Typography Magazine Concept

F on T 

magazine

CONTENTS 

01 

03 

05 

07 

09 

11 

A showcase & origins of the ampersand 

Vendetta character profile 

Semplicita character profile 

Colt character profile 

Baroque character profile 

Marcel character profile

13 

15 

17 

23 

27 

32 

Ink - our scribe 

Headway music festival poster 

Discovery by design - by zuzano licko 

Printing should be invisible - by beatrice ward 

Editorial: design rationale 

References

Font Magazine 

Abril Fatface#* 

& 

type-together.com 

Adage Script JF # 

& 

jukeboxfonts.com 

The showcase 

Adobe Caslon Pro # 

& & 

adobe.com 

Alana # 

& 

lauraworthington.com 

Alegreya #* 

& & 

huertatipografica.com 

& 

Alize # 

& 


Baroque Text JF # 

& 


Bickham Script Pro 

& & 

# 

adobe.com 

Blenny # 

& 


Bree #* 

& 


Coquette #* 

& 


Futura PT # 

& & 


Givry # 

& & 

adobe.com 

Goldenbook #* 

& 


Grafolita Script # 

& 


HWT VanLanen #* 

& 


Iskra #* 

& & 


Kings Caslon # 

& 

adobe.com 

Litania #* 

& 


Modesto Inlinefill #* 

& 


Modesto Text #* 

& 


Museo #* 

& 


Origins # 

& 

adobe.com 

P22 Marcel Script # 

& 


Senator #* 

& 


Soleil #* 

& & 


Texas Hero # 

& & 


Variex OT * 

& & & 

adobe.com 

Vendetta OT #* 

& & 


Viktor Script #* 

& & 


1 

# - denotes print applicable 

* - denotes screen applicable

Origin of the ampersand (&)? 

The origin of the ampersand can be 

traced back to the Latin word et, meaning 

‘and’. The E and the T that make up this 

word were occasionally written together to 

form a ligature (a character consisting of 

two or more joined letters). Writing the 

word this way saved the writer time, with 

one letter flowing seamlessly into the next 

– a form of cursive or joined up writing 

(English Oxford Dictionaries, 2017). 

Origin of the ampersand 

It’s impossible to say exactly when this 

symbol was first written down, but an 

early example has been found as graffiti 

on a wall in Pompeii, preserved by the 

eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. It can be 

very difficult to trace the development of 

symbols over time, but with the ampersand 

the work has already been done for 

us, by one Jan Tschichold, a typographer 

born in Leipzip in 1902. Tschichold devoted 

an entire study to the development 

of the ampersand in his 1953 booklet The 

ampersand: its origin and development, 

where he collected hundreds of examples 

of the symbol throughout history, 

recording its development from the piece 

of ancient graffiti to the familiar ‘&’ used 

today. Within this collection are examples 

from the eighth century which are already 

recognizable as the modern ampersand 


For such an ancient symbol, the name 

‘ampersand’ is surprisingly modern. First 

seen in the late 18th century, it comes 

from an alteration of and per se and (literally 

‘and (i.e. &) by itself makes the word 

and’), which was once chanted by schoolchildren 

as an aid to learning the sign 


2


I am a well attired 57 year old male that appreciates all the finery in life. 

Raised from a by gone era of remarkable wonder and innovation. Do not 

be fooled by my charming good looks, for as you get closer you will see my 

chiseled features that remind of a time that not all is as it seems. 

I like to think of myself as classical in nature, and bred from antiquity, I 

am fiercley traditional and immediately understood. 

Handsome with rugged good looks. Always needs to be looked at twice as 

it is familiar, but upon closer inspection remarkably unique. 

I love Italian fine dining and enjoy the occasional duel, horse riding, 

fencing and masquerade balls. 

3

V 

Vendetta 

Vendetta character profile 

4


I am a 38 year old female from Paris. I have 

recently finished my studies and enjoy the jazz 

scene. 

I am balanced and elegant with fine femine 

curves. Do not take my soft curves to be a weakness 

because I can be sharp and dominant headline. 

Hailing from an art deco lineage I can move and 

keep pace with the times. 

5

S 

Semplicita 

Semplicita character profile 

6

I’m a 45 year old male from 

the mid-west of the good 

old us of A. 


I enjoy cars, beer, hunting 

and football oh and women. 

I will round you up and 

shoot you down. I’ll be in a 

bar, in the workshop or at 

the football. 

I play well with others 

though you just need to 

get to know me in the right 

situation. 

