GraphicDesign - Words, What Do You Say?

 Inventing Typography, Author's Own

In lesson two of Graphics we started to look into the method of Typography  is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, font size, line length, line spacing and adjusting the spaces between words. Typography is performed by typesetters compositors, typographers, graphic designers, art directors, comic book artists, graffiti artists, clerical workers, and anyone else who arranges type for a product. Until the Digital age, typography was a specialised occupation. Digitisation opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users.

To begin the process we were asked to quickly jot down how we could "make an impression on the paper"  Some of the impressions i came up with were: tearing, staining, cutting, puncturing, burning, scrunching etc...

When everyone had completed this task we were asked to look at each others ideas, it was not the ideas we were looking at but the way in which they were recorded. It became apparent to us all when observing others work that everyone had recorded they're ideas in completely different ways. Some were neat and in black biro, some were bold and multi coloured and some were messy with no order - this was typography - the ways in which people artistically decided to arrange their letters on the page.

After the short exercise we were given an A1 sheet of paper to create different type faces, using letters from the alphabet. We could go up to any letter we decided as long as we felt we had enough variety of design to work with. Following on from this we then had to choose the design we thought we could take further and create a whole alphabet and numbers 0-9 using this font. It was a hard decision because we had to think about which font would be most effective but at the same time it had to be something we could complete in an hour.

I chose the design used to create letter E, letter E in my alphabet consists of only the negative spaces of the letter being apparent, the opposite to which most typefaces are. I found the task enjoyable, it was fun creating our own font, but some letters proved difficult to create.

Towards the end of the day we were asked to create something (poster / something 3D) with a quote that we could relate back to ourselves. We still had to consider the element of typography when designing and if our design related to the quote correctly. I chose the quote

"All the best things in life come in small packages" 

 Quote Made 3D, Author's Own

I feel that this quote relates best to me because i have always been the smallest throughout my year groups and when ever i have complained about being short the answer i have always got - whether it be from my parents, my friends or my teachers - is that all the best things in life come in small packages. So, to create my meaningful quote i created a small package looking box using brown parcel paper to enhance the idea of a real package. I decided to display the text on a white piece of paper on the top on the brown box as if it was an address label. I cut many lengths of paper and coloured each one in using coloured chalk, i then curled each one around a pencil to create the twisted spiral effect and stuck them to the inside of the box... Instead of creating "All the best things in life" i decided to create my idea metaphorically rather than precisely and suggest excitement and energy by using the springy colourful strips - almost firework-like.