Local time — Probably figuring out a tiny detail in a design right now.
BodoniAn interactive longread on the Bodoni typeface for Slanted Magazine’s “My Type” series (school assignment).
ClientSlanted Magazine
(school assignment)
Focus
UXUI, Development, Design
TimeJan 2022
A school assignment as an imaginary project for Slanted Magazine. This site intended to put the Bodoni typeface in the spotlight and make an experience out of it. I focused on showing the elegance of the Bodoni type and how it deserves a new fit.
The Brief
To kick off 2022, Slanted magazine came up with the idea of putting a few legendary typefaces in the spotlight. Caslon, Bodoni, Futura... all typefaces with not only a rich typographic history, but also fascinating designers, tons of anecdotes, plenty of inspiration, and a lot of facts and figures...Slanted magazine wants to offer an online experience that shares the story of the typeface. To do so, they came to me to cast this in a contemporary design and offer a digital experience.
The ConceptAfter doing some research on the Bodoni typeface, I was intrigued by the original intentions of the font. Giambattista Bodoni himself said it was destined for elegance. But while elegance has a million different faces, the Bodoni seemed to have evolved to a singular use case. It’s become stereotypical. So, for my Slanted Magazine, I want to highlight that 'elegance deserves a new fit'.
The Process — A Tryptic StoryAs Slanted wanted an interactive long-read, I started by outlining the story I wanted to tell. I split up the 'elegance story' into 3 chapters: "the creation of a masterpiece", "the age of elegance" and "pushing Bodoni's limits". This definitely proved helpful in limiting content to the necessities and making sure that the story I told would captivate readers.
The Process — The Style
For my style, I wanted to work with imagery that revolved around ethereal themes and very 'elegant subjects.' My goal was to incorporate certain elements of Bodoni and his original intentions into my work, but I didn’t want this site to feel too soft or generic, hence the very texturized pictures. I wanted to focus on stylistic elements that are very bold and feel very exaggerated and contrasted.To accompany these visual elements, I went on with a stylistic advice from Bodoni himself. He stated that the Bodoni should be accentuated with small borders, barely any, and make use of few decorative elements. To merge this with my own ideas, I chose decorative icons that are minimal, monochrome and add a lot to the bolder sentiment in my style. For these icons, I also experimented with Bodoni’s extended character set and edited an asterisk into the shape of a flower. This became my symbol for the site.
The Process — Interactivity is Key
Something I highly valued throughout the creation of the long-read was interactivity. A long-read with too much bodycopy or too little interaction quickly becomes boring. To counter this, I added some extensive interactions and several small extras and animated elements to the site.The core interaction that users could take on was creating your own art card right on the site. This way, they could share their art card with friends, and share the love for Slanted Mag in the process. Next to this, at the main turning point in the story, there is a large animation of all sorts of elements on the page. This was assured to intrigue users and brought a positive reaction from everyone who tried out the site.While some interactions were limited to the desktop site, I kept it interesting on mobile by adding interactive tabs and more animated elements. Letting the Bodoni come to life was the goal!
The Final ProductIn the end, the Bodoni long-read is one of my favourite projects because it was the first true project that started as a concept, and extended all the way to a final product. Bringing your own ideas to life and seeing how others enjoyed exploring the site afterwards made it all worth it! If you're interested in this project, please explore the live site below, it's definitely worth a look!
