In this book I used the story A Grimms Fairy Tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to portray using only typography. This project allowed me to experiment with the possibilities of type as a visual element. I chose this story in particular because it is an old favorite and a classic. This is an important part of my process because it is a well-known classic, I was able to break a lot of the typography rules and play with illegibility throughout.

I started this project with a mood board, I collected typography inspiration and aesthetic inspiration based on the Grimms Tale version of Snow White. I then analyzed the text and brainstormed how I could manipulate the words to portray their feeling.

I originally chose the color palette based on Snow White herself, red, black, and white. I later changed the white to a pale pink to represent her fleshy skin color, to better fit the grim nature of this version of the fairy tale.

I used two typefaces in this project. I ended up using Bookman for the title, and variants of Helvetica for the rest of the book. I chose this font because I like the geometric and clean nature of it. Also, there are lots of opportunities for variety within the font family. Through scale, layering, and manipulation I was able to make Helvetica just a little more interesting.

I began sketching out my ideas using lines and shapes to get a feel for each page and then moved my sketches over into a small mock-up. I found this was very helpful for visualizing how each spread works together.

I could go on to describe my intentions behind each spread, but in brief summary, I aimed to experiment with the possibilities of the text combined with the content of the story to create unique concepts and layouts for each page. While I wanted the book to feel cohesive, I felt that there was more room for variety because the pages will always be bound to each other. A consistent color palette and typeface ensured it flowed.

I feel this project was very influential on me as a designer because I found that many of these typography design concepts I would like to develop more in future projects and have more potential to flourish in their own light.

This is the first of two volumes of the full story.