Visual Language

In our second lesson, we re-vised the definitions of verbs, adjectives, pronouns etc to make sure we understood what category any particular word in a sentence falls into.

Verb - A 'doing' word
Adverb - Describing a verb
Adjective - A 'describing' word
Noun - Person, place, thing, name, animal, object
Pronoun - A name
Subjective personal pronoun - When the pronoun acts as the subject

We were then given an article which we had to summarise into 140 characters (if you were posting it on Twitter, for example). The characters included spaces and punctuation therefore we had to make sure it was concise yet still conveyed the basic understanding of the story. This was the article:

Which we then summarised to "Xfactor Katie Waissel reads everything about herself and tries to make amends regarding Matt Cardles sex scandle. Judges deny such rumours."


RIDDLE: What is more greater than God, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich need it, and when you eat it, you die? Answer: Nothing

Alphabet Soup Part 2 - Using the type

Now I have designed an uppercase and lowercase typeface, I wanted to form a sentence which used all of the letterforms - 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'. Using Illustrator, I aligned all the letters to form this and then looked at legibility by scaling the typeface down.

Comparing upper and lower case.

Testing legibility at different scales.

Alphabet Soup Part 2 - Improvements

There were some imperfections with my uppercase alphabet  - both on paper and on screen. I originally created the letters using Illustrator and then transferred this onto tracing paper but the crafting of the letters on screen wasn't as effective. There were spacing issues (which I adjusted when tracing) and the letters did not seem to 'flow'. Conversely, the lines smudged using the specific fine liner I was using therefore I hope to re-do this once I have 'fixed' the letters on screen.

Also, I wanted to devise a lowercase alphabet to see if I can maintain a consistent approach and set of rules throughout all of the letterforms. I will then form a sentence or phrase to test the legibility and readability.

Comparing small and large gaps.

The spacing was not consistent through all letterforms and I believe it is far more aesthetically pleasing with a larger gap between each of the lines. It creates a curve which 'flows' whereas the spacing for the letter 'C' does not. I will therefore adjust the letters which do not conform to this rule.

Lower case alphabet

The 'h', 'm', 'u' and 'n' stand out more than the other letters as the lines meet in the middle. I will try to figure out a way to overcome this as I do not want one particular letterform in a word to be the focal point.

How I kept a consistent design

I duplicated, rotated and transformed the lines forming one particular letterform to form another - this keeps the design consistent.

Visual Thinking - Sequence Exercise

For our first visual thinking session, we were asked to portray a word given to us through the letter 'A' over 5 10x10cm frames. These included skip, burst, stop etc. We were given multiple examples of the letter, 'A' in 4 fonts - Helvetica, Arial, Rockwell and Times New Roman. As all have different characteristics (maybe not so much with Helvetica and Arial), they all have different connotations. For example, Rockwell is a bold, slab-serif and is completely different to Arial, a light, sans-serif font.

I first got the word 'stop' which I had to portray over a sequence of 5 frames. Initially, I thought it was difficult to show this through letterforms. However, this is what I came up with:

The multiple sans-serif letters come to a 'halt' - the end result being Rockwell, a strong, slab-serif font. My second word was 'burst'. My idea was more literal as I believe the word was easier to portray. I wanted an A with serifs to explode and become sans-serif.

As a group of 5, we were then asked to portray another word (Skip) over 20 frames, rather than 5. As it was a much larger sequence, the steps had to be lengthened but still communicate the word effectively.

Alphabet Soup Part 2 - Final outcome

My final concept/design was one I selected from my initial ideas. It was to use a process of joining lines at several points along 2 main lines to form a curve. The best way to explain this idea is through one of my final letterforms. 'V' seemed to be the easiest as it consisted solely of two lines.

I chose a font entitled "Aaargh!" which I found whilst browsing the web for light, minimalist fonts. Although it was classified as a thinner font, I wanted the main aspect of the letters to be even thinner to portray this concept effectively.

Using Illustrator, I created a path of each letter. I then began to use the aforementioned technique for each letterform - either in the counter, along the stem etc which I then repeated for similar letters so each letterform did not look spontaneously designed but as part of a set. As you can see in the following image, there were some letters where I altered the positioning and scale and experimented with different placements. I then settled on a final design.

I then arranged these letters into the grid that was outlined in the brief (4 x 8). This is so the 26 letters and 6 glyphs fit precisely in a grid format.

