, I wanted to bring in the iconic red curtains you see when you first enter the Picturehouse and the red interior of the seats and the corridors-- the fonts are to resemble the brands name as close as possible, but still keeping it readable.

I wanted the signs to flow with another, so I kept the colour scheme red and black but adding the iconic red. I also kept the film strip to flow from one to another illustration, especially seeing it side-by-side it flows very nicely.

I wanted the traffic signs to functional and readable (and appropriate by law), since my initial idea was to have it as a promotional sign around a traffic post, however that is illegal. So I thought about the 70's sign-post and I ended up really liking it since it suited the distinct branding (every Picturehouse being distinct), and really shows off individuality.

This time with font, I really wanted to break down each font to best suit the brand and the functionality; and this time I was really intrigued with fonts, when usually I struggle with font.

I enjoyed this exercise a lot and I enjoyed exploring a variety of designs, as I thought about the balance branding and functionality. I annotated as I went along to help keep focus on the exercise, and I asked for advice on which designs/fonts best suit (you can see some comments I made note of with the "" around some annotations). I kept Paula Scher in my mind as I thought about pushing myself and playing a lot with different ideas and different fonts.

A note about what I don't like about this exercise is that the scanner really messed with the illustrations and it's quite blurred and the colours are a little messed up- it might be a computer issue.

1 Netflix, Youtube 'Abstract: The Art of Design | Paula Scher: Graphic Design | FULL EPISODE | Netflix', Apr 17, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCfBYE97rFk&t=2s Accessed Jan 26th 2024.

2 Picturehouse, picturehouse 'about us', u/a. https://www.picturehouses.com/about-us Accessed Jan 26th 2024.