Expressing Meaning
Question 1.
“Create a new word; one which has no dictionary definition and a meaning that only you know“
– I was sketching around trying to come up with a creative word.
I tried some words and putting them together but a lot of them seemed very silly and hard to really understand what would mean.
I ended up with a word, “Bigsim”, this word is the word I came up with, it is Big and Simple put together, which I like when things are simple and readable.
I think the word has some character and could be interpreted as two words combining into one word with two meanings. And I found that very interesting and a fun task.
Question 2 & 3.
“Choose two extra word from the list below in the learning activity”
I choose the word ‘Falling‘ as my first word from the list, I was drawn to that word the most and almost instantly because of how many different creative ways there are to showcase the word and its meaning.
I sketched a bit, before I tried my way in Illustrator.
I wanted a readable font that would look a little like typewriter, and i decided on the font “Mrs Eaves OT Bold Italic“, the font is a serif with short and hard lines and it helps get the message of the word across. In this assignment I chose to use Opacity and the effects of the words falling and disappearing.
I have scaled the letters in different sizes both in width and height and placed them in a vertical, messy line to get the effect of falling letters; this is a play on the word and using repetition to enhance the effect of the word ‘falling’.
The second word I chose was the word ‘Elevate’, I chose that word because when I saw it I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to emphasise that the word stands for ‘kinda’ lifting something/somebody up, elevate your style, elevate your brand. And I wanted the ‘V’ of the word to be the center of attention and attract your eyes to the text and the meaning behind the word. I wanted the word to still be cohesive and used a font with serifs I could stretch out and make as a line for the other letters to form a word on.
The font I chose is called “Bodoni FB BoldCompressed“.
I wanted the text to be bold and look letter-pressed, the ‘V’ has serifs that makes the word readable and creates some continuity in the word and how you read it.
For the word I made myself; “BigSim“, I wanted to focus on that the word big should be what it stands for, I made the text bold and big, where the text is completely black. The word Sim stands for simple and I associate that with an italic, lean and sleek look. I therefor chose to have a stroke of 1.pt and keep the line very thin. I have used the same typeface on the whole word but used different elements to showcase the meaning of the word.
The font I have used for the ‘Big’ part of the word is “Letter Gothic Std Bold” and for the ‘Sim’ part of the word I used the same font but changed the font style and used “Letter Gothic Std Slanted.
The ‘Big’ part of the word is scaled significally more than the smaller part of the word and is coherent with what the word stands for.
Anatomy of Type
For this assignment I read chapter 3 of Graphic Design School (Source: Graphic Design School: A Foundation Course for Graphic Designers Working in Print, Moving Image and Digital Media).
I took a lot of notes when reading the curriculum and made a few sketches and illustrations. This helps me vision and understand things better and get my creativity going.
In this assignment I was meant to explain the anatomy of type in a visual way and I could use three different colours and three different typefaces if I chose to do that.
I was also meant to make a description text of the characteristics; cap height, x height, serif and so on.
I chose to go with a purple colour as my main colour to make my font and typography to stand out.
And I used a secondary colour for the text above the typeface illustrations.
I used Adobe Illustrator to make this Illustration.
The fonts I used were;
‘Adobe Garamond Pro Bold/Regular’,
‘Bodoni 72 Book‘
‘Helvetica Light’
and I think they work very well together in showcasing the anatomy of type and how the structure is in the different typefaces.
The colours I have chosen compliment each other and help to get the viewers attention with being vibrant but pretty colours that are not too overpowering.
I chose a purple colour as my main colour and has used it as a feature on my page to create contrast, I’ve also used the same colour to highlight the specific parts of the letters that there is information about.
Purple colour: #51094C.
I have also used a mustardy yellow to compliment and make contrast with the purple shade that I have chosen as my main colour. This yellow colour is used on the explanatory text ‘Serif’ and ‘Sans serif’ and is also the same colour as the descriptive text underneath explaining the attributes to the typefaces.
Yellow colour: #BA8E02.
And for the background I have kept it plain white, and the headline is in black just like a lot of the letters showcasing the attributes and the font being showcased and explained in the illustration.
Gig Poster
For this assignment I designed a gig poster for a band called “The Keystrokes”.
I imagined them being a indie band going on a US tour called “The Heartbreak Tour” and each gig is called “The heartbreak session”. I wanted the poster to have vibrant colours, I didn’t want the poster to be gloomy or sad even if the band’s tour is called “the heartbreak tour”.
I also had to make a flyer, I made a foldable pamphlet using the same colour scheme and some of the same typefaces to establish similarities with the poster and the pamphlet with additional information.
Nadia Isabell Sommerfeldt 