After having Researched Helvetica in Week 1 (Week 01 - Type Specimen Screen Research), I began to brainstorm ideas for imagery I could use in my type specimen screen.

After brainstorming, I began doing really quick sketches of ideas. These are more for me to begin to put imagery together rather than to produce any final design and I intend to pick the ones I like to develop them further.

I selected 6 of my sketches to develop further and then sketched them again considering proper shape, proportions, and composition.

These first 2 ideas are homages to Massimo Vignelli’s NYC Subway signage. Each of the points or “stations” would display a letter, so i included 26 “stations” so I could fit the whole alphabet on the specimen. I really like the idea of having the subway lines run through the vertical strokes of the letter forms as i think it really binds the objects together and adds a natural flow to the pieces. I think the first sketch is the stronger one and I intend to develop it further in Figma.

Idea 3 has the letters of the alphabet form a sphere or “globe”, to show Helvetica’s world wide use. Idea 4 focuses on Helvetica’s Swiss origins, with a blocky representation of Switzerland that can form a cross attached to the H to create the Swiss flag. Idea 4 also utilises a grid system to align the letter of Helvetica, which is a further reference to Switzerland and Swiss design.

Idea 5 plays with the idea that “H is for Helvetica”, signifying its’ mass appeal and usage. Idea 6 also shows how frequently Helvetica is used, with lots of Helvetica’s floating above the main one.

After discussing with my tutor, we agreed that 1, 4, and 6 were my strongest ideas and that these were the ones I would begin to create in Figma. Below is my Figma board showing the creation of my designs and the variations of them.

https://www.figma.com/file/fzsTnyOXHmBkhaRXoSkXSJ/Untitled?node-id=0%3A1

Some parts of the designs have been changed while working on them. For idea 1, i experimented with extending the lines off the frame which i really liked and think it unifies the frame. Idea 6 has stayed largely the same, however I right aligned the text instead which i thought looked better. Idea 4 is the one which changed the most. The first major change was removing the third line and just having “Helvetica” across 2 lines with the end running off the frame. I felt this worked better as forcing it into a grid threw the kerning off and it just looked awkward. I also experimented with reducing the text to “Helvetia”, which is the name of the national personification of Switzerland. The Switzerland shape just didn’t work and looked clunky so removed it and kept it simple with just the Swiss flag running into the “H”.