OUGD603 - Farm - Vincent Steer - 'Print Design and Layout'

Vencent Steer has been highlighted within the brief:

2018 is an important year for ISTD – the society celebrates its 90th anniversary. Founded in 1928 by Vincent Steer, ISTD has pioneering roots. From as early as 1911 he described himself as an ‘advertising typographer’ on his business card. His background in printing had given him the opportunity to observe the trade in America and he astutely recognised the need and potential for the creative typographer’s skills in a world where most design was carried out through compositors’ layouts.

You are tasked with choosing a subject(s) that could be deemed an anniversary from the past, present and/or future and translating it into a piece of typographic wonderment that would make Vincent Steer proud. 

Therefore I focused my research onto Steer in order to increase my chances of producing an outcome relevant to the brief and impress the judges.

Research
In 1934, Steer wrote Printing Design and Layout with a foreword by Beatrice Warde. This book was referred to as "A Complete Course in Typography" and the "Typographer's Bible".

The historic text has been left behind due to the digital age providing designers with the ability to design digitally, however I intend to explore Steer's typesetting and compositors manual in order to generate a unique aesthetic.

Basic Strokes for Formal Writing:
Demonstrates the variety of lines used by the lettering pen:

Skeleton forms of Roman alphabet:

Interesting to see how the type of composed from simple geometric shapes.

• O, Q, C, G and D are formed on the basis of circle
• T, A, V, M and W occupy the area of a perfect square
• H, N, X, Z and U use narrow square forms but are slightly narrowed to preserve the optical effect of a square. 
• L, E, F, K and Y occupy the area of two small squares
• S,P,B,R are all composed from a figure of 8. 
• I and J are simple strokes

Formal pen lettering:

Formal italic alphabet drawn with pen:

Ornamnets

My research into artdeco ornaments lead me to observe Steer's examples and comments.

Egyptian:

Zig-zag - water

Roman:

Borders and ornaments based on Byzantine motifs:

Variations of the zig-zag:

The borders and ornaments can be used to add decorative features to my composition.
Borders can be used to show the map of fields/add structure