A letter project 1

Typography as a semeotic resource

Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa

The task is to create a letter which is to be wall mounted. The letter can be upper or lower case.

The letter we have been given is ‘A’ at 150mm high.

The word must be based on termonoligies related to the unit. ‘A’ is the first letter and vowel in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The upper-case version consists of two more or less vertical lines, joined at the top, and crossed in their middle by a horizontal bar.

The idea is to communicate a word using just the first letter.

Examples of 3D work

In this project the creation and visual nature of the image will depict a word beginning with the letter.

A

Our Letter 150mm

0mm

The 3D structure can be made out of any material, as long as its is photographable.

This is important when bearing in mind the location of the material, and the materials life span. For example if we decided to carve into an apple overtime the apple would rot.

Apple Attractive

Antlers

Accesories

Ash Aligator

Absorb

Anchor Atom

Mind Mapping Algebra

Aerosol Antenas

Athletic Asian

Astronomy

Abacus

Anatomy Antelope

Attatch

Arrange

L I G AT O R

Two typefaces for A. Photoshop (L) and oil painted (R).

Here are some examples of 3D lettering. The form of the type face is clearly very important, and little is changed to the shape of the letter in order to express the meaning or role of the word or effect. For example the X (top right) is clearly bold and has big impact this is mainly due to the type face chosen, therefore supporting the fact the type face is important to portray the message or meaning. Other details like the texture, colour add the rest of the impact.

L I G AT O R

The initial reason we chose to look at the word aligator is due to the similar shapes in which a sideways capital A compares with an aligator head.

Experimentation

After reading the breif again, I am more aware that the letter needs to be more related to typography and graphic design. Therefore i will do a mindmap focused on graphic design terms beginning with A.

Mind Map with ‘A’ graphic design terms Arrow Head

Indicator shaped like an arrowhead and used at the end of a lead line to direct attention to an object or a point of reference.

Apron

Acetate

White space allocated in the margins of an engineering drawing for the protection of the drawing when rolled.

A sheet of clear plastic flm fastened over the front of artwork for protection, as an overlay, or the like.

This was an expermintation in photoshop. I followed a youtube video guide, to guide me through the process to create a shape out of words. In this case i used lots of A’s to make a big A.

Arithmetic

The branch of mathematics dealing with the properties and manipulation of numbers.

Anchoring

Securing metal printed plates on wooden blocks by using screws and pouring solder through drilled holes.

ARROW HEA D I liked the idea of linking an arrow head with an A. The head links on a basic typographic level to the A already. In the way there are two diagonal lines which meet a point.

I transported the picture into illustrator and created a drawing of the photograph. I changed the inside circle into a triangle to convert the arrow head into more of a classic typographic A. I further continued this by extending the bottom corners into a more A like typeface.

Acetate After finding this photo on google an immediate idea came to me.

In a similar way this is done, i will leave spaces between the acetate which are connected to bulldog clips. Each acetate would have a specific section of an A.

These are some photos our group took in Poole.

I will edit the ones i see potential in and use them to help produce the layout for the book.