7

COLT 

Colt character profile 

8


Baroque 

9

Baroque character profile 

Thee is a well over 200 years old male. I done the likes of illumanated 

books and scriptures, have been known to wander the ye old inns as well as 

you may have seen my marks on many a old bottles of ale and wine. 

These times are too bright for me as I prefer to lurk in the darker areas of 

society now a days, but during the peak times I was to be seen everywhere 

and know by all. 

I have been alone for many a years now and my light does fade. 

10


I am a 28 year old female. I’ m looking for a strong man that can sweep me off my feet and give me 

the best the world has to offer. 

I like to travel to exotic destinations either with friends or alone to enjoy the peace and tranquility. I 

won’ t say no to adventure and new experiences. My Mum is my best friend and Daddy is a close second. 

I love everything new but definately appreciate history and the adventures it had to offer, I was definately 

born in the wrong era. 

11

Marcel 

Marcel character profile 

12


Born from ancient times and 

in very different worlds, ink was 

developed by the Chinese and 

Egyptians at round 2500 B.C. 

The greatest achievement 

of ink is its ability to record 

the passage of time, record 

thought, help invent words and 

language, and spread and share 

knowledge not only between 

people but between cultures. 

It is creative and can communicate 

stories from fact and fiction. 

It has been one very quiet 

companion to the human race 

that has been with us through 

our travels through history 

recording our triumphs and 

shortcomings. 

Inks early life began as a mix 

of lampblack, which is basically 

the carbon or soot residue left 

Ink 

Our Scribe 

from oil lamps, and glue or 

sap. Coloured ink was created 

by adding juices, plant matter, 

blood, crushed rocks, shellfish 

and tannin to ink to get its colour. 

Nowadays ink is a combination 

of pigments and solvents 

(VisualGraphic, 2013). 

Everywhere we look we see 

ink, without even realising it. 

It is in the papers we read, the 

magazines we buy and one of 

the first things we see in the 

morning on food packaging 

and morning routine products. 

It’s on the dash of the car, the 

public transport signage right 

through to the stationary used 

at work and the clothes you 

wear. 

Regardless of the fact that 

early inks were crude the idea 

13

A historic factoid - Ink 

that pushed the creation of ink 

was to make ink stand the test 

of time and make it enduring 

and it could create a permanent 

record of something. 

Ink and its production has 

always been to a certain extent 

problematic, it has always had 

issues regarding durability, it 

fades when exposed to sunlight 

and different types of paper absorb 

different amounts of ink 

(History of Ink and It's Development, 

2017). 

Between the eighth and the 

eleventh Century a chemical 

ink, iron gall ink developed 

from tannic acid and iron salt 

became a popular colorant 

bound by resin. To understand 

the chemical structure of ink it 

is necessary to understand the 

properties of the chemicals that 

have gone into ink production 

and why certain chemicals improve 

or debase its durability 

(History of Ink and It's Development, 

2017). 

Water based inks have humectants 

(a substance that 

absorbs or helps another substance 

retain moisture (Dictionary.com, 

2017)) added so 

that the resultant ink does not 

dry out too quickly. At the 

same time, the ink must have 

the correct consistency for its 

purpose and added biocides 

ensure the consistency. Sometimes 

a pH level is necessary 

and buffering additives stabilise 

the level. In today’s complex 

world, the ink must be compatible 

with the type of machinery 

using it. Inkjet printers have 

revolutionised the printing industry, 

but the printing heads 

are so sensitive several different 

types of ink have developed for 

them (History of Ink and It's 

Development, 2017). 

Inkjet ink does not use dyes 

as the colorant but pigments. 

despite the early problems with 

inkjet ink the process has now 

been improved so that colours 

do not fade and lose their brilliance 

outdoors in bright natural 

light. This development 

itself has revolutionised many 

aspects of the printing business 

not the least of which is in the 

sign industry (History of Ink 

and It's Development, 2017). 

14

01 AUGUST 2017 

EBB & FLOW 

THIRSTY MERC 

DAWN THEORY 

SOMETHING LIKE THIS 

SOUTHWELL PARK 

LYNEHAM 

15

GOLD COIN DONATION 

part of the BANG ON FESTIVAL 

Organised by the Canberra’s Drummers Union 

sponsored by the University of Canberra 

16


Discovery by 

Design 

by Zuzana Licko 

"...Can new design – like new science – discover 

phenomena that already exist in the fabric of 

typographic possibility? If so, who owns discovery?" 

