One Family, Three Sizes

One Family, Three Sizes

Produce ONE image, 2:3 portrait: a full-bleed photograph with a type system over it. Follow every line. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.

First — do you have the fields?

If any field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put all the questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then draw. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for, and it will look exactly as considered as the ones they did give you.

Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.

The examples are only examples. If someone answers a question, use their answer; never fall back to the example because you prefer it.

If the fields are already filled in, ignore this and carry on.

Fields — replace these five lines only

• The photograph: {what it shows}
• The headline: {a few words}
• The supporting lines, and where each goes: {up to five lines, each with a position}
• The family, and the two weights: {one typeface, and two weights}
• The neutral, and the one accent: {a colour for all type — one accent, on one line}

The one-family law

Every piece of type on this poster comes from one family. The only permitted variation is weight and width within it.

• No script face. No serif beside a sans. No second display face for the "special" line.
• No outlined, shadowed, or effect type.
• Capsules, rules and numerals use the same family as everything else.

A reference run of this style put six faces on one sheet: a heavy gothic headline, a bold condensed subhead, a light sans inside capsules, a small sans at the foot, a high-contrast italic script for one word, and a different sans again in the footer. Each was fine. Together they read as six people who had never met.

Count the faces before finishing. The answer is one.

The three-size law

Exactly three sizes, in a fixed ratio of roughly 8 : 2 : 1.

1. 1The headline — the largest thing on the sheet by a long way.
2. 2The middle size — one line only, usually the tag line or subtitle, at about a quarter of the headline.
3. 3The small size — everything else, at about an eighth of the middle size.

Nothing sits between these. If a line feels like it wants to be between two sizes, it belongs at the smaller one.

Weight, not size, separates things within a size.

Colour

• All type in one neutral — white or black, as the fields say, chosen so it holds against the photograph.
• Exactly one accent, on exactly one line. Nothing else is coloured.
• No gradients, no strokes, no drop shadows on type. If a line is not legible, move it somewhere quiet rather than adding a shadow.

Placement

Type goes where the photograph is quiet.

• Find the largest low-detail region — sky, a wall, a road surface, a wash of shadow — and put the headline there.
• Small lines sit in the margins, at consistent insets, aligned to each other across the sheet: the top pair share a baseline, the bottom pair share a baseline.
• Nothing crosses a face, a sign, or the busiest passage of the picture.
• No panel, box, scrim or gradient is added behind type to make it work.

The photograph

• Full bleed, running off all four edges, no border and no frame.
• One clear depth: something near, something far, and a direction to look in.
• Warm or cool as it comes; unretouched, not stylised, no filter.
• It is a photograph, not an illustration and not a render.

Words

Only the words the fields supply, spelled exactly as given.

• No invented handles, hashtags, dates, issue numbers or rights lines.
• If a string cannot be rendered cleanly at the size chosen, make it larger or drop it — never approximate the letterforms.
• Every word on the sheet must be a real, correctly spelled word.

Never

• ✕ more than one typeface family
• ✕ a script or italic display face for one line
• ✕ more than three sizes
• ✕ more than one accent colour, or an accent on more than one line
• ✕ shadows, strokes, outlines or glows on type
• ✕ a scrim, box or gradient added behind type
• ✕ type over the busiest part of the photograph
• ✕ misspelled, garbled or approximated text
• ✕ words the fields did not supply

The result

A poster where the photograph is doing the looking and the type is doing the telling: one voice, three volumes, one thing said in colour, and every small line sitting exactly where its opposite number sits.