Armadale Horizons - testing and trialling

 I have had an idea for some work for a while (a long time!) and even blogged about it way back here.

These images of the sky and the sea and the in between from the cove near our wee cottage in Scotland...

In between times, in the year of times away from normal, I have played with them intermittently but haven't pushed through on any of it.

I am edging closer to doing something with them.

I have 42 images and I have spent time looking at each one and writing some words that link to it.

I have been exploring the notion of blessings.  As I think and write about what a blessing means for me; some of these thoughts emerge...

For me, blessings issue from one person to another, An act of kindness, they offer hope and company on a journey; in a moment; through our lives.  A generous encouragement, seeking the best for another, they  take us from being to becoming, with the most positive of intentions.

Blessings as benediction mine are not . Overtones of religiosity, invocation or annointing should melt away. We circle back to the beginning, to simply the space between two people and a gifting of hopes for another.

I have approached a person in town who can print digitally onto high quality paper and have asked him to print the imagery at 10cm x 10cm size; and positioned in a particular place on an A3 page.

Because I want to combine traditional letterpress printing with contemporary digital printing I was checking through our drawers for type that might wok with the imagery and be legible in a single line.

These were my four choices - Gloucester Bold Condensed, Granby Bold, Colonna and Univers. All 18pt.

Slightly fancy and with serifs, this is Colonna 18pt.

This is Univers 18pt

Heavier this time with Granby Bold 18pt (with a random y in may!)

And for whatever reason I must have dismissed Gloucester Bold Condensed as I didn't bother photographing it for comparison! 

 

Another combination - does the darker imagery suit the darker typeface?

Does the lighter typeface suit the brighter images?

So yes, lots of testing, checking, trialling, pondering, combining and wondering.

In the end I have come down on the side of the lightest typeface Univers 18pt.

It felt  like it would be legible, yet not attempt to confuse or dominate.

And whilst that seems like a lot of time spent, it  is nothing in comparison to the time I am spending fiddling this way and that trying to position the type in the right position below the image, and somehow fit the A3 paper through the Lightning Jobber; and keep the whole thing straight!

Still not solved or resolved so watch this space. About now I begin to wonder if I shouldn't have checked the likelihood of being able to print before I committed to all the other steps - laugh!