OUGD406
Studio Brief 02
Research

For this research I looked into tractional colours and typography of Japan as these will be big factors of my design and will inform a number of choices. The traditional colours of Japan are a collection of colours traditionally used in Japanese Literature, textiles such as kimono, and other Japanese arts and crafts. Before the research I associated variations of  red with Japan due to the flag but later found out  yellow, green and blue are just as prominent in Japan. The colours used in Japan are split into series such as the 'violet / red series' but what I needed to take into consideration is that I won't be able to screen print these specific Japanese colours when I print, most likely being limited to a basic red or blue, but it was helpful looking into the tractional colours associated with Japan as a part of my research.

For the typography research I looked into typefaces that are commonly used, looking at various typefaces was key as I believed type would be important part of my design, if one typeface didnt work then I'd have numerous ones to fall back on to use. 

AXIS Font
AXIS Font Japanese design broke new ground in the history of Japanese typefaces as a modern sans serif with high visibility and readability characteristics. The typeface includes complementary Western character set designed by Akira Kobayashi. Using both the AXIS and AXIS Japanese font could work really well together as a type based piece of work.

Yu Gothic std
The Yu Gothic Std typeface is from Jiyu Kobo, a Japanese type foundry known for a collection of serif and sans serif designs used in corporate identity, publications and advertising. The Yu Gothic Std design is known for its legibility and readability.

Iwato Mincho Old

The Iwata Mincho Old typeface is a digitized version of the same typeface widely used in the era of letterpress printing. The design is more compact to make the typeface more readable. It’s frequently used for print, newspaper and textbook designs.