typo26
– Project nametypo26
– RoleBrand designer
Information designer
Wayfinder
– DateSpring 2024 – Summer 2026
– SpecsAdobe Illustrator
Abobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Each year, the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication hosts a student-led degree show to celebrate the work of graduating students. It acts as an opportunity to celebrate the work that students have completed during their time at university – but also brings together students and professional designers, exposing students to the job market and enabling us to ‘sell’ ourselves and our work.
Previous years tended to fall behind on key deadlines, particularly regarding invites, so we knew it was crucial that we have regular meetings and set deadlines as a group. Throughout the project, we held these meetings often, which we later understood to be critical for the eventual success of the project.
For the entrance sticker, we knew the following things need to be presented in a large size:
· ‘typo26’
· Directions to the student work
· Directions to the toilets
Any other, more in-depth information would be detailed on another panel further into the space of the degree show.
Our further concepts used the blocks as either directional strokes (as seen in the top option), or as decorative borders and assets. In the second example, the blocks were arranged to repeat UOR (University of Reading). However, this felt too on-the-nose, and strayed away from a more compact arrangement of the blocks.
With the UOR initials embedded into the row of blocks, the eye is drawn to the bottom where important directions can be seen.We were struggling to pick an option where the arrangement of blocks did not look either too top-heavy or too bottom-heavy. This was when we decided to take the pattern from our invite for the entrance sticker. This provides invitees with a familiar design and utilises our pattern in multiple formats (invite, signage, and email). This design also created space at the top for signposting where the display of work and toilets are.
As the windows are likely to be the first piece of branding that visitors see of the degree show, capturing the identity of typo26 was crucial. During the early stages of designing, the extent to how expressive we wanted the windows to be needed to be established. Consequently, this led to designs which were more out of the box, allowing us to pull back on the aspects which we deemed as not sitting appropriately enough within the brand guidelines. Another consideration was whether we wanted to use a material other than opaque sticker paper, being aware sunlight was going to hit the surface of the windows and cast the designs onto the floor. Opportunities to integrate special finishes, like iridescence, to maximise the effect of stained-glass window visual style belonging to earlier window concepts were considered, however we felt that these sat too far apart from the appearance of the other deliverables as the translucent material compromises the colours in our brand guidelines.
Subsequently to exploring the many appearances the windows could take, we explored keeping it simple, exclusively featuring typography paired with a solid background beneath. Since the beginning of the design process, each window consistently had one letter applied to it due to the name of the degree show and number of windows being the same. The solid background was chosen, as it would allow the letters to shine directly onto the floor behind with no abstraction.
This is the final window design that we decided upon. We agreed that the word ‘typo’ solely being spelt across the windows was overly confusing due to the full name of the degree show being ‘typo26’. Therefore, we created a pattern from the typo26 guidelines
This is the map placed down the corridor leading up to thr student’s work. This was crucial, as a lot of people visiitng the degree show would not have been to the department of Typography & Graphic Communication before.
Unlike previous years, The dividing sticker between T3 and T4 had to make it clear that in one room was the MA showcase, and in the other was the continued undergraduate work. We wanted to keep this simple as to not distract from the displays of work in the exhibition area. We utilised the arrows within the Figtree typeface. This was useful was it helped the sticker look visually cohesive and meant that we did not need to create directional arrows of our own.
With the additional space in T-Spur to put up branded signage, other panels were created in addition to the large entrance sticker. Inspired by a previous set of window stickers (for the initial typeface-heavy concept) that display the alphabet in order, with the characters ‘H’ and ‘I’ highlighted to welcome visitors, the same approach was given with the established typo26 brand for the left-hand wall as you enter T-Spur. Small experimentations regarding colour and placement were made to ensure the right combination was selected for print production.
For social media outputs, we focused on promoting the degree show through Instagram. Looking back at previous degree show accounts, we took inspiration from layouts while finding ways to create more engagement with new ideas.
One idea to introduce the Instagram and the degree show was to produce a short animation. Using the ‘building block’ modular typeface, the blocks gradually stacked into ‘typo26’, while a loading animation came before. This was released as a teaser before invites where’d delivered so that people could anticipate what more was to come.
With this introduction to branding, we then planned for more informative post to be released. Using the 3-grid system, we produced 3 posts that connect by spelling out ‘typo26’ when viewing the profile layout. These post then included information on the date, location and what the degree show is about. Using the branding of coloured blocks on each of these slides help to connect them as a set. Originally, we tried other colour combinations, for the collection of posts, however we stuck with the dark background to match the invitation design, so that the branding was cohesive throughout each deliverable.