Project 2 - Remix Type
Zainab Alavi (216293573) YSDN 2007 - Typography 3 Darren Wilson Feb 6th 2020
Ideation When we were introduced this project I immediately knew I wanted to do something related to my own culture and childhood. Growing up as a Sri-lankan Muslim; I’ve always had a love for Islamic Art from the textiles to print. Seeing such decor in mosques and the quranic text was always so stunning to me because of how intricate yet subtle the details would be. I wanted to do an Islamic verse (translated into English) which would allow for one reading it to feel a sense of warmth and happiness. The verses I chose were: Inshallah (If god wills) and As-Salaamu Alaykum (Peace be Upon You) Ultimately I chose the latter because I feel anyone who would read it would feel a sense of warmth; which is what the greeting is meant to do. I knew I wanted to include florals glyphs(because it’s common in Islamic Art and because I grew exposed to a lot of nature and have a love for flora which I wanted to showcase). Additionally, I wanted to make this piece a nostalgic ode to my life; combining my Sri-Lankan heritage (with Tamil letters); Arabic; as I can read and speak in it and my life revolves around Islam and lastly Latin because English is the language I use to communicate spoken and written everyday !
Inspiration I drew inspiration from the Floral patterns seen in mosques and the Quran. A lot of the work is very extravagant but also very clean; I find this work to be very beautiful and makes me feel very warm and happy. A lot of the mosques take advantage of the light that pours through the roofs to complement the work. Flora especially flowers (e.g roses) and vines are very common because in Islam as gardens often are a metaphor for Heaven and these florals can represent purity and happiness on earth.
Above are examples of quranic text which heavily use floral motifs and glyphs. They take advantage of negative space to create depth and focus on the message. Additionally, I looked at a few mosques exterior and interior to gain a good sense of the overall look I wanted to achieve
Curation I ended up curating a handful of fonts and typeface to play and experiment with. I ultimately chose the following Typefaces and fonts: ‘Baskerville (regular)’ is a very clear easy to read font but is also very beautiful because of it’s serifs when closely looked upon. Scheherazade because it had a more organic feel and had more curves and warmth to it compared to Cairo and Amiri which was a more of a geometrical typeface. I chose Pavanam, a typeface which shows Tamil letters in a very curved and natural way. Lastly, Rosegarden was added to create a more traditional and floral look; The glyphs when integrated into my text to give it the warm and exquisite feel I was going for.
Rose Garden
oem eliam nonm nibh eimoncin la magna alian im ad
Critique 1
After individual critique, I figured it would be good to take advantage of negative type and incorporate the florals to represent the message I was going for because it was currently looking very odd and made me feel more weird than warm and happy. It mixed geometrical with the curves of Arabic glyphs and Tamil which gave me a more unique and campy look; which is what not going for. The Rosegarden glyphs would connect the letters together and give it a sense of warmth and happiness
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Creating the P; the main focus to welcome the viewer the verse ! I wanted to make it intentionally extravagant, similar to the “O” in “Once Upon A Time” seen in traditional fairytale books; It really welcomes the viewer and creates impact
د
a
اo pe
Peace
د
a
اo pe
try knockout type..
a a
ee e e
Creating the word “Peace”. My work-flow consisted largely on experimentation by putting letter forms and glyphs together. It was an enjoyable experience to just have no constraints while mixing and matching my text ! It was very difficult finding what pieces would add together nicely while also keeping in mind balance and making sure some part weren’t heavier than others.
be
Creating the ‘Be’. While working, I made sure to see how the words look together as a composition rather than just a single letter because the overall look was more important to me to create the desired feel. Every single Letter combines the Latin base (Baskerville), an Arabic letter, (Scheherazade) a Tamil letter (Pavanam) and the Rosegarden glyphs that would emphasize the text in a dramatic but beautiful way.
upon Instead of having a planned set composition for how each letter would look, I found experimenting in type allowed myself to create a more fluid and fun look. After crafting each individual letter, I also needed to make adjustments to letter afterward because sometimes the letter did not fit well when combined together to create the word. Each letter is carefully crafted to combine light and dark (I used path tool a lot) to create cutouts and negative space in each letter. I purposely wanted this phrase to be extravagant by embracing floral and light in each letter.
you
After I was done creating all the letters, I played around with the composition and sizes of the letters to see what worked and what did not. Was it achieving the look I want ? Is the text legible ? These were jut a few questions that I was going through to make sure everything looked fine to me.
The ‘P’ went through many because I felt it was too heavy compared to the rest of the letters !
I changed the sizing of some of the words to create emphasize and create subtle contrast, so all the words wouldn’t look too heavy and it would not be too hard to look at.
Conclusion
Conclusively, this projects allowed me to experience typography in a way I have never experienced before. Being able to treat typography almost as art form rather than it’s traditional editorial setting was very fun because it allowed more room for incorporation of personal styles and experimentation. I was very personal and empowering for me to create this piece which feels like an ode to myself ! To be able to portray my background into this piece by combining elements of my culture, religion and childhood is so wonderful. Technicality wise - I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator in new ways - namely, the Pathfinder tools to minus, exclude, extract and even combine letters. Overall, it was very fun, enlightening empowering to create a piece that exemplifies the phrase “Peace be Upon You” in a way which is able to be bring light to the meaning of the Islamic phrase but is also just as personal by being an ode to my life.
Final