Exploring Interaction

So far through this experiment process I have been focusing on the development of negative space and how it can define a letter. However, my process has evolved from working with individual letters and the alphabet to seeing these forms in contexts. When making this move I was finally able to break free of the typeface(s) I have been using, staying close to the actual form of the foundation font limited my definition and interaction. After playing with the defined letterforms in the context of words and phrases I have discovered yet another realm; working with how the negative space from each letter interacts with one another. I have worked with this at a surface level working with the forms I have already developed, but from these I plan to explore the relationships even more. Here is a look at what I developed during class on Friday, creating letterforms and applying them to words and phrases.

 

Bauer Bodoni, working with counters and line contour, some work better than others, and like most of the other experiements, I have had struggles defining the more geometric letters such as 'l', 'j', and 'i'; however, this may easily be resolved when working with interaction in context.

 

Color coding to visually show relationships of form.

 

Working with a pre-defined shape and how it interacts with the knocked out letter.

 

Working a previous study in context.

 

  

  

  

Why I am using "hamburgefonts"

 

  

I plan on re-working some of my previous trials to see if any interaction surfaces.

Pushing legibility

This is subtraction by cutting parts of the letters off, then using the negative space to the left. One thing that is useful when looking at designing type or anything for that matter is taking note of the interesting shapes in the negative space.

In this one I also shifted the block left but it makes the letters very obvious which isn't fulfilling the requirement of my statement "how can this become art but still be legible?" This doesn't seem like art to me.

Now this is more interesting: you draw a block around a serif letter and then subtract a rectangle from each of the negative spaces within that block and you're left with this! Looks like brail or morse-code.

This one is the same but more exaggerated. I've taken the corners out too.

This is shifting the block up and to the right and the negative space that's left is in rectangle format. More readable though.

Now this is really pushing legibility:
Here's an example made on the computer.

And here's a really elaborate one!

Now this is interesting. This time I've used a serif letter, duplicated it and moved it up and to the right, then deleted the first one. I wonder what this would look like with a word. Probably very readable though. Hmm.

Pushing Form

This week has definitely opened a lot of doors in consideration to my area of type experimentation, the critique held on Monday was very beneficial in that respect. The format of the crit was very effective as it was nice to be able to have comments in writing that you can keep with you, although some comments were great, others were not. But on the positive side, based on comments, I have a list of new paths to take for my experimentation, whether they will be successful or not no one knows but I am definitely going to find out.

I also created a banner for Designalogue, one using an alphabet exploration from Monday and one I took on more recently. Below is that exploration as well, it is a play off the first one, which I felt was pretty successful but decided to push it even more. Enjoy!

 

The shape forms in the red boxes are what I used for my most recent exploration. After analyzing this alphabet I decided that the two elements in red were most prevalent and decided make a big push of legibility and define the entire alphabet from these two elements. 

Just a look with the referential typeface behind it, give a good insight as to how things are beginning to come together.

 

And here is a look with only the forms showing, in doing so I decided to not limit the number or scale of each shape I used to create each letterform.

What does it say? Tried putting it in context, it is somewhat readable, could be pushed more in some cases and in others a bit more defined. Successful? "good design"

Designalogue Banners

 

 

Further Subtraction

This is a tryout at the designalogue banner, as a way to test the subtraction principle on a word.


And now I'm pushing that idea further. Step 1 is the original letter, step 2 is using the square to knock out part of the letter, step 3 is arbitrarily subtracting other pieces.

MORE

This go round I really pushed myself to establish some sort of 'rule' for what I am doing and to ultimately define the negative space that creates the abstract letterforms. The individual images state what their 'rule' is and how I approached it, as well as, the typeface I was working from. In this round I was able to develop relationships between the forms that I created, hence the arrows.

 

  

Here I pushed the idea to words to see how they might interact with each other and how space can be defined with the forms that develop between the letters.

 

I attempted to work on the computer to develop this type of stuff and unfortunately lost some time in doing so. There is not near the freedom and ability to work quickly while manipulating forms, the only upside what the ability to scale and overlay more accurately.

Searching For Form; Initial Experimentaiton

 

  

With these first two explorations I did not have any really defined 'rules' as to how the forms were shaped. I find the more organic shapes are more interesting and the most minimalist approaches gained the most appeal ('a' and 'g' in the top image-- lower right).

More random exploring during class, starting to get a handle on how to define the rules. Most of these worked with letterform overlay to determine the definition.

 

  

More in class work dealing with the entire alphabet, the top set of letters are defined with geometric forms closing the negative space created by the letterform itself. The bottom set is an exploration of contour and looking at what could be the 'signature' lines of each letter.

A Look At My Inspiration

 

  

Andrew Byrom (above)

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Philippe Apeloig  (above)

 

  

  

Struktur Design  (above)

 

  

Veer  (above)

 

  

Neville Brody (above)

 

Varoom Magazine  (above)

I especially enjoy the dimensionality that each of these pieces bring; they challenge the viewer and they question form. They hold a deeper meaning, pushing type to an abstract/artistic form, and they also create a unique experience.