Typography II

type_iterations1

type_iterations2

type_iterations3

type_bolditerations

I was having trouble while working on the bold version because I didn't want the font to look squat and wide. To make it proportional I had to block in the loops and increase the thickness on all sides. Here I'm playing around with

type_upright

For the upright I still had to figure out some characters when I was told that a few of them were just reflections of existing characters. Made my life easier! And it made the alphabet more cohesive.

type_Bold

For the bold I had to make the decision to make some parts longer or shorter. I was inconsistent in this iteration so I decided on one length and went for the shorter version because the long tails felt out of place.

DelaVega_FontNarrative

DelaVega_Type_UprightRough2

DelaVega_Type_BoldRough2

Project I: Low Res Font

More details in picture descriptions~~

For this project I started out with no specific plan in mind. I wanted to see what I could come up with while still thinking about the legibility of my font. I knew I wanted to make it clear that this is supposed to be an 8-bit font but not look too computerized. I was thinking about display fonts because I wanted it to be used for titling and headliners rather than text blocks. I also like thinner typefaces anyways. It was a unanimous decision to continue working on the more scripted typeface with the loopy ascenders and descenders because that was the most unique one of my designs. I decided to call it "youth" because it felt nostalgic to me.

Color Inspiration

The first thing that popped into my head for this booklet was Sailor Moon. This anime was a big part of my childhood, and the main character's hair style fit perfectly with my font. I wanted my font to have on outstanding feature (the loop). Sailor Moon's hair does the same thing with her "meatball head" style. I wanted to use the colors yellow and pink because it's iconic through the whole series and gives off playful vibes.

Class

Caption says "Don't you think about anything other than food!?"

Tyler Spangler

Shanti Sparrow Collaboration

Vasare Pattern

Shanti Editorial Oh Hey

Pillows

Walaland

DelaVega_TypeBook_Rough1-1

Project II: Type Specimen Booklet

More details in picture descriptions~~

For my booklet I wanted to be more playful. I was looking at my past booklets that I've made in the program and they are boring. Sure, they had boring content, but that's no excuse. Typography is my weak point so I wanted to challenge myself to have more fun with this by playing with patterns, scale, and position.
Since my font is named "Youth" I wanted my booklet to feel nostalgic but still appropriate for the present. I didn't want to overdo the patterns so they didn't distract from the typeface. I got my inspiration from patterns that were popular in the 90s and a designer named Shanti Sparrow. I grew up in the 90s-early 2000s era with all the funky patterns and shapes on carpets, clothing, and print ads. The colors are inspired by my favorite show Sailor Moon, using yellow from the main character's blonde hair and pink from the iconic weapons.

Research

I started my research on Pinterest looking for a diverse set of examples. Sadly, you can't always find the artist/designer in the descriptions. Here's some examples I thought were helpful.

Example 1

Ripped paper color collage

Example 2

Digital collage

Example 3

Mixed media color collage

Example 4

Hollie Chastain collages

Two Dimensional Man Cover

I found this cool book in a bookstore in Boston. Here's a few pages from the book that I looked at. Images by Paul Saher.

Two Dimensional Man 1

Two Dimensional Man 2

Two Dimensional Man 3

Research

I started my research on Pinterest looking for a diverse set of examples. Sadly, you can't always find the artist/designer in the descriptions. Here's some examples I thought were helpful.

Example 1

Ripped paper color collage

Example 2

Digital collage

Example 3

Mixed media color collage

Example 4

Hollie Chastain collages. I like this designer's work because it doesn't use too many elements, the whole person doesn't have to be shown to get an idea across, and they are creative. The combines abstract thinking with reality and clearly shows the subject doing an action.

Two Dimensional Man Cover

I found this cool book in a bookstore in Boston. Here's a few pages from the book that I looked at. Images by Paul Saher.

Two Dimensional Man 1

I thought it was cool to replace some body parts with different images. I also liked the layering of images and patterns. The page on the right has some depth to it.

Two Dimensional Man 2

Paul Saher's work also includes texture, like half tones, cuts, shadows, stamping, and scans.

Two Dimensional Man 3

These typographic posters were useful since most of the collages I've seen thus far have just been about pictures. He goes between making ransom notes to making protest posters.

