Visual Hierarchy
Communication Design Mini, Fall 2020
For this project, we were tasked to complete a variety of systematic exercises in order to explore typographic variables and clarify a message based on content hierarchy.
9/10/2020–9/14/2020
Part 1: Hierarchical Exercises
I was assigned to the City Theatre list of events, and I proceeded to research that assignment in order to understand their mission and what the event actually is.
I learned that City Theatre is a Pittsburgh-based organization founded in 1975 whose purpose is “to provide an artistic home for the development and production of contemporary plays of substance and ideas that engage and challenge a diverse audience”. The theater is usually comprised of two theaters — the mainstage and the more intimate Hamburg Studio Theater. They began as a touring company (then known as City Players). By 1980 they'd established a permanent residence at UPitt. In the 80’s they opened up a new theater to seat 115 people. They separated themselves from UPitt in 1987, becoming a not-for-profit theater organization in their own right. They then moved into their current permanent location in 1991, the renovated former Bingham United Methodist Church.
Obviously, in this time of coronavirus, opportunities for live theater to be performed are few and far between. In response, City Theatre has organized The Drive-in Arts Festival, located at Hazelwood Green, a new open green on the Monongahela river. At this festival, attendees will, as in the name, drive-in and stay in their cars to enjoy a variety of live performances. The festival lasts 12 nights, and features comedy, jazz, dance, classical music, poetry and more.
Three adjectives to describe City Theatre
Artistic, Accessable, Eye-catching — change? innovative, community-driven
For this first step of the project, we were asked to play around with 4 different exercises, creating about 3 responses to each. Our overarching constraints were:
- 8.5 x 11 inch paper, vertical orientation.
- Content in text form, flush left, rag right; this is fixed and cannot be changed.
- Neue Haas Grotesk typeface (Light 45, Roman 55, Medium 65, Bold 75) — 17pts with leading of 12.
The exercises:
1 Stroke weights
Select any two stroke weights and apply to entire lines of type based on content hierarchy.
2 Linespacing
Insert one linespace (the return key) between any two lines of type, apply based on content hierarchy.
3 Horizontal shift: two flush-left margins
Shift lines of type horizontally left or right, using the tab key, resulting in two flush-left margins, apply based on content hierarchy.
4 Horizontal shift: three flush-left margins
Shift lines of type horizontally left or right, using the tab key, resulting in three flush-left margins, apply based on content hierarchy.
I tried to approach the exercises from a macro view: what needs to be the most emphasized? What should first catch the viewer’s attention?
1. The Event Title
2. Dates
3. Performers
4. Presenters
(Looking back on this decision, I think the performer names could also be valid to swap the emphasis of dates and performer names). Keeping this in mind, I began to tackle the exercises.
1 Stroke weights
I’d say the most effective of these three is the centermost iteration. It emphasizes the individual dates as well as the title of the event in a way that I think would make sense to me as a viewer. Here, I chose to use Neue Haas Grotesk Roman 55 paired with Neue Haas Grotesk Medium 65. To me, it seemed like the stroke weights were different enough to create contrast, but not so much that it was distracting.
2 Linespacing
Here, I generally chose to group clusters of text by the dates on which events were happening. I think the first of these three iterations was the most successful. It groups events with their dates in a way that isn’t confusing.
3 Horizontal shift: two flush-left margins
Here, I once again grouped by date. I’d say that the iteration on the left is most effective, since it manages to also place some emphasis on the event title and separate it from the running dates of the festival.
4 Horizontal shift: three flush-left margins
Once again, I grouped by date. Here, I think things got a bit complicated — I would’ve liked to somehow separate the “presented by” but one line (“INES presented by…”) became an obstacle, since the performer was listed alongside the presenter. Out of these three, I’m not super psyched by any, but I’d say that maybe the one of the left was most effective, though I’d like for it to also have some separation between the event title and the running dates.
9/15/2020–9/16/2020
Part 2: Color & Scale
In class, we began combining multiple of these exercises together.
