Jessica Mae Adkins

059019

Project Specifications

Funny: Presentation

Contents

StrategyFormat/Paper SizeGrids Letterpress Overlays Typography: Letterpress

Wood vs. Lead type Final typeface choices Process steps for letterpress Leading Kerning Glyphs & Dashes Quotation Marks Typography: Digital

Headline Body text and footnotes Paper

Posters Overlays Binding & Finishing

Binding Cover Title Belly Band

Presentation Images

Strategy

Strategy

My concept for this project is to explore the use of taboo in stand-up comedy. I was inspired to take a closer look at the subject because I went to see Jimmy Carr live recently. I found the show hilarious, along with most of the audience (judging by the laughter). However, a couple of days later I read one of his jokes in the paper. It was a joke about paedophiles, which I am a little ashamed to say I definitely laughed at during the show. The joke, now printed in black and white, was suddenly offensive and shocking to me.

I found it interesting how I had experienced two completely conflicting reactions to the same thing. How removing the words from the context of the show and printing them on a page had completely changed the meaning for me. This gave me the idea of taking a selection of the most taboo quotes I could find from the routines of various comedians across the history of stand-up and putting them into print.

Even as a fairly cynical person, I was still shocked by some of the jokes told as I watched more and more stand-up and find myself wondering, Are there any taboos left in stand-up comedy?. Apart from this though, the project had lead me to various fascinating areas of research around the topic of the use if taboo in comedy. Such as the science behind laughter and the benefits of laughter as a release; the history of the breaking of taboos; the lives and careers of many comedians; the repercussions of pushing those boundaries in society, in the media and personally; the ethical and moral questions and comedians opinions on the subject. I have compiled this and more online at www.tabooinstandup.tumblr.com. Though I have researched the subject thoroughly, I have known from the

start of this project that it is not my intention to communicate my opinions on the subject to the reader. I wanted to make a book that prompts the reader to question the breaking of taboos in the arena of stand-up comedy or maybe evokes the kind of reaction I experienced when seeing the jokes in black and white.

I decided to make a large book, printed with a selection of jokes all transcribed from various stand-up comedians on a range of taboo subjects. The pages are perforated along the inner margin, allowing them to be removed from the book and displayed as a set of posters. I chose to explore letterpress as a medium for printing the posters.

Putting the jokes into print takes them out of the context of the show, removing the safety-net of comedy, and allowing us to view them through a different lens. However, I felt it important that the pages could be removed from the book and viewed independently and totally out of context, allowing yet another perspective on the subject.

Grids: Letterpress

Grids: Letterpress

Size: A3 (70p1.89 x 99p2.55)Bleed: 0mm

Measurments: Due to the majority of the project being printed in letterpress, I have used Line/Pica throughout my measurments.

Margins: Top 6ln Bottom 9ln Outer 6ln Inner 12ln for binding and perforation. (6ln when posters have been torn out)

After understanding a bit more about letterpress, I realised that there was no point to develop a complex grid for the posters as it is essential to be flexible Letterpress is not an exact science and, especially as I have used a number of different typrfaces, I instead chose to anchor the quotes to the top left corner margin and use this as my guide.

Grids: overlays

Grids: Overlays

For the overlays a more complex grid was required to ensure the censor blocks and devices all aligned correctly in their size and spacing. I scanned in the posters and placed in indesign. I then created a document grid based on the lowest common measurent I used in letterpress, 3pt with subdivisions of 8x8. This gave me a fairly accurate grid that worked across all 12 posters.

Typography: Letterpress

Typography: Letterpress

I wanted to create the posters in a range of different complimentary typrfaces that alternate throughout the book, contrasting from one poster to the next. I wanted to use the project to really explore and celebrate the different font families available to us in letterpress. Though we are fortunate to have a wide selection in the workshop, I discovered the unique restrictions of this medium during the project. As I was working in a large format with fairly short quotes, I was looking at larger sizes of type ranging from 46pt to 10 line. In these larger sizes, there is often a shortage, or even complete lack, of characters. This can hinder or even prevent the use of a typeface for a specific quote. It soon became like a game, finding the right typeface in the right size to compliment the other typefaces... I started with my shortest quote, choosing 10ln Clarendon.

The extreme lack of characters availble meant printing the poster almost word by word. In addition, the uneven wearing of the wood type meant individually packing characters until the print was even. In total this first run of posters took 4 days. After printing a second poste in lead type, the vast differences in printing texture and look, lead me to the decision againt using wood type. I decided instead to choose longer quotes from my research to enable me to work only in lead.

Typeface Choices

Though I had to be flexible, I decided early on that I wanted to use 8 typefaces 4 pairs and 4 originals to make up the set. I arranged these in the book so that each typeface contrasted and complimented the previous. No

wanting to use anything too similar and working mostly between 60 and 72 pt, limited my options, but my final choices were as follows:

Caslon

Garamond

Bembo

Optima

Gill Sans Bold Condensed

Helvetica

Univers Bold Expanded

Headline

Letterpress process

Both the leading and the word spacing for the posters had to largely be determined by eye. I began by making templates of the posters in the nearest matching PC font. This way I could guage the approximate leading. However, even having done this, I still set a few lines of type in the chosen font and often found the need to proof a few times, increasing/decreasing the leading. Below is a table of the final leading choices for each poster:

Step 1Set longest line in composing stick.Determine leading length.

