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A book documenting the design process of my first typeface, Motor City.
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Typeface Design Process Book
MOTOR CITY
INSPIRATION
OK Used Cars | Cannon Fal ls , MN
The letters “U”, “A” and “R” attracted me the most and served as my jumping of f point for init ia l sketches.
I ’ve a lways admired hand letter ing ever s ince I was young. I ’ve made i t a habit to take photographs and document o ld signage and typography that I f ind in the environment, a l though these were found images, I instant ly fe l l in love with the c lumsiness of i ts construction.
OK Used Cars | Cannon Fal ls , MN
SKETCHES
From the photos came rough sketches of the letter forms. As I moved the penci l across the paper, I t r ied staying within the parameters of the surrounding letters to i ts approximate size. I knew that I didn’t want to spend too much t ime messing with the detai l o f the forms since i ts purpose was to serve as guidel ines in the digita l realm.
The next step was to scan them in and careful ly begin creating the letter forms in I l lustrator with the pen tool .
POST MODERN GLYPHS
These glyphs were the fourth part of an assignment during the f i rst hal f of the quarter where we were assigned to develop six “key letters” : O, C, D, E, V and G and create a post-modern typeface.
This was my f i rst attempt at the digita l rendering of the letter forms, which was highly unsuccessful despite the amount of t ime I put into them.
After a l l o f the f rusterat ion and tedious work, I real ized upon closer inspection that the reason I was attracted to the letter ing on the side of this bui lding was because of i ts essense. You could see and feel the l i fe of i t and i ts creation. The physical bui lding facade gave the letters depth and texture, whi le the transit ion points were more spontaneous.
I knew I wanted a more horizontal , a lmost squared look to the “O”. This one is far too vert ical in i ts height.
Terminals are sharp and abruput, counter emphasizes weight towards the bottom of the form.
Same issues as “C”. Stem leaves counter space stuf fy.
Arms and crossbar terminals sharp, a lso leave counters wide open.
This test pr int was to see how the more resolved forms with rounded counters and strokes appeared visual ly at three di f ferent s izes on paper. I was pleased that the forms st i l l fe l t f luid at the smal ler s ize, so f rom here I made cut outs and wedged ‘stenci ls ’ for consistancy throughout the rest of the letter forms.
At this point I fe l t that I had enough glyphs to where I could start constructing other letters f rom parts and pieces f rom the ones I a l ready had.
The ref lection tool in I l lustrator saved hours of work and f rustrat ion, e l iminating the need to draw the second hal f of i ts equivalent s ide.
Creating circ les helped keep consistency in weight throughout the forms on a l l points, rather than using another shape such as a square that would prove uneven and imbalanced results .
Antique Ol ive served as a good reference for the top heavy shoulder form I was trying to obtain.
My professor demonstrated with exaggeration in their forms how my letters need to re late in some aspect to one another with a heavy top shoulder, or at least a hint of the weight transfer.
I t ’s t rue. This screen shot remained the only reference I had three days before the .ot f f i le was due, complete with numerals and punctuation due to an unfortunate technological mishap. And yes, I learned my lesson of the importance of backing up your f i les the hard way.
Also, documenting your process is cr i t ical for this reason upon many others.
SUBCONSCIOUS INSPIRATION
Growing up in the Detroit area, instances of these letter-forms are seen everywhere, being the Motor City capita l where Henry Ford evolved the industr ia l future of America.
Whi le looking for photographs to display and compliment the typeface for presentation, I came across this abondoned bui lding faced with letters holding many simi lar i t ies to my typeface. The symbol ism as wel l as the deminishing words inspired the name, Motor City.
DETROIT
DETROIT
Motor City pays homage to the classic cars’ curvilinear shapes and industrial construction.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1234567890
BIKE
BREAK
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1234567890
BIKE
BREAK
THE QUICK BROWNHAMBURGER
PETER PANCAPTAIN HOOK
EX GIRLFRIEND