Alphabet Soup - Idea Experiments/Development

Taking into consideration the research and things that I have looked at in preparation for this brief, I then got out a pen and some design sheets and started to sketch out some ideas. They didn't go in order so I have organised them so that when you look through the decisions I made are a little clearer.

Visual Language - Studio Sessions

Here is the layout of how the Visual Language module will pan out over the course of the year.

In preparation to the first session we were asked to do a little task.

Alphabet Soup - Other Decisions

I think because the final A1 poster is to be produced as an A1 poster that is hand drawn using only black ink, the experiments that I make will also be in the same way so that I will have a clearer idea as to whether they will work as the final outcome also, rather than creating is straight on a Mac and not being able to draw it the same. Even so, I will probably experiment with some elements n them, and will digitise my final ideas.

One key answer that has really got my ideas flowing for the designs is the one that Charlotte put for the 'If you could go back in time, where would you go?'. Her answer was '1920's - Art Deco'. I think this will be an interesting starting point for what I could do, so I will research into some existing Art Deco fonts and possibly adapt some of the elements from them into my own designs.

I will also research into other things that I feel are relevant to help influence my ideas. The research I have made to help influence my ideas are here.

Alphabet Soup - Existing Font Decision

For my starting point to my designs, I need to choose an existing typeface to develop into my own designed typeface. I have decided to choose one now because I think it will help me concentrate more on developing the designs than I would considering whether the typeface is right or if I should have used a different one for a particular idea.

I used charlottes name when I typed out the examples because as well as the full typeface I am going to produce, I will also be designing her a 45mm x 90mm name badge.

The fonts that I have used for examples in order are:

1. Myrida Pro
2. Arial
3. Arial Bold
4. Andale Mono
5. Bell Gothic Std
6. Futura
7. Helvetica
8. Impact
9. Krungthep
10. Lithos Pro
11. Nueva Std
12. Optima
13. Tahoma

The font that I have decided to use as my existing one is Futura.

I have chose this because...

Here is the typeface set out as I will be having my final outcome poster. I have used the suggested symbols for now until I decide which ones to design with the typeface:

Alphabet Soup - Partners.

The partner that I got which was chosen from the randomiser is Charlotte.

To start off the brief we sat together and filled in a worksheet answering questions about ourselves for each other, as well as spending a little time asking each other questions we think were relevant to the brief that could help us throughout the design process.

Once this was done, we were to then write down 5 adjectives that we believe best describe out partners. My words are:

Quirky
Elegant
Confident
Different
Well educated.

To give me a better understanding of these I looked into the definitions for them.

Alphabet Soup Pt 1 - Crit Feedback and Further Development/Crit Response

Feedback to the final crit we had on 01/10/2010.

Issues Raised

• see if it would have the same effect on different letters - already did this, just evidenced on my blog instead of taking along to the crit.
• if it's done too much then would make the letters no longer legible.
• as a group it was decided that the 5th and 8th in my sequence looked the best ones.

Action To Be Taken

• try using the different letters that I have also tried in the same style to make up a word and see how that would look.
• I also think it would be interesting to see if the same effects would work on a different typeface, possibly one not bold or sans serif or something.

Further development/crit response to the above.

I got straight on to experimenting with making the word shake out of the other letters I already experimented with.

Using the same logic as I did for the individual letters where if you imagine holding a letter and literally shaking it side to side the result would be what I designed. Well I was thinking about it as a few letters together making a word and if you were holding the word and shaking it side to side they would all merge together, so this is what I was trying to achieve in the experiment.

I think it does actually work quite well because even though they are blurry giving the impression of it being shaken, you can still see the counters and different aspects of each of the letters within it.

Now I've tried the same idea on a different typeface. For this experiment I used Times New Roman.

The results turned out better than I was expecting them to if I'm honest. I think that using this font makes the idea more legible, because you can see the letters that I used more clearly than you can in the previous ones. I like it, but I think if I had to choose I would still choose the other one because it looks that bit more effective.

I also gave it a quick try with Helvetica to see how it would look with that.

I don't think this version works as well as the others do. Fair enough it does still give the impression it is being shaken if you think about it, but it is now quite as obvious/effective as the others. I think for this idea to work it definately needs to be a bolder font. I also tried this version in uppercase letters to see if there's a difference but I don't think either is better really.

Alphabet Soup Pt 1 - Final Idea Development

After experimenting further with some initial ideas, the idea that I have decided to produce as my final set is the 'a bit shakey progressing to being a lot shakey' one. I have chose this one because I think that it is a good response to the brief and my chosen random word. 

Below is the 9th design from the set of 10 that I have done. This is a really zoomed in version so that when you click on it you can see the detail within the design a lot clearer.

Experiments.

I have also experimented with the different letterforms that spell out the word shake using this technique just to see how it would work as an actual typeface:

The technique also works well on these letterforms, you can still see what letters each is intended to be.