Obey Garamond

print, Spring 2006
Typography II: Matthew Monk
Tags: aggrandizement, art/design, burlesque, caricature, mock-heroic, pop culture, snark

Overview

A two-page book spread that both showcases and explains the typeface Garamond and the typographer Claude Garamond.

Process

Just finished with eight weeks of laboring over super-technical 9/12 Garamond book plates, so really looking forward to putting those away and doing something that allows a bit more freedom. Ah, the “typographer” assignment: two pages to interpret the spirit of a typographer and a typeface.

Here comes the hat with all the typeface names. Ooo, someone got Interstate. Filosofia’s gone too. Someone just pulled OCR-A. There’s some interesting stuff hiding in that hat. I wonder what I’ll draw!

Oh.

Garamond.

Huh.

Ok. What do I know about Garamond? Well, it’s a find-it-everywhere sort of typeface.

So perhaps I’ll try something that will address the ubiquitous nature of this typeface.

Ok. What do I know about Garamond the person? Well… he’s French. Let’s see, who else is French? Huh. No. No. Umm… got it!

Because if I’m going to do a thesis involving pop-culture references and graphic design parody, I probably should just get this one out of my system early.