THE CHALLENGE
Design a typeface composed by elements from the world around you. Avoid pulling into your typeface anything that may be considered a traditional letterform.
Time Limit: 120 minutes
MY TOOLS:
Pen and paper
Camera
Adobe InDesign
IDEA GENERATION: 30 MINUTES
I spent the first 30 minutes drawing out the letters, both in print and in cursive to think about the shapes of the letters that I'd need to find. At the bottom, I identified parts of the letters that I would need find in the physical objects, including the spine of the S, open and closed counters of the P, J, C, etc. In my spare time, I'm currently reading Mastering Type: The Essential Guide to Typography, and it's great to be able to put some of the things I'm learning in that book to practical use!
MY TOOLS:
Pen and paper
Camera
Adobe InDesign
IDEA GENERATION: 30 MINUTES
I spent the first 30 minutes drawing out the letters, both in print and in cursive to think about the shapes of the letters that I'd need to find. At the bottom, I identified parts of the letters that I would need find in the physical objects, including the spine of the S, open and closed counters of the P, J, C, etc. In my spare time, I'm currently reading Mastering Type: The Essential Guide to Typography, and it's great to be able to put some of the things I'm learning in that book to practical use!
This reminded me of my Montessori education and the "Sandpaper letters" materials. As a student, I'd run my fingers over the physical coarse letter to feel the shapes and curves to learn how to draw the letters. This is similar to today when I wanted to learn the curvatures so I could recognize them out in the physical world.
PHOTOGRAPHY: 40 MINUTES
Next I picked up my camera and took pictures of objects in my house and around my neighborhood. I took the sketches of the parts of the letters with me so I'd have something to reference, but mostly I just looked around and snapped a lot of pictures along the way. I took a lot of time looking at the underlying shapes of things I see every day, including the door handle in my car and the fire escapes on the side of houses.
Next I picked up my camera and took pictures of objects in my house and around my neighborhood. I took the sketches of the parts of the letters with me so I'd have something to reference, but mostly I just looked around and snapped a lot of pictures along the way. I took a lot of time looking at the underlying shapes of things I see every day, including the door handle in my car and the fire escapes on the side of houses.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: 50 MINUTES
Next I came inside to form the alphabet from all the photographs I had taken. At this point, I wasn't really sure if all of the letters would be formed by one single photograph or together from elements in multiple pictures. I created a list of each letter and sifted through each photograph to see if I could find a match.
Next I came inside to form the alphabet from all the photographs I had taken. At this point, I wasn't really sure if all of the letters would be formed by one single photograph or together from elements in multiple pictures. I created a list of each letter and sifted through each photograph to see if I could find a match.
For some letters, I needed to crop out most of the photo to really be able to identify the letter in the object. However, when you cut out the surroundings, does it become unidentifiable as the original object and then lose it's significance? I struggled with this concept as I cropped the legs of the chair to make the letter L, as well as several others.
MY COMPLETED ALPHABET
OVERALL
I loved this challenge because it focused on something we all know so well and challenged me to think about it completely differently. I really embraced the idea of finding something that had no typographical elements at all to create the new letters. I also feel like i succeeded because I didn't create a letter out of a moveable object, such as a laptop charger cord (although that very easily could make a great Q or S!
I loved this challenge because it focused on something we all know so well and challenged me to think about it completely differently. I really embraced the idea of finding something that had no typographical elements at all to create the new letters. I also feel like i succeeded because I didn't create a letter out of a moveable object, such as a laptop charger cord (although that very easily could make a great Q or S!
What I might do differently next or if i had more time? I would have loved to focus on a theme, such as everything related to transportation, including cars and bikes. Additionally, I'd love to try my hand at sketching these elements to see how they would appear outside of their background.