a series of typographic installations
Speak.
by Chelsea DeSanto
Index.
Introduction
4
Inspiration
5
Lucid Music
7
Steel Towns
9
Thieves of Male Power
11
Stone Souled
13
Introduction.
Speak is a typographic installation project that employs the use of type in unlikely places. This project revolves around taking short quotes, two or three words at most, and taking them out of context. These quotes are created out of either found or created materials, all very unconventional in the world of typography and graphic design. My goal for this project was to stray away from the use of computers to create type. I wanted to work with hand created letterforms in a three-dimentional format. The idea behind this is to take unsimilar elements out of context, and place them together within a new setting, letting the viewer create their own stories. This is the conclusion.
Inspiration.
Initial Sketches & Readings
This is the poetry book used to develop the content of the text. The poems were selected at random. The short quotes were selected by reading through the poem and taking two or three words that created an interesting combination together, especially when taken out of context.
This is a textbook that includes specimen from a variety of families. After the quotes were found, the letterforms were then traced over individually with tracing paper. After the tracing of the letterforms was done, a tangible form was created out of them.
This was created using cut-out bristol board The black that appears on the page is charcoal from a firepit The sign was place between two double doors that had an abstract painting covering both the large doors I felt the quote worked well with the paint playing off its vividity and giving life to both
sapphire’s lyre styles plucked eyebrows bow lips and legs whose lives are lonely too my last nerve’s lucid music sure chewed up the juciy fruit you must don’t like my peaches there’s some left on the tree you’ve had my thrills a reefer a tub of gin don’t mess with me I’m evil I’m in your sin clipped bird eclipsed moon soon no memory of you no drive or desire survives you flutter invisible still -Harryette Mullen
This is ironic? I like the idea of taking this phrase and placing it in an organic setting
What’s to tell? I was born in a steel town where steel is twenty years gone, and I live in a car town where the plants have shut.
I chose to use cardboard “Because of its raw nature”
“But only, perhaps, like day lilies, to open again,” intoned the man in the cocked hat.
I got it dirty with the earth around me
No, I don’t think so. Were are you from, anyway?
It is confusing yes but that is the point to question why
“I? I come from elsewhere, from a contented region that resembles Provence. You really must visit.” No, I don’t think so. But thank you. Thank you. -Kevin Walker
cookie was hard the way only women can be hard / not street or drug tough but more like that roughness certain women steal / thieves of male power / shirts & short hair cuts / pull up boots / like a steel rod suspended through the shoulders / w / musculature molded from the men’s camp / & a stride w / all the power of a honest erection / but w / out the greed -Michelle T. Clinton I though this quote was great / because the book it was carved out of / it was the story of an inspirational male / by physically carving it out / it creates perminence / I hoped it would be seen / as a positive light to women / showing how we / can even the playing field / w / our society
This one is my favorite the placement in a cemetery left there like all the other stones by taking a literal interpretation of this it is given a deeper meaning it emphasizes the perminence of a soul after it is gone this phrase may be temporary but its meaning is not
another funky Sunday stone-souled picnic your heart beats me as I lie naked on the grass a name determined by other names prescribed mediation unblushingly on display to one man or all travelling jane no time to settle down bee in her bonnet her ants underpants bittersweet and inescapable hip signals like later some handsome man kind on the eyes a kind man looks good to me -Harryette Mullen
Stop.