1 Digital & Analog Type
For one of my experiments I decided to play-around with distortion/glitch effects with my typography. I thought using glitches and distortion would be a good way to represent the digital format in a visual way. When people see visual glitches, the brain usually links it to digital formats, such as computers and television. When I first decided to do this experiment, I didn’t have any idea if I was actually going to apply it or not, it just started out as some of my exploration in digital typography. It turned out to be a worth while experiment as I decided to use the effect on one of my final designs. For the example on the right I used and old print design I had and a scanner. While the scanner was capturing the image, i moved it around at certain points a small amount, making it capture a distorted image of the original piece. I also played with this effect entirely on the computer. An example of can be seen in the title of this page (above). I used Distortion, Tweak and Roughen effects in Illustrator to manipulate the type. I like what this produced, although I prefer the more unique and random results I got from the scanner. The scanner gives different results every time, whereas Illustrator is very calculated. This can be seen in the title text in each repeated character, for example the “I’s” and “D’s”. The same letters have the exact distortion added to them, due to the distortion being applied through algorithms within Illustrator.
2 Digital & Analog Type
HANDMADE TYPE For my first experimentation into analog typography I decided to try handwritten type. I find the idea of handwritten type interesting as, with computers, it is really easy to get perfect typography with just a tap of the keyboard. This is great for some situations (well, probably most), such as me typing this text, but sometimes it is better to have complete creative control over the look of the typography, as well as the hint of human involvement and error to add something a little more unique. For the first experiment I started by taking a small section of lyrics from the song ‘Out of the Blue’ by The Band (best band to grace this earth) and did a basic, child-like sketch of the layout. I then began to sketch out the type I planned to use, going through multiple iterations of each word. I did the basic shape of the type in pencil, then went over it in pen so I would have a clearer image on the computer. After I had finished sketching, I scanned the hand drawn type to illustrator and used its tracing tools to get a vector version of my type. This was necessary so I was able to scale up the text without losing quality. I also needed to tweak a few bits of my type, so that there was better unison between each letter and word. This included things like spacing and kerning of the type. To finalise this design, I took it into Photoshop to add some colour and texture to it. Overall I am quite happy with how this experiment turned out and I learned quite a few things from doing it. There are still a few
3 Digital & Analog Type
little things that could do with some tweaking to make it better, but as a quick experiment, I think it’s okay. Doing this was helpful in getting me to progress through this project and help me create a solid idea, however, I decided not to use this particular technique in my final piece. As an analog method, I really like it. I love how you can be really specific about the design of your type and the whole process, from the drawing to digitising are in your control. There are negatives to this though. There are so many fonts available online, in many different styles. Doing it 100% digitally saves a lot of time and reproduces accurate results every time. Ultimately, I think it depends on the project, and if it would benefit over analog type or digital. The result of this experiment can be seen on the next page.
Handdrawn type outcome
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SCRAPPED IDEAS
PROJECTION MAPPING One idea I really wanted to try was projection mapping onto text. In my exploration of type, I made a paper 3D ‘A’. I thought, as a way of taking this further, could be to use a projector to project digital images onto the physical type. I think this would have probably been one of the best solutions to my project and what I was researching, but had too many ssetbacks for me to pursue. I started doing a little research on projection mapping and methods to go about doing it and quickly learned that there wasn’t a great deal of information out there. There were some really helpful articles and blogs, and I even tried email a couple of people (with no success), but I guess because it is reasonably new compared to most other design practices there were still things that were unclear to me. With projection mapping, like many other things, I think it is best to try and fail a few
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times to work out how things work. I borrowed a projector from uni to try some stuff out, but only being able to have it for one -two days at a time (if it was available at all) wasn’t anywhere near enough time to learn about projection mapping. I decided that I will try projection mapping when I have better access to a projector.
ANALOG TWEETS
ICE & DIGITAL ICE
ALPHABET BOOK
Another idea I thought about was taking something digital into an analog/physical context. More specifically, I was thinking about what Twitter and Facebook would look like as a physical product.
My other silly idea involved ice. I was thinking about creating two types of ice typography, one made out of real ice and one made from a computer simulation.
The final idea I decided against was an alphabet book. The idea was to create an alphabet book with half on the letters created through analog/ handmade methods and the other half through digital methods.
I was thinking about the status updates of Facebook and 140 character ‘Tweets’ of Twitter. Rather than being distributed digitally, I wanted to create a twitter that was shared person to person, much like a postcard for the social networks. It was mainly a ‘What if twitter started before computers?’ type of thing. Although this could be an interesting project to do in my free time, I didn’t think there was enough to it pursue it for this project.
The idea was to video the real ice type melting and have an animation of the 3D digital ice melting. The final outcome would have been a film that would cut between real and simulated ice to highlight the difference of digital and physical type. One of the main reasons I didn’t do this was because I couldn’t find out how to make a meduim-scale ice typography sculpture.
I decided against this because I thought the book would progressively become less interesting.
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01: ‘I’ Type experiment. Using texture to replicate a ‘vintage’ type effect.
02: Net of 3D type experiment
‘I’ Type Test
3D Type
While I still didn’t know where I was going with this project, I did a few little experiments with type. For one of my experiments I wanted to make some ‘vintage’ looking typography. I looked at some examples of this kind of type and liked an effect that I saw a few of these examples used. This was just a simple use of lines or shading to create some added depth to flat letters. It’s not really adding perspective to the type, but more character.
Another quick experiment I did was making 3D physical type. As my first two experiments were made and kept digitally, I decided I should try and make something physical.
The outcome of this can be seen on the top right (image 01). I wanted to create a bold, slab serif letter so did a quick sketch in my sketch book and re-created it in illustrator. After I added the lines I roughed up the edges to give it more of a printed look, then finally added some texture and colour in Photoshop. I quite like the outcome for a simple, quick experiment, although I didn’t go any further with it. This experiment did, however, make me more interested about old and new typography, and led me to my final piece of exploring digital and analog type. What I think sparked the interest was that I was trying to re-create something made by old technology by using new technology.
6 Digital & Analog Type
At first I didn’t know how to go about making 3D type as most examples I could find were of basic geometric shapes or things like origami, not typography. I also wanted something accurate, so I thought drawing out the whole net by hand would leave too much room for error. I decided to create the net digitally in 3D to get the most accurate result. I used Cinema 4D to create an extruded letter ‘A’ (in Futura Bold). I then unwrapped the 3D shape, which enabled me to take each polygon that made up the ‘A’ and take their outline into Illustrator to print out as a perfectly to scale net of the letter. This little experiment was fun to make and led me to a few ideas for my project, but ultimately wasn’t part of my final piece.
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