Project Brief

For this project I was asked to pick a word from the word list and to use typography to illustrate the meaning of this word. We were asked to cut and paste these words to make compositions from paper. After generating some ideas through this process we moved to the computer. Using Illustrator we began generating newer, more refined designs. We were then asked to introduce color and space while continuing to refine and develop our typographical compositions. We then settled on 9 final designs.

Project Reflection

This project was a bit more difficult for me than the previous projects. I am not a big fan of graphic design; it is simply not my forte. Although I was a little frustrated at first this project improved greatly for me after we made the switch to Illustrator.

I like using the computer as a tool and I have improved my Illustrator skills significantly during his project. I used to find this programing extremely frustrating and unyielding, especially during the poster projects. This project has helped me discover new ways of approaching things and cool new tricks and tips that have improved my skill and efficiency.

I liked the straightforward set up for this project. The requirements for each day and for the process notebook were simple and forthright. Although a little confusion surrounded certain numbers some days because of the convoluted nature of the blackboard directions, it went relatively well.

When we introduced color into the designs I struggled a little. I’ve never been great with color, but color theory was interesting and helpful. I had issues incorporating color into my designs but I believe it did end up working out pretty well. 

The mounting process was a little frustrating in the end. The matte board was expensive and hard to cut. The most annoying part was the printing of the nine compositions. The colors and print quality was really nice but the ink scraped off extremely easily and several of my designs were damaged. This was disappointing considering how much it cost to print. 

Jayhawk Progression

Fall Colors and changing leaves

Changing Classes.

More changing leaves

Change: Construction

Designs Reflection

I believe my final nine designs turned out pretty well. The ones in this process notebook are my preliminary prints so they are not the final versions that have been printed on matte. I really ended up liking the color schemes I chose. Originally I was leaning towards darker warm colors but I began to realize that saturated light colors popped a lot better and really evoked the meaning of ‘Intense.’

Following the instruction of my professor I tried an overlapping transparency technique with the exclamation point design. I found this to be a successful effect. This seemed to create unity among the letters “INTENS” and better created the shape of the exclamation point.

Little change was made to my cascading design. I moved the exclamation point so it took the place of the “I” at the beginning of the word. This seemed to better connect the concept of the exclamation point with the word itself and by extension its meaning.

The third design incorporates the same idea. Originally this design featured two contrasting panels one containing the ‘I’ exclamation point, the other, the letters “NTENSE.” I thought the original design was bland and uninteresting. I decided to spice it up a bit and add a bit of noise. I overlapped hundreds of little “INTENSE”s to create the left panel. This effect was quite successful in the end.

I believe my cascading green design and blue contrasting panel designs are the two most successful. I really like the base designs of these two compositions for the reasons listed above but I believe these two versions of their respective designs were most successful. The color schemes chosen for these two seemed to be more striking and “intense.”

The use of striking color, the high contrast, use of exclamation points, and movement combined to make these designs successful as a group and individually. Overall I am pleased with these designs. I am however disappointed with how dark some of the colors printed out. The dark colors appear almost black on the print out even though they were supposed to be dark versions of brown, blue, and green.

PDF Reflection

Parts of the Letter Reflection

The PDF and lecture concerning the part of the letter was interesting and helpful. Knowing all the different technical terms for each part of the letter will be very helpful in the future. I did not even realize that these technical terms even existed. Being able to talk intelligently about typography will be a useful skill. The evolution from handwriting to digital typography is an interesting transition.

Exploring the anatomy of the letter was surprisingly helpful when it came to creating these word compositions. The overlapping of letters and their relationships to each other became an apparent importance in the process. The fact that the top parts of letters are where a reader discerns the meaning and recognizes a word was very interesting to me. I ended up implementing this idea in some of my earlier designs and even though it wasn’t incorporated into my final designs this concept will undoubtedly be useful in the future.