Thursday, November 11, 2010

Kopecki - Bodoni

History & Bio
When you think of simple elegance, you think of Bodoni. In the early 20th century Italy’s Giambattista Bodoni’s elegant, hairlined typefaces were favored by many. He created 140 roman fonts and more than 115 titling and script fonts. Bodoni’s fonts were meant to be appreciated as works of art, rather than mere pieces of communication. While Bodoni’s fonts were often copied, revived and interpreted, not all were done with success.
The first revival his work was created by Morris Fuller Benton 1908- 1915 for the American Type Founders Company. It was Benton’s first design as the company’s director of typographic development. After much research, the revival Bodoni typeface became a relatively stout interpretation of Bodoni’s letters. Benton tried to choose the best qualities of letter forms from examples of books printed by Bodoni. His design was a success that has been carried out in the tradition of typeface-design emulation and served as the foundation for virtually every new Bodoni for years to come.
Bodoni, the typeface, is one of the first of the Didone genre. The fonts were thought to be the first of the modern fonts. This genre is also primarily associated with Didot, but has been applied to both contemporary and revival typefaces. The Didone genre is characterized by pronounced contrast in weight between vertical strokes and horizontal hairlines that emphasize the vertical stress of the letters. I find it modern because it includes both bracketed and unbracketed serifs within the same font. These qualities allow for extended typeface families. When used, text takes on a sophisticated demeanor. Reinterpretations of Bodoni by type foundries in both Europe and the United States have led to a wide range of variants of its original form. Bodoni itself has seven forms. These forms incorporate a wide range of widths and weights, including ultra bold and thin faces.

Concept
My main idea is to go off the fact that the Bodoni font began in Italy. I'd like to theme the booklet as an Italian restaurant. My first idea is to do a pizzaria, but call it "Bodoniria." The history would be labled "About Bodoni" like it is a family that began the restaurant. Other titles in the booklet would be Pizza for the styles, sizes/ toppings for the uses, ingrdients for the bibliography. I would use the checkered tablecloth through out the book and put "Bon Appetit" on the back. My second idea is to go with a more formal look by using elegant swirls to outline and underline different sectoins of the book. The history would again be labled as about Bodoni, styles- entrees, uses- wines, bibliography- desserts. In the entree section I would put the styles on a server to take on the look of a sophisticated restaurant.
I am not yet sure which idea I like most.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks...I'm hungry now :-). All this talk about Italian food! Formal or casual is your choice. Either idea will work. I would go with the one that you have more ideas for and are more excited about doing. Great research, Genevieve!

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  2. haha! ok, I'll figure it out. I could go for some pizza now too.

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