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Alphabet Soup - Creating Letterforms from Design Ideas



I based the majority if my letterforms on the most basic of fonts 'Helevetica' with the exception of one or two where i used slight variations of fonts but nothing too dramatic as i wanted to start of at a pretty basic starting point, to build my letterforms from. 





This was the first drawing i created. I first did a hand drawn version at the top to start off with, then created a separate, more clean cut version at the bottom, using fine marker pens. For this particular letterform, i decided to add a 3D side to it. I thought that by doing this it made the letter appear to be 'STRETCHING' towards you and away from the page.









Using the same basic idea of making the text 3d and stretching out towards us, i created these next three drawings, experimenting with a different font this time. I like the top sketch as it emphasis how far i has been stretched, and i also added in some descending lines for a bit of pattern, which seems to work well. The next drawing i made is a little bit more abstract in a sense. At first you don't really see that is a letter 'T' but that's what i quite like about it. I also like how the line iv'e drawn in make it look like 3d groves coming from the back of the 'T'.  The bottom one was an idea i originally had which i have developed a little bit further. I wanted to alter the perspective of the 'T' to make it look like it was lying stretched across the frame, then with these long lines added to the bottom, i have stretched the whole letterform and also made it look 3D.






The next three sketches i was playing around with the perspective of the letter. I wanted to make it look like the type was lied flat and 'STRETCHING' out towards us. i drew this in a simple form at the top and then started making the letterform more 3d in two different ways which gave some interesting results. I quite like the minimal qualities in the first drawing though, if it was to be more refined, i think this would work nicely. 


This was a more refined sketch of the chewing gum idea i had. The idea was to make the text look sticky, stringy and stretchy by moulding it like chewing gum, to look like it had been stretched into place. I liked the idea and the drawing looks alright but after some peer feedback i have noticed that it has turned out to look somewhat inappropriate and a little bit nasty. Work in progress on this one.





The next two drawings i think are interesting. Developed from ideas of taking the edges of the type and stretching them left and right to fit in the square frame. The top design has a little too much going on and doesn't really work well or look right to communicate as a typeface. The bottom one however, i am pleased with and think this can be developed into a really nice letterform, maybe something that could work well for a logo.

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