Design Skills - Alphabet Soup - Typeface

OUGD403 Design Skills - Alphabet Soup - Typeface

Upon analyzing the information I gathered on my partner I have narrowed down too 3 typefaces that emulate her 3 main person attributes. 

ITC Bahuaus Std Bold has the round feel that her handwriting emulates. I like the smooth seamless stem style and the short use of ascenders creating a stable structured letterform with a simple style. It emulates boldness nicely and organization. 

Linoscript fits in well with her love for illustrating elements and having a general doodling style. Especially when taking notes. The lightweight calligraphic strokes within the typeface create a nice illustrative feel, but due to its digital output a form of order and organization is created.  

Caslon pro Semi bold emulates her love for block clothing, black is quite a gothic color and this typeface follows this cultural style. I like the angular serifs and the extended serif tails that are on some of the letterforms. I will use these main elements as a focus point in manipulation development.

I will attempt to visually combine these 3 typeface concepts while still trying to gather more visual inspiration through mindmaping and word association on existing information I have gathered. 

Below is a snapshot on her typestyle in a - z so i can analyze her style a little bit more in-depth. 

Did a little bit of word association on the existing characteristics I discovered at the moment. I chose the 3 typefaces based on the 3 main characteristics that I felt defined my partner. These been for her love of handmade things and following an illustrative style and interest. Her love for black clothing and her favorite word 'miss mash' has all give me a base on further word association.

Black = Gothic > Strong Bold Serifs and italics, Color meaning > Elegance 

Mish mash = Random, Messy 

Organized (contrast of mishmash) = Form, Grid, Order, Identical elements 

Handmade = Unique, Craft

Illustration = Drawing, Pencil, Sketchy, Rought, 

Sign Language = Code > Language, Brail > texture

I now have a little more to work with in terms of creating visual concept idea. My next stage is to look into a selection of these elements deeper once further investigation has been briefly looked upon. I need to narrow things down more to create a more focused visual style based on her characteristics so I will begin to try merge elements together. I will look into CODE, Sign Language, Form/order and Random as means of creating a concept for the whole format of the 26 letters in the alphabet. This will be in terms of size, weight, layout etc.  

Words such as texture, elegant, illustrative, bold and brail will inspire the actual visual appearance of the letterforms. 

After Doing some brief mind mapping and uncovering a few more visual ideas through word association I have gathered a base concept to work upon through development in a visual format. I will research into code, especially brails and sign language as i feel this is an interesting concept to work upon her interests and characteristics, I will work on forming a grid system as well to base the typeface form around this element is relevant to her love of order and organization. I want to emulate a mechanical feel maybe she's interested in the mechanics of engines. The typeface as a whole will be bold and contrast between thick elements and thin elements within the typeface anatomy this comes from the word Elegant which is derived from the color theory of black. Bold contrasts nice with this again derived from the color black. The typeface grid will simulate order but through layouts of the typeface elements I will try experiment with a sense of randomness be this through size, arrangements or weight differences. The final visual concept I will work upon will be giving the typeface an illustrative feel giving off a hand drawn feel maybe experiment with calligraphic forms within the serifs maybe? Experiment with serif brackets, maybe add sharp angular elements? Smooth strokes? All experimentations within texture which derives from the illustration interest she has.