sofia pro
Type Specimen | A Pattern Designer That Takes the Fashion Industry by Storm
PROJECT DETAILS
Challenge: Design an informational typographic marketing document for the typeface: Sofia Pro, while also portraying the personality of this type visually and textually
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Solution: Portray Sofia Pro as an aspiring pattern designer that will take the fashion industry by storm in a form of a swatch book
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Role: Ideation, Research, Poster Design, Pattern Design, Document Layout
TOOLS
Pencil & Paper
InDesign
Illustrator
Overview
The narrative content selected for this type specimen are ways to portray Sofia Pro as an aspiring pattern designer who has a personality and is an actual person who is dedicated to her craft. Sofia Pro is an offbeat geometric sans font family with rounded curves and open terminals that was created to be highly capable no matter the size of the project she gets assigned to. With that in mind, a pattern designer is best suited as a narrative for Sofia Pro.
target audience
1. Type and design enthusiasts
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2. Prospective users
Project Design
By utilizing the letterforms in Sofia Pro, patterns are created to showcase the finer details of them, as well as push the narrative of being a pattern designer even further.
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With some research, it had come to my conclusion that the fashion industry utilizes something called a swatch book to view and catalog a variety of fabrics and patterns. I took the essence of a swatch book because it was the best option for the narrative was to combine something like a swatch book that showcases the patterns and fabric with a type specimen that showcases the type itself.
composition
The composition consists of a page of patterns followed by a page of information about Sofia Pro. The patterns spell out Sofia in a variety of color combinations. The swatch books starts with a pattern and introduces the typeface to the reader. As the reader progresses, they’ll see more of Sofia Pro.
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All graphics used are letterforms of Sofia Pro, whether it be a glyph or a letter, to keep the look and feel of being capable with limited resources. By pairing the busy patterns with pages filled with negative space, it prevents from overwhelming them with information and create a great visual balance.
visual design
To maintain the personality of being pragmatic yet friendly for Sofia Pro, a palette of both cool and warm colors are incorporated to portray that duality in a sophisticated way. To push the idea of being capable and skilled, the color palette is limited, just like the use of graphics. By having a limited color palette, Sofia Pro is shown as being capable getting things done with limited resources.
reflections
It's okay to not know from the beginning.
It took me a while to find the right way to present the content. Nothing felt right when an idea came to mind in my research and proofreading phase. By the time I gathered all the information on Sofia Pro and worked on the layout, I went through three to five concept ideas. The letterforms spoke for itself later with its little details and intricacies as a modern sans serif typeface. If I were to continue with this project, I would love to either continue with Sofia Pro's superfamily or try my hands on a different typeface and see what kinds of personalities they have.
