OUGD505 - SB1 Development

Typeface

In order to find appropriate typeface for the outcome, it was first necessary to revisit the ways in which the genre reflects its features through the use of type. To do this meant looking at the type used on popular YouTube channels, music videos and album covers. From this, it would be easier to establish a series of styles to work from and then gain feedback on which best represents the principles of UK drill.

Starting off the investigation meant looking at the YouTube channels such as SBTV, PressPlay Media and GRM Daily

SBTV - When looking at the logo for SBTV, we can see that the tight kerning and bold letters give the logo a visual presentation of flow and consistency. The rounded forms of the letters allow for each to connect with one another. The first impressions of the logo made me think about 'flow' and 'connecting', something that can be found in both the lyrical deliverance and discussion of the channel.






Pressplay Media - Using a similar approach, Pressplay Media uses bold sans serif font to advertise the channel. Another notable feature of the channel is its use of tight kerning, which is often found in other hiphop channels.

Alternatively, GRM Daily has taken the approach that uses wider kerning and variations of weight in the letters. Originally starting off as a Grime channel, GRM Daily has adapted over recent years to include the rise of UK drill within its content. The aesthetic of GRM Daily however, has remained appropriate for all the genres it covers. The mix of black, yellow and white throughout its marketing has reflected an image of hazardous and gritty content.









In a similar way to SBTV, Link Up TV have designed a logo that joins the letters together with tight kerning, rounded letter and shortened ascenders. This also allows the letters to flow into one another in the words, similar to how lyrics in rap are put together. The use of reflection within the letters has also allowed the grey colour scheme to work well in the design. This makes the logo look as though it is shining or reflecting to the viewer.

To begin experimenting with typeface for the outcome, a series of letters were hand painted and scanned, to create an alphabet. This way the letters could be placed next to others, in order to create words in the same style as some of the existing drill designs.

The hand designed effect is commonly used for the genre and can mimic a street graffiti style.

 The letters were then arranged into words relating to the genre, to see how they might look if they were used for the outcome. In the same way, the same words were experimented with using bold fonts and tight kerning. The best options for this were Helvetica Bold, Futura Medium, Alte Haas Grotesk Bold and Built Titling.

These fonts were then experimented with in different weights and sizes, in order to determine which ones best reflected the examples that had previously been looked at.

Alte Haas Grotesk Bold gave a rough edged form to each letter, which worked well for the context as it was gritty and uneven. This made it better suited for informal application, such as cover art for a drill album.

Built Titling was also chosen, as it had similar features to the font used by Pressplay Media. Its slender letterforms worked best using italic because there were not ascenders or descenders, making the words look narrow and consistent to the eye. If this were to be pursued for the outcome, Italic or Bold Italic are likely to work best, as they provide the most legibility.


Before deciding on a particular style to use in the outcome, further experimentation was made to allow a more appropriate analysis of the fonts. For this, the fonts would be applied to an album design and then assessed by peers to see which fonts were most favourable in terms of communicating the context in which they are placed.

Applying to design context

As much of the resources for the project came from album cover designs, the idea that came to mind when testing the fonts was to create an album design in a similar way. Therefore, different elements would be combined, in order to reflect the aesthetic of UK drill design.

The example that would be used, was to create a cover design for Skengdo and AM's single, German Swerving. To start off the design, a photograph of the rap duo would be used as the base layer of the cover.
http://www.radarradio.com/blog/skengdo-am-2bunny-interview

The image was then edited to black and white and a 'pointillize' filter was applied. This was used to give the image a vintage style, like old film would. Many other designs that had previously been researched, showed a worn out or scratched surface over the designs. By using this abrasive style, it would give a gritty representation of the music.

Next, the hand painted typeface was applied to the design and changed to white, in order to contrast the dark background. From here the title of the song could be applied using a different typeface, so that the audience could distinguish between the artists and the song title.








Smaller scratch details were then also added to the design and the image was brightened in order to show this. Next the Futura title was added, which would contrast the hand designed type above it. This initial idea allowed for further tests to be made, in terms of which font would look the most appropriate.

Here we can see several different attempts at finding the best font for the cover. By allowing the audience to see a combination of different fonts together, it became clear which designs would stand out. When receiving feedback from peers, it became clear that the design that worked best was to have 'Skengdo x AM' in the rough style font. This was best paired with the Built Titling font, as it was a more uniform and legible option, especially when adding the colours of the German flag.