– Ellen Lupton, The 100 Show. The sixteenth Annual of the American Center for Design. 

Although science and design 

are both based upon experimental 

investigation, the comparison is not 

altogether straightforward; science 

investigates naturally occurring 

phenomena, while design investigates 

culturally created phenomena. But 

if such a parallel is to be made, then 

we might replace a falling tree by a 

17 

typographic possibility and thereby 

ask the question "Does a typographic 

phenomenon exist if no one recognizes 

it?" 

Potentially, if every graphic and 

typographic possibility already exists, 

and each is waiting to be discovered, 

then we need only create an appropriate 

context in order to bring life to any 

of them. 

For example, consider the 26 letters 

in our alphabet and how they are combined 

to form words. There is a finite 

number of combinations, or words, if 

we limit ourselves to words of a certain 

length; say, five letters. Then, for 

the ease of pronunciation, let's omit 

all words that contain a string of three

18 

Discovery by design


or more consecutive consonants. Even 

with these restraints to give some 

"meaning" within our understanding 

of words, there will be many words 

that will have no meaning to us. Does 

this mean that these are not words? 

Does a sequence of letters not form 

a word when we do not recognize its 

meaning? 

It is important to note here, that the 

meanings of words are not intrinsic to 

the words themselves; the meanings 

are arbitrary, since the same word may 

have different meanings in different 

languages. In fact, the entire concept 

of using 26 letters is an arbitrary one. 

We could just as well have used 20 

letters, or 30 letters, or thousands of 

ideograms like the Oriental cultures. 

Although these systems of communication 

and meanings are arbitrary, 

once they are established, they serve as 

the foundation for the creation of new 

meanings, and therefore do not appear 

to be as arbitrary as they really are. 

As another example, consider the 

grid of a computer video display, or 

that of a laser printer rasterizer; each 

point on the grid can be on or off; 

black or white. Given a fixed resolution, 

again, there is a finite number 

of combinations that these on/off 

sequences will compose. If a computer 

is programmed to run through all of 

the possible combinations, some will 

appear to us as pure gibberish, while 

others will be recognized as something 

that we already know or might be 

interested in getting to know better. 

Even though all these compositions 

are randomly generated, only those 

few that fit into our preconceived 

19

Discovery by Design 

notions of context will have meaning. 

Therefore, it is the meaning, and not 

the form itself that has been created. 

New design is the creation of new 

meanings; that is, new contexts for 

typographic possibilities. However, 

must be linked to existing ones. 

Even that design which "pushes the 

envelope" must build upon existing 

preconceptions. For unless a critical 

portion is understandable, the entire 

piece will be dismissed as complete 

nonsense.On the other hand, if no 

portion of the design is new, then it 

will appear so uninteresting that it 

might result in boredom and therefore 

be equally dismissed. Intriguing 

consumers with just the right amount 

of unrecognizable information spurs 

their interest. By initiating these 

changes of meaning, design educates 

the consumer to the changes in culture. 

Thus, design is a very powerful 

component in controlling our collective 

consciousness. However, design 

is also a subconscious process, and it 

is therefore nearly impossible for a designer 

to intentionally alter a specific 

cultural concept. 

This process of reassimilation and 

adding or changing of meaning with 

each step creates an environment in 

our popular culture that is conducive 

to the assimilation of particular ideas. 

As this environment changes, it 

makes certain ideas ripe, or "ready to 

be liked." 

In this manner, meanings change, 

and over time great shifts take place. 

Since the creation of new meanings 

usually results in the replacement, 

displacement or change of older 

meanings, we may also wonder if some 

meanings become obsolete. We may 

ask, "Does obsolescence exist in design, 

and can we plan obsolescence?" 

It is possible to engineer the components 

of a car or refrigerator to 

break down after a certain duration 

of use, thereby defining the product's 

obsolescence. But is it possible to do 

this with a design style, typeface, or 

typographic form? Unlike industrial 

products that have a physical life, the 

lifespan of a typographic possibility 

is purely conceptual. Designs become 

obsolete as they are consumed by our 

20


culture, and subsequently forgotten in 

favor of other ones. Yet what was obsolete 

years ago is often revived from 

obsolescence to be reassimilated or expanded 

upon as appropriate to fit into 

new cultural meanings. This process 

repeats itself again and again, making 

obsolescence a temporary state in the 

world of design possibilities. 

