Lydia Czolacz - Artist Type face

MODULE 3 artist typeface 01

Module TFD1064.

Design for Communication Design Graphic design group Project – “Artist typeface” Student: Lydia Czolacz Student number: U1250424

02 WHat is typography?

what people don’t realise is that typography is everywhere. whether it be on poster designs or even in microsoft word, fonts are the main part of a document.

Before I started to explore into artists that have used typography effectively in their work, I decided it was essential i understood typography itself and the way in which it has become a huge part of modern graphic design.

typography itself is the art of arranging and placing text which becomes a mandatory technique in the graphic design world. the way a designer chooses a typeface and alters the size, colour and layout is what makes people tell the difference between a good or bad design.

When researching about typography i learnt that there are different names given to different parts of letters which determine the style of the type: 1. Bowl 6. Terminal 11. ear 16. cap height 2. Stem 7. Spine 12. descender 17. x-height 3. Counter 8. ascender 13. crossbar 18. bass line 4. Arm 9. apex 14. final 19. descender 5. Ligature 10. serif 15. ascender height

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Image to describe different parts of type from http://www.creativebloq.com/typography/what-is-typography-123652

03 experiments firstly, i looked at current typographers and the type of fonts they used in their work. each artist i looked at i tried to recreate the fonts they have used in order to develop a better understanding of what works well also how to keep my own font effecient and effective.

the first typographer i chose to look at was elliot peter earls. Elliot Peter Earls was born in Ohio in 1996 where he then attended Cranbrook Academy Of Art. Funnily enough, Earls is now head at Cranbrook Academy Of Art and has lead the Graphic Design Department there since 2001.

The reason I chose this piece of work is because of the way Earls contrasts different type of language typography with each other in this piece of work. I like his collage-like work and the way in which he has used an image that is cropped. I also like the use of colouring and transparency on the red lettering which is still legible but remains in the background of the image. This is something I hope to be able to recreate in my response to this artist.

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Elliot Peter Earls image and information from http://www.elliottearls.com/

the next person i chose to look at was svetlna Lomakina. This is one of my most favourite typographers from the ones i have chosen to experiment their type with. I’m amazed at her skill in hand written lettering and type. Especially her book portfolio which can be found on her website.

I like her use of simplistic colours of black and white and they work well together to create pieces like the ones above. i like the way the text is very minimalist however still looks attractive and sppealing. i also like the layout and how text is built up to create a story. I like the spacing of her type and her different styles of type in one piece which makes the piece of work more interesting to look at and also to study.

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images sourced from Svetlana’s BeHance: http://www.behance.net/lomakina Anotnia Henschel series found on http://www.stylepark.com/en/news/patterns-and-precious-metals/337627

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Antonia henschel is the next designer whose work i was fascinated by and drawn to. Antonia Henschel has named the series of work I’ve chosen to talk about “Isola.” She contrasts the elegant covers with more contemporary graphic design.

I really like the minimalist intake on her pieces of work, I think that the colours work well and the way text interacts with the image. Her “All Metal” typography is really effective and bold I also like the spacing of the lettering as it doesn’t look to much in the slightest.

05 stefan Sagmeister is a well known artist across the globe. He is especially famous for the typography piece he created by carving into his own body.

Despite being born in Austria he now works in New York. He is now a graphic icon of the 1990’s. Poster for the AIGA’s Fresh Dialogue talks in New York, 1996. This piece really conveys his style, humorous whilst still conveying the message of the piece. I really like his style in this and how it is almost handmade. I like the way the piece contrasts ideas of messiness with structure.

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5 http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/ 6 Image sourced from “Typography 27” book.

Justin Smith: I found it hard to source anything about this artist online as his “Linkedin” profile said it was “unavailable.”

I really like the way in which he combines type with image. I also like the way he creates simple vectors and uses them in his work, such as: the speech bubble in the top piece which is then used as text is layered on top.

I also like the way important information is emphasised by the largeness of the font and also how bold it stands out from the rest.

06 Kyle Anthony, Eric Haig, Kendra Inman - Original Juan. this was taken from the book which i borrowed from the library - “Typography 27.” I really like this piece because much like one of the other designers work it manages to juxtapose messiness with structure.

I like the simplistic colours and the use of simple shapes. I also like the way in which they look handmade and collaged.

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Image sourced from “Typography 27” book.

