This brief is similar to the Summer Brief, although I must design a typeface for another person on the Graphic Design course. This must be a manipulated existing typeface, which gives me somewhere to start from. From the Randomiser, I was paired with Ross Allman.
We asked each other questions such as our earliest memories, our most treasured possessions and what super power we would have. From this session I found out that he moved to Kuwait when he was young and that is is most loved place. Also he loves gaming and game design. He describes himself as loud, boisterous and a leader. His most treasured possession is a Lamb teddy called Lamby that his Mum got given on the Maternity ward when he was born. Also he would bring back Keith Haring if he could. The person he most admires is Saul Bass. Ross likes...
I also asked Ross what his favourite typeface was. I thought this would make my font more personal if it was based around something he likes. He suggested:
- ITC Avant Garde Gothic Book
- Base 02
- Arial Black
- Century Gothic
- Lick Spittle
I sketched out an idea I had involving the Kuwait Towers and the style of Keith Haring. I though it might be cool to use the Kuwait colours aswell when I produce this.
I think I will try and decide more upon a design first and then choose one of the above to manipulate based on and ideas I have.
WEDNESDAY 07.10.09
Today, I realised I was going down the wrong path with my idea. I was basing my designs on what Ross likes... not his personality/characteristics. I went back to the drawing-board and asked Ross to describe himself, I also asked a few mates around him how they would describe him and came up with loud, angry, boisterous, nerdy, worrier, moody, bear-like, sensitive, sarcastic, leader and humorous.
When I got home, I thought about what typeface I could use as my base. From the ones Ross suggested previously, I think Arial Black would work quite well as it is quite simple yet bold. I think this would be good to help me portray my partners character. I worked out what size I would need my original typeface to be to fit onto the A1 sheet (250points), printed them out and began to trace over them... manipulating as I went. I hoped to get a different idea for each letterform and then decide upon the best route.
Currently I like the designs I have done for G and H. I simply traced around the outside of the letterforms and only did small lines for the counters. I was attempting to make the letterforms appear bold and loud. I think with some colour to emphasise this, it could be a good choice to develop further.
FRIDAY 09.10.09
Over Thursday and Friday I developed my typeface further... thinking how I could make my design communicate better. The four words I had picked to use as a base were loud, boisterous, angry and leader. I thought the best way to represent all these was through a shouting mouth on the letterforms. I downloaded some pictures from Flickr and began tracing around the mouths. I then made the Arial Black letterforms 3D in Illustrator as I thought this would add to the feel of boisterous if they had more of a presence on the page.
In Illustrator I placed the outlined mouths over the 3D letterforms where I thought they would have the most impact. I printed this out and began to trace sections. I used the basic idea from G and H as before to create a bolder typeface, and used the mouths as an additional communicator. I also made suggestions of noise lines (as if a loud shout) and think this works quite well.
We had a Crit on Friday and I got some good suggestions about using colour. I messed about with different medias and the positioning of the colours on the letters to discover whichI liked and which worked the best.
From this I decided to use 2 colours. One for the face of the letterform, and one for the sides. The teeth and tongue from the mouth would stay white/clear, as with the noise lines.
MONDAY 12.10.09
Today I finalised all my letterforms...
TUESDAY 13.10.09
Tuesday afternoon I decided upon the colours and media I would use. I experimented with gouache paints, marker pens, fineliners and felt-tips. I was looking for brightness to represent loud. I decided on felt-tip pens outlined with a black fineliner.
WEDNESDAY 14.10.09
Today I started drawing out my typeface on A1 tracing paper which I bought home from the College on Tuesday. I stuck together 8 sheets of A4 to create a white background for my tracing paper, then I sectioned it out so each letterform had the same spacing and also gave my piece a border so if I have time I can add another element to my piece. I placed my letterforms on the white base and laid over the tracing paper. I used masking tape to secure everything in place, this hopefully shouldn't rip any of the paper!
FRIDAY 16.10.09
We had a Crit with Fred and Amber today and it was so intense. The contributions that were made were really useful as there was so much constructive critisisms. I am going to work on my typeface some more over the weekend and make a few alterations which I will show the group on Monday.
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