Because this ongoing change is 

affected by many different forces from 

numerous directions, it is impossible to 

predict what will happen next, or even 

how long-or short-lived any particular 

design idea might be. Since the life, 

or lives, of a design idea are dictated 

by its appropriateness for currently 

accepted ideas, it would be impossible 

to specifically plan the longevity of a 

design without also controlling these 

forces of style. 

This evolution of meanings is also 

unpredictable over time. Some meanings 

change very quickly, like the 

second hand on a stopwatch; others 

change so slowly that we don't even 

see them change, like the hour hand 

on a grandfather clock. These slow 

changing ideas are seen as timeless, 

while those that change quickly are 

perceived as being timely. The words 

"timeless" and "timely" often have very 

strong negative or positive connotations, 

although neither is good nor 

bad, per se. The value of either of these 

qualities lies in the appropriateness of 

use, and appropriateness is usually 

a question of efficient use of design 

resources, or financial viability. 

21 

For example, if it costs millions to 

change the signage in an airport or 

subway system, then a timeless design 

is appropriate. However, if a design 

can be changed every time it appears 

on, say, an interactive television platform, 

and especially if such change 

will stimulate interest and add levels 

of meaning to the audience, then a 

timely design would be appropriate. 

However, more often than not, it is 

timelessness that is seen as most valuable. 

Timeless creations are seen as 

the result of the process of refinement, 

and give us the impression that we are 

always working towards an ultimate 

goal of perfection, independent of the 

whims of fashion. This may appear so

ecause history is told as a logical and 

progressive development. However, 

histories are composed in hindsight; 

actual events do not occur with such 

20/20 vision. For example, once we 

identify a design idea as being fully 

developed, historians then work to 

explain its development by referring 

to the appropriate chain of events. 

However, this process also involves 

the filtering out of inappropriate 

events; events that nonetheless occupy 

the same time line. The inevitability 

of design ideas is therefore never so 

apparent when we're standing on the 

other end of the time line. 

Although each development can 

be explained as an outcome of any 

number of preceding factors, this does 

not mean that any particular course of 

development is therefore inevitable. 

The sometimes arbitrary choices that 

are made along every step subsequently 

become a foundation for future 

developments, but there are usually 

many parallel, equally viable paths not 

taken. 

So, who owns these design discoveries, 

if we are facilitating their existence 

through the appropriate contexts? It 

may be true that all designs exist in 

the fabric of typographic possibility. 

However, since not all possibilities can 

exist at the same time, there must be 

some way to intelligently choose possibilities 

that will have meaning; that 

intelligent force comes from designers. 

The discovery of a design possibility 

is therefore largely a matter of the 

designer being in the right place at the 

right time. However, it is the designer's 

ability to recognize the opportunity, 

the talent to apply the idea to a 

specific creative work, the willingness 

to sometimes go out on a limb, and 

the perseverance to convince others 

that the idea has validity, that deserves 

claim to ownership. Because, in the 

end, it is the expertise to communicate 

new ideas to others that gives credibility 

to the designer's existence. 

Discovery by Design 

22

Printing should 


be invisible 

by Beatrice Ward 

Imagine that you have before you a 

flagon of wine. You may choose your 

own favourite vintage for this imaginary 

demonstration, so that it be a deep shimmering 

crimson in colour. You have two 

goblets before you. One is of solid gold, 

wrought in the most exquisite patterns. 

The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin 

as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour 

and drink; and according to your choice 

of goblet, I shall know whether or not 

you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you 

have no feelings about wine one way or 

the other, you will want the sensation of 

drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may 

have cost thousands of pounds; but if you 

are a member of that vanishing tribe, the 

amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose 

the crystal, because everything about it is 

calculated to reveal rather than hide the 

beautiful thing which it was meant to 

contain. 

Bear with me in this long-winded and 

fragrant metaphor; for you will find that 

almost all the virtues of the perfect wineglass 

have a parallel in typography. There 

is the long, thin stem that obviates fingerprints 

on the bowl. Why? Because no 

cloud must come between your eyes and 

the fiery heart of the liquid. Are not the 

margins on book pages similarly meant 

to obviate the necessity of fingering the 

type-page? Again: the glass is colourless 

or at the most only faintly tinged in the 

23 

bowl, because the connoisseur judges wine 

partly by its colour and is impatient of anything 

that alters it. There are a thousand 

mannerisms in typography that are as 

impudent and arbitrary as putting port 

in tumblers of red or green glass! When a 

goblet has a base that looks too small for 

security, it does not matter how cleverly it 

is weighted; you feel nervous lest it should 

tip over. There are ways of setting lines of 

type which may work well enough, and yet 

keep the reader subconsciously worried by 

the fear of “doubling” lines, reading three 

words as one, and so forth. 

