Brief: Design a typeface for a full alphabet and glyphs that represents the personality of your partner. You will discover their personality through a series of set questions.
Mandatory requirements: The typeface you create must be based on an existing typeface that you will manipulate.
Deliverables: A1 poster - tracing paper. Name badge for your partner - 45mm x 90mm
Week 1, the development stage:
Adjectives: Restrcited, Adventurous, Bold, Constructed and Responsible.
I found it very hard to interpret what the brief meant when defining the need to use an existing typeface. I felt it was very restricting in that you could only manipulate the shape and stem, bowls etc. So I first began with that, just to start on something! Using times new roman and reforming the thickness of serifs and stems. From this I went on to use the form of the uppercase of thsi font, and create a 'futuristic' style of fonts. Restricted was an adjective i used to describe my partner, so i decided to restrict the parts which make up the letter to as little as possible. For instance, within my design sheets you can see an 'M' is made up f just 3 shapes, other letters, even less. I then felt, i was creating my own typeface, but it wasn't related to times new roman, which was against the brief. So i had to take a step back and find a new font i wanted to relate to and manipulate.
I was looking within the book 'Hand Job' by Michael Perry and found an image which used a typeface I really liked. This image can be found with my Design context blog.
Once i understood that i could manipulate the font in a more creative way i decided, in relation to my adjectives, that an 'art deco floral pattern' approach would be suitable. I did many experiments but then realised I was being too loose in my designing structuring. There needed to be a simularity between the letterforms, for instance, several of my designs have the same stem, all of which could be one design and duplicated between each letter. But so far, i had overlooked this prospect...
So to gain some logic to my typeface, I decided to try and categorize the shapes which make up my typeface. Here's just a start. I intend to go more in depth, but you shall just have to wait for that!
What personality traits do you interpret from the typeface designed to represent you?
ReplyDeleteBold is definetly a clear visual aspect of the typeface that has represented me, along with constructed and maybe adventurous.
Describe what you think of the typeface :
The typeface as a whole works really well, its unique and bold, which represents me.I dont know if the typeface would work as well at a smaller scale as it would become to crammmed, but not all typefaces are used for smaller point sizes. Another thing that i had noticed is that some letterforms on thier own were not recognisable, i know what they are as an alphabetical set as its logic, but if they were on thier own there may be a problem with legibility.
In what ways is it effective, and in what ways is it ineffective of representing you?
Its effective in showing that i have a bold personality, although i dont always show this. In ways it shows i am adventurous, but more in the design development than in the final piece. And constructed is another trait i can visually see in the typeface, like the way in which the letters have been constructed.