I wanted to have a thumbnail of each month somewhere on the calendar, so that if it gets wrapped in cellophane they get an idea of what is inside. I tried a variety of formats but landed on this. I like the spectrum of colours running down the side. I like the white space. Originally I had the type for each month in black but it looked too busy so I faded it out a bit. I wasn't sure about having that many fonts all on one page but I wanted to draw attention to the fact that there are different fonts for each month, and that it is a typographical based piece; keeping the design minimal allowed me to do this.
I decided to leave out an illustration of the stick man because he was clashing with the minimalism.
I needed to explain the project and used mainly Helvetica ultra light due to its 'neutral' properties – the last thing I needed was to bring in another font. I made key words bigger to draw the eye in and make it easier to read. I wanted to keep an upbeat theme, even though I am talking about a horrible disease, so I concentrated on the hope that dementia can be defeated by raising money for the cause, rather than drawing attention to the hideousness of the disease. I think everyone is aware it is horrible. I want people to buy the calendar because they love the calendar, not because they feel they have been guilted into buying the calendar.
January
January to me is a time when I am constantly writing the wrong year in the chequebook, or just generally not know where I am or what I am doing after the rush rush of Christmas. I used Letter Gothic Std in Medium and Bold, layered confusion of days, dates and times. Letter gothic because it looks like the font on my alarm clock. It's a 'digital' font. It connotes newness to me.
The stick man was originally looking at a calendar, but it could have been confused with a teacher and his blackboard so I scrapped it.
Turquoise, signifying coldness, but the re-emergence of light as the Northern Hemisphere gradually comes out of the depths of winter
February
Valentines theme, even though it's green. I didn't want pink because A) it is too literal and obvious, B) it is a 'warm; colour so I wanted it for the summer and C) it just didn't fit with the other months that HAD to be certain colours.
Did I remember to send that card? Originally I had 'fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!' embedded into the background, but got cold feet it would turn off too many people – People with kids, parents, relations – they may not all be so accepting that 'fuck' is a good word.
Font used - Garamond. I love Garamond so it had to go for Valentine's, really. I drew over the 'remember' to give it a nervy, hand rendered feel.
March
A 'spring' yellowy green. "I'm losing my marbles" in Apple Myungio, a monospace font which I have only just discovered due to it hiding down the bottom of my font list amongst the Chinese and what nots. I love it. Stick man sat on the ground, with his marbles spread across the floor, looking up to heaven.
April.
Easter. Homage to Cadbury's. Yellow background. "How could I forget to buy chocolate"
The font is Caflish Script Pro, which I don't much like but is pretty damn close to the Cadbury script. 'to BUY' in a hand rendered Warnock Pro, which is as near as I could find to the Dairy Milk font.
May.
Orange. Now I have seen it in print–the most FABULOUS orange. A hot colour for what should be a hot month (not this year!)
"Am I repeating myself?" Stick man sat on multiple "am I repeating myself?"lines of text. Courier because it's like a typewriter. All the text the same size, as if it has just been typed out by a 'The Shining' Jack Nicholson mad person.
June.
Red. Hot. 'Flaming June'
'Where is my mind' Stick man holding his head as if in meltdown. A reference to the meltdown students are going through at this time of year, too.
All my own writing, so Bess Font used for the calendar bit
July.
Anyone seen my glasses? Anyone? Anyone?
A Ferris Beuller reference (Anyone seen Beuller? anyone? Anyone?) which always makes me chuckle. Hot Pink for a hot month, and being July, the glasses could refer to sunglasses as well as reading glasses, therefor appropriate for more people. Font = Arno Pro, Caption. A book font, referencing reading glasses.
August.
How did I get Here? Plummy purple for those late summer fruits, and the beginning of darker nights. Didot used – a font I relate to Ditsy Meg Ryan Rom Com type films, correlating to the 'blonde moment'.
September.
Why did I come up here? Stick Man at that moment of 'FFS!'. Purple because of the darker, winteryness of it, whilst still being suitable for late summer (Think, India). The stairs made out of a typical monologue "Do I really need to go back downstairs to remember what I came up for?" Set in Stone Informal Std – Purely because September is my Birthday Month, and Stone is my Maternal Family's name - it's my calendar, I can do things like that. (Plus it's a really lovely font that condenses well and remains legible when small)
October.
Homage to Halloween. Black. Red splats on the 31st to draw the eye down and connect the text and blackness of the image to the date. "Who are you?" along with a monologue speech trail referencing various horror fictional characters. Fonts are Garamond and a hand rendered 39Smooth. (because it looks a bit scary, without being typical distressed cobweb type halloween font)
November.
Blue, the night sky for firework night. The hand writing is 'glowing' to connote words spelled out in sparklers, and the circular "What am I doing?" text and cracked 'TwyliteZone-Book' font reiterating the firework theme.
The full text; "Okay, so what am I doing?" is a line from Memento.
December.
Green for Christmas. A fallen Stick Angel atop a mass of Christmas referenced words, suggesting apathy and fatigue from the exertion of it all. The quote 'What happened last night?' suggesting alcohol induced amnesia. All set in Univers Lt Std - a font I relate to film credits – end of the year, the round up of the year, etc.
All the calendar dates set in Helvetica Light. A neutral face that can blend with all the other fonts, whilst retaining unity and connecting each month with a common style.
The overall size is A3 (297 x 420mm), printed on 200gsm silk finish paper.
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