Exercise: Text and image

This exercise served to explore typefaces and hand-designed lettering. I first had to write in my own hand-writing a selection of pairs of words provided:

Big / Small
Fat / Thin
Fast / Slow
Fun / Boring
Calm / Mad

I then had to write the words again in a more descriptive way, using the shape and size of the word and relative position of the letters to express the meaning of the word in both lower and upper cases.

I tried to make size differences and made the ‘fat’ letters fat, the ‘thin’ letters thin, fast I tilted to insinuate velocity and slow I wrote slowly and spaced out and rounded to mimic slowness. Fun I made more perky and differentiated letters and boring I tried to keep simple, easy, no frills – boring! Calm I kept rounded, spaced out and simple and mad I tried to make angular, angry, impactful and squiggly and out of control.

I then was asked to turn to my computer and scroll through the fonts available and select one that suits the words most. I created all the words in a document using InDesign so I could see them altogether. I tried to get the closest fonts to what I had drawn or the ideas I had and came up with the below. I struggled to find good ones to really show ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ so tried an italic flowy font for the word fast that can also be written fast and a more sixties peace and love style funky style for ‘slow’.

I was then asked to trace them in pencil using a colour that best communicates the meaning: I used cold colours for calm, boring and slow and more warm colours for the more exciting fonts:

I was then asked to use a moodboard to explore other media qualities which communicate the meaning of the words – considering line quality and colour combinations. I came up with the boards below on Pinterest:

Big

Small

Fat

Thin

Calm

Mad

Fun

Boring

Fast

Slow

I then had to draw them freehand using a pencil and then rendering them using materials, media and colour appropriate to their meaning. I first brainstormed around all the words to pick and chose ideas on colours, more related words and what materials I could use so that I could get them all to be different:

I chose regal and sturdy purple and black for ‘big’ and gave it shadows for more presence. I chose a light and fluffy pink pen and stippling ink for ‘small’ to make it more dinky and delicate. I then

I then chose bright acrylics and gave the letters for ‘fat’ an almost bursting balloon effect but a more delicate usage of pencils and lines for mark making for thin – almost like a weaved wicker.

For ‘fun’ I decided on a whacky mix of collage, paint pen, paint, glitter, plastic stars and beads for something that looked very fun and childish. For ‘boring’, it was easy just to use plain old pencil and not add any frill or texture.

For ‘fast’, as a said before, I didn’t quite feel like I found a good font for this but I decided to work with something italic and flowy and used pastel pencils and exciting warm colours that I could smudge to indicate movement. For slow, I decided to make it a calmer green colour and warp the lettering so they almost looked sludgy and gloopy and almost stuck to the floor so indicate a slowness. It turned out almost like little green slugs!

For ‘calm’ I decided to use the nicest colours of nature, blue and green and a touch of yellow and make a nice water colour faded look that reflects water, grass, skies, all things that are calming. For ‘mad’ I wanted texture, angular lines and used oil pastels to scratch hectically using yellow as a base and working my may through oranges and reds to a black to show danger, excitement, movement, chaos etc.

Final reflection:

Well, now that I have had to dive into the detail of font and meaning and context, this has certainly helped open my eyes with regards to the essence and importance of typefaces and text within illustration. When I have been selecting digital fonts, I have actually sometimes found it hard to pick the right one and not quite know how to qualify the best type for the illustration and tone etc. Searching for new free fonts is definitely useful but you don’t always get what you need. This also made me reflect on how I did the hand drawn fonts for the previous travel guides exercise. When I started, I actually thought I would not succeed in it as I tend to prefer tidier digital font. This may be because of the work I do or what I am used to seeing. I generally also tend to prefer tidier, simpler, neater illustrations that have clear space and focus – in comparison to cluttered scenes. However, I see now that this is not always the best option for text or for illustrations in terms of being the most responsive to the brief as possible – while I can respect my own personal preferences.