Image sourced from “Typography 27” book.

Marie Elaine Benoît, Jonathon Nicol and Laurence Pasteels - Diesel This piece of work was the last one i experimented with. I am visually in love with this piece of work and the use of typography in it. Again, this piece was found in the book “Typography 27” which i borrowed from the library. As I’ve said on other posts I like the way in which the photography and typography are joined together as one.

Also the monochrome colour scheme as it makes the piece look highly professional. I would definitely like to respond to this piece with some work of my own along the similar style.

07 choosing 8 artists The next stage in my research process was to choose 8 artists to transcribe their work into a font that i believe fits with their style of work. the letters i chose to sample each artist with was “A, E, G, N, S” as these letters are the ones that determine the style.

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7 http://www.antoineetmanuel.com/

the first artist i chose to look at was antoine and manuel grapics. their interest in art can be found in their passion for graphic design, fashion design and now they are wanting to progress further into furniture design. they are french designers who take pride in their work and are willing to showcase much of it in installments and exhibition across the globe. they have managed to create their own graphic visual style which can be associated with them wherever you are in the world. i really like this style of work as it is collage-like and uses colour sparingly, not everything is coloured, which balances out the pieces of work as they don’t look so packed full of images. i like the “note” style of work, how lined paper is used as a background in order to layer the “doodles” on top. i feel their visual communication is very unique, a reason why their business has succeeded.

aylin onel is the next artist i chose to look at. i found her work in the “typography 27” book i borrowed from the library and became in love with her style of work. she works in istanbul, turkey and states that she is very much still experimenting with her style of work, she also enjoys the various experimentations. i have chosen her work as one of my artists because i feel that this is very “me.” her work is very much to my style and taste. the way in which ink is controlled by lines and the way in which images are incorporated into her design work is something that i aspire to do in my own work. the harsh black contrasts against the colours in the images in a good way, creating that strong balance between fact and fiction.

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Image sourced from http://www.aylinonel.com/About Image and information sourced from http://www.biography.com/people/pablo-picasso-9440021

08 picasso was born in 1881 and became one of the most influential artists in the 20th century. he started experimenting from art at a young age and was noted in class for being an exceptional drawer for his age. he then took these skills and did many abstract paintings which at their time were considered “ugly” - little did they know they were to become work from a legend. i believe picasso’s work would be good to experiment with and sample as i believe that the abstract shapes he uses would make a good base of a font. the colour scheme he uses in his paintings are also bright and colourful, again something which i could adopt into my own work based on picasso.

container are a design group who have been one of my favourite designers for as long as i can remember. their work is amazing, the way in which they use illustration to fit around and incorporate watercolour. it is also a design practice which was founded in 2002. having studied illustration, louise vormittag’s aim with container plus is to be able to broaden the horizon of illustration communication design and to be able to create real life installations, which more recently have come into practice, designing rooms for the design hotel, where artists and groups are each given a room to design. i like the easy flow of container’s work and the way in which illustration here is shown that it doesn’t necessarily have to look “neat” to look professional and effective. again, much like the other artists i like the collage style of work.

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Image and information sourced from http://www.containerplus.co.uk/ Image and information sourced from http://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/#1

09 milton glaser is one of the most celebrated graphic designers in the usa. in 2004 he was selected for the lifetime achievement award and following from that he opened “milton glaser inc” in 1974 and continues to create mass upon mass of new design work. i felt that glaser’s work would be interesting to sample as i believe that he uses curves and interesting contrasting colours which you don’t normally see in traditional graphic design. he breaks the rules in this with the use of colour and i think that it would be effective in type to see how that would work, to break the rules of typography.

siang ching is a female graphic designer working in singapore. She graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with a Diploma in Visual Communication, and a First Class Honors Bachelors in Design Communication from LASALLE College of the Arts. again, her artwork is very “me” as i like the way she is more of a contemporary hand based designer who enjoys experimenting hand based rather than all digital. i like the way she interacts with her work and uses origami like structures to feature in her work which give the piece a more dynamic and 3d look. i like the way in which the background is connected with triangles and i believe that this would make a good font, therefore i decided to sample siang ching’s work and the warm colour scheme she uses.

