'MELT' TYPEFACE FINALS

My final 10 letterforms representing the word "Melt"

For a crit session we were put into blog groups and we presented to one another for 5 minutes about our 10 10x10 type series that we had created inspired by our allocated adjectives.

For the creation of my melt typography I wanted to go beyond the word melt and experiment with other words I collated through my dictionary definition research. I explored elements such as fire, phrases such as "heart melting" and different forms that happen to material whilst melting such a bubbling. I chose to go down this path as not only did I want to focus on the obvious concepts of the adjective but I wanted to experiment and explore different aspects of the word and see what I could create. I approached the creation of my work with an open mind and decided to try multiple possibilities of what the adjective meant and could represent and that's what made my diverse letter forms. I chose to focus on the letter form 'W' as I liked the shape of the letter and had lots of initial ideas of how I could style it.

My top 5 Designs

From the crit as a group our peers had to choose their favourite 5 out of the ones that had been created and these 5 where chosen ones. This indicated to myself that these represented the adjective melt successfully and were the best designs.

Then individually we wrote our adjectives on a post it note and stuck our designs on the wall so we could all see our strongest designs. Everyone in the class was also assigned to do this and as collective everyone's best designs were on a wall each. 

We were then asked to go to other groups tables and select designs that we thought were not effective and choose our favourite 5 out of 60 possible letter forms to stay on the wall.

Our conclusion for why we had selected the chosen letter forms ranged from

• It communicated the adjective effectively
• Good and innovative use of techniques
• Interesting concept
• Attention to detail
• Intricacy
• Clarity
• Materials used

We had to communicate this to whole of our class so they could see how as a group we came to this conclusion and how we worked as a team to solve this.

When going back to our original table were our work had been stuck up, none of my designs were chosen as the top 5 or final favourite, this then suggested that I would have to dig deeper into ways I could make my letter forms possibly more effective, clearer or consider the ways I could present it. This process was helpful in the way we could see everyone's work and discuss what we liked and disliked about one another's so we could consider it for future reference. This crit and future ones have made me realise this process can help me personally grow as an artist.

THE PROCESS

I documented the process of how I created my letter forms so I could see what worked effectively and what didn't.

To create my faded 'W' I free hand drew a bubble letter shape and using a uni white paint marker, I outline the shape and gradually built up small circles from big to small to represent the fading process.

To create my first "heart melting" typography I chose to use acetate as my material and transfered the letterform onto the texture using a sharpie maker. I then masked the image down, and using my craft knife I cut around the letter form until I had a stencil. Due to the monochromatic colour scheme I decided to paint the image black and experiment with water paints, but the colour just ran off due to the material. So then I used black acrylic paint and watered it down to get a smoother texture.

          

For my second heart melting experiment I though I would do a contrast of the original and using the part I cut out I painted it with watered down white acrylic paint and added melting droplets to tie in with the melting concept and to make it more apparent.

To create my melting bubbled concept, I used a black sharpie pen to outline the outside of the letter form and eventually coloured it all in leaveing the bubbles empty. For added effect I used the uni white paint pen and added small cresents round some of the bubbles to define them. The image was placed on paint white card cut to a 10x10 format.

To create my melting type I chose to acetate again and keep the image simplistic cause the typography was striking on it's own. I traced the image onto acetate using a board wipe pen just incase I went out of line and then finished it off with a black sharpie pen. The letter was also set on a 10x10 format.

To create my heat/fire concept I traced the image with a pencil and then using a uni white pen marker I outline the image and the fire holes and gently coloured in the whole image. I also added a few semi circles round the bottom of the letter form so it would look like the image was melting using a pencil.

To create my expanding letterform concept I traced the image onto white card on a 10x10 format and using a black sharpie I outlined and coloured in the main W. For the following letters I used a fine liner and decided to leave them white as I thought it looked more attractive.

For my 3D splatter letter form I changed the composition of the paint splatter to fall over the letterform so it looked like the letter form was melting. I traced the image onto white 10x10 card with a pencil. I then went around the image with a fine liner to create crisp outlines and shaded in the back with a black sharpie to add deffintion and to make the 3D shape bolder. To finish it off I used the uni white paint maker to create a glow in the paint splatter.

To create my sans serif image I traced the image onto 10x10 white card and using a fine liner I went round all the lines. I wanted to keep this image sophisticated and simple so I didn't add any extra design or definition with other pens or material. I like how the extra drawings make the letter look like it's melting and falling away.

To create my Ice cream letter form I traced the image onto 10x10 black sugar paper card and went around the image with a uni white paint marker. I had to go over the image a few times to get a bold white colour and for extra definition I used a black finer liner to add crescents around the letter form, this gave the image a fuller effect in hopes of making it look like sauce which is what I intended in my initial ideas.

Materials used to create my letter forms.

