Expressive
TYPE
By: Hannah Bruneman
Word Mapping
To begin the project, we did a word mapping exercise. The words were written down and from that, we attached other words that related. This helped visualize the different ways a word could be interpreted. The words I choose to continue with were snap and stutter. I liked these becasue they both had lots of opetions of how to portray the word.
Sketching First round
The second step was a round of sketching. We had to make 15-20 sketches per word. I saw this as an opportunity to play with different types of visuals. For snap I experimented with the letters pulling and snapping, a button snap, and even a sorority snap. For stutter, I tried different sizes and fonts to portray what a stutter sounds and looks like.
Next, we had a second round of sketching where we chose a concept for each word and refined a few more sketches of it. For snap, I decided to go with the visual of the word actually snapping. Originally, I wanted the P to be falling down, but that created a sense of falling, instead of snapping. For stutter I wanted the word to be bold, but the stutter to be small. This represents how a stutter makes people shy.
Sketching Second round
Trial and Error Once I had my sketches refined, I took to the computer to create them on InDesign. I tried different placements of the P for snap and evaluated their effectiveness. I also was able to find a font that expressed the word because the thin hairlines looked fragile and ready to snap. For stutter, I played with the hues of the stutter part of the word. I liked when I lowered the opacity to further emphasize the quietness of a stutter.
Final Product In the end, I was very happy with how my designs turned out. After much consideration, I took out the line under the word snap. The long serifs attached to the word created a smooth visual line for the word itself. Plus the dashes signifying where the P snapped off portrays the word well. My final edits to the word stutter were to lighten the stutter and to remove the brackets that were around it. While I liked how the brackets looked, they did not do anything to improve the understanding of the word. Also, the added brackets did not fit in with the clean lines of the stutter typeface.