Project III: 50/50 Collage

More details in picture descriptions~~

My history with collage isn't the best. I usually cluster everything together, use a lot of materials, and honestly don't think about the layout. There is no way I could continue doing that, so I did some research. Other than looking at inspiration from the "interwebs," I went to a bookstore in Boston. Did I mention I went to Boston? I looked at other designer's collages, researched my stamps, and did a mini history lesson on what was going on in 1956 since that's the time period where most of my letters are from. After research I looked at my materials and picked out which images spoke to me the most. I wanted to challenge myself by using as little materials as I could to make an interesting design. For this project we had to have a theme (probably to avoid making a meaningless cluster like I usually do) and I took that information and ran with it. I knew I wanted to make a story with the materials I had, but I didn't solidify anything until the last two collages. My first five iterations had 5 different stories with 5 different themes.
For the final submission I listened to the feedback during our critique and went with a theme of being lost while traveling. This gave me a lot to work with as far as story telling goes. I decided to make two posters to create a narrative...and I ended up having fun making collages and couldn't decide which one to submit, haha.

While the story is up to interpretation, in my head it was a mother had to leave her family due to unforeseen circumstances. In what seems to be the middle of nowhere, she writes he son, Martin, as much as she can before the connection is mysteriously cut off. Years pass and it's now 1956. Martin has grown up and started traveling in the same area he believes his mom went to. He writes letters to his significant other as much as possible while he searches for clues about his mom.

Project III: 50/50 Collage

More details in picture descriptions~~

My history with collage isn't the best. I usually cluster everything together, use a lot of materials, and honestly don't think about the layout. There is no way I could continue doing that, so I did some research. Other than looking at inspiration from the "interwebs," I went to a bookstore in Boston. Did I mention I went to Boston? I looked at other designer's collages, researched my stamps, and did a mini history lesson on what was going on in 1956 since that's the time period where most of my letters are from. After research I looked at my materials and picked out which images spoke to me the most. I wanted to challenge myself by using as little materials as I could to make an interesting design. For this project we had to have a theme (probably to avoid making a meaningless cluster like I usually do) and I took that information and ran with it. I knew I wanted to make a story with the materials I had, but I didn't solidify anything until the last two collages. My first five iterations had 5 different stories with 5 different themes.
For the final submission I listened to the feedback during our critique and went with a theme of being lost while traveling. This gave me a lot to work with as far as story telling goes. I decided to make two posters to create a narrative...and I ended up having fun making collages and couldn't decide which one to submit, haha.

While the story is up to interpretation, in my head it was a mother had to leave her family due to unforeseen circumstances. In what seems to be the middle of nowhere, she writes he son, Martin, as much as she can before the connection is mysteriously cut off. Years pass and it's now 1956. Martin has grown up and started traveling in the same area he believes his mom went to. He writes letters to his significant other as much as possible while he searches for clues about his mom.

Bumper Research 1

(Link below). Here are a few bumpers to shows I used to watch. These are heavily character-related. I liked the interaction between the logo and the characters. You could see the different personalities in this bumper.

Bumper Research 2

(Link Below) I liked this compilation because it has mixed media and definitely shows how loud some of the things in the 90s and early 2000s were.

Bumper Research 3

(Link below) This bumper is more simple, which I like. It's just the logo in different iterations and rotations on the splat.

Bumper Research 4

(Link below) This is a bit newer, but I remember the transition from the splat to their typeface logo. It's still playful and loud, but it definitely focuses more on the branding.

youth_storyboard1

For my first story board I connected it more to my book. I wanted to show basically the same things I wrote in my book in my video, patterns included. This was heavily inspired by Nickelodeon bumpers.

youth_storyboard1.2

youth_storyboard2

My second story board was more about how I came up with the font, so it included pictures of my embarrassingly weird accessories and me from middle school. While it was a nice idea, it didn't have anything to do with my book.

youth_storyboard2.1

Project IV: Kinetic Type

More details in picture descriptions~~

After Effects!? Oh boy, this project was hard. I like After Effects, don't get me wrong, but I'm not the best at it. To keep the idea of my font representing my youth, I looked at Nickelodeon bumpers and chose the same patterns and colors from my booklet. I thought that bumpers were prefect examples to look. I kept having to change what I was doing because I didn't have the skill-level I needed to bring my ideas to life. Nevertheless, I looked at tutorials and payed attention to the demos in class to see what I could make. I just used the simple transform tools and some 3D transformations.

The first rough I made is short, but I didn't like where it was going. It seemed boring compared to how I described my font. I decided to start over...

With a new video I thought I should add music, because why not? I didn't want to worry about copyright issues, so I opened Garageband and found loops to put together. With my rudimentary skills, I was able to make a short piece that reminds me of old cartoon theme songs, especially Hey Arnold. I looked back at my first story board and noticed that I had to simplify my video A LOT. I used key words that I described my font with so the video would be a bit informative, and I wanted to show the curvy elements by zooming in on them.