Now the man who first chose glass 

instead of clay or metal to hold his wine 

was a “modernist” in the sense in which 

I am going to use that term. That is, 

the first thing he asked of his particular 

object was not “How should it look?” but 

“What must it do?” and to that extent all 

good typography is modernist. Wine is 

so strange and potent a thing that it has 

been used in the central ritual of religion 

in one place and time, and attacked by a 

virago with a hatchet in another. There is 

only one thing in the world that is capable 

of stirring and altering men’s minds to 

the same extent, and that is the coherent 

expression of thought. That is man’s chief 

miracle, unique to man. There is no “explanation” 

whatever of the fact that I can 

make arbitrary sounds which will lead a 

total stranger to think my own thought. It 

is sheer magic that I should 

be able to hold a one-sided conversation 

by means of black marks on paper with 

an unknown person half-way across the

Printing should be invisible 

world. Talking, broadcasting, writing, 

and printing are all quite literally forms of 

thought transference, and it is the ability 

and eagerness to transfer and receive the 

contents of the mind that is almost alone 

responsible for human civilization. 

If you agree with this, you will agree 

with my one main idea, i.e. that the most 

important thing about printing is that 

it conveys thought, ideas, images, from 

one mind to other minds. This statement 

is what you might call the front door of 

the science of typography. Within lie 

hundreds of rooms; but unless you start by 

assuming that printing is meant to convey 

specific and coherent ideas, it is very 

easy to find yourself in the wrong house 

altogether. 

Before asking what this statement leads 

to, let us see what it does not necessarily 

lead to. If books are printed in order to be 

read, we must distinguish readability from 

what the optician would call legibility. A 

page set in 14-pt Bold Sans is, according 

to the laboratory tests, more “legible” 

than one set in 11-pt Baskerville. A public 

speaker is more “audible” in that sense 

when he bellows. But a good speaking 

voice is one which is inaudible as a voice. 

It is the transparent goblet again! I need 

not warn you that if you begin listening 

to the inflections and speaking rhythms 

of a voice from a platform, you are falling 

asleep. When you listen to a song in a language 

you do not understand, part of your 

mind actually does fall asleep, leaving 

your quite separate aesthetic sensibilities 

to enjoy themselves unimpeded by your 

reasoning faculties. The fine arts do that; 

but that is not the purpose of printing. 

Type well used is invisible as type, just as 

the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed 

vehicle for the transmission of words, 

ideas. 

We may say, therefore, that printing 

may be delightful for many reasons, but 

that it is important, first and foremost, as 

a means of doing something. That is why 

it is mischievous to call any printed piece 

a work of art, especially fine art: because 

that would imply that its first purpose 

was to exist as an expression of beauty 

for its own sake and for the delectation 

of the senses. Calligraphy can almost be 

considered a fine art nowadays, because 

its primary economic and educational 

purpose has been taken away; but printing 

24


in English will not qualify as an art until 

the present English language no longer 

conveys ideas to future generations, and 

until printing itself hands its usefulness to 

some yet unimagined successor. 

There is no end to the maze of practices 

in typography, and this idea of printing 

as a conveyor is, at least in the minds of 

all the great typographers with whom I 

have had the privilege of talking, the one 

clue that can guide you through the maze. 

Without this essential humility of mind, 

I have seen ardent designers go more 

hopelessly wrong, make more ludicrous 

mistakes out of an excessive enthusiasm, 

than I could have thought possible. And 

with this clue, this purposiveness in the 

back of your mind, it is possible to do 

the most unheard-of things, and find 

that they justify you triumphantly. It is 

not a waste of time to go to the simple 

fundamentals and reason from them. In 

the flurry of your individual problems, I 

think you will not mind spending half an 

hour on one broad and simple set of ideas 

involving abstract principles. 

I once was talking to a man who designed 

a very pleasing advertising type 

which undoubtedly all of you have used. 

I said something about what artists think 

about a certain problem, and he replied 

with a beautiful gesture: “Ah, madam, 

we artists do not think — we feel!” That 

same day I quoted that remark to another 

designer of my acquaintance, and he, 

being less poetically inclined, murmured: 

“I’m not feeling very well today, I think!” 

