Designing the Content

The front cover is pretty simple and is a nice introduction to the theme and the aesthetics of the typeface. The opening page needs to give the reader a basic overview to back up the theme and purpose of the typeface.

It was also the time to set up character styles to ensure that the book is consistent throughout. I started with the simple Header and Body Copy, which is demonstrated in the example on the page.

 

I started to transfer over the copy from the posters I created, using the page to page format I described in the previous post:

I think the point size could be much bigger. As long as it is a multiple of 14 it will fit the grid. So I will bump the 19/28 point size up to 42pt to see how that looks:

30/42 pt.

Definitely an improvement. I'll bump it up to 56 to see if that looks any better.

42/56 pt.

Definitely more clear on the page, but I think it may be a little overkill. If I set the standard demonstration point size to 30/42 then I think it will work along a range of tests, such as the tracking one that I took out of my posters.

I also need to think about adding glyphs, numerals and accented characters to show off the range of my typeface. I started by adding the glyphs:

I don't think it really works. The characters are identical in both regular and alternative, so there's not much point putting them on both pages. I think accented characters would be more fitting in this situation.

This works much better. There is a clear contrast and it goes with the letterforms well, demonstrating the range of foreign characters that Nutharc has. I just need to work out what to do with the glyphs...

I think it would be good to include some of the typographic works as part of the specimen books, as filler pages to keep things fresh and interesting. The glyph page suits this perfectly as I only need one page to demonstrate this: