A-Z of Typefaces

Here's a response to a summer brief set for me with starting my degree at Leeds College of Art on the 23rd of this month. It proposed that I deliver 26 10cm x 10cm 2D pieces each displaying a letter of the alphabet, with the motive of expressing a bit about myself. Well, this range of work says that I like Typefaces; each piece has a key of up to 5 stars to represent my personal opinion of it, however I'm starting to think that was a pointless decision, because I doubt I'd ever knowingly use what I felt was a poor Typeface. Imagine Comic Sans for example, okay it sets the bar for a 1 star Typeface in my view, so it would be great in representing my opinion, but I still wouldn't feel comfortable with it among the other Typefaces.

Anyway here's a taste of some of the ones I've designed so far, there will be more to come.

NOW That's What I Call a Logo!

I watched a documentary the other night about the development of Virgin Records, and the "NOW That's What I Call Music" compilation albums. I've personally never known a time when these CD's haven't been around; and when I seen the graphics for the first few records I was shocked. The reason I was shocked was because the logo they used for a few of the records is sooo much cooler than the crap they use now. But why is it crap? Because there's no feeling behind it, there's no personality. It's just 3D rendered button pushing crap.

So, I done some research, and found that my favourite of all the records was number 9 (above). The simplicity of it is great, the comparison between this and a more recent one (also above) is laughable. I spent an hour or so re-rendering this original logo, and I'm convinced it still looks better.

When it comes to logo's nowadays, lots of big companies are switching to more simplistic and sophisticated logos (a great example is ITV), and for good reason: It's just better. It has character. 3D often looks tacky.

Matterhorn Poster

Here's a new poster I've made today to showcase my Swiss Typeface for my FMP, it's a mixture of photo-editing, photo-illustration and Typography. Again I've stuck with Avenir as to strike a direct contrast between the Ironic Swiss Typeface I've created and the traditional sans serif style.

Whilst making it I found my self sitting looking at it and wondering what was missing, it finally clicked that I needed a reflection in the water, I feel it adds an extra level of realism. My plan is to pair this with the other A3+ poster (below) I made for this series of work and display them both in exhibition.

Digital Swiss Collage

And here is the final one. I think it'll be nice once printed out full size with supporting media. I'm really pleased with it actually, it's been a lot of work, but rewarding at the same time. It's been nice to finally get some real Graphic Design work done. What I mean by that is, I've enjoyed doing my final major project very much, designing Typefaces has been an interesting learning curve and I'll probably visit the techniques I've learned again in the future. And while I've enjoyed it, I still enjoy putting the supporting design work towards it better. I think it's improved my view of Typefaces, I understand them differently now.

Supporting Poster (Part 2)

Here are a couple of alternatives, the one with inverted colour is the most interesting, I especially like the look of the mountain in that colour scheme. The white smoke leaving the rectangles is also a nice effect. The top image is just an earlier version with less elements, and the one below is the cross like shape I created, to represent the cross for Switzerland.

Swiss Typeface

I've mentioned that as part of my final major project I'm creating Typefaces. Well this here is one created with the intention of it being Swiss through and throughout. But not by traditional standards, when we think of Swiss Style Typefaces, we think of the classics like Helvetica, Avenir, Frutiger and so on; but this here is embodying a different sense of Swiss. I decided to pair each character with a matching photograph that represented Switzerland in it's own way, a lot of them being mountainous Alpine scenery. That's what actually gave me the idea in the first place. The first two characters I created were A & M, if you look again you'll notice the M is just a doubled-up version; both of these characters already have a mountainous quality to them, so I had the idea to add a photograph over the top to emphasise the shape of the character.

Overall I think it's worked it okay, I like the whole concept and idea, it gives it a whole ironic and literal context. To be honest though, it was difficult to find pictures suitable for some of the less obvious ones. For example, a lot are simply places in Switzerland e.g. Zurich, Geneva etc. The Typeface I used for "The Real Swiss Typeface" is Avenir, not just because I like it, but because it's neutral enough to add the exact juxtaposition I was looking for; literal vs actual Swiss Style Typeface.

Microsoft 365 Competition Entry

I used the designs I made for my Typeface research and used them to enter an online competition for Microsoft's Office 365 program. The theme is "work from anywhere", so I thought these were fitting. The only thing I'm thinking now is that it could have been nice to do a full scale map of the world rather than just North America and Europe. I like the style I've used in the maps, maybe eventually I'll get round to doing a full map.

Photomontage Twins

Once again using the same technique as my previous Photomontage's, I have edited this piece to create the illusion of a twin. The difference being I changed in between shots for authenticity.