OUGD603 - Univers - Cover Design

3mm grey board - Rough, organic textures to communicate process
The hard cover will protect the original prints whilst keeping them flat.

Although we haven't been able to print using the wood type, we intend to use it for dry debossing into grey board. This will create subtle indents in the cover, reinstating the experiential nature of printed matter.

Began by sorting the variety of weights and styles:

One concept was to deboss each character from 'univers' in every weight and size to provide an overview of the entire typeface.

We realised that we were missing some characters from using it in the dark room.

In order to demonstrate the variety of weights and styles we created numerous typesetting compositions:

Created 7 final type compositions and manually set them onto the A2 sheet of grey board:

We made sure that we set the type in reverse formation so that when it has been debossed it will be the right way round.

Test Press 1:

Applied a lot of pressure to the greyboard using the albion press, however the greyboard was too dense which meant their was little indentation.

Test Press 2:

To overcome this we decided to soak the greyboard in water for 1 minute to soften it. Once the greyboard was removed we blanched it to remove most of the excess water.

Results:

Some of the type got stuck to the greyboard which meant the greyboard was torn. To overcome this in the future I should add a layer of tissue paper between the woodtype and the greyboard.

Waited 24 hours for the greyboard to dry. Unfortunately as the greyboard dried it began to warp and crack. The greyboard also expanded which meant the debossing wasn't as deep as it was before.

We cut binding holes and put the cover onto the publication:

The debossing is clearly visible with a lot of natural light, however in dull light it is barely visible.
The warped greyboard doesn't add the structure and stability that we intended therefore we looked for an alternative solution.

Alternative

To further reinstate process we came up with the idea of imbedding the laser cut type forms into the publication. For the cover we used the large 'U' as it is a definitive character throughout our work. Although this doesn't add protection to the publication, it invites the reader to turn the typeforms over to reveal the content below:

Here Ed and I showed how we can problem solve effectively. I am really pleased with the outcome so far.