Akko Rounded Poster for BYU-I Typography A230
project by Leah Riordan
Project Info:
For this project we were to create a poster (16x20) to sell a specific font to other designers. Part of the project was to research the creator of the font and also be sure to show the weights available. Akko Rounded actually has many more weights than what we were given for the course - It has 6 weights in both regular and italic versions. The Akko family created by Akira Kobayashi has 36 variants I based my poster off of the 3 weights we did have. ( I wish we had the full family - but I musn't be greedy! The rounded thin variant is *chefs kiss*)
My Process:
I knew I wanted to go with a sort of kawaii type of feel. I looked up graphic design trends in Japan over the past four decades. I started saving images that really inspired me. I loved the use of bright colors in many of the images I found. I ran with color and ended up liking the look of bright colors on a dark background. The yellow text blocks are meant to call toward the vertical nature of japanese writing. There is a diagonal stair stepping used to pull the eye toward important information. I utilized the letter "o" to create a background texture.
I loved that the name of the font is derived from Akkira Kobayashi's name so I was sure to add that little detail to his name by outlining portions of it while the "ak" & "ko" are solid. The arrows are glyphs included in the font and were the finishing touch to my composition.
The Outcome:
I feel like the finished poster is a little bit tech, a little bit modern and a lot of fun. It is funny, but initially I chose Akko Rounded for my project since there didn't seem to be many student examples with this font family. I ended up falling in love with it along the way. What isn't to love about all that soft readable goodness?
Thanks for stopping by! xo Leah
