Quoteth | Final Design

I began by researching designs from the 1920s-1950’s; I focussed on telephone directories, tabacco packaging/advertising and also newspaper prints as I feel that these items summaries Onassis’ life. He wouldn’t have made his first million without working at the telephone company, nor would he have made his name and fame amongst the elites, if it wasn’t for the newspapers exposing his relationships with numerous upper-class, women. The cigarette company that he built, Osman, also helped him to establish himself as a business man before moving onto the shipping industry. The aesthetics of my final works, are a strong reflection of this research. 

A common theme I noticed within early 1900 designs (the era of Onassis himself), was that multiple typefaces and styles were combined to create one typographic piece, as nineteenth century advertising typography features all the display types at a printer’s disposal. 

For the quote, Bell Gothic was used, a typeface that was created by Chauncey H. Griffith in the 1938 for legibility within the phone directories (comissioned by AT&T). This typeface was also utilised within newspaper print. I feel that this type has a lot of references to Onassis, as he too, began working with telephones, and soon found himself featured in newspapers (including the Daily News, NYC). I chose to use a bold weight as this was often used to increase the legibility of the type as it helped to counteract the characters breaking apart when being printed at a high speed with the lino type machine, so I wanted to be true to the intentions of the type. By stylising the font in bold, I feel that it reflects Onassis well, as he must have been a bold and influential man, with a lot of self belief in order to feign wealth in order to socialise with elites.

A popular 19th century vernacular was Clarendon/Ionic types. I decided to use Clarendon Condensed Bold for ‘ONASSIS’ in order to replicate a newspaper headline. By condensing the type, I replicated the print headers from the 1900’s, as well as through the use of uppercase letters; the narrow letterforms are also typical for late 19th century/early 20th century, making the type applicable when representing Onassis, as he would have often been printed in a similar typeface. By using a bold weight, I am also emphasising his name and importance as the artwork, after all, revolves entirely around him.

I chose Baskerville for the masthead, as I was inspired by the Daily News 1968 feature, that exposed Jackie Kennedy and Onassis. I couldn’t find the exact type, but know that I would be looking towards fonts similar to the Didone family, thus I turned towards Baskerville for its fame within newsprint.  The high thick to thin, gradual contrast, juxtaposes the heavy square to square aspect of Bell Gothic; keeping my piece true to that of the early 20th century by combining and juxtaposing multiple typefaces. 

The pt size is dependant on the information hierarchy, while also being suitable depending on the copy. For example ‘didn’t exist’ is in a much smaller pt size than the rest of the quote, as I wanted it to appear more minuscule as though the phrase itself almost didn’t exist. I also inverted ‘no meaning’ and surround the copy with a black rectangle (typical within 1930’s advertising) to balance the piece against the heavy pt for ‘ONASSIS’ and to also surround ‘no meaning’ with darkness, to enhance nothingness. The text is also justified, as this is the conventional way of setting copy for print since c.1450 and is common for 1900’s newsprints.

Update: Screen printed Handkerchief