I am critiquing Jacob Oster’s broadside entitled “Paying Homage to two Skiing Legends”.

The text is about two skiiers whom passed away in a skiing accident. It reads slightly like an obituary, paying their condolences to the lost, but with a more celebratory-of-life type vibe. It is from an online article, not sure where, but you can tell from the format of short paragraphs and suggestion to view the video below. It gives an overview of their influence on the sport, and the situation of their death (“both perished last week in an avalanche accident when they were swept down several hundred metres while climbing a couloir on Monte San Lorenzo Chile”), then goes into personal profiles of each skiier. The mood of the text is sad, but happy in the light of the great lives being discussed.  The text ends with a quote from one of the two “You can choose to see a friend’s death as something tragic, or something beautiful. You can choose to believe what you like on what happens after death. You can choose to create whichever reality you like. So then create a reality you like!”, and a final concluding sentence on the accident.

The mood of the broadside reflects well the message and mood of the text. The color (a purple-blue), is somewhere between warm and cool. It is definitely relatable to skiing, and is already an association I have in my head. The peaks on the actual letterforms is really cool, I think they have been used extremely effectively to create the typeface. They represent aspects of skiing that doesn’t necessarily scream “SKI” or “SNOW” at you. The geometric modular grid is also effective, it gives the shapes depth and slopes like a mountain would have.

The hierarchy in this broadside primarily comes from the contrast between the large lettering of the title VS the small typeface that the actual excerpt of type is in, though there is a tad more contrast within that. The title is in the upper right hand corner, and the main text is within a background design (patterned geometric shapes like those that make up the letter forms) on the bottom left. The placement of these two things is balancing, and successful. The title is clear, and the background of the main text shows not only consistency but the relation between the title and text. Within the text there are a few variants, “JP Auclair” and “Andreas”, the names of the skiiers- are both bolded. I think this was a successful move to put some emphasis on them, however the boldness makes me think of a hyper link or something done in an online article (as we know it is) and moves my mind away from the broadside and to the way the type would look on a white screen. There is also some contrast in the last paragraph, when the write discusses the quote from one of the skiiers. I think like before, the emphasis on these words is important, however the typeface chosen seems out of place with the design of the rest of the piece. I think it could have been done more effectively with use of space and size.

The broadside is very intriguing from both afar and up close, I was drawn to it early on due to the use of color and variants of the hue. Also as I said before I think the layout is effective because of the balanced feel, which also drew my attention. From afar the small type isn’t super noticeable, mostly because you are consumed by the larger type. So once you are closer that draws your attention in, and I think that is a very successful aspect of this particular broadside.

The typeface chosen for the excerpt seems to fit  the piece well, but I found the combination of font, color, and layout a bit difficult to read. The line breaks seem to be a part of why it is difficult to read, but on another note I like the way they break the line of lighter purple that is beneath them as background, and the white pops on the peaks of medium purple coming off of the design. (I included a picture to the right because that was difficult to describe). I think this puts emphasis on the diagonal line that is representative of the “ski slope” and is important.

I think that the paper size is very appropriate for this design, and it looks almost like a cool ad that you would see around, only it contains more context that may be unexpected in this type of design. I think the sizing is very appropriate for this particular design and type, however if this had been taken a different route with the design I think it could also be presented successfully on a smaller handheld piece of paper (to be more formally and intimately read due to the lives being discussed). But I really like the route taken by Jacob to do something other than that, and think the layout, color, and typeface he designed effectively work to present this type that, like the broadside, isn’t extremely traditional in discussing death, but celebrating it.