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LABYRINTH
mitchell kumle
typographic
LABYRINTH
mitchell kumle
Visual Communications Design Department of Art & Design School of Visual & Performing Arts Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana A publication of the School of Visual & Performing Arts All content is copyright in Mitchell Kumle December 2013
typographic
LABYRINTH
mitchell
kumle
“Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.� -Walt Whitman
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Enter if you dare.
Enter, if you dare. The maze of all mazes starts here. A complex network of connected passages begins. There is an end, but what does it look like? Where is it? When will I get there? Throughout the entire campaign a single thought repeats over and over in my mind, “Am I going the right way?” I guess we will see…
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Left?
Thrusting myself into the entrance of the maze, I am excited. A puzzle with many possibilities was now in my control. I can choose any turn I want. I go left. I go left again, trying to keep the starting point of the maze in the same spot in my mind as if not to get lost. Left again and again. How many lefts is that? Have I been here before? I think I am lost.
The excitement of taking the simple forms of the T and the X and trying to create a design with both letters is overwhelming. There were guidelines like keeping the two letter forms readable and making sure one letter form does not dominate the other, but how would I begin? I started with so many ideas, sketching and sketching and sketching some more. Like the beginning of a maze, I wanted to go everywhere at once, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I think I am lost. But, the key to the maze, like the key to this problem, is to learn from your bad decisions. I had a lot of learning to do.
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Right?
I think I may have started to find my way. A right turn in the midst of all of those left turns has given me a better sense of where I am and where I must go. “Just keep going,” I say to myself over and over. Making turns that lead to the final outcome is the key. A couple more dead-ends here and there, but I think I am getting the hang of it.
It is starting to make more sense. My right turn in the maze is equivalent to the use of black and white letters. I have so many more ideas to sketch now that I can play with the figure ground. “Just keep going,” is my motto as of now and that is what I did, sketching and sketching and sketching. As I hit another dead end, I ask, “What haven’t I done yet?” I haven’t used outlines very much, so I take that and run. They might not be pretty, but like the dead ends in a maze, I would never get to the end without them.
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No, go back.
How much further do I need to go? Most of the dead-ends are accounted for in my mind, but I still cannot seem to find the end. I think that I am going to correct way, but how do I know for sure? Have I gone too far? There are so many ways that seem like they could be correct, but which is it? No more random choices. Everything I do now must be for one reason: to get out.
At first, I took what I thought to be my best hand sketches and recreated them on the computer. But with the ease of the copy, paste and undo commands, I could create my ideas much faster. Now I started to take the different attributes of each letter form into account. Instead of choosing from serifs and sans serifs, I was choosing from Garamond, Optima and other typefaces so I could get the exact pieces I needed to move forward. No more random choices. The specific typeface, size and style all were chosen on purpose to fit the one need that I had: to get out.
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The end is near.
I have found it. I have found the final path to the end of this confusing journey. I am so close to the exit. All I have to do is make a couple correct turns here and there. It is so close it almost hurts. I am walking much faster now, confidence building with every turn. I think I can see the end...
I have chosen five of my most successful designs, now I have to experiment on how to make them even better. Take this little part away on this one. Extend the serif on that one. Each decision on my refinements was made on purpose to achieve the perfect design. I am looking for little details that make the forms connect better. Some of them are not as good, but that only helps me to progress. I think I can see the end. I just need to make sure I get to it with the correct moves.
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Triumph.
“There it is!� I realize now I am sprinting toward the door that will lead me out of this mystifying place. As I locate the doorknob with my right hand and I pause for a second. Is this real? Have I come to the end? I am overcome with this feeling of bitter sweetness. Part of me feels accomplished and ecstatic that it is over. The confusion and sense of feeling lost is all gone. But another part of me feels a bit of sorrow. This lengthy, challenging
expedition has come to a close and the more I think about it, the more I want to be thrown back in. As much as I want to say how much I disliked the perplexity, I think this labyrinth has taught me more than I will ever understand.
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For this design, I chose the different typefaces for specific reasons. The capital X is a condensed, extra bold, Futura X. I chose this X because of its basic yet strong structure. The lowercase T is an italic, Times New Roman T. The main reason I chose this T was because of the serif on the bottom of it fit very well (with a little alteration) into the bottom counter of the X. I chose this design over the others because of its great contrast. The black and
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white letter forms are an obvious contrast and they work together to make each other pop. The capital, sans serif X with the lowercase, serif T also create great contrast between the forms. The main reason that this is a successful combination is the fact that each letter is needed by the other in order to be readable. The simple, three-sided shape and the larger, complex shape work well together to create an asymmetric feel to two very symmetric letter forms.
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“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.� -Ernest Hemingway
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Acknowledgments:
Kristine Anderson Professor Emerita, Purdue University Libraries Cathy Aper Manager, Purdue Printing & BoilerCopyMaker Scott Benham Vice President, Haywood Printing Co. Inc., Lafayette K Lynia Coats Designer, BoilerCopyMaker Barbara Mayfield Continuing Lecturer, Purdue University Sherry Swank Design Manager, Purdue Printing Services
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Colophon:
Paper: Cougar 80# cover and 70# text Type: Futura 12, 18, 20 pt Gill Sans 16, 36 pt Times New Roman 12, 14, 18, 24, 30 pt Binding: Perfect bound Printing: Purdue Printing Services & BoilerCopymaker West Lafayette, Indiana Bindery: Haywood Printing Co. Inc. Lafayette, Indiana
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Printer:
Xerox DocuColor 252
Edition:
6 copies
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labyrinth designed by mitchell kumle