Typography 02: Developing Concepts

Proportions Worksheet:

Audience Persona:

John is a forty-five year old man whose children are beginning to move off to college and who has recently purchased a new home. He spends many evenings at home alone cooking, watching television, and reading. He has been fascinated with crime stories, like Bonnie and Clyde, since childhood and has continued his fascination into adulthood with a love of organized crime and mafia stories. He married into a typical "crazy Italian family" and took a trip to Italy one time to travel and experience the culture. He is not only fascinated with Italian cuisine and culture, but also with the American crime families in New York, New Jersey, and even closer to home, Kansas City. John is a graphic designer and appreciates good design, so in his book choices he is drawn to simple, clean lines and good typefaces.

Concept Statement:

A career in the "waste management business" is as consuming as a 9-to-5, but instead of a briefcase, these men sport pinky rings, hankies in the breast pockets, gold cufflinks, and italian suits. Mobsters live "high, violent, score-to-score lives in which car theft, hijacking-to-order, credit-card scams, cigarette smuggling, and other hustles and schemes are a part of the normal routine. The boss is who decides the fate of the typical wiseguy, made man, and rat. He decides who he is going to "burn, clip, hit, do a piece of work. put out a contract on, ice, pop, break an egg, and ultimately whack." The best way to stay alive in this cut throat business is to stay clear of the police and not be a "jamook," an idiot, loser, lamebrain, you know, a jamook!

The word "mafia" originated in the Sicilian word "maffia," which meant elegance, bravura, courage; of obscure origin. The mafia as we know it today is a hierarchically structured secret organization allegedly engaged in smuggling narcotics, and other criminal activities in the United States, Italy, and else where. The "mafioso's," as they have been termed, have been glorified in movies, music, and books as dangerous men who live wealthy, exciting lives filled with good food, good women, and good drugs. As the old Italian saying goes "Col tempo la foglia di gelso diventa seta" or "Time and patience change the mulberry leaf to satin."

Clip. Whack. Hit. Swag. Crank. Burn. and Broken. The Italian Mob is famous for their jive-talk, lingo, and so called "mafia speak." Their language, though, is representational of their lifestyle and career. It is fast, poppy, and instinctual. They follow the Boss's orders and try not to be too greedy because if they are caught "eating alone" they will be clipped. The Mafia is a family, but it can be a brutal and cut throat group to be in. The stories from the Italian Mob in New York and New Jersey especially have influenced authors, producers, and artists all over the word. Their harsh rules and regulations, trust and loyalty, and death and deceit. It is a difficult to live the high life of an Italian Mobster.

Mafia Speak

Type Studies:

The titles and authors with a box around them are my favorite combination. They are big and bold like the mafia.