He was right, he did think; he was the 

thinking sort; and that is why he is not 

so good a painter, and to my mind ten 

times better as a typographer and type 

designer than the man who instinctively 

avoided anything as coherent as a reason. I 

always suspect the typographic enthusiast 

who takes a printed page from a book and 

frames it to hang on the wall, for I believe 

that in order to gratify a sensory delight 

he has mutilated something infinitely 

more important. I remember that T.M. 

Cleland, the famous American typographer, 

once showed me a very beautiful 

layout for a Cadillac booklet involving 

decorations in colour. He did not have the 

actual text to work with in drawing up his 

specimen pages, so he had set the lines in 

Latin. This was not only for the reason 

that you will all think of; if you have seen 

the old typefoundries’ famous Quousque 

Tandem copy (i.e. that Latin has few descenders 

and thus gives a remarkably even 

line). No, he told me that originally he had 

set up the dullest “wording” that he could 

find (I dare say it was from Hansard), and 

yet he discovered that the man to whom 

he submitted it would start reading and 

making comments on the text. I made 

some remark on the mentality of Boards 

of Directors, but Mr Cleland said, “No: 

you’re wrong; if the reader had not been 

practically forced to read — if he had not 

seen those words suddenly imbued with 

glamour and significance — then the 

25

"The book typographer has the job 

of erecting a window between the 

reader inside the room and that 

landscape which is the author’s 

words." 

layout would have been a failure. Setting 

it in Italian or Latin is only an easy way 

of saying ‘This is not the text as it will 

appear.’” 

Let me start my specific conclusions 

with book typography, because that contains 

all the fundamentals, and then go on 

to a few points about advertising. 

The book typographer has the job of 

erecting a window between the reader 

inside the room and that landscape 

which is the author’s words. He may put 

up a stained-glass window of marvellous 

beauty, but a failure as a window; that is, 

he may use some rich superb type like text 

gothic that is something to be looked at, 

not through. Or he may work in what I 

call transparent or invisible typography. I 

have a book at home, of which I have no 

visual recollection whatever as far as its 

typography goes; when I think of it, all 

I see is the Three Musketeers and their 

comrades swaggering up and down the 

streets of Paris. The third type of window 

is one in which the glass is broken 

into relatively small leaded panes; and 

this corresponds to what is called “fine 

printing” today, in that you are at least 

conscious that there is a window there, 

and that someone has enjoyed building 

it. That is not objectionable, because of 

a very important fact which has to do 

with the psychology of the subconscious 

mind. That is that the mental eye focuses 

through type and not upon it. The type 

which, through any arbitrary warping of 

design or excess of “colour,” gets in the way 

of the mental picture to be conveyed, is a 

bad type. Our subconsciousness is always 

afraid of blunders (which illogical setting, 

tight spacing and too-wide unleaded lines 

can trick us into), of boredom, and of 

officiousness. The running headline that 

keeps shouting at us, the line that looks 

like one long word, the capitals jammed 

together without hair-spaces — these 

mean subconscious squinting and loss of 

mental focus. 

And if what I have said is true of book 

printing, even of the most exquisite limited 

editions, it is fifty times more obvious 

in advertising, where the one and only 

justification for the purchase of space is 

that you are conveying a message — that 

you are implanting a desire, straight into 

the mind of the reader. It is tragically easy 

to throw away half the reader-interest of 

an advertisement by setting the simple 

and compelling argument in a face which 

is uncomfortably alien to the classic 

reasonableness of the book-face. Get 

attention as you will by your headline, 

and make any pretty type pictures you 

like if you are sure that the copy is useless 

as a means of selling goods; but if you are 

happy enough to have really good copy to 

work with, I beg you to remember that 

thousands of people pay hard-earned 

money for the privilege of reading quietly 

set book-pages, and that only your wildest 

ingenuity can stop people from reading a 

really interesting text. 

Printing demands a humility of mind, 

for the lack of which many of the fine 

arts are even now floundering in self-conscious 

and maudlin experiments. There 

is nothing simple or dull in achieving 

the transparent page. Vulgar ostentation 

is twice as easy as discipline. When you 

realise that ugly typography never effaces 

itself; you will be able to capture beauty as 

the wise men capture happiness by aiming 

at something else. The ‘stunt typographer’ 

learns the fickleness of rich men who hate 

to read. Not for them are long breaths held 

over serif and kern, they will not appreciate 

your splitting of hair- spaces. Nobody 

(save the other craftsmen) will appreciate 

half your skill. But you may spend endless 

years of happy experiment in devising that 

crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold 

the vintage of the human mind. 

