LETTERFORMS

LETTER-FORMS

Attempting to try and duplicate the words on the right side of the page was difficult because it took a lot of measuring to make the spaces between the letters was correct.

Graphic design involves not only images, but letterings play a huge part in creating an appealing and successful design. The form of a word can impact how other precieve the word. We first had to understand different types of text and what makes each unique. Then we had to carve and print our own letters to better understand how negative space as well as the noise left over from carving can give the word different variations.

Playing around with different types of text for different words was fun. Creating shapes out of the words like; tear, cup, and bottle were fun ways to portray the words.

Working with the letter printing was not as easy as I thought it would be. The ink that I was using was not the easiest to use so my prints would usually a lot lighter then I would have liked. It takes a lot of practice to get the letters dark enough, lined up correctly, be evenly spaced, and not leave fingerprints all over the page. I often had to use my finger and smudge the ink to fill it in, which sometimes made of a mess. The process was very messy and chaotic, but that is what art is sometimes, right? To start I would create a baseline that the word would sit on. After that I used painters’ tape on the back of the letters where the letter would touch the baseline and where the letter ended on each edge. This allowed me to as accurately as possible line up the letters and allow the same amount of space between each letter. It was a tedious task, but rewarded the best results. I knew that I wanted to take picture that described time in the best way. I used an exacto knife to carefully cut out some of the letters, they would then be place on a scanner with the desired image on top of them and scanned. This is where I had a lot of fun coming up with different concepts of time. If I were to continue with the letters, I would make more dynamic prints not the static, on the same baseline. I would like to keep experimenting with the copy machine and taking a variety of pictures that could represent time. I don’t think I gave myself enough time to think about different perspectives of time so I think I could have come up with other pictures that represented my word

These are few sketches while I was brainstorming some concepts about time.

Middle: I like the idea of TIME being told through a clock, but it seemed too cliche. Right: I actually made my friend eat an apple that he did not want just so I could take these pictures and did not even end up using them in the final iteration.

The concept for this piece was that things can become trangled messy as time moves. We go through all kinds of loops, strainght lines, hits some knots but still time keeps moving. I achieved this by using a scanner, placing the string is all sorts of directions and then placing the letters intertwining them in the sting to look like they were not just placed but were connected to the string. This took a few tries because I had to make sure the letters were not backwards or that it was difficult to read. I then place a dark piece of construction paper on top of the string and letters to create the dark background.

This was the printed straight iteration. The most difficult part was making sure that it was evenly spaced on the baseline correctly. I spent a lot of time creating the same baseline iterations, it got easier and I picked up speed the more I did work but it was still difficult to perfect. When I had seen videos of print making, I often see it with the letters placed on the table then the paper being pressed. I would have liked to try that technique to see if the result was better. For my first time trying letter printing I think that there is room for improvement, but it was a good first effort.

For this piece, I wanted to show that the negative sides time has on a person. The ‘T’ starts of at the top which shows that we start off well, no major responsibilities and as we go through life those responsibilites increase and can often weigh down on us. That is why the ‘E’ is significantly lower than the first letter. I tried to make sure that the bottom of the letters were on the same plane for the top of the next letter. This would give some balance to the piece.

This piece was a last minute idea that I really wanted to try. The cars are constantly moving and heading off in directions with different destinations in store. As time passes a person also can go through life in different directions and destinations. When I was deciding the spacing for the letters I tried many different ways, but this one where the letters start close but then expands. As a person goes through life they do a lot of expanding, becoming independent and moving away are just two examples.

I had actually wanted to get closer to the sign so that I was standing in front of it, but I was afriad that people would think I was going to jump into traffic or cause an accident.