Brief 01 Type in context

TYPE IN CONTEXT

FIRST PICTURES

So I chose my birth town for this project, Saint-Gilles-x-de-Vie is a small town in the West of France in Vendée, the town is known for its important fishing harbor (specialising in sardines) and is also classified as a seaside resort. 

I’m going to present you some photographs to show you what kind of typography we can find in this specific place. I tried to take photographs on different sources: on billboards, fashion brands, houses, on t-shirts etc… but all the sources have a link to maritime world, for exemple I chose a bar’s name, but a bar placed in front of the sea or a fashion brand which exists only on the coast

Let’s begin with B, B is first letter of a famous hotel name in Saint Gilles, les Brisants. 

I like this one, firstly because there is a shadow, it means that there is a lot of sun in Saint Gille and on the other hand because it’s hand lettering, and for me it gives movement to the whole letter. We could guess the artist’s movement and his tools. I am able to link it with the sea movement, waves, wind etc which is typical of this region.

In the same way, we have I and A. They come from a fashion brand and a restaurant’s billboard, it gives movement too with their curved shapes, and also because they are created with a single line.

The next one is different, It’s a C on a t-shirt, “I love Saint-Gilles-croix-de-vie”. C is a lineal font with regular strokes. It’s simple, unornamented, maybe to increase the readability. But I think we expect a bolder font to draw the customer’s attention on the tee shirt. It could be more attractive.

Then, in Saint Gilles, residents like giving names to their house. Like here, the house is called La Farandole. F interested me because it’s a handmade font, made of metal. It makes it a fanciful font. And also because the relief of the material projects a shadow on the wall.

Finally, I found D on a road sign. I like this one because we see damage on the photograph, which shows passage of time. And I also found a lot of similar types of fonts: bold, straight, lineal, geometric. If you ask me I think it’s linked with vessel registration typical in fishing harbor

CONCLUSION

To conclude, in Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, most of the font show the movement of naturals elements specific to the coast. Moreover, in other side there are more traditional font which have a link with traditional side of fishing harbor.