Studio Brief 1 - Visual Thinking - Alphabet Soup

Brief

Produce a set, series or sequence of ten letterforms that explore and communicate your interpretation of the word that you have selected from the randomisers. Using your newfound appreciation of the anatomy of typographic forms and the wealth of research that you have already gathered, focus on the manipulation of existing letterforms in order to solve this problem.

Background / Considerations

Think visually. Consider what the visual essence of your subject matter is and how best to communicate this. What are the obvious responses? How can you beyond these? How subtle can you be? Do your ideas operate as a set, series or sequence? The following terms may prove useful: Trace, erase, layer, combine, outline, silhouette, and surface. Consider the most effective and controlled use of media appropriate to your subject matter. EXPERIMENT with a range of possible line qualities, marks, colour and paper types. How will colour help with the communication? What paper stocks can you work with? Do you need to draw, photocopy, photograph, collage, trace or combine all of these processes?

Initial ideas and sketches:

 

• These ideas are to do with the concept of compacting numerous versions of the same letter into one form. The thing I like about the outcomes is the legibility of the letters is still there, they are recognisable whilst still expressing the term 'compact'.

  

• This idea revolves around the squashing of the existing letter form, literally compacting the letter form down. With this idea, without seeing the original my altered letter form could easily be mistaken for an ordinary font which I find helps it to become more believable as a legitimate letter form.

• These experiments are similar to one of my previous ideas in which I compacted numerous versions of the same font and letter form together; this time I have compacted different segments of the same letter form that were gathered from different fonts.

• Here, using the term 'compact' to mean solidify and to stabalise, I have drawn structure lines that are 'supporting' the letter form as if scaffolding was being used. I like the way in which the letter has been hidden by parts of the structure lines but has still managed to keep its identity.

• These sheets are continuation of development within a similar idea. I liked the idea of somehow 'compacting' a letter form within a certain space or shape but initially couldn't find a way to express this effectively. I continued to work with the concept until I found an outcome I was happy with.

• To make this letter form seem as though it had been 'compacted', I took the existing font and simply altered its anatomy to make it become bolder and heavier thus appearing to be more 'compact' within itself.

•  Here, very similarly to an earlier outcome, I had actually 'squashed' the letter form vertically without altering the width of the letter which made it become visually more compact. Once again, this concept has left me with a letter form that without comparison with the original could be seen as a legitimate font.

• For these examples, I have cut a vertical section out of the letter forms in order to give the impression they are more 'compact'. I like the way in which, even without the middle sections of the letters they are still legible and instantly recognisable as the specific letter forms.

• Similar to an earlier idea, I wanted to explore the way in which a letter form could be put within different shapes. Here however I started with the shape and used negative space in order to create the individual letters. The way in which the shape as well as the letter forms are instantly recognisable works very successfully.

Finals: