Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Fat Face: Justify each line to the same width and stack weights for contrast
- Type
- Set in Fat Face's manner (One or two words filling the sheet, spaced as tight as they will go), and let Wood Type's lettering (Change face and width by line, choosing widths to fit each word) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Fat Face's material (Cheap stock, black alone or black and red, ink scuff left showing); bring in exactly one thing from Wood Type (Firm impression showing grain, few colors, chips and wear left in).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Type Classification, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Fat Face At small sizes the hairline horizontals disappear and the letters collapse into thick blocks that can no longer be told apart.
- Wood Type Multiplying faces line by line without ranking them flattens the order of emphasis, and no one can tell what to read first.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Fat Face (Style, c. 1803–) and its accent from Wood Type (Technique, 1827–). Structural cues: Swollen stems; Hairline horizontals; Tight spacing; Poster scale. Accent cues, used sparingly: Gigantic sizes; Extreme condensing and extending; Carved ornament; Ink scuff and material grain. Composition: Justify each line to the same width and stack weights for contrast. Type and lettering: One or two words filling the sheet, spaced as tight as they will go. Let one material quality come from the second style: Firm impression showing grain, few colors, chips and wear left in. Mood: Exhilaration, Play, Nostalgia. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Fat Face c. 1803– / Style / Type Classification
Advertising swelled the didone's stems to extremes. The result was the earliest display type, built to shout across the street.
- Wood Type 1827– / Technique / Type Classification
Gigantic letters cut from wood for broadside posters created the display vocabulary of extreme condensation, extension and ornament.
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