TYPE

Type

Gill Sans for Penguin Books

When creating my Penguin book covers I originally decided to use Helvetica for all the text, due to its simplicity and versatility. However, after finishing my cover illustration and putting the cover together, I realised my book covers didn't look right. The type when in Helvetica looked out of place and not as if the book cover was a Penguin cover. 

So instead of using my own choice of typeface I did some research into Penguin covers and found that the typeface used for the covers is Gill Sans - with the title in bold on both the spine and front cover. Changing the typeface to Gill Sans immediately brung my design together and from then on it looked as if it could be a proper Penguin cover. 

When creating my exhibition poster I originally came up with this design. The typeface I chose to use was Futura - a bold and clean sans serif typeface that I felt would allow the twisted shape of the paper object to speak for itself. I liked the design but again felt the poster did not belong to the Tate. 

After tweaking the design to include the important information like venue, date and entry fee etc, I decided to use the existing appearance and layout of the other Tate posters. By altering the typeface from Futura to Tate Regular the appearance came together and the poster had that individual Tate identity to it. The Tate typeface is a custom typeface, meaning that not anyone can use it, but I managed to find a similar one and I think the overall poster works really well. 

These initial struggles have lead me to appreciate type more and identify one of its major roles in graphic design. Typefaces have been an integral part of creating a solid visual identity for the longest time and some typefaces have became so synonymous with certain brands that to see it used in other context can become almost uncomfortable.

Typefaces can make or break a brand's identity - and from these experiences I can see how vital they are in portraying a brand successfully. In both the Penguin covers and the poster I have had to use a particular typeface in order for the designs to look successful and as if they belong to the brand. These typefaces are such major key elements of Penguin and Tate that using any other looked wrong, and it was only once I discovered the typefaces I should be using that I liked the eventual outcome.