ILLUSTRATOR TYPEFACE

From the letters I had created from the previous alphabet soup task, I was assaigned to choose one of my letterforms and to base a whole font on it.

I scanned in two of my designs that I liked the most and compared the one I liked and looked  stood out the most appropriate the word melt.

I decided to use image one as I felt that the skills I had learned on Illustrator would really benefit the design and would look more aesthetically pleasing and innovative compared to the other design.

I wanted to simplify the font from it's original design to make it more crisp, modern clear. I researched other fonts on 'www.dafont.com' and chose a  block font to remain it's bold structure like in the oringinal design. The font I selected was called "" and I changed the outline to 5.point so create a solid line to stand out.

I began creating the typeface by using the scanned image and adding a trace layer mask over the top of the image, creating a clearer opacity. 

< trace layer mask image>

By using the pen tool I mimicked the lines creating the fluid textures and then applied them to my premade font.

When adding the lines and spatter marks I experimented with the angles and shapes depending on the structure of the letterforms. I did this by using the white arrow tool and either extended or removed parts of the line to fit with the frame of the shape.

In sticking with the original design I also added circle splatter blobs to add emphasis to the melting effect. I used the circle tool and added them on various letter forms where I felt they worked.

After Identifying the tools I needed to duplicate my design it was a case of copying and pasting the shapes I had made and manipulating them to fit in within the letterforms and adding the final circles for emphasis.

I also looked at experimenting with colour looking at the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, key) pallet. Adding colour to my design either changed the visual quality or tone of my work and it was interesting at looking how it did this.

The magenta tone gave a uv shop light effect and really added feminity to the design.

The yellow tone made the letterforms hard to recognise and took away the strength of the design due to it's light, bright colour.

I particularly liked the cyan tone and I think it reflected fluidity due to the colour representing the sea and water, however the message I was trying to put across with the type was melt.

I decided on keeping the design black as I felt it was strong, bold and crisp, the simplicity of the colours and line quality worked well consistently and effectively communicated the theme of melt.

THE FINAL

After experimenting with colours I reassessed the design and added or extracted some if the textures and cleaned up the line qualities.

ILLUSTRATOR WORKSHOP - EXPERIMENTS

For our second Illustrator workshop we looked back at the previous work we did in the first session and learnt how to experiment with the weight and colour of the outlines by using the width tool. I experimented with different styles and sizes until I found one that I liked.

We next looked into experimenting with a random squiggly line created using the pen tool. Using the width tool again I experimented with the ball point, stoke and uniform to create different variations of what each effect provided. I duplicated the squiggly lines to see that differences in each effect also. I found using the width tool was easy and fun to experiment with.

We was also introduced how to experiment further with our shapes outline, by going to the stroke option. There was varitations such as a dashed outline or changing the nib of the pen to thick or thin.

We also experimented with letter forms and again using the width tool manipulated the letters in different ways.

Finally to conclude the session, we looked at the blend tool. We had to create one shape and using the option box select a width of how close or far away we wanted them to be. After selecting that a repetition of the shape would occur creating amazing dynamic shapes. I also experimented with using colour and the pen tool to manipulate the shapes.

<image>

I found some of the workshop tasks quite challenging, however I learnt a lot of new skills that would help me with the development of the digital typeface.

ILLUSTRATOR WORKSHOP - ALPHABET SOUP

For our alphabet soup brief, we were taught skills that would help us to create our digital alphabet and to help us with our future modules and work.

We firstly looked at identifying the characteristics of the letter's, including the names of  serifs and shapes. I found interesting and useful, as I didn't know there were specific names for these features.

The first thing I learnt in the Illustrator workshop, was how to use the pen tool in order to create shapes. We where set some exercises that instructed us how to create different shapes. I found this exercise quite challenging as I haven't had a lot of experience in illustrator nor with the pen tool, however the instructions made it easier.

After completing the exercise, we then looked at the letter 'g' and began to trace the letter to create an outline. I set up an A4 document and placed the image of the letter 'g' that my tutor had provided and made sure I had 2 layers so that I could trace over it. On the layers tool bar I had to rename the layer to 'raster image' and changed the opacity to 50% after locking the image into place. For the top layer 'vector image' I had to leave unlock as it was the image I would be tracing the 'g' onto.

Using the pen tool I created outlines around the image following the lines of the raster image underneath. I found this process quite difficult as I had to remember from the pen tool exercises when to click off and on certain parts to make the lines.

After completing the lines I then took away the image from behind to be left with just the vector image showing. I realised there were a lot of parts out of place and it wasn't as smooth as the raster image.

I then learnt how to change and adapt the lines if we went out of place, by using the white arrow tool. I simply had to click and adjust the anchor points until the were in the right place, I found that adjusting some parts where easier than others due to the shapes within the letter. 

I also learnt how to change the settings to create coloured outlines and the weight of them.