We’ve been tasked to continue these explorations with color and size changes.
5 Color & everything before
Start with a final solution to one of the previous four exercises;
explore how one color can help complement your hierarchical decisions. The goal is wide and bold exploration.
6 Size change & stroke weights
Select any two stroke weights. Use a change of point size to emphasize hierarchical differences. Be brave and try much larger and much smaller sizes.
As stated above, consider changing the order of the information, as well as the position of chunks of text.
I started off exercise 5 by collecting color samples from magazines I had on hand (I found the most success in an issue of Entertainment Weekly). I cut out and arranged color schemes to use as inspiration for my text layouts.
I then proceeded to apply these color schemes to the text layouts I had previously made.
I started off slowly, only adding spot color among the black text where I though it would create the most powerful emphasis. What needs to be the strongest to creat the most effective herieachy?
Then I tried applying color to the background as well, with some simplistic monochromatic color schemes. Here, I also tried to consider what kind of mood the colors created — I felt like the use of the pink & red made me feel very different from the use of the green on the right.
In the option to the left, I tried to emphasize the title, as well as the website. In order to boost contrast I used white. I used that same setup on the right, but changed the colors to be more saturated. The contrast isn’t quite as effective, but I think it was a useful exercise. I feel like it’s the sort of thing that would catch your eye from far away, but when you get close, it’s a bit hard to read.
I moved on to exercise 6 — scale. I decided to push the contrast a bit more with the two different stroke weights, so changed my use of 65 Medium to 75 Bold.
On the left, I used 17pt along with 30pt type. I tried to push that contrast even more on the right, changing to use 12pt and 36pt type. I also started to play around with the position of the text.
I played around even more with the positioning, starting out by printing out the page and moving around chunks of text in my sketchbook.
I then applied some of those ideas to my inDesign document.
9/17/2020–9/21/2020
Part 3: Images
In class, we discussed that we shouldn’t be fearful of breaking the grid or breaking the outline of the page itself. I played around on inDesign in response, trying to free up my placement of the text even more, and really push the scale.
I began to play around with incorporating copyright-free images into this design. I tried to find images that evoked an interesting mood, and focused on subjects related to the content of the event, without feeling too literal.
On Sunday morning, I met one-on-one with Vicki, and she gave me feedback on my work so far. We discussed how it might be more effective to include humans in my images, since that one of the major appeals of the event — it’s something social in a time of social distancing. She also provided me with some images she found of related events at Hazelwood Green.
We also discussed shrinking down the scale of the text describing the events in order to let the photo shine, as well as mocking up a naturalistic version of the text, similar to how I mocked it up in my sketchbook while playing around with different ideas.
We also discussed how I’m planning on attending a concert tomorrow night with a similar set-up to the festival, here in VT. I plan on bringing my camera with to take photos, and later on I can use some of those photos in my work.
9/22/2020–9/24/2020
Part 4: Finishing Up
In class, I received feedback about my work. Here are some of the things that were said:
- Looks like a magazine cover
- Consider making the website horizontal — might be more legible
- Make the text describing the events bigger
- Consider playing around with adding more depth to the page & activating more of that negative space
After attending the concert on Tuesday night, I decided to apply the pictures I had taken to my existing work. I liked the mood that they evoked, and I felt as though it was appropriate for the event.
I tried out some more graphic and colorful options for using my new photos, but in the end, I decided to stick with the same sort of idea that I was using beforehand, since I thought it just ended up being more effective.
I feel like the colors create a very calming mood and almost feel like a return to normal in some sense. People aren’t heavily featured, but there are still figures in frame. I also took this photo with the idea of the poster in mind, so I left a lot of negative space in the photograph so that it could be filled with text.
The response during our final critique was positive, specifically that people liked my new image, the balance of the layout, and the way the title flirts with the edges of the page.
I learned quite a lot from this project, and going forward I definitely will keep hierarchy in mind when I approach a layout.
