Text in the Environment Abbie Labonville
Oh my God... I can’t. At the beginning of the class, I thought I was doomed. I had no idea how to use Adobe Illustrator and our first assignment was to create 26 daily drop caps. I have definitely come a long way since that first terrifying day with Steve, and as it turned out, I actually learned a lot about Adobe Illustrator just by trial and error. Also, since I had not taken any type classes up until that point in my school career, it was good to get a sense of what good type design was.
I know Rhino Our final project consisted of creating text in an environmental space. We started by learning Rhinocerous, a program that is designed to create 3-D objects. The program was terrifying at fist, but some how I actually became quite good at it, and it worked as a great tool with coming up with ideas on how to build our letters. Of course, that was the easy part, but actually executing them was pretty tricky. My first idea was to build the letter Q out of wood. It was going to look like a circular bar top being the correct bar measurements and all. I was going to put it together like one of those wood stove hot tubs. Yes, seriously. I figured if I could learn how to use the Rhino, than I could pretty much do anything. After doing research on how to actually build a hot tub, I scrapped it when I couldn’t even figure out the correct name of wood I needed to use, and the fact that I don’t own any wood working equipment. I wanted to exceed expectations, but that would have just been a disaster. Luckily, during a class discussion on where each of us were at, I came up with the idea to create something with fur (faux of course).
I love fur
U
For my first letter, I made a U which was made of fur and stuffed with memory foam. At first Steve was worried and thought maybe it would be unattainable…did he really thinking I would be able to build a bar top out of wood, but not sew some pieces of fabric together? This motivated me. It’s like I knew exactly what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. I found a great deal on some faux fur, and cut out two forms in the shape of a U using a paper template that I had also made. I had a memory
foam mattress topper at my house that we used for only a week but had to take it off the bed because it was too soft (is that even possible?) so I cut it up to use as the stuffing. I sewed together the pieces, stuffed it, and sewed one end for closure. I’m not sure how it happened, but it worked, and it worked pretty well. I actually made a legit object. I named it the “Cuddle-U” because you can lay in the middle of it and it’s quite comfortable
A is for Abbie My second letter was an A. This was the only letter I took from my original designs during our first project of the daily drop cap. I originally wanted to create a whole word using rope lighting, but after making one letter, I decided that one letter was enough. I was on a good streak of letter building, I didn’t want to ruin it now. For this letter I also used black foam core, rope lights, plastic wire, and tape. I made the shape of the A I wanted and taped it down to the foam core. I made holes by first piercing it with a needle, and then again with a wooden skewer. I used a piece of the plastic wire and wrapped it around the letter through each hole, tying it and taping it on the back side of the foam core. After everything was tied down, I removed the tape, plugged the light in, and viola! Success.
Balls My last letter forms was an A also. I actually got the idea while on the plane heading to Texas. I’m not sure how but maybe it’s because I had plenty of time to think without being distracted. The next one, the letter A, was made from hanging Christmas ball decorations from a square, each of them at different lengths. You can only see the A if you look directly underneath it. Again, I knew exactly how I was going to build this and there was surprisingly no trial and error. I used black foam core, gold necklace chain (fake, of course), red, gold, and silver Christmas balls, and tape. I cut the foam core into a square and placed the decorations on it to form the letter A, and to get an idea of how many balls would fit. Once I got it where I wanted, I took a picture for reference, and
measured out where I needed to make holes for the chain. I used the same technique as the rope light A. I then cut the chain into three different lengths: 6 inch, 12 inch, and 18 inch, and placed them over the holes. I placed the board over two chair backs so the underneath was visible. I then dropped each chain through the hole and taped it on the back so they would stay and not fall through. I turned the board over and all the chains were attached. I used the picture I took as a reference for where each ball was to be placed. I attached each ball to a chain with a circular metal clasp. Once they were all attached, I placed it on the chair backs again and looked up at it from the bottom. Success! I could see the letter A.
Success
This was a pretty interesting project. Although I still need to take a type class, I learned a lot about letter forms that I didn’t know prior. I also learned other skills along with the letter forms, such as sewing and working with jewelry making materials. During our critique, the way I placed my objects allowed for them to be used together. The stuffed U was underneath the hanging A, allowing you to lay on the U and look up at the A. This was not my intention, but I’m glad it happened because it allowed the two pieces to be interactive with each other.