I then printed these letters onto A4 sheets to then trace onto the A1 tracing paper. However, when using a fine liner pen to draw each individual line, the ink tended to bleed and smudge especially when using a ruler therefore the outcome was not as effective as I hoped. I will re-create this once again, using a thinner pen and one that is resistant to smudging. This is the final design:

Alphabet Soup Part 2 - Design Ideas

After exploring some of the words I chose, a prominent idea was the use of geometric shapes. This not only reflects academics/mathematics, but it also connotes precision and accuracy. These are some design sheets where I explored various ideas.

Using triangles to form the basis of the letters. 

Here I used triangles in a pattern to form the basis of each indidivual letter. Although the concept is evident in large format, the shapes may merge and become un-recogniseable when scaled to a smaller shape.

3D Shapes

Using an existing block typeface, I created a 3D style letterform. Each letter would be constructed from various 3D shapes which were set apart slightly. Again, similar to the previous design idea, it may be difficult to distinguish in a smaller format.

Geometric shapes

This design is constructed from lines, triangles, circles, etc. I have kept the shapes within the Calibri font - a sans-serif font which is minimalist yet has certain characteristics which are friendly and bold (this was from my initial research of existing typefaces).

...more design ideas

Here I have looked at several possible ways of forming letters with geometric shapes and lines. The ideas towards the bottom right of the sheet (which may be hard to see) are formed using straight lines which construct a curved line - something I learned in maths years ago! I tried manipulating these into different letterforms - X, V and M, for example.

The idea shown towards the bottom right of the design was inspired by this image found on this post. It reminded me of a technique I learnt previously - straight lines drawn in such a way that it formed curved lines.

4 ideas taken from research

These 4 design ideas were taken from one piece of research which I found - here. It inspired me to create something similar in my own work as not only is it modern, minimal and contemporary, but it also reflects the words I chose (precise, neat).

Curves/droplets

In this design, I have used a thin, sans-serif typeface which is based on the font entitled Aaargh (found here). I added raindrop style shapes to the ascenders, descenders, counters of all the letters to add a unique twist to an existing font. In the crit, however, it was brought up that it may not reflect the words I chose as much as my other ideas therefore I will not continue with this design idea.

This design (and others below) was based on something I found when researching abstract fonts, as found on my context blog found here. The link to the image itself is here.

Abstract shapes

Also taken from the reseach, I added curved lines, one after another along with some circles which I spontaneously placed around each letterform.

Alphabet Soup Part 2 - Initial Stages

Once our partner was chosen, we were then required to fill in a small questionnaire to give more of an insight into our likes, dislikes, background, personality etc. I then asked Beth, my partner, more questions regarding her likes in terms of design. We were asked to select 5 adjectives to depict the personality of our partner that we could take further and then develop into design ideas; these were:

1) Positive
2) Neat
3) Academic
4) Friendly
5) Precise

As our interests in terms of design were fairly similar, this would ultimately aid my work. I found several fonts which I thought suited the aforementioned words effectively and could use as a basis for my design ideas.

Alphabet Soup Part 2 - Brief

Part 2 of the Alphabet Soup brief required us to design a tpeface for a full alphabet and 6 glyps (£, $, ! etc) which represents and personifies the personality/interests of our chosen partner (selected from the randomiser).It will then be presented on a A1 sized tracing paper and a name badge for my partner (45mm x 90mm). Although the A1 deliverable will be hand-drawn, the badge can be digital.
 

Alphabet Soup - Final designs

As we had to create 10 letterforms, I chose 10 which I could demonstrate the flatpack idea effectively. However, there are several letters which have no lines of symmetry therefore if I were to do a series forming the entire alphabet, I would have to find solution to overcome this problem. These are the final 10:

And a few in their 'flatpack' form:

Alphabet Soup - 3D letterforms

My other idea was to construct a 3D letterform and over a process of 10 photographs, show it slowly transforming into its original net. I decided not to take this idea forward as creating a net for a 3D letterform, especially if it was a serif font, was too complicated and the outcome was not as aesthetically pleasing as I'd hoped. Also, due to the complex nature of creating a 3D serif letterform, I resorted to use the most basic design.

 Illustrator mock up for the net.

 

Basic net including tabs - I also added several tabs as I noticed there were some missing.

 3D letterform complete.