final project

final project - progress

top - initial planning stage. I originally thought I would use the words "inside out" for my main concept, but eventually decided to switch to "flora" and "fauna" for my final illustrations.
middle - basic outline for the word "flora". I will be adjusting the letterforms and adding in flowers, grass, etc. around the baseline
bottom - basic outline for the word "fauna". I will be representing each letter with different animal characteristics (feather, antler, scales, etc.). the final illustration will also probably have a few outlying elements (animal footprints, extra feathers, spider web, etc.); I'm working out the details.

promoting the artist: redesigns

my poster and postcard re-designs (for some reason the back of the postcard looks grey instead of white when I upload it to this blog and I couldn't figure out how to fix it)

project 4 : preliminary proposal

chosen words: Inside Out

1. six word summary/description of the work

 "illustrated typeface represented with anatomical elements"

2. goals of the work

I would like to create a typeface that will compliment my current portfolio focus of natural science illustration (specifically biological anatomy)

3. timeline with weekly goals/checkpoints

week 1 - research font inspirations and brainstorm/begin sketches for two chosen words
week 2 - complete sketches and start working on final for word # 1
week 3 - complete word # 1, start word # 2
week 4 - complete word # 2, prepare project for final critique

4. expected final deliverables

create two illustrations of the words "inside" & "out" as separate images that can also work together as one cohesive piece. (will most likely be done as a mixed media illustration)

promoting the artist - poster & postcard concepts

Two of my concepts for promoting the end-of-semester show for the illustration department (postcard=top, poster=bottom). I've used images of my own personal work to (hopefully) enhance/compliment the typefaces.

promoting the artist: content

Since I am focusing my thesis on wildlife/natural science illustration, I chose a variety of adjectives and typefaces that I believe represent different aspects of my illustration work. I am mostly leaning towards combining typefaces that help to evoke the idea of technical and organic elements coexisting and complimenting one another.

typographic metaphor: final video

video footage demonstrating the effects of lighting on our typographic metaphor installation.
(footage recorded by me, final video made by Yoojin)

2.2 typographic metaphor (progress)

after finding a suitable location, we started this project by planning out where the spotlight and the shadows of our letterforms would be positioned.

we determined that in order to cast shadows the size of the letters on the sheets of paper, the foam board cut outs would need to be about 2/3rds their size.

 we also had to compensate for the angle of the lighting by skewing the foam board letters so that the shadows would appear properly aligned.

we used one large sheet of foam board to mount the cut-out letters, and then pinned the board to the correct position on the wall. the final result is that the word "penumbra" is represented in the form of a shadow.

midterm review

- how do you think you are doing overall?

I feel that I am doing a decent job of keeping up with the class, I try my best to stay involved and find creative solutions for our projects, and I feel like I have gained a better understanding of type within the first half of the semester.

- where do you think you are struggling? succeeding?

I have been struggling a bit with the blogging aspect of the class (I really only post when necessary). I admit this is because my attention often goes to focusing on my other classes (thesis, art history, my mentorship etc.), which I feel require more time and energy. As I mentioned before, I do feel that I have at least succeeded in finding creative solutions for the projects we have been given so far.

- what are your goals for the rest of the semester?

I plan to read more from our textbook (outside of the required chapters) to supplement my overall learning experience, I will try to devote more time to working on assignments, and I will try to become more involved in class discussions & critiques.

2.1 typographic metaphor : meaning + composition

I decided to represent the word "water" for my 3 typographic metaphors. I came up with several verbs to describe the various actions of water, and ultimately chose the words "flow" "rain" and "ripple" for my compositions.

1.4 type has anatomy

1.4  My completed type anatomy project. Materials used include matte board, cardboard, drawing paper, india ink, copper wire and matte paper print outs for the labels.

1.2 letterform explorations

1.2  univers lowercase "p"
        adobe jenson pro capital "G"
        adobe caslon pro lowercase "y"

For this project, I wanted to see how closely I could replicate my assigned letters by hand without the use of measuring tools.

1.1 type is everywhere

1.1   I chose to focus on the contrast between rigid and fluid letterforms. More often than not, I found that text which is more fluid/organic in appearance is frequently associated with cursive lettering, while non-organic/rigid text is typically characterized by sans serif letterforms. However, these two categories are not necessarily different when it comes to variations in letter weight or height. Both styles can range from bold to light, short or narrow, and so on.