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Image and information sourced from http://www.behance.net/siangching Image and information sourced from http://www.lsi.usp.br/~artigas/kandinsky/oartista.html

10 wasilly kandinsky is one of the most influential artists to have risen from the bauhaus movement. his paintings are enormously influenced by music, something which he was surrounded by at such an early age. he then became a teacher however realised that as well as the success of this he liked to write. i chose kandinsky to sample from as i believe his work has a lot of potential to be able to turn his work into a font. the way in which the lines cross eachother, interract and intersect could easily be the basis of an a. also in his work i can also see structures of letters such as “a” and building from that i could make other letters such as “P” and “Q.”

11 one horse town design is a design group based in capetown, south africa. their work takes on many techniques however i also notice the “cartoon” style of work that they do. despite this, their work also takes a very tattooist approach with the designs as they are typical of what you would find printed on skin. i really like their artwork and the use of colour in their images. throughout their portfolio there is a contrast of dull colours with bright which shows their graphic visual communication with certain projects.i like how their work is fun to look at, it is very amusing to the eye which makes the reader and clients drawn to liking the image.

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Image and information sourced from http:http://www.behance.net/1horsetown Image and information sourced from http://www.lsi.usp.br/~artigas/kandinsky/oartista.html

hannah davies i found hannah davies’ work on illustrator.net. i immediately fell in love with her illustrative style. she is an award winning welsh based designer and illustrator. she is inspired by nature in her work and also by animals. these influence her designs tremendously. she also likes working with watercolours in order to create pastel type colours which don’t take to her creations so harshly. again, i think hannah davies is very talented at what she does. she is able to combine the use of simple line drawings with colour to make her work effective. her style is also unique, therefore if i were to see her work in a place i wouldn’t expect i would be able to tell the artist who created it. something which i believe is very important in design today.

12 bauhaus movement in order to understand the work of many artists i began to look at the bauhaus movement,

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image sourced from http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/art-history-the-bauhaus

The Bauhaus started in Germany in 1919, founded by Walter Gropius, and was the most influential modernist art school of that century. It was the uniting of art and commercial graphic design which influenced many other artists around the world to approach design in a different way. There are many famous artists which attended that school, a few of them are: Wassily Kandinsky (one of my chosen artists), Josef Albers and Paul Klee.

Gropius believed that design was a service to the world and this was carried through as one of his main prospects of starting Bauhaus. He also initiated the idea of perfection within design and also professionalism. They put a modern twist onto everything that could be designed - furniture, architecture and typography.

Western Europe, The United States, Canada and Israel took a lot of inspiration from Bauhaus and their art and architecture trends. There is even a city in Tel Aviv which has over 4,000 Bauhaus inspired houses by two German Jewish architects who fled there after World War 2 broke out. It is the only city in the world to have this many style of houses.

“Archiects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew the composite character of a building as an entity… Art is not a ‘profession.’ There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman… Together let us conceive and create the new building of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will rise one day toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith.” - the first proclamaition of Bauhaus.

13 chosen 4 artists out of the 8 artists which i chose to sample ever so slightly i decided it was time for me to choose my final 4 which i would sample more in depth and try to create a font with. from this, i will be able to see which artist i can transcribe the best and go from there when developing and creating a font.

the chosen 4 artists i have chosen to work with are: 1. aylin onel 2. milton glaser 3. wassily kandinsky 4. hannah davies from just looking at the list i believe i have a very good selection as they all use different types of graphic design in their work, therefore it will help with my experimentation of fonts as i will be trying out different things rather than sticking to one. the fact i have also chosen to study 4 artists will help develop my knowledge into various ways of creating visual language.

14 aylin onel after looking at onel’s work in greater detail i began to experiment with inks to see what kind of image i could create. i recreated some of her famous ones with images of my own.

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17 aylin onel font looking at onel’s work i believe i have managed to successfully transcribe her work into a font. i have used a lower opacity black in order to create the effect of ink spilling, this is also forwarded by the way in which the text lines aren’t smooth. they also have tiny “ink dots” which i think work really effective with the font as they make the type seem more realistic. the “a” was based on an experiment shown in previous experiments on the first page. i was then able to use this as a starter point for many other letters. my favourite letters in this font are “a,” “e” and also “o.”

experimentation inspiration

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colour/bold/italic

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20 milton glaser after looking at glaser’s work in greater detail i began to experiment with fineliners and watercolours to see what kind of image i could create. i recreated some of his famous work with images of my own.