26 

Printing should be invisible


Editorial: 

Design Rationale 

by Shane Jenkins 

Design is a process by which 

typography, imagery and colour 

are combined to visually convey a 

message or purpose, to tell a story, to 

advertise and to emphasise meaning 

through several mediums such as 

print, web, mobile or motion. Design 

through visual communication can 

evoke emotions and sway behaviours 

of individuals or groups from wide 

and varied demographics. By understanding 

targeted groups, designers 

can create more targeted campaigns. 

Ultimately, design is very subjective 

and will not attract 100 per cent 

approval from any targeted audience, 

which I believe is a good thing. It 

would be frightfully boring if we all 

were predictable and approving of the 

same content and designs. 

Task 

Create a magazine publication 

highlighting several weeks’ assignment 

work for Typography and 

Layout unit. 

Target Audience 

I am targeting the 18-year-old and 

above designer demographic (both 

male and female). I designed the 

magazine for this audience (beginner 

through to highly-experienced 

designers) to generate discussion on 

27

Editorial: Design Rationale 

design choices. Due to vastly different 

professional and life experience levels 

across my audience, the feedback I 

could receive would be wildly varied, 

which is exciting. 

Topic 

I have chosen to create a magazine 

utilising classic serif and sans serif 

fonts that portrays both style and 

sophistication, while maintaining a 

modern edge. I have a love of photography, 

so I have also used large 

imagery and solid colours along with 

occasional overlays to subtly break up 

page styling without intrusion into 

the article. 

Research 

I have chosen a sans serif typeface 

in the form of Simplicita to portray 

elegance and style with a sense of 

modernism. It portrays an adulthood 

inviting new artists to the world of 

design, and is welcoming to ‘familiar 

faces’. I have kept with clean lines 

and colours which makes it mature 

without being too old, though it does 

move the target away from the younger 

teens as it does not have a playful 

grungy undertone. 

I have also chosen a decorative font 

called Blenny. This is a large thick and 

playful font to contrast Semplicita but 

28


29 

it does feel as though it is from the 

same era. It tones down the magazine 

and does not make it overly serious, 

appealing to a younger audience. 

Adobe Caslon,a serif font has been 

chosen for the majority of the body 

text throughout the magazine to keep 

consistency, and it makes reading of 

the magazine easier. 

I have used photographs to engage 

the reader with the topic. Sometimes 

a message can be hidden in an image. 

I envisaged the magazine to be glossy 

and attractive, and a product that 

people would be drawn towards. It is 

the type of magazine that could stay 

on a coffee table for an indefinite period 

of time, and no matter the year or 

season it would still appear relevant. 

Consequently, I aimed for large double 

page-spread imagery that related 

to the article. The photography I have 

used will make people linger, not only 

reading the words of the article, but 

investigating the photographs themselves. 

As such, I hope the content, 

layout and typography will generate 

further conversation, either about the 

topic or picture itself, and consideration 

to the choices I applied. 

For the article on ampersands, I 

used large fonts of differing sizes and 

families to break up the background 

and further advertise the many and 

differing ampersands to make it 

reinforce the topic. To break the 

monochromatic article, I felt punching 

a solid colour would do this, and 

yellow the brightest of colours in the 

spectrum really grabs attention. It 

is reported that yellow is the most 

noticeable to the human eye and it 

means happiness and optimism and 

signifies communication, intellect 

and imagination (Color Psychology, 

2017). So, if someone decides to flick 

through the pages it will more likely 

be the yellow page that most people 

will notice and decide to stop on the 

page with the sudden dramatic punch 

of colour and investigate the contents.

I have utilised a similar strategy 

with the colour blue further into the 

magazine. To add another element to 

the page I used a solid colour overlay, 

though it was a subtler addition. This 

blue influences and appears to change 

the colour of the grey background to 

a darker shade of the blue. It changes 

the properties of the article entirely 

and no longer feels grey. Blue is one 

of the most popular colours and psychologically 

it suggests peace, clarity, 

and serenity. It is also considered a 

cold colour; therefore it helps slow 

the heart rate and breathing, and is a 

great colour to aid in meditation. Blue 

is also associated with intelligence 

(Color Psychology, 2017). I feel this 

combination works well by hopefully 

portraying intellect and elegance with 

the calming influence of the blue. 

