My Font

This is my own font design which I created on FONTSTRUCT called Blocks. I tried to keep the letters consistent, making each character look like it belongs in the same font.
I was unable to create lower case letters and punctuations, there was also an error when I loaded my font as you can see there is F symbols which are unwanted.
The name I chose relates to the concept I had for my text, I chose to create my font using squares and triangles because I wanted it to be blocked meaning straight and in a square like composition. The outcome could be improved by using different shapes to make the letters more straight and in a square form. To do this I could use a small as my guide line and create there letters within the square to stop the lines going out of place and make the letters all similar, once the letters are right I would remove the square. Letters such as O and D kept looking to similar because of the number of squares, so I added a triangle on the D to curve more.

Reviewing Experiments

REVIEWING EXPERIMENTS!

1. Which materials and techniques have you experimented with during the typography project? 
During the project we have experimented with a variety of materials such as acrylic paints, water colour, colouring pencils, different types of objects and paper. By using these materials we practiced different techniques like water colour based typography, calligrams, manipulating text of photoshop and illustrator. With my handmade experiments I used materials such as water colors, stenciling and painting. I also experimented with my designs digitally such as PhotoShop and Illustrator.

2. Have you explored and developed your ideas imaginatively? How have you demonstrated this? (give examples, link to posts or include images) 
I have tried to explore and develope my ideas by using my imagination as well has comparing my ideas with the artists we have researched but putting my own adapition on them.

3. Have you research a diverse range of artwork and completed this on your blog? who have you analysed? is you analysis in-depth? (again give examples and link to posts) 
I have researched and posted art work by artists such as Hennie Haworth, James Hancock and Si Scott. 

4. Have you explored a range of ideas around the theme of 'Sayings and Expressions' within your experiments? What are they? How have they informed your ideas?
I have tried to explore a range of a ideas around the theme for example I used materials/objects to lay out text relating to the work of Vladmir Koncar.

5. Have you refined / developed your outcomes through experimentation? How? 

6. Have you annotated, in detail, your experiments and developments on your blog and used this information to help you improve? 

7. Which techniques / experiments have been most successful? Why?
The techniques I have used digitally have had a more positive outcome compared to my handmade experiments. For example I enjoyed making my own Si Scott design on Illustrator.

8. Which techniques / experiments have been least successful? Why?
 My handmade experiments have been least successful because I found that digitally I had more of a variety to experiment with, whereas my handmade work turned out quit dull and confusing.

9. Which techniques / experiments will you be developing further for your final outcome? Why? 
 For my final outcome I plan to relate my work to either Hennie Haworth,M&M Paris or Si Scott because their work were the two I found most interesting and attractive.

10. What else can you do to further develop the techniques / experiments you want to use for your final outcome? 
To further develop my techniques and experiments for my final outcome I could combine two artists work style, for example have a center piece relating to Si Scott with text and images surrounding it in the style of Hennie Haworth.

Handmade Typography

Handmade Typography

Handmade type is a typographic experiment by designer Tien-Min Liao where shapes painted on her hands are transformed by gestures to create letter forms. I was inspired by the fact that not only did they showcase the individual letters, but they also went as far as to demonstrate the transition between upper-case & lower-case. I selected this work of hers because it shows well what her technique is, her work inspires me to with the fact that I can print text by changing the positing of my hand to make upper and lower case letters. Some letters my not be accurate and clear but I think that element adds more creative out come, I could photograph the letters of my hand making the saying/expression from my hands and edit using Photoshop my final could be layers photos taken and edited heat pressed onto the T-shirt. I could overlap and layer the photos to create more of an interesting composition.

This is my take on Tien-Min's style of handmade type, which is supposed to be an upper case S.

Calligram In-Depth Analysis

Oscar Wilson and Sarah King are good examples of Calligram artists, they use words to create images. We mainly focused on Oscar Wilsons who started working in London in 1996 till now, he is a contemporary artist. Wilson specializes in image creation, illustrated and hand crafted typography.  He uses simple colors for the background so that the focus remains on the bright and bold text in the images.

