experimental type: Online Class Week 8. Discussion and exercises

This week we will work on a range of ‘studio’ exercises to get us thinking creatively and to really experiment with ways of producing typefaces that have a unique personality and materiality. The idea here is to push the extent to which letter forms can appear to belong to a similar font family as well as the boundaries of what make a letter form recognisable as a letter – ie what makes an ‘a’ an ‘a’ is it a circle with a line on the right, a hook with a circle below etc…

Looking at the project at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/5214077/Google-Earth-satellite-images-alphabet-created-by-graphic-designer.html
starts to explore this idea by way of exploiting our associations with letterforms so that particular shapes in the landscape can be arranged into an alphabet despite the amount of information contained in each image

Taking this further this project seeks to explore ways in which particular typefaces can communicate abstract ideas, complicated concepts or added layers of information simply in adjustments to the basic building blocks of letter forms. In a way you will need to be able to identify what your font is ‘saying’ to the reader – what particular contexts of use might your font have? Is there a particular feeling that your font evokes? If you were to describe your font as a personality what would it be?

Visit Ellen Lupton’s site thinking with type: http://www.papress.com/other/thinkingwithtype/index.htm

Be sure to you’re your way through this part: http://www.papress.com/other/thinkingwithtype/letter/anatomy.htm and familiarise yourself with the terminology and architecture of font and letterform design as it will help you to produce more informed font designs. If you have any comments or ideas after reading through the site post them here. Don’t forget to re-visit http://ilovetypography.com there are some really great posts relating to more type theory and terminology as well as interviews with font designers and what makes them tick. If you can dig up any font history that is engaging and useful or any links to do with how fonts are designed and thought about please post them in the comments so we can discuss them together in this online ‘classroom’.

EXERCISES

In a single blog post upload your research and development of work for the following exercises. I will then give feedback and comments on each during the week. Please offer your own comments to other students as well as being sure to read through my comments to see if any ideas or feedback could also be applied to your own work also.

Exercise 1 - what is your favourite font – list why you like it, which characters you think work best, those that could work better, how often you use it, where and why you use and what you might be able to learn form this as an exemplary font design. If possible see if you can find any interviews or historical information relating to the designer and why they designed it

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Exercise 2 – list 5 – 10 research questions that you would like to use to help you explore and analyse your font designs as they are produced. For example: Can I produce a font that washes away? Can I produce a font that is toxic? etc

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Exercise 3 - Produce handwritten lettering in a range of handwriting styles and propose a set of formal characters for your own handwriting – you can take this further by thinking about:

Using a range of tools for rendering you handwriting – ink, watercolor, scalpel, spray can, sticktape, etc consider the ways in which you different materials shape or change they way you ‘write’

Think about your personality – how can you make you letter forms express an aspect of your self?

Try re-rendering your favourite typeface in a way that allows you to own that typeface and push it into a new kind of type design

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Exercise 4 - Develop a sample of five letters that are “written” with unusual mark-making instruments. The form of the letters should be adjusted to best respond to the way the tool you have selected makes marks. You might even consider forming letters in three dimensions and photographing them, experimenting with scale and surfaces, even producing fonts that change over time – here are some fun examples to get you started.

Please try to post your responses to these exercises by the end of the week so I can respond over the weekend – if you get them up sooner all the better. Check back on the blog regularly as I may post some additional information relating to font design thinking and theory as I start to see the work you produce… If you have any questions please leave them in the comments of this post.