Fall 2019, Spring 2020
Introduction to Graphic Design, Typography I.
Introduction to Graphic Design
Design as Visual Language | Design as History | Design as Identity Systems
Design as Visual Language: As my object was a handheld fan, I initially thought of very surface level terms like cool or wind, but I settled on “Skolstrejk” because of the climate change message. I was inspired by Greta Thunberg and wanted add to the movement. Because the word was more obscure, the message was not as clear as I would’ve liked, which forced me to really consider the overall design. This aspect of the project helped me learn how to better defend my work to others and value my design. This piece was also accepted by the Canvas Creative Arts Magazine for the 2020 Fall semester.
Design as History: This was my book jacket design for the Paula Scher’s “biography”—Paula: More Than a Feeling. This piece is based heavily on her work with the Public Theater and embodies her iconic type-heavy design. I started out only choosing the quotes I wanted to use and the general placement of the text; once we moved to the computers, I began playing with typefaces and color. We also created a powerpoint presentation based on our designer’s work, which gave me even more inspiration as to what typefaces and quotes to use.
Design as Identity Systems: This was the process book I made for my Dinosaur Symbolform during Introduction to Graphic Design. It was structured as a children’s book, and it includes many pop-up and interactive elements. This is was the first book I ever had to hand bind; I used the pamphlet stitch technique because of it fit the tone of the book. This is one of the pieces I am most proud of because I put a lot of the time and effort into making it.
Typography I.
Book Covers | Festival Posters | Long Lists | Typographic Animation | Type Specimen Book
Book Covers: These are the four typographic book covers I made in Typography. I chose Shakespeare because I thought there was a lot I could do with mixing contemporary and classical design. I originally started out with wanting to do tactile lettering because that wasn’t very common. However, due to the current circumstances, I chose instead to use a typeface that felt akin to hand lettering and rely more on ornaments to supplement the title.
Festival Posters: These are the four posters I created for the Ambient April prompt. The first poster had the most restrictions: one typeface, two fonts, one size and no color. The second had similar restrictions, but you could use varying sizes and weights for the text. The third allowed you to use color and abstract shapes. The final poster was a free study. I also created an animation for the free study poster that included music and moving text. It was also the easiest composition to create. The initial two were more difficult because I had to figure out how to create a dynamic design that demonstrated clear hierarchy while still adhering the the strict guidelines.
Long Lists: Due to the onset of COVID-19, this was an optional project, which focused on scalability of text. I ended up going with a blueprint concept because I though it lent itself to strong hierarchical and clean typographic design. The final poster dimensions were 24”x36” and was printed using a plotter printer.
Typographic Animation: Our prompt was to create a six-word sentence about a social topic important to us. I chose to go with the subject of mental health and created the sentence “There is nothing wrong with me.” I found a typeface called “Glitch,” which is how the text looks like it’s glitching. My animation went on a much darker and creepier route to evoke the sense that we’re all a little crazy inside. I learned quite a lot about After Effects as a result of this project because everything was animated from scratch.
Type Specimen Book: Gotham is my absolute favorite typeface, which is why I ended up choosing to focus my type specimen book on it. I also wanted to play into the “Gotham and Batman” theme by creating comic book inspired spreads. Many of the inside spreads include typical comic book boxes and grids. My favorite spread, however, was the “Who am I?” spread where I went into the details of Gotham’s letterforms. This book is meant to be saddle stitched to play up the comic book theme and includes Gotham’s skyline on the cover.