P R O PAG AT E A Typeface by Caroline Reynolds
GROWING ROOTS
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Meet The Problem Opportunity Inspiration
NEW LEAF First Tries New Beginning Death Scare Revival
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Table Of Contents
PROPAGATE
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Letterforms Numbers & Symbols
THRIVING Stationary Signage Signage Merchandise Packaging Packaging
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GROWI NG ROOTS Meet the Problem Problem Meet The Opportunity Opportunity Solution Solution
M EE T T H E P R O B L E M City Seed At The Station
City Seed at the Station is a plant store in Anderson, South Carolina. They specialize in indoor and outdoor plants, as well as home goods and bird-related products. The store is known by Anderson locals as a relaxing greenhouse that is in a vintage gas station, in the heart of Downtown Anderson. While City Seed at the Station is known for being an uplifting, calming environment, the typeface used for their current signage is questionably a sans-serif intended to mimic the characteristics of an Italiantype writer. Their typeface, Plume, does not communicate their relaxing and botanical side. Changing the typeface for City Seed at the Station would allow the company to reestablish themselves after being an Anderson fan-favorite for the two years they have been open. 6
OPPORTUNITY New Plant Parents
Amid the COVID-19 lock downs all over the world, many people found comfort in adopting new plants to cure their loneliness. Since many individuals did not have other people around them plant “parenting” became a popular past time. Plant ownership involves taking old things and pruning them to make something new, causing a harmonious relationship. Just like plants, typefaces are ever-evolving into something new. City Seed at the Station’s typeface issue is an important cause because it is the perfect time to change while the market for plants is hot. Changing their typeface would make the shop more interesting to new, younger plant owners, leading to a relationship between the old and the new.
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I N S P I R AT I ON Finding the Solution
Vintage scientific style designs have been growing in popularity recently, possibly linked to the COVID-19 lock down keeping most people indoors and wanting to “bring the outside inside”. The inspiration for Propagate coming from vintage posters aligns with the idea of a new wave of plant owners. A renaissance of plant owners has allowed for a rebirth in vintage everything, especially with the new aesthetic of “cottagecore”. City Seed has the opportunity to pull inspiration from these vintage posters and other botanical designs that are back in popular demand. Creating a typeface that looked similar to these vintage typefaces allow for the new generation of plant owners to associate City Seed with this trend.
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N E W L EAF NBrainstorming EW LEAF Development Brainstorming New Beginning Development
Death Scare Revival
B R AI N S T O R M I N G Organic Thought Process
Once the vellum process had begun, it felt as if everything was just a little too organized. The process of making more letters began through taking completed letters and tracing them on to spare sheets of vellum and using those pieces as much as possible. This resulted in eight pages of vellum covered completely in overlapping letter forms, dash marks, and other small pencil lines. This process gave the opportunity to have an organic developing process instead of staying “inside the lines”. It allowed for using similar shapes over and over, and also resulted in some crazy pieces of vellum.
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DEVE LO P M E N T One to Another
The process of going from a Moleskine journal of a larger grid to the smaller grid of vellum was a shocking curveball. The vellum seemed daunting and the grid system was much smaller than imagined originally. This curveball caused Propagate’s individual letter forms to become much skinnier, changed where the crossbar sits, and also changed the typeface from being very angular to have more of an organic shape to the feet of the letter. The E in particular went through many changes from the original sketches to the final letter form. From the two rounds of sketches, the letter gained more contrast between its thick and thin strokes. In the end, the E’s crossbar foot gained more personality to establish an organic and youthful feel. It also became wider, like most of the majuscules. 16
DEAT H S C A R E Negative Reaction
Once the typeface began to get digitized, it was very evident that something had gone very wrong. Spaces were irregular, feet of letters being completely different, and the relationship between majuscules and minuscules being nonexistent. Considering it was getting close to the end of this project, Propagate needed some serious love and affection. After this almost death scare, every letter was measured precisely and made to be the same width throughout. The majuscules max width was made skinnier, feet on letter forms were made to be smaller, and minuscules became a lot thinner.
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R EVIVA L Solutions All Around
After a death scare, there is revival. Propagate came out of this issue stronger than ever expected. Once all the widths had been adjusted, the similarities in shapes began to appear out of thin air. The solution for unification had been present all along: making every letter from the letter made before it. Similar shapes being repeated throughout the typeface can be seen through paying close attention to feet, crossbars, and curves.
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P R O PAGAT E Letterforms Numbers & Symbols
A H O U 24
B C D E F I J K L M P Q R S V W X Y
G N T Z
a h o u
b c d i j k p q v w
e l r x
f m s y
g n t z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 26
. , ? ! &
TH R IVI N G Signage Merchandise Packaging
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SOURCES
https://unsplash.com/photos/ UA4hfMpVRkM https://www.freepik.com/free-psd/roundsticker-mockup_12006123. htm#page=1&query=stickers mockup&position=1 https://www.freepik.com/free-psd/ chromatees-tshirt-mockup_5533359. htm#page=1&query=t shirt mockup&position=85 https://unblast.com/free-pinch-lock-boxmockup-psd/ https://unblast.com/free-paper-bagmockup-set-psd/