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23 milton glaser font looking at glaser’s work i believe i have managed to successfully transcribe his work into a font. i have used colour straight away when making this font as i believe colour takes a very important part in the making of this font. i am happy with this font however i do see things that i would change, for example, i would study the colour in a bit more detail and make sure it looks correct rather than just odd and random. similar to onel from my experimentation work i have managed to create a uniform which would suit other letters as well as just for one. my favourite letters in this font are “h,” “n” and also “w.”

experimentation inspiration

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25 colour/bold/italic

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26 wassily kandinsky after looking at kandinsky’s work in greater detail i began to experiment with watercolours to see what kind of image i could create. i recreated some of his famous work with images of my own.

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29 kandinsky font looking at kandinsky’s work i believe i have managed to successfully transcribe his work into a font. after analysing the way in which kandinsky uses shapes and lines to create dimension i think i have interpreted it well in my font design.

I started with no colour with this font as i believe it is important to first get the image and then add the colour later. similar to other artists, from my experimentation work i have managed to create a uniform which would suit other letters as well as just for one. my favourite letters in this font are “b,” “q” and also “v.”

experimentation inspiration

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31 colour/bold/italic

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32 hannah davies after looking at davies’s work in greater detail i began to experiment with block pen and watercolours to see what kind of image i could create. i recreated some of her most famous work with images of my own.

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35 hannah davies font looking at davies’ work i believe i have managed to transcribe her work into a font. after analysing the way in which davies uses swirls and curves in order to create layers and also dimension i believe the swirls in the font i created show that. similar to other artists, from my experimentation work i have managed to create a uniform which would suit other letters as well as just for one. my favourite letters in this font are “a,” “m” and also “n.”

experimentation inspiration

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37 colour/bold/italic

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38 each font in order to help me decide which font i would like to use to progress further with, i looked at each artist’s names in the font i created for them.

39 aylin onel

40 milton glaser

41 kandinsky

42 hannah davies

43 chosen font

looking at the fonts as a collective i believe that the one i would like to progress further with is the kandinsky font. i believe this has the most potential as i can experiment further with the shapes and even progress to colour.

44 font refinements

developing my font further i noticed that there was certain aspects of this font i didn’t like - those were the “flicks” i have joined to each letter. i don’t believe these are as effected as i hoped because when i actually join letters together they have no purpose, when i do try and join them together i am left with something that looks totally opposite to how i would like it to. it loses its shape tremendously.

44 final font

after the development of my font i came to a final one which i was happy with. after gridding it out properly on adobe illustrator i was able to look at spacing and also if anything else needed adjusting within my font.

45 font variations

after being happy with my final font i decided to look at size variations. doing this will also help me when i have to make a type specimen booklet to go with this project.

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46 type specimen sheet

as part of the brief, it was necessary to create a type specimen sheet for font bureau. however, in order to do this i decided it would be best for me to look at existing font bureau covers and work from there.

47 type specimen

after looking at the designs and an hour or so experimenting on adobe illustrator i came up with this design. i think this design works really well because it is unique which advertises the uniqueness of the font. i believe that it has still remained in the style of font bureau however with a slight twist which shows influence of the bauhaus movement, which was also seen in kandinsky’s work. i then added inside pages which experiment on the different variations of the font. as this was part of the brief i thought it would be ideal to include it in all one place: the type specimen. it is like i have actually produced a full book for my font.

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50 website design

another part of the brief was to show what your font would look like again, in the style of font bureau. therefore, it seemed common sense to look at the ways in which font bureau have showed their fonts and made them available to people across the globe.

51 website design

from looking at the way in which font bureau use their website to create their font, i have also used the same layout to create my own, as if it were to be featured on their site.

52 font advert

last but not least it was also a requirement to be able to produce an advert for my font in which i would be able to describe the influence and potential my new font has. next to this is my development to finding the best suitible advert.

The one i have just designed i like the style however i think i need to work on the colour schemes as i don’t believe they suit right. the background needs to be more of a yellow colour in order to fit kandinsky’s style of work.

53 final advert

after the last image i worked on colour. i changed the transparency and order of the circles so it doesn’t over shadow the font itself. i have also changed the background colour to a more yellow colour so it fits in with kandinsky’s work. at the bottom of the advert i have also added text which describes how this font has originated from kandinsky and how this has potential to be used in any circumstance.

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