Category: Student work

Lettering in the environment

For this task we were sent away with the motive of finding lettering in the environment and capturing it in a photo to later analyse. Every day we look and read 100s of different typefaces that we may not even take a moment to think about normally, so it was nice to slow down and really question things like why did the creators of something chose to do it in this particular way?
I tried to capture a wide variety of different letter forms, techniques and materials but this began proving slightly difficult with being restricted to campus where they have a distinctive typeface to help brand the university. Over coming this set-back i looked for inspiration in more creative ways like car window stickers and stone drains.

We were then asked to individually group out photos in-whatever way we please and it was really interesting to see the different and creative ways other people chose to group their work. i grouped mine into the different techniques and materials in which the letters were formed which included vinyl/stickers, stone casts, card/posters and carved metal. I feel i approached this challenge head on and to the best of my ability but if i was to do it again i would try harder to think outside the box and be more creative with my ideas.

 

Labyrinth

The brief was to design a book for a client writing a novel based on a labyrinth. I have therfore created a series of concept pages which could be filled with content from the book.

When I read the brief for the labyrinth book idea there were certain key words that stood out to me, I have chosen to focus on them within this design project. The first was “unexpected spatial characteristics,” to me this implies a change in the way the main body of text is presented, the unexpected may also suggest that this presentation is not consistent throughout the novel.

Next was the use of the word “shifting” from this I decided that the text would be at different levels and areas of the page.

The most interesting point was the “impossibly infinite” maze that the characters are stuck in. This gave me the idea to have each page or double page spread to have its own unique theme, not only does this work with the previous comments it links to the story and the lack of direction within the labyrinth.

A common thing in labyrinths is their lack of distinct features. This is used as a tactic, so you find it more difficult to gain your bearings, because of this I have chosen a simple color scheme with minimalist designs on the page rather than complex additions.

Politician

I was given the stimuli of Politician, from this my immediate thoughts went to the politcal unrest happening in America right now. Here I have created two contrasting images, the first shows Trump as he would like the world to view him; proud, patriotic and powerful. The second image however displays the truth, here you see the things people are having to fight for due to his lack of leadership. To create these images I used an app on my iPad and combined a proganda image with different protest signs I’ve seen over the past few months.

A book without words

In my first mini project, I attempted to tell the brief’s story within the pages. I represented the main character’s frantic search for nothing with rough edges and tears. I split the story into sections and varied cutting/ripping/sticking the pages of my book up until the end, where the reader finds nothing. If I redid this project, I would take it less literally and try to present the obsession so that it is clear what the story is upon first glance.

RW

In today’s session with Kim, our task was to create a process of transmogrifying our initials. We had the choice of two fonts: Futura or Garamond.

I began with Futura as I felt it would be easier to practise sketching out my initial ideas. However, I found that with the letters “R” and “W”, the characteristic of the R got lost in the ‘W’, and ended up looking like a ‘P’ – see examples below.

rough sketches and ideas

I then began experimenting with Garamond and found that the serif’s made it easier for the individual letters to be identified when merged together. I focused on creating stencils of my initials to replicate the font before experimenting with them and tracing them on layout paper in different ways.

I found this task interesting yet challenging mainly due to the letters I was working with. I struggled to find a way to find a process of transmogrifying my initials due to the curve of the capital ‘R’ and the angles of the ‘W’.

I did, however, create a series of initials layed out in different ways. I then took my favourite outcome into Adobe Illustrator digitalised it in there.

final outcomes

If I were to do this task again, I’d like to play around with different letters and different fonts. However it has taught me to look at things from a different perspective and pay more attention to detail.

 

Labyrinth

Labyrinth: a family moves into a house with unexpected spatial characteristics. The rooms keep shifting position every time a door is opened. The family members are trapped inside the house and start a journey to find the front door. While they keep moving from one room to the next, they discover that they are not the only ones lost in the impossibly infinite labyrinth of the house.

In Berta’s project, our task was ‘to experiment with the form of an existing book to provide a concept that represents the content of an imaginary novel through the materiality of the object.’

I chose the story ‘Labrinth’ and tried to show the continuous journey through doors in the house by cutting out pages and gradually decreasing the size – this created a tunnel-like effect. In addition, I started to add characters trying to run down the corridor.

If I were to do this project again, I wouldn’t be afraid to be more adventurous with my design.

Are monograms always supposed to be uppercase?

 

G A R A M O N D     E X P E R I M E N T A T I O N

 

 

Initial practice scribble

During the briefing of this mini brief, we were all asked to experiment with our own initials and transform them into a monogram.

Then, a question struck me. Why do we always tend to write monograms with uppercase letters? Many brand/companies prefer uppercase more than lowercase in their identity.

Is it due to our approach to grammar? Perhaps it’s the history? Or it just looks ‘nice?’

Lowercase ‘stencil’

Keeping this as the core idea to my project, I began to draw out my initials (R and V) with lowercase letters, referencing the ever so popular Garamond typeface. Sure, it did seem very strange when I was sketching, almost inaccurate, but it also made me realise how deeply this concept resides within us. Subconsciously, our approach to grammar has enabled our minds to form this complex layer of psychology that instantly ‘corrects’ our approach to lowercase lettering, making it seem/feel ‘wrong’ if it’s(lowercase lettering) on its own (i.e no uppercase).

Experimenting with overlapping lettering
Developing ‘overlapping’ experiment with contrast

Along the journey of experimentation, I accidentally discovered the beautiful contrast that black and white offers, especially in lettering. This was also something that caught my eye, therefore I started to build the core of my project around the basis of ‘contrast.’

After much confusion, on terms of layout and placement of the letters, I looked back at my initial sketches and found an idea that I liked the best, because it had the potential to fulfil both of my main focuses.

My final design idea

This piece above, embodies the usage of lowercase lettering in monograms, yet also provides a beautiful balance of contrast between black and white. It’s simple and elegant at the same time.

After all, it’s enjoyable to break the norms that can sometimes bind us.

Contrast

From studying all kinds of fonts from safety signs to advertisements, our class was a task to compile a collection of fonts from around Reading University campus. After gathering said photos, I categorised the designs through contrast from high contrast to low contrast and also material contrast. From this, i found that most urgent and hazard information signs featured a more colour contrasted and bold design whilst low contrast designs represented directional and or general information.