Project 02: Typographic Calendar

You will design a desktop calendar. 8x8 inches is the trim size. Create a cover design and one double-page spread, highlighting a two week period. This spread will consist of (two) facing pages. Each page, the left page and the right page, must include the month, seven days, the days of the week, and space for a user to record notes. Create a typographic hierarchy and grid for the page that uses graphic elements and spatial divisions in a beautiful and functional way.

Limit your fonts to one single face. Limit your graphics to: solid areas of color; and/or simple, basic shapes as a design. NO photographic images.

Limit the number of colors to: 4. Use only Spot colors. You may use tints of the spot color.

The theme for the calendar will be structure and repetition. You can relate this concept of structure or the lack of structure to our daily lives, routines and schedules. Repetition creates structure for many people routines month to month and some people cannot manage their lives without simple routines that they do every single day. Think about this concept as you create your cover designs and inside pages.

Keep in mind the structure of a 3 x 3 grid system and how your design can be based off the very simple elements or repetition and structure.

You will mount the finished designs on 2 boards. Size of calendar will be 8” x 8” square. Spread layout 8” x 16”.

1) Calendar sketches: Be prepared to present rough sketches of layouts and IDEAS for your desk calendar. Make notations on your ideas relating to the theme of Structure and Repetition in our daily lives (or even the lack of structure). You can focus on the idea of busy schedules that never seem to get anything done, or you can think about the people who seem to manage every minute of every day. Do you have a routine that you stick to every day of your week? Is your day to day schedule always unpredictable? Think about how the minutes in the day go by so differently for each and every one of us. Begin conceptualizing about the cover design and how you will communicate the calendar’s overall message. After you develop a strong cover concept your can begin to think about how the spread will represent your message. Use a 3 x 3 (9 grid layout) format to create your inside spread layouts. Think of the grid as a back bone to your design and use it to enhance the overall design composition. Don’t let a grid constrain your design. Even layouts that might look random often have a grid structure supporting the overall composition. Think of type as pictures. Create a mood with type.

Examples of possible themes are below. You may use one of these, or choose your own:

Calendar for the Chronically Late
Calendar for the Sun and the Moon
Calendar for the Extremely Overbooked Adrenalin Junkie
Calendar for the Absent Minded
Calendar for the Control Freak
Calendar for the Music Lover (rhythm?)

Some examples: