Study Task 1 - Typsetting

This study task was very interesting to try and experiment with. The concept of using the typesetting and form of body text visually and figuratively is definitely useful and would apply to some projects very well. Even if its just justifying a paragraph to neaten it up into a square, the skill was interesting to practise. 

For this specific study task, the first page of ‘Great Expectations’ was used inspired by the book “Page 1: Great Expectations: Seventy Graphic Solutions” - a book which shows the response multiple graphic designers had to designing and typesetting this specific novel page. 

This idea plays off of the protagonist Pip’s shortening of his name from Philip and quite literally shows the body text shortening as it goes down the page. The Chapter and title fill the empty space in the bottom left corner, providing a more unusual novel layout.

This idea takes direct visual inspiration from the line - “To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave” - the text is arranged in 5 circular text boxes representing these 5 stones. One aspect which would require more development is the last text box which doesn’t quite fill the space. Using circular text boxes was interesting when considering the hierarchy and order of each of them. 

The last idea rather simply uses a ‘text river’ leading up from where the word river literally appears in the text. The river can’t go to wide, otherwise it would be harder to read from line to line with a big gap in the middle.