Typesetting - Study Task

The task:
- Read and analyse the text
- Generate ideas, thinking about how the text could be presented
- Typeset and layout the text to communicate a particular idea/concept
- Produce a range of outcomes that effect the way we read the text in a variety of ways

Consider:
- Parameters such as grid, line length, paragraph style, spacing, hierarchy, alignment etc
- Work within these parameters, or challenge them
- It is not about the typeface choice, but the use and arrangement of type itself

The text:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens — Chapter 1, Page 1

My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip. 

I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister - Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my rst fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, “Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,” I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To ve little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of ve little brothers of mine - who gave up trying to get

a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle - I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.

Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the riverwound, twenty miles of the sea. My rst most vivid and broadimpression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. 

Analysis:

- he didn't know his parents

- loneliness/he has no family

- father was "square, stout, dark" with "curly hair"

- mother was "freckled and sickly"

- he lived in a "marsh country, down by the river, twenty miles of the sea"

- his father, mother and brothers tombstones mentioned

Responses:

This typesetting is in response to the quote from the text "Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the riverwound, twenty miles of the sea." and the quote "raw afternoon towards evening". I created a river within the paragraph to physically represent the river that he was speaking of, the river ends at the end of the paragraph, and seems to lead into a white space created by the shortness of the next paragraph. This was done to visualise the river leading into the sea. The very first paragraph was made into a somewhat circular/oval shape, this was done to represent the sun, and the flatness of the circular/oval shape/sun was done to represent it setting into the sea. This is in response to the second quote.

This typesetting is in response to the main character 'Pip' and how he is lonely as he has no family. He mentions his own nickname 'Pip' three times, and the typesetting design I did was to separate his name from all the rest of the text as much as possible, this is to represent his loneliness. I made the name 'Pip' much bigger than the rest of the text as well, this was done again to represent his loneliness, and how he may feel as if he himself is the only thing that is important to him, as he has no one else to care for or love. The rest of the text is in a very normal and bland typeset, this was done to show again that he only has himself in the world and therefore the world around him is very boring to him.

This typesetting is in response to the description of the letters on the tombstones of his family members. I used typesetting to visualise each descriptive word he gives with what he is describing. His father being "square" I made the letters all capital and evenly spaced to seem square-like, "stout" I made all the letters lowercase and quite squeeze short, "dark" I made the letter bold and quite tight together, and "curly" I made the letters italic and small. His mother being "freckled" I made the letters lowercase and quite spaced out, so much that they fall into the next line to resemble the randomness of freckles, and "sickly" I made the letters small, thin and below the main line to resemble weakness and lifelessness of being sick. His brothers all had "five little stone lozengers...arranged in a neat row" for which I did all the letters of 'stone' as capital, bold, evenly spaced and above the main line to show their unity and uniqueness.