As part of the Design Practice module, we have been given a series of set tasks under the theme of 'Visual Thinking'. Each of these tasks aims to develop our visual skills and exploration, using type as a starting point. The brief we have been given, Alphabet Soup : Typeface requires us to design a full typeface and glyphs that represents the personality or character of a member of our year group who we were partnered up with, using the randomisers.
As an 'ice-breaker' we were given a several questions in the form of a questionnaire, which was designed to help us learn about the personality / character of our partner as this was ultimately what we were trying to represent.
I was particularly inspired by the idea of 'money' which I felt would be appropriate as it was something that was mentioned a couple of times during the initial questionnaire session, I also felt that the detailed illustrations used on bank notes would work for the 'attention to detail' aspect of Will's personality.
One of the main aims of of the brief, and the Design Skills Module is to develop our experimentation. I therefore wanted to explore a variety of media during the initial ideas process, I was particularly inspired by these artworks I found, which layer several dollar bills and use the 'paper-cutting' technique to create an image, again the style created by this technique is appropriate for the 'perfectionist' 'attention to detail' aspects of Will's personality.
For this deign, I drew my illustration onto tracing paper which I layered over a printed lettform. I like how this effect is quite unusual however, I believe practically, this design would not work as a alphabet as the tracing paper may make the letterforms illegible.
Although I believe this design would work a a single character or an decorative font, I feel as a functioning typeface it would not be effective as the elaborate design around the character would effect the legibility of the character when it is used as part of a word.
I also experimented with the technique using a photograph of the dollar rather than my own illustration. I prefer the hand drawn version as I particularly like the 'detailed' effect I have achieved using a fine liner as this conveys the 'attention to detail aspect of Will's personality.
To produce this design, I have used the hand-rendered technique of paper-cutting which was one of the techniques used in the artworks I found in my research, I feel this technique is effective as it is quite unusual and more interesting than a two dimensional design.
By cutting out the letterform and placing it over the illustration of the dollar bill, I was able to use it like a 'frame' to control the what part of the illustration to be shown through the cut outs.
Again, as well as producing this technique using hand-rendered techniques and my own illustration, I also experimented with using one of my photocopies to produce the design. I prefer the style of the illustration to the photocopy as I believe some of the detail of the dollar bill has been lost.
Once I had chosen the final idea for Will's typeface, I tried using the letterforms to produce a word as this would test the legibility of the design.
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