Project 2: Type

Inspiration

I wanted to take a look at the shapes and forms of type. I tried to dissect every part of the form in my sketches. From stem to serif, close up to distant, I looked at just about every character. Strangely, I chose the capital 'A' for three of my four final compositions. I also looked at the work of Shephard Fairey for inspiration, especially his use of type and pattern.

Currently, all photos are scans of the pen version of my finals. I will replace these once I have quality pictures of the painted versions.

Balance

The goal was to use a variety of patterns to keep the composition balanced. It is also meant to evoke the letter 'A', but in a manner that does not draw too much attention to the letter and kill the balance.

Emphasis & Economy

The whole design hinges on the moment where the perfectly structured letter form transitions into the floral adornment. The background is blank as not to distract you from this single point. I had originally created this with movement in mind but noticed that the composition was much more interesting when the emphasis was on the transition. The floral design wasn't strong enough to carry the piece by itself.

Movement

This sketch came out of a breakdown of the letter. I had left many of the lines used to create the letter and liked the insight they gave into the actual creation of the form. The extension of the lines from the bold shape of the 'A' also move the eye around the composition well.

Repetition

The original concept was just overlapping serifs. Once I had filled up the page, I noticed that filling in several of the forms created a layering effect. Even then, though, the composition was still repetitive without a focal point. The dot over an 'i' creates a focal point and gives sense to all the overlapping forms.