OUGD403 Summer Brief.

To begin research for my summer brief I found the alphabet in 28 different typefaces. I search for different types of font, roman, gothic, script and block, ones that I did like and ones I didn't, and created a source of research. I then commented upon these, explaining what I preferred and what I didn't like about each in order to discover my tastes in type.

I then when on to create mood boards on Pinterest. The first mood board I established was to culminate my favourite typefaces I had found through my research. I found that I was passionate about type with a more fluid nature, particularly those created on watercolour, with an emphasis on black, and type that had been influenced by other languages. 

(http://pinterest.com/geeloveslola/typography/)

My second mood board really explored myself outside of the graphic design, I began to write about my experiences, fears and likes. I referenced music, hobbies and fears that I had for my future, cultures and my love for traveling. 

http://pinterest.com/geeloveslola/themes/

The last mood board I created was a combination of the above two. Here I placed the most striking and memorable things about myself, And began to create links with some of the examples of type I had found.

(http://pinterest.com/geeloveslola/final-idea-mood-board/)

I found myself wanting to design in watercolour due to my love for the tangaent media and the ocean. 

I would create a type inspired by culture due to my everlasting love for travel. 

The letters would be partials as a representation of my hate for forgetfulness and also an ode to one of my favourite typefaces - Fade Away by Aron Jansco.

The alphabet was also inspired by my love to watch the rain, which will be represented via watercolour dripping from each letter. 

I also listened to a couple of songs by one of my favourite composers Ludovico Enaudi, exploiting the major and minor sections of the compositions through alteration in gradients.

I decided that the culture which would influence my font was arabic, I have grown to love arabic fonts and find the consistency and fluidity peaceful.

From these ideas I had set down, I drew and painted an initial idea for the letter B.

 

Happy with the result I began to sketch out, using the isometric grid for measurement, letters that would match the B in a sequence. It has been said that with modern fonts, none are totally original, all have used a base font in which they have been built upon. With no formal training in graphic design, I was not aware of this concept, and so I began from scratch designing the letters, editing each as I went along for them to cohere with each other. I referred to the arabic alphabet in order to distinguish angles, shapes and curves etc. 

(http://www.stanford.edu/dept/lc/arabic/alphabet/images/ArabicAlphabet.jpg)

(http://www.identifont.com/samples/page-studio/FauxArabic.gif)

After I sketched the letters out I did a couple of tests on watercolour paper. A test to try and recreate the idea of rain dripping down the letters. I found that if I created a trail using water down each letter, the watercolour which I then dropped from the end of my brush followed this trail. I also tested the watercolour on some gummed watercolour paper. i had bought some 140lbs/ 300 gsm paper however I wanted a more crisp appearance from the paint and so I painted on a paper with a lower gsm of around 190.

 

Taking everything into consideration I then began to draw out my final letters onto watercolour paper, I painted them with a gradient as planned, and used the method of creating a water trail to control the paint. 

Below is the final set of letters, painted and mounted on black mount board.

Below is the set of letters scanned into my computer, printed out and cut into 10x10 squares.

Below are my two favourite pieces of work from this brief. From scanning each letter in a made a smaller version, on a white background of my full alphabet. I think the use of watercolour looks really effective against the clean white background, at looks great at this size too. I then took some of the letters and put them together to create a caption, to see how the typeface would look when in its true format.