Final Rationale

The typeface 'Simple as ABC", has been created from research into the adjective 'Playful', and most prominently into how children play and the different types of play helps them to develop into their childhood. The lengthened ascenders connote growth, development and a sense of movement, kinetic energy. Each letterform has also been manipulated individually according to it's characteristics, whether it has ascenders, descenders, bowls or counters, this is to show individuality and to help maximum typographic accessibility, an idea from Fontsmith. The heavy weight, small counters and rounded edges, create a sense of a confident, daring and bold personality, which is what play encourages children to do. Univers was chosen as it was the opposite of the personality I wanted to create; it was consistent, steady and rational. It needed to be diverse, unbalanced and stimulating, whilst also exuding mischievous, adventurous and immature personality traits, which are portrayed through the rule breakers within the typeface; the unbalanced 'D', the reflected 'D' and '6' and '9', shows how boundaries are being found and rules are being broken and learnt, as what happens in a child's development. The stroke and lack of fill, creates space for more creativity, using imagination to fill the white space, but also because the black fill was too grungy and aggressive. The rounded edges, were to stop the type from being too sharp or aggressive, it reflects roundedness and openness which makes it more approachable to young children, as they learn symbols and images before letterforms and words. The typeface will be used for display purposes, preferably in the context for young children, such as magazines, or tv show titles. The typeface has been made into stickers, to expand on the idea of playfulness, they can be used hands on, as an object, using multiple senses. This meant the stroke and weight needed to be enlarged to have a bigger surface area for the sticker sheet, also meant the lengthened ascenders had to be slightly shorter, to avoid complicated shapes. The colours chosen are the basic CMYK primary basic colours which are associated with and attracts the attention of children more so than black and white, the black shadow effect creates a 3D look, again giving that hands on effect.