'Great Expectations' Exercise

After the typesetting lecture with Orlando we were tasked to reinvent the first age of 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens using the various different typesetting techniques that we learnt. We used InDesign to do this exercise as it was the most appropriate and effective digital software for typesetting.

After reading the text, I decided to rearrange the composition of the paragraphed text into a poem style text. I thought doing this would give the text a completely different feel and appearance thus making readers approach it in a different way. In some way it is detached to the other chapters of the book therefore I treated it as a text on its own; instead of being part of a story it becomes the story itself. Furthermore, changing the paragraph style decreased the number of words for each line to 11/12 to 6-8 (except for some outliers). This makes it a quicker read for viewers, also unfamiliar audience's to the book may think it's actually a poem rather than being part of a book.

Expanding on the idea of making the chapter into a poem, I developed it by adding some visual poetry characteristics to it. Though I know it's a very basic and direct approach to visual poetry.
The first paragraph focused on the name of the character and his identity, therefore I decided to highlight the first letter 'P'. Not only is it derivative of it's meaning it also makes the reader focus n the text from first glance. Leading and kerning were used for this paragraph as the different point sized 'P' made the leading on each line bigger and look too spacey and awkward. The letters 'P' and 'i' also looked too spaced out therefore -kerning was used for a more optically balanced paragraph.

In addition, focused on certain adjectives within the text which may be effectively emphasised in order to give the audiences a better visual imagery of the idea that is being described. This makes for a clearer and much more understandable and interesting piece of text as it also starts to interact with the readers giving them connotations on certain aspects within the text. Adjectives like 'stout', 'dark' and 'curly' where emphasised through using various typesetting techniques. Making the word 'dark' bolder literary describes the adjective as well as making the word 'curly' italic. Changing the styles to these words creates a deeper meaning and connotation in relation to it's context, however, I am aware that it's perhaps to literal of me to do it. Giving the words a line each allow for spacing and breaks for readers as well as importance and emphasis to them. Also, aligning the words to certain letters created a nice dynamic atmosphere to the text, but also highlights the breaks needed to read it as readers would have to look back and forth from lines, breaking their reading speed pattern.

Although, I did try to make subtle connotations such as with the word never appearing to look like a cross, which later relates to how Phillip never saw his dead parents. In addition, making the word 'saw' underlined and smaller also emphasised the fact that he never seen them, but also I thought it balanced the text well as well as made it visually interesting and dynamic. Again leading was used in this paragraph as the line below it need to be balanced for legibility and reader focus. Furthermore, the hyphens were wrongly used in the first text, as the context was more to create a point in the text, therefore I replaced them with em dashes for clarity. Similar, literal visual poetry elements were put on the paragraphs below as well, making for subtle changes from the original text.

Before

After

Thoughts & Reflection:

Overall, the exercise was quite useful for usage of the different techniques in InDesigns used for typesetting and I think it will also be very useful for my own publication as it may or will be very type heavy or possibly only consist of type. Because of this I know I'll be restricted to using imagery and techniques regarding imagery but on the other hand I may focus on typography. Applying typesetting techniques may give my publication more clarity and depth to it in regards to its use of type and typesetting, making it effectively communicate to its target readers by using subtle connotations all throughout. Also, because my publication also focuses on communication of reader with the book this may or will come in play and will give me endless ways of possibly using type and typesetting to convey the context and content of my publication. Perhaps having this restriction for my publication will only force me to create innovative ways of exploring type and typesetting in relation to my context and content.