FMP (BA): Inspiration - Vintage Typography

While I was thinking of ideas for my Moby Dick quote "Call me Ishmael" I decided to have a look at ornamental typography, because most of the typography featured on my mood board I had created yesterday featured really decorative typefaces. I also noticed that such typefaces were used when I was looking for other typographic pieces that link in with sailors or the sea. 

Following Jon Contino's suggestion, I decided to go back and look at some historical posters. While I was looking through "Graphic Design: A New History" by Stephen J. Eskilson I really liked the one featured in "Demorest's Illustrated Monthly" and looked for similar ornamental, nineteenth-century typefaces and came across Unicorn Graphics where they had catalogs of Wood Cuts. 

Instead of creating a separate mood board to my Pinterest one and picking pieces from that to analyse, I shall just choose a few to briefly break down so that I could spend more time acting on inspiration than forcing it aside just so that I could write a long essay about why I find a design fascinating. This would allow me more time to experiment and do some sketching, and if I do find another inspirational piece I shall just add it here, briefly write about it, before going back to sketching.

Inspirational Pieces

This was the image within "Graphic Design: A New History" that I mentioned above. The reason why I find this so fascinating is that despite the 'chaotic' appearance there is some sort of structure in that the type is separated from the elaborate illustration by either an invisible border or a shape. This break from the intricate drawings allow more of a focus on the negative space. The area around this space looks as if the illustrator tried to fill the page as much as possible and was fearful of leaving any gaps.

Although I do like the illustration my main focus is on the typography. I have seen this style of typography in recent hand-lettering works so this might be the starting point of that inspiration. For example, in Tobias Saul's illustration "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" uses a similar type style in the words as well as the detailed flourishes surrounding them. However he made the type fit for the sea-environment by taking out the gradient and making it slightly flatter and with a texture.

To summarise, I am inspired by:

• The elaborate typography
• The flourishes surrounding the type
• The way that the typography has been clearly separated from the illustration 

Jon Contino - http://joncontino.com/ 

Jon Contino has used some of the same characteristics of vintage typography but amalgamated it with script calligraphy, so that even though it does still have that little 'dash' in the middle he mixes it with thick and thin strokes and a cursive type. He has taken a vintage typeface and made it contemporary and into his own style.

I find this really inspirational because even though I would like to draw a typeface inspired by vintage typography I would like to add my own 'signature' to it, so perhaps I could try mixing it with my handwriting too? 

Another 'vintage' aspect he has included in this is that the words are completely surrounded by detailed flourishes but because they are completely entwined I found it really difficult to read the writing. I was able to read the vintage one because the flourishes were completely separate from the writing, but here it isn't.

The detail is mainly within the flourishes and the typography and the illustration is quite plain, unlike Mme Demorest's Illustrated Monthly where it was the other way around. This could show the development of typography through the ages and that there is now more freedom to experiment and draw typefaces without restrictions. This contrast between decorative and simple creates a nice balance because if the illustration was any more elaborate then the whole piece would be too overwhelming to the viewer.
This shows me that if I do take inspirational from vintage and ornamental type I need to make sure that either the typography is really decorative or the illustration, and not both.

To summarise, I really like:

• The mixture of taking inspirational from an older version of the typeface but completely melding it with something else to creating something new 
• The way the typography is formed around the whale
• Detailed flourishes

Tobias Saul - https://www.behance.net/tobiassaul

I have already analysed this design [here] but I thought I might include it in this post as it's quite relevant. I will not analyse it again so instead I'll skip straight to the bullet points.

• Lovely integration of type and the illustration
• Decorative typefaces 
• Lesser-detailed flourishes which works really well
• Textured background

Reflective Thinking - Summary

By analysing each image in short paragraphs and then listing them as bullet points makes it easier for me to just flick through at a later stage and just pick out the aspects that I had found inspirational about it instead of having to read through an essay. It also allows me to quickly write down my thoughts and draw up connections without having to force myself to go into detail and losing track of what I was originally writing.

I took my time to gather some material in order to write up this post which meant that I could pick the ones that were really inspirational instead of just choosing some because it they were the only ones available to me.

Learning Outcomes:
[6] Developed skills of critical thinking, analysis and evaluation.
[8] Developed their ability to scan and organise data, abstract meaning from information and communicate knowledge in a variety of formats.