Step 2Set min of 3 lines of type in tray and proof on galley press to determine leading, word spaking and potential areas for kerning.

Step 3Start setting poster in printing press as many lines as possible. Include opening quotation marks where possible (upside-down commas) outside 12ln border.

Step 4Proof first print. Adjust registration if necessary. Determine correct amount of ink and packing.

Step 5When all the above are correct, continue to print, setting poster line by line, measuring and adding furniture to move text down the page.

Leading and word spacing

Both the leading and the word spacing for the posters had to largely be done by eye. I began by making templates of the posters in the nearest matching PC font. This way I could guage the approximate leading. However, even having done this, I still set a few lines of type in the chosen typeface and often found the need to proof a few times, increasing/decreasing the leading. Below is a table of the final leading choices for each poster:

Lenny Bruce

Caslon 42pt

2ln additional leading

12pt word spacing

Louis C.K.

Helvetica 60pt

1ln additional leading

4x2ln word spacing

Frankie Boyle

Headline 72pt

6ln additional leading

6x2ln word spacing

Hugh Dennis

Caslon 72pt

18pt additional leading

24pt word spacing

Tim Minchin

Garamond 72pt

2ln additional leading

4x2ln word spacing

Bernard Manning

Garamond 60pt

2ln additional leading

18pt word spacing

Jimmy Carr

Bembo 48pt

18pt additional leading

18pt word spacing

Richard Pryor

Univers Bold Expanded 48pt

3ln additional leading

30pt word spacing

Joan Rivers

Helvetica 72pt

4ln additional leading

6x2ln word spacing

Sarah Silverman

Gill Sans Bold Cond. 60pt

48pt additional leading

30pt word spacing

Doug Stanthorpe

Optima 48pt

2ln additional leading

4x2ln word spacing

George Carlin

Headline 72pt

6ln additional leading

6x2 word spacing

Kerning

In some cases, kerning was required. This mainly occurred with the larger fonts with the odd word, but in some cases, as with HEADLINE, the entire poster required kerning as the characters sit right againt each other.

Quotation marks, glyphs & dashes

Some fo the serif typefaces such as Caslon have glyphs as shown to the left.

Use of the em-dash breaks the sentence

Hyphen used to connect compounded word

In almost all cases, I was forced to use upside-down commas as opening and closing quotation marks. Especially as I chose to use overhanging quotes as I felt having the text aligned flush to the top corner margin, brought consistency across the variety of typefaces and their various weights and sizes This presented a few challenges with alignment, meant that they all needed some amount of kerning and mostly had to be printed on their own in a separate run.

Typeface choices: digital

Due to the variety of different fonts used in the posters, I felt it important to keep all remaining copy refined and clean. Not wanting to introduce new typefaces at this stage, I looked to the selection in my posters for a pair of complimetnary fonts.

I chose Univers in a light weight for the body text and Caslon Pro Semibold for headings and quotes.

Caslon Pro SemiboldabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890 ?!;,.

Univers Light

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890 ?!;,.

Paper: posters & overlay

I chose gentle earthy greys,blues and pinks in order to contrast with the quotes. It was important to me from the start for the posters to be beautiful objects that draw the reader in and dont just instantly shock. Due to the strength of some of the quotes, a bold coloured paper or even just the stark contrast of black and white would be too harsh.

I am hoping this contrast will also work both ways to emphasise the taboo in the quotes and the beauty in the posters. I also had to keep in mind that the thickest stock that can be used in letterpress is 300gsm. I chose six shades of Murano paper (each to be repeated twice throughout the book).

The purpose of the tracing paper overlay is both to censor and protect each poster. After trying a few weights of tracing paper, I settled on 120gsm finding it strong enough to print without wrinkling and light enough to see the poster through clearly

Paper

Murano

Rose Grey240gsm

Murano

Wedgewood

240gsm

Murano

Storm

240gsm

Murano

Platinum

240gsm

Murano

Pale Peach

240gsm

Murano

Haze

240gsm

Binding & belly band

When considering the binding for this book, it is importan that I pay special attention to the strength of the spine. With perforatd posters on thick stock, comes the risk of ripping the book in half. Another factor is that binding different weights and types of paper, like posters and overlays, can be tricky. Also, I will be binding single sheets, as opposed to spreads.

For these reasons I have chosen a perfect bind, with bolts to re-inforce the spine. I have given 6ln margin (befoe the perforations) for the spine.

Binding & finishing

Cover & title

I chose a hard cover to provide extra protection for the posters and give additional strength to the spine. After considering black, white and various shades of grey book cloth, I opted for plain grey board. I like the different tones in the material and feel it complements the tones of the poster paper. I also like the stripped-back connotations of using grey board. Book cloth seemed almost too nice for a book that is supposted to be torn apart. I feel the grey board, together with the tracing paper and strong graphic devices, emphasize the content well.

Carrying on this theme, the book is simply called Funny. The title is foil blocked in black foil on the bottom right corner margin. I used the closest typeface (un-named)I could find to Caslon for this. I think this one word provides enough meaning to represent the contents. I hope it will be intriguing enough to peak the readers curiosity.

Presentation images

Presentation Images

Presentation images