Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Essay on my 'quoter' and the reasons behind my chosen typeface

L'art pour l'art was the quote I was given by my tutor Jonathan Clark. It was quoted in the 19th century by Victor Cousin 1792- 1867 who was a French educational leader and philosopher. He believed that art could be anything be it an expression or emotion or anything you want it to be. In English this quote says art for art's sake, this translates into that art can be anything from writing a book to painting a painting, singing a piece of music or sewing a throw for the bed.

The type was really important to get right as I wanted it to work well with the subject matter and where it originated from. I researched different types of fonts at first and discovered that free flowing connecting typefaces would suit the typographic poster well. Italic slanting type would give a serious look, this connects well with Victor Cousins background, which was that he taught at many Universities. Going deeper into research I then stumbled across script typefaces, I liked the outcome of the ones I studied which a lot of them were hand written which makes it more related to the 19th centuries as there were no computers back then. I wanted an old French style but an art feel to it. Al Aunt Marie was perfect for what I wanted to portray, it was a little more subtle than the others I found and this was complimentary as I needed something that was more so the style and personality of Victor Cousins.