FMP: Visual Research Type Specimen Book

As part of my final outcome for this project I want to make a supporting booklet that explains the meaning behind the symbols to the viewer. This point has been brought up a few times to within tutorials about how we will know what the symbols mean and I feel like a supporting booklet is the best way to do this. In the sport there is a manual called the code of points where coaches and gymnasts can find rules about the sport everything from leotards to body movements and how much they are worth in routines. Although this booklet will only contain the symbols around body movements and handling I thought that it could also be a reimagined code of points.

In order to get some visual inspiration for this I thought that it would be interesting to look at some type specimen books as they symbols could be a typeface made out of glyphs. When researching I looked at various work found on Behance. All of these books have provided me with inspiration in terms of layout. Although I will be using symbols rather than letterforms I found that some of the layouts within the project DIN type specimen book could also work with the symbols that I am looking at. The spread with the large type creates an interesting pace for the book and is something that I am going to think about when designing the book. Furthermore, it was interesting to see that this was design in B4 format as I was thinking about designing a slightly smaller publication as part of my other projects this year I have been working on larger formats.

From looking at these booklets I have thought about how I can maybe bring the idea of movement into the book as well as that is the premise of the project showing the unique sport and the movements within it. I have thought about how the symbols could move through some spread almost as though they are referring to the animated routine version which accompanies the booklet.

As well as looking on Behance for inspiration I came across some other books on websites such as design blog. This project Felice The Book by Nootype I thought again had really interesting pace throughout the spreads that was shown. I think this is going to be important as my symbols do look similar however, with the change of layout this might help to keep the reader engaged. I also felt that the pages were there is just one stand alone letterform on the page could be really nice for my project as I can see the symbols being grouped and having one symbol stand alone might be interesting again to change up this idea of pace.

While thinking about pace of the book – the book will contain some photography which shows part of the body movement and apparatus movement and what symbol relates to it. This will also help to ensure that the pace changes throughout and I’m not just keeping the same layouts throughout. I also want to think about this idea of layers and the 4 layers which I have identified within a routine – which has stemmed from my research into dance notation.

When doing research I came across this piece by Muskat Design who used ballet dance notation as a visual language for an exhibition design. This is similar in the sense that it’s taking a language from using the sport an reimagining in and repurposing it in order to tell a story of the sport. Although it is slightly different project I thought how the symbols were all shown together was visually interesting. Having them shown all together and on photographs showed me that this style of layout could also work.