This was a project for my Typography 2 class at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and my task was to create a type specimen book that contained two different fonts that pair well together and communicate the qualities of each through text and design. Our booklets had to contain five spreads (or ten pages) and a cover system and be type-dominant.

The process began with creating a mood board to reference throughout the project, pairing fonts, and gathering information related to each typeface we used. The two typefaces I chose were Acumin and DIN 2014 and I chose to highlight the dynamic elements of each of the fonts as well as explaining their evolution. Key elements of the piece were to make free-flowing spreads that brought both of the pages together naturally, make all designs cohesive, and be mindful of all potential grammatical errors. This project was created almost entirely in InDesign with only the splash page (pages 7 and 8) being designed in Illustrator.

Once the book was fully designed, we each had to properly print and trim the books down to the correct size.

Design Philosophy: I used a circle motif throughout the piece, using it to highlight different design elements such as headings, dates, text anatomy, and page numbers. I also used a pop of lime green to highlight certain features which contrasted very well against the shades of gray that were used for the background and text. I chose to use shades of gray instead of black and white to make this piece easier on the eyes and more nuanced and I wanted there to be large amounts of space between different elements for easy reading and a clean aesthetic. Finally, I made sure that the text felt organic in contrast to the more structured elements to emphasize the human-like and cold Neo Grotesque qualities of Acumin. This was done by creating dynamic text boxes that formed around shapes and larger pieces of text.