Expressive: Type with Meaning

Expressive:

Michael Lopez ART051 Type Neil Ward

Type with Meaning

We had to select three words from a list and manipulate the text to express the meaning or idea of the word. I chose the words: automobile, invisible, and launch. We had to sketch out our ideas on how we were going to illustrate the word to express its meaning.

After I sketched my ideas, I went on Google for some inspiration. I first googled expressive type (image on top), then I remembered about a show on PBS Kids called Word World so I googled that (image on bottom).

Each image shows a different way to go about this project. I like the tops style. I like keeping the originality of the word and letterforms but still expressing the meaning with simple type manipulation and juxtaposition.

I wanted to keep that style in my execution.

I started illustrating my words in Illustrator. For automobile, I tilted the text so it shows movement. The thing that I thought more about were the wheels (o’s). I was debiting how low I should place them below the baseline. I also flipped the wheels to tilt in the opposite direction. Doing this, I feel that I accomplished in illustrating that the word was moving toward the left. A final element I though about were the lines. I didn’t know whether to keep them or not. I feel that the word was still effective without the line, but I liked the aesthetic look so I kept them; I felt that it gave it a more animated feel which I translated as movement.

For invisible, I wanted to play with gradients and trying to turn the word invisible. I also illustrated my idea of outlining the word with dashes. I didn’t like the outlined idea as much as the gradient idea. Once I decided to go with the gradient idea, I played with the direction of the gradient. I had the gradient go from top to bottom and from left to right. Ultimately I went with the gradient going left to right. I liked that the word looks like it’s turning invisible and by the time you get to the e, it’s invisible.

For the word launch, I wanted the h to look like it was launching off of the word. I used v’s to make the ignition fire that would come out from the h.

After that, I played with the juxtopostion of the h. I decided to go with the h closer to the word, because I felt the h away from the word looked like the h was already launched.