His work is mainly used in advertisement, publishing, fashion, film and TV. His work can be connected to many high profiled brands such as Nike, Puma, Visit London, Supreme etc.             Many of his piece and details of his work can be viewed on his website www.studiooscar.com. A lot of his work represent London Life, not only aiming at tourist but also people around London visiting sites.
These are my Calligram designs which I did handmade and also digital. I selected the pieces above by Wilson because they stood out to me, but overall his technique stood out how he creates text in a shape of an object and also how he combines illustration then adds the Caligram technique such as the woman with the afro. This technique has inspired me to experiment with a final outcome using this technique and create a typography saying/expression in Caligram form, but instead of my text being in the form of an object, person, building etc I would combine all the words and connect them or layer them outline in black fine liner to make individual text stand out. His Caligram technique may not work well if I chose a long say/expression because the worlds can get lost in the image and be hard to read for example the Gorilla piece he did for London some words are small and squashed hard to read.

Experimental Typography x2

EXPERIMENTAL TYPOGRAPHY

  

 

 

My group and I had flowers, looking at all of our mind maps of phrase and words that we thought linked well with flowers. When thinking about what can be associated with flowers we thought of words such as Peace and Love. We used the petals and stems of the flowers to spell out the words.

Vladimir Koncar is a designer who creates typography using objects/material relating to the study of his topic, his work has been featured in different magazines and books.  Narcissus Type this is an example of Vladimir Koncars work made up of daffodils spelling out the phrase "Little Things Amaze Me." I personally like this piece because of the relation the daffodils little beautiful flowers and the phrase "Little Things Amaze Me" have because daffodils are small but attracting pieces of nature and the way the phrase relates to the material used to make the text, adds more of a impact to the typography. This work will be inspiring my own work by using his use of materials that relate to the topic of the text, for example some of the sayings/ expressions I'm thinking of using such as A Dime a Dozen I could create the text out of coins take photos and continue on to develop on Photoshop.

Experimental Typography

I created furry font in Photoshop using work by  Handmade Font as inspiration they design unique fonts for advertisement campaigns, packaging, magazine covers etc. The objects usually used to make the text relates to the saying/expression or what the text is being used as, for example an advertising text they create for a warning sign or campaign they would included things such as injuries which is a consequence to ignoring safety... 

I followed a tutorial on how to make my brush look like grass. First I selected a letter in simple font Arial Black, to use as a template. After I selected the Brush Tool and the Dune Grass brush and adjusted the thickness settings and size to 40. I then adjusted the background colour setting to E9EBCE and the foreground colour setting to 4E5500. When the grass brush the right effect I started to fill in my letter.
I also experimented with other brush textures such as the Scattered Maple Leaves and Scattered Leaves.

I also used the pin & thread font technique by hand inspired by the work of Debbie Smyth. 

I personally preferred the pin & thread technique because I was able to experiment with the movement of the string and make it 3D, the complex side of the pin & thread technic was more intriguing then the handmade font on Photoshop. Pin & thread technique also is more relative to Handmade Font because its done by hand instead of using Photoshop or Illustrator for example, in my opinion.

These are photos of my interpretation of Smyths technique using string.

To improve the Photoshop Handmade Font I would add more colors or textures to make the font more vibrant and bold,also maybe next time try different effects instead of the grass effect. To improve the pin & thread font I would  experiment with the placement of the pins on the foam so that the thread can be folded in differently making a different font/shape outcome.

M&M Paris Style

BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY

We created clipping mask in Photoshop inspired by the work of M&M Paris. With the black and white photo of ourselves,we placed the photo on the letter to a point where there was not too much black or white spaces. After I experimented with brush storks to add some extra effect, however there were many flaws to my final piece because the actual letter which is a capital A does not show clearly. To prevent this happening again the photography I use next time I need to make sure there is not alot of white space in the photo. 
I created a new and developed experiment in this style because the way I used the bursh tool in my first experiment was to careless. I kept this design simple and used less of the brush tool.