Let Yourself In Process To: “The Girl With Untied Laces”
Narrative The first two weeks of this course were dedicated towards developing content that we would use as a framework to further our knowledge of typography. We started off by listing down adjectives about ourselves, things that were unique to us only. We filtered down to the ones we felt described us the best. When I was little, my nick-name was “Tod-Phod”. It essentially meant that I was very clumsy and careless. As I grew up, I realised that I was definitely careless about objects, but I was also extremely careless about who and what I let affect me. I was always entangled in my own thoughts, which is why I was never able to take care of the things around me, things that I owned, or take care of myself at large. I tok this idea forward, and went on to title myself as “The Girl With Untied Laces”
I then came up with the narrative that I wanted to weave, through this project. The content developed was: The brain became the box, from there nothing was lost. Her untied laces were an opportunity for them to trip her. She was a china shop and the bulls had free entry. The intangible fragile restricts the tangible subconscious.
experiments with camphor
Visual Depiction I decided to go forward with the phrase “She Was A China Shop And The Bulls Had Free Entry�. To me, this metaphor, in essence, means that I am the china shop, and the external things or people, that affect me internally, are the bulls. Since the incidents repeat, the bulls keep coming, they have free entry. To execute this, I experimented with various materials. Exposed them to external agents such as heat, ink, oil, vinegar, bleach, etc. The aim was to continously bring about changes in a certain material. The material, would be representative of what is inside china shop. And the agents that bring about the change, the bulls. This was the core idea.
experiments with sugar
experiments with milk
Type Story I took forward the experiments with sugar, and tried to emulate them in type. I laid out sugar using a stencil, and made the word “China”, in the typeface “Clarendon” (Roman). Once I started flame torching it, I realised that the type was completly losing form and was not legible. Through this experiment, I also realised that when these external agents affect me, my principles and my form remains the same. So, in essence, the outside remains rigid or constant, whilst the inside undergoes the changes, and gets affected. The China Shop is intact, but the Bulls mess with the China inside it.
effect of flame torching on type created using fine grain sugar
China Shop I.
The next step was prototyping the type “mould”. I made an acrylic mould of the word “She” in the typeface “Creampuff”. The acrylic mould was made by laser cutting the type, in the chosen size, on a piece of acrylic, to form the base. The acrylic chosen was clear, 3mm to ensure that the mould was transparent and sturdy. To make the wall, a strip of acrylic of the desired thickness is cut and heat bent, to obtain curves that resonate the type. The strip is then attached to the base using chloroform as an adhesive. This process is commercially used to make L.E.D lit signage for stores.
effect of vinegar on milk with ink and oil
effect of dry ice on milk with ink
China Shop II.
The experiments in the acrylic mould were fairly succesfull. The narrative was coming through visually. I then created iterations of a composition for my phrase. I wanted to connect the words as the mould was meant to be a metaphor of a single entity, the china shop. In addition to the conceptual aspect, the liquid would flow through the entire piece highlighting the form of the type and the nature of the composition. The first typeface I used was “Smoothie Shop”, the second iteration was done in “Creampuff”, and the final one in “Escafina”. The type choices were made on the basis of the tone of the line and my personality. I wanted to use a script, and one that had thick stoke and minimum contrast in stroke weights, as when the mould would be made, there would be sufficient space for the liquid to flow through. The final sketch was vectorised on Illustrator. The first acylic mould in the size 3’X3’, 2mm thick acrylic of the composition was not very precise. Sibce this mould was made by hand, it had imperfections. Hence, to get precision, I decided to 3-D print the piece. I made a model on Fusion 300, and printed it in the size11”X11”. I then cleaned, waterproofed and spray-painted it black. I knew that the liquid inside would be milk, thus to create a contrast, I envisaged the mould to be black. iterations for the composition
sketch of the final composition
vectorised composition
3-dimensional model on the software “fusion 3oo”
3-dimensional print in process
Free Entry
After cleaning up and waterproofing the mould, I conducted a few experiments initally, and compiled them. However, the elements that were introduced, and the photos taken, did not give a wholesome outcome, as the entire mould had the same effect, the words, their meaning, with the material itself, had no story.
I conducted another experiment which was compiled and came together as the final outcome of this project. In the final depiction (acompanying book), each line is introdeuced to a different material, which resonates with the meaning of the line itself. “she was” is in plain milk, for the simplicity of the words. “a china shop” is shown with effervesence, as the delicateness of the bubbles relates to the delicate china. “and the bulls had” is depicted with oil and red ink, oil being a fierce liquid and red, the color of the bull. “free entry” is shown with tumeric and chilli powder, as powders have an inherint free nature and flow and dissolve in the milk.