Fieldguide to Versailles: Type Specimen Book

The design challenge for this project was to create a typeface specimen book for a type by Adrian Frutiger. The final book uses Versailles by Adrian Frutiger. Multiple chapters had to be created with different goals in each, such as a biography on the designer, a type study including alignment and sizing, and type anatomy.

The book was created in the style of a botanical field guide featuring plant illustrations, scientific themed descriptions, and real flower specimens like would be seen in my reference material. The sharp serif typeface works well with the elegant and intellectual practice of botany. There is also relation to the serif typeface being a common choice for the font of books from this older era.

Botanical guide books were referenced for the layout, including pictures with captions underneath them. Plant specimens taped into the pages add a real life element that takes it into a hands on territory. I used Indesign to layout the pages, Illustrator to create graphic elements and Photoshop to edit the photography. The result is a finished book with 48 pages and it is 8×8 inches.