My Type and Design class has been one of the most beneficial and rewarding experiences in my young, blooming design career. But I will be the first to admit that I was not looking forward to the typeface design project, particularly because I didn’t think that coming up with some artsy letterforms was going to teach me anything.
I started this project right after finishing my Type Comparison booklet, about 2 weeks before it was due. I needed an idea fast so the thought of using Artist Tape to make letters was the first thing that crossed my mind since, you know, I have a huge roll of it. So I went with the idea.
At first, I was a little nervous that my idea would turn out sloppy since stacking semi-transparent tape made the letters appear like bandages as you can see on my alphabet to the right. I tried my best to arrange the letters as neatly as possible to maintain legibility, but being that it is tape we are dealing with, it was hard to avoid the sloppiness and dirt that would get caught up in the adhesive (the dirty/grungy look did however benefit my idea in the long run).
Several days of re-taping letters and clone-stamping my letters to make the seams look neater and crisp, I finally got all 26 letters to look unified, cohesive, clean, and readable. The final obstacle was to arrange these letters in a presentation that includes the entire alphabet, the name of the typeface (written with the letters themselves), and a sentence. I was pretty happy about my concept and the result!
And of course, after today, I have a whole week off due to Spring Break! Better take advantage of this long overdue break. My next big project is going to be a migraine and a half …