• Metal ruler
• Craft knife
• White card
• Black sugar paper card
• Uni white paint marker
• Black permanent sharpie
• Board wipe pen
• Pencil
• Black acrylic paint
• White acrylic paint
• Acetate
• Black fine liner

DESIGN IDEAS, PRODUCTION + ANALYSIS

With my newfound appreciation and understanding of typographic forms I was assaigned to manipulate exising letterforms that represented the word 'melt'.                                                  

For my set of letter forms I wanted to created a varied series, exploring different variations into the word 'melt' and it's meaning. I researched thoroughly into the word through the use of a dictionary and the different words where the inspiration and     motivation for my designs.

For the project I wanted to experiment with innovative ways of interpreting the word melt. I researched dictionary definitions to find further meanings and the words heat and fire came up as these are the main components for a melting reaction to happen.Through my research of type, I came across this font called "Seaweed fire AOE" so I wanted to experiment with this idea and see what I could develop.

I chose this font from my digital type research and the font is called "Earth heart", whilst looking for further meanings of the words melt I came across the phrase "heart melting - to soften a persons mood or emotion" I liked the concept of this and thought it would be fun to experiment with so I decided to try two outcomes with this font as I feel it looks like a heart without being to obvious or cliche and the round edges communicate a melting motion.

Through my artist research I decided to use Luke Lucas design for the Summerdayze poster as I thought the design was strong and indicated specifically to the word melt but put my own twist on it. I used a Cambria font to highlight where the 'W' would situate and would use the combining swirls from the other letters to so it would look like strawberry sauce on the ice cream scoop.

Through my definition research I came across the word expanding and I thought I could take that word further and create a good concept. I wanted to keep the design simple and straight forward so I used a pre-set font called Copper STD and layerd the 'W' letter forms on both sides to translate the movement and expansion of the letter form. I also liked the round edges of the typography which I think makes it look more liquefied.

I also wanted a simplistic design that I could free hand a design over the top of, so through my research of sans serif fonts I chose "Znikomit no25" I liked the shape of the 'W' and I chose to research sans serif designs cause I though the flicks would be fun to experiment with to create a fluid structure.

I really loved this typography called "meltdown" I think it embodied the whole melt theme and I liked the simplicity and structure of the letter form. Through my research of dripping letter forms I though this was the most clear and concise.

This was taken from graphic designer Alex Trochut " The New Classics" campaign I really liked the 3D concept and even though I researched possible typographies I though I could experiment with this one further. I also liked the splatter effect that I could move in to different positions and formats.

I wanted to explore the visual effects melting objects make apart from liquefied forms, so I chose the bubbling effect. I found this typeface on dafont and wanted to experiment with changing it's structure and colours to see what I could create.

For my last design I wanted to hand draw a design from scratch and wanted to experiment with shading and tones of a melting effect.

Tracing my designs

To create all my traced ideas I set up 10x10 formats on Photoshop, so I knew how big the letters had to be and traced over the screen like a light box.

For one of tracings I went with the obvious idea of an ice cream, to represent the theme of melting. I traced two formats so I could experiment with either a bigger cone or ice cream scoop for the final piece. I used an image I found on Google images and a pre-set font on Photoshop called Cambria. I wanted to also give it a graffiti style edge with the use of swirls which could also represent ice cream sauce.

I wanted to have a simplistic 'W' so I traced a font called "Znikomit no25" from www.dafont.com and through my research I was inspired by an artist called Si Scott so I roughly traced round one of his compositions and added my own twist to it by adding more droplets and a sinking effect on the left hand side of the letter form.

I traced one of my favourite typographic artist's Alex Trochut letter 'W'  and paint splatter from a promotional poster he did, I like the depth of the 3D letter and wanted to play with positioning and colours for the final design.

This tracing was inspired by the idea of the air bubbles that can form when something has melted e.g melted cheese. The font was sourced from www.dafont.com and is called Pustule.

 

This tracing idea was inspired by the idea of things expanding when melting e.g a solid candle becoming a pool of wax. So I decided to repeat the letter form with varying sizes to show this. The font was a pre-set font of Photoshop called Copper STD.

I really wanted a liquefied typography and I found one through www.dafont.com called "MeltdownMF" I liked the structure and format of the drips and thought it would be fun to experiment with on textures and monochromatic colours. 

I was inspired through my dictionary research of the word melt and came across to phrase "heart melting- to soften someone's emotions" I thought I could find and innovative way to experiment with it so I planned to do two designs on it. I found the font from www.dafont.com and its name was "Earth Heart".

Also from my dictionary research I came across the word fade and liked how I could experiment with different techniques such as cross hatch and shading. So I free hand drew a bubble writing style W, with the intention to fill it.

One of the main components to make something melt is heat and the unltimate connection to heat is fire. So I wanted to experiment with a typeface that had a flame structure. I found the font " Seaweed FirAOE" on www.dafont.com.

Design Analysis.

I annotated and analysed each trace to come up with possible ideas of what they would look like and how they linked to the word melt. This process helped me come to the final conclusions of the design and what to apply to the final piece.