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Project 1 | Letterform Compositions

Introduction

The first part of this assignment was to create 12 sketches of the fonts Helvetica and Garamond, altogether making 24 sketches of potential compositions to use for the next step which was to pick our three favorite from each font. After picking three of the best most potential sketch compositions they were moved on to the second step which was to recreate them on the computer. Digital sketches were made from our paper sketches and finally we picked the one that would make the best final composition for both fonts. 12 more digital sketches were made for each font. Moving on to the final process, we picked the best variation of our 12 variations and started editing. Finally, after editing the next step was to print and flush mount onto foamcore to create 2 completed compositions with glyphs.

My Experience

I actually really enjoyed this first assignment. It was definitely a step up from the shapes project that we previously did in the Art 130 class, which made it a challenge. It was a good challenge if you ask me. I liked working with the different typefaces and positioning them in ways that made it look like a good composition while also remembering to follow the specifications. Working with ‘Helvetica’ first was really nice because it’s a very simply typeface. This made it easy to sketch and kind of get an idea about making compositions with type rather than shapes. ‘Garamond’ was slightly more tricky because of the different serifs and shapes of the letters, but it was a nice transition from previously sketching with ‘Helvetica’.

Challenges

One thing I found that was difficult with this assignment was to blend in both black and white letters. Because the paper is white underneath, it was difficult for me to draw the white letters in a way they could still be seen. Another hang up was that this project was very time consuming for me. I think I might have become too precise with my sketches and was trying to make them a little too perfect…but I’m happy with the way they turned out all the same.

Thoughts

Although this project was time consuming I found myself getting into it like I couldn’t stop. This might have been my brain remembering the hours of sketches I’ve done for Art 130 and it just took over. I can see this project already coming together and I’m excited to tweak my sketches in the next assignment when they go digital!

P r Oj E C T 01 S T E P 01 | P r O C E S S B lO G P O S T

Adobe Garamond

Helvetica

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Transitioning from hand drawn sketches to digital sketches was a little different than I thought it would be. No matter how accurate your sketches are, there’s always something you’ll need to change in your composition to make it work out.

Helvetica

I have to say that my Helvetica sketches weren’t my favorite. This could be because it was the first font we used and possibly my creativity sparked more when working with Garamond towards the end. Helvetica was a little boring for me because the letters are very similar in that they all have the same width on all sides and they also have no serifs. I tried to be creative with the letters and for what I came up with I’m happy with, but I wish I would have put some more creative thought into me Helvetica sketches. As for the digital versions, it was actually pretty easy to match the letters to my sketches. Some things were a little out of proportion, but over all Helvetica is pretty symmetrical, so most of my designs turned out like I thought they would when made into digital compositions.

Garamond

I really enjoyed working with this typeface. I like Garamond because it was just so fun to draw and pick letters to put into my compositions. Having serifs really helped to make them interesting. One thing I really struggled with Garamond was the proportioning. It was easier with Helvetica because it is such a simple typeface, but with Garamond, the letters have different widths on each letter and it also has serifs to worry about. When doing my digital compositions I often found that

my letters were far thicker than they should have been and that the lengths of the letters were also off. I definitely had to move and change a lot of things around when putting together my digital sketches of Garamond, but overall it was still my favorite of the two fonts we worked with.

Thoughts

This project was both easier and also more complicated than the sketches all at once. It was easier because instead of having to outline and erase and shade with a pencil, changes could be made with just the click of a mouse. Having the letters in digital form was much more convenient and it definitely made it easier for me to work with my compositions. It was harder because of the proportions. Although I thought that I got them pretty accurately or else pretty close to what I thought the letters would be if they were stretched out, it turns out I wasn’t as close as I thought. That made it difficult for me to fit everything in my compositions because the letters didn’t turn out the same as they did from my sketches. I had to do some tweaking so that they would all fit without getting too messed up and in the end they turned out pretty nicely.

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Adobe Garamond

Helvetica

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It took a lot of work to do 12 variations of both Helvetica and Garamond, but it was worth it to find the right composition for each of them

Helvetica

I said before that Helvetica wasn’t my favorite typeface to work with because it was a little boring and I felt like I couldn’t do much with it. I think that was because I thought my sketches in the beginning were no good. This project of refining really helped me to appreciate Helvetica more. Being able to work with the letters and coming up with different types of compositions helped me to realized that Helvetica letters are like puzzle pieces. They actually fit together pretty nicely if arranged right because the strokes and curves are consistent and simple. This really helped a lot when I was rearranging the letters in my compositions to make them look better because it opened up so many possibilities. I’m happy with the edited composition of Helvetica that I chose and I’m looking forward to seeing it go in to the final process.

Garamond

Working with Garamond in my refinements was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I think that was because I had so many ideas and possibilities that I could work with that made it hard for me to choose a final composition. I’m wondering if I put too many letters in my composition that made it hard to arrange them. Although I have a lot of letters I think that they all work well together and I was able to come up with a good composition to use for the final.

Overall Experience

My overall experience with this part of the project was a little time consuming, but not more than I had expected. It was actually kind of fun to see what else from my original digital sketch that I could come up with. I think that I was able to work out some great ideas and also some not so great ones. The repetition and time spend on this exercise was definitely worth it to come up with my final compositions. I know that only by taking the time and work that I did could I get the good results that I have.

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Adobe Garamond

Helvetica

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For my final composition using Helvetica, my goal was to make everything aligned. I think I accomplished that goal and almost everything matches up with something else and it’s very even. I made some changes from having a capital ‘K’ in the place of where the capital ‘T’ is now shown as the stem. The capital ‘K’ does not have a right angle so it was hard for me to use it for alignment. Switching it out for something with a nice right angle like the capital ‘T’ worked really nicely in the end.

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Stem

Stroke

Spine

Descender

Bowl

Helvetica Final

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The principle of design I thought was really strong in this composition was the flow. I think that it just makes your eye move around and want to look at everything that’s going on. I think the descender of the lowercase ‘y’ seems to create a nice focal point inside the capital ‘S’. One thing that I ended up changing for this final composition was the lowercase ‘e’. It was origionally flipped around so that the tail was pointing upwards, but I realized that that was leading the viewers eye off the page, so I brought it around to face the inside and lined it up nicely with the curve of the lowercase ‘t’. I think it works much better and helps with the flow of this composition.

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Stem

Stroke

Spine

DescenderBowl

Adobe Garamond Final

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l E T T E r F O r M CO M P O S I T I O N S | A M A N DA WA l l I S

Project 1 | Letterform Compositions

Conclusion

This entire process has been a great learning experience. I’ve learned that it takes especially a lot of time to allow myself personally to really think about the different principles of design when working with compositions. One of the things I found that was difficult was to explore the negetive space in the compositions. I did however break out of my comfort zone when working with the size of the letters. Origionally in my sketches my letters looked similar in size, but when taken to the computer I was able to really experiment with the sizes of letters. I think that I accomplished having alignment in my Helvetica composition, and I also think that I accomplished a sense of flow in my Garamond composition. Although this project and the process was tedious and time consuming, I’m happy with the way my final compositions turned out and I’ve learned a lot about myself and what I can do with typefaces and letters.