Shadow Type Issuu

Shadow Type

Shadow Type The Beginning

Shadow Type The Process

Making a typeface from my shadows proved to be a challenging experience. We began by projecting a harsh light against a relatively plain wall. I was convinced that it would be pretty easy to make letter forms by bending my body certain ways, but it was actually a lot harder than I thought.

I was set on making lowercase letter forms. Letters like “a” and “s” where much more difficult to pull off than “h” and “n”. I wore a loose fitting shirt that made certain positions more difficult to project a clean shadow.

The images above are the first few iterations of my typeface. After tracing handgloves the first time I knew I wanted to keep some humanistic qualities in my letter forms, but I realized that the width of my letters weren’t very consistent. I continued tracing, scanning and touching up my letters in Illustrator until I came to something that I was happy with.

Shadow Type

Shadow Type

Inspiration A typographic anatomy chart can be designed in a number of different ways. I really enjoyed scouring Google and Behance to see how different designers have made something as simple as an anatomy chart so beautiful. Below are two of the charts that inspired me the most. I’m usually drawn to more simplistic/minimalist designs. This explains why both of these examples have white backgrounds and black type with a hint of color. I was pretty indecisive about whether to use arrows to point out a piece of anatomy or to highlight the piece. So I decided to do both!

As you can see, the first iteration of my anatomy chart was extremely boring. I wasn’t very familiar with the terms I was connecting to the type so I started out simple to make sure I was technically correct before I started going crazy with my design. I liked the overall feel, but it definitely needed some more work.

Shadow Type

Shadow Type Final Anatomy Chart

I’m very pleased with my final anatomy chart. My goal was to create a clean, aesthetically pleasing chart that is informative but still tasteful. I think my favorite parts are the lines that highlight pieces of anatomy. The black border helps to frame the important content and adds a professional quality.

The next two iterations were simple but important. First of all, I added a title. A title makes a world of difference! I also experimented with a colored background, but I decided almost instantly that I didn’t like it. There was too much going on and I distracts the viewer from the content of the chart.

Shadow Type The Alphabet Process

Shadow Type The first iteration of my shadow typography alphabet was inspired by my anatomy chart. I really liked how clean and concise the border looked, but I wanted to mix it up a little bit by making the page vertical instead of horizontal. At first I had the letters much closer together. After playing around with the forms I didn’t like the way that the descenders and ascenders from different rows were interacting. I made the forms smaller and more spread out to fix the issue.

After critique I made some changes. Notice the difference, to the left, between iterations one and two.

I focused on making smoother and more consistent lines; thinned out the f, g, j and q; thickened the x; straightened the g and y; and made the bowls of the a, g and o consistent.

Making words out of my typeface was a great tool for identifing inconsistencies in the letter forms.

Shadow Type

Shadow Type

Final Shadow Type Alphabet

Reflection Through the Shadow Type project I have gained an appreciation for type creation. I never realized the work that goes into the process and how little things like tails and bowls are distinct to different typefaces. I am very pleased with the outcome of the typeface I created, but I wish I had more time to work out the kinks. There are several details throughout it that are not consistent, like the way the ascenders and descenders move and fall, and how my bowls are spaced.

I liked learning termonoly of typography while putting it in to practice. I’m a very visual learner. It was very effective for me to immediately apply the concepts I was learning throughout the project. In some ways I loved the lack of direction in this project. It allows for a lot of creative liberties to be taken. At the same time, I was confused when certain things were expected during critique (for example, a border around the anatomy chart) without being told specifically ahead of time.

This project has been successful in providing a foundation of typography knowledge before I dive into future projects this semester. I’m looking forward to learning more about type creation in the future!