I was also cognisant of not continually 

using repeated background 

colours or image types throughout 

the magazine. For my article entitled 

Printing Should be Invisible, I used a 

dark grey background for two double 

page spreads. This dark colour has 

a sense of elegance, sophistication 

and maturity. Grey also invokes 

a feeling of intellect and modesty 

(Color Psychology, 2017). Over all, 

the article has a dark and deep feel 

with contrasting white text. Again, I 

wanted large imagery to engage and 

maintain interest in the reader, but I 

also felt it was the inverse of the black 

and white page. 

Throughout the magazine, I have 

tried to break some articles up to 

flow across a double page spread to 

incorporate large imagery with small 

interest pieces to guide readers across 

a page and continue the article. I 

employed the same reasoning behind 

the use of colour on the page to instil 

a sense of maturity and elegance to 

the page. 

Columns have been closely restricted 

to 30 plus characters in width to 

assist with readability. If the line is 

too long or too short this can make 

the article difficult to read. According 

to (Nikola, 2013), “[t]oo wide columns 

will be harder for the eye to follow and 

the reader will get lost in them more 

easily. Too narrow columns can cause 

the structure of the text to break up 

and annoy the reader because he will 

have to constantly skip from one row 

to another. Both of these problems 

reduce readability.” 

I investigated other design magazines 

such as desktop (desktop - The 

culture of design, 2017), novum (novum 

- world of graphic design, 2017) 

and idpure (IDPURE - the swiss 

magazine of visual creation - graphic 

design/typography, 2017). There was 

commonality with the publications 

despite being from around the world, 

and that was big colour and big imagery 

due to the fact that the majority 

of the content is about showcasing. 

A 12 by 12 grid system was used to 

provide consistent sizing and rhythm 

to the structure of the pages, and 

aided in the placement of content and 

imagery. I have also utilised a 12pt 

baseline grid generally using between 

a 9 and 12pt font size for the body 

text. Article titles and other details 

have been sized as required. 

Conclusion 

I wanted this magazine to be a 

magazine that can stand the test of 

time: using fonts and photography 

that are visually appealing, classic, yet 

modern. I wanted it to stand up and 

speak to new and veteran designers, 

and engage or evoke a conversation 

whether it be positive or negative. The 

use of colour and photography was 

deliberate; designed to evoke emotion 

from my readers, and to draw them in 

to the articles. Importantly, the magazine 

was designed to be a talk piece. 

30 

Editorial: Design Rationale


31

References 

References 

English Oxford Dictionaries. (2017, February 17). What is the origin of the 

ampersand (&)? Retrieved from English Oxford Living Dictionaries: https:// 

en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/origin-of-ampersand 

Dictionary.com. (2017, March 30). humectant. Retrieved from Dictionary.com: 

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/humectant 

History of Ink and It's Development. (2017, March 9). Retrieved from The Real 

Colour Wheel: http://www.realcolorwheel.com/ink.htm 

VisualGraphic. (2013, March 18). the History of Ink. Retrieved from Visually: 

http://visual.ly/history-ink 

Color Psychology. (2017, March 29). Blue - Blue color psychology and meaning. 

Retrieved from Color Psychology - The Psychology of Colors and Their 

Meanings: https://www.colorpsychology.org/blue/ 

Color Psychology. (2017, March 29). Gray - Gray color psychology and meaning. 

Retrieved from Color Psychology - The Psychology of Colors and Their 

Meanings: https://www.colorpsychology.org/gray/ 

Color Psychology. (2017, March 29). Yellow - Yellow color psychology and 

meaning. Retrieved from Color Psychology - The Psychology of Colors and 

Their Meanings: https://www.colorpsychology.org/yellow/ 

desktop - The culture of design. (2017, March 29). Retrieved from desktop: 

https://desktopmag.com.au 

IDPURE - the swiss magazine of visual creation - graphic design/typography. 

(2017, March 29). Retrieved from IDPURE: http://www.idpure.ch 

Nikola. (2013, July 19). Columns pt. 2: Line lengths and column width. 

Retrieved from Magazine Designing: http://www.magazinedesigning.com/ 

columns-pt-2-line-lengths-and-column-width/ 

novum - world of graphic design. (2017, March 29). Retrieved from novum: 

http://novum.graphics 

All photographs used within this publication fall under the Creative 

Commons CC0 licence. That means all photographs are free from copyright 

law, can be used for any legal purpose and may be copied, modified and 

distributed even for commercial purposes without asking permission. 

32

Typography Magazine Concept

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