Typography Project

Before:

I was really inspired by this project because I've seen so many creative visuals simply created by type, placement and color.  I kind of went a little overboard on this project, and chose a rather intricate and difficult object, but I love challenges and love working with images, so this was still really fun.  This is the bee I decided to use to create my typographic image.


After:

The assignment was to create a visual using only typography to represent an image with different placements of words and shapes, and using color as well.  The objective of this assignment was to work with typographical conveyance. I chose to create a bee, as I mentioned already, because I wanted to be able to use various elements of the insect and use a shamble of words to create the image.  I decided to use text that described the bee's body parts, actions that the bee does, and the colors to strongly convey the message (head, antenna, eyeball, flying, thorax, abdomen, leg, black and yellow).

The type looks randomly placed, and in some instances it is, but I warped and aligned the text to create the flow of the body parts of the bee.  I used smaller, repetitive type on the connecting part of the wing to the body to create the illusion that the wings are getting bigger.  I used bold, italics, font size and text warping to create the smaller and larger texts.  The warping allowed me to create text that contoured to the lines perfectly. Each style of warping played its own part in creating each part of the bee.  Without the movement and style of text, this project couldn't have been created.  I also rotated the text a lot, flipping the words to create a unique texture and placement.

The colors of bees are universally known, so it was important to use black and yellow in the abdomen of the body to help the viewer realize they were looking at a bee.  Although I used standard bee colors in the abdomen (to help recognize the insect) I wanted to use a variety of browns to show the different body parts like the head, thorax, and the legs.  By using colors that one would see in a bee in nature, the overall feel of the design really emphasizes the purpose and the theme of the project.

I used a lot of warp text effects to alter the shapes of the words, because I wanted to create the texture of the bee. The rotation of each word was planned accordingly to the position of the other words and the shape I was trying to create. I used a variety of sizes of type, but used the same style of font to keep it unified and connected throughout. I chose a sans-serif font because I knew I'd be using a lot of words, and the cleaner the text was, the more words I could use.  I probably could have used less text to make it simpler for the viewer.  But I got carried away on some parts creating depth with layering text to create texture.

There isn't a specific intended audience for this design, because I feel it is pretty universal with the choice of color and shape.  This could be used anywhere from design books, to children's books, to magazines and insect books.

The use of proximity and repetition in this project was crucial for the success of this image.  Every word had to be close to each other to create the feeling of movement and emphasis.  Without the repetition of words and the specific placement of each, the message would have been lost amongst empty white space and confusing lines.

Final HARTS Project

For the HARTS project, we were to create visuals for our individual clients - my group (Janet and Rachel D) worked with the First Presbyterian church to help create visual instructions for the volunteers of HARTS.  Through the other class (I believe 385?), we worked off of there instructions of what the client needed.  Many of the other groups had to create maps and thoroughly detailed signs, but somehow our client only needed three signs: an emergency contact sign, a breaker box location sign, and an evening schedule sign that explains the "chores" of the evening and what to do to prepare for the morning as well.

After all three of us completing different versions of each sign, we decided to use Janet's visuals, because we thought the clarity of each concept was clear, and that she had created successful visuals for our clients needs.  Throughout the process, we had some trouble with communication from the other team, but eventually, we were made clear of the things they needed.

Each visual includes the HARTS logo in the bottom-right corner of each sign.  This logo clearly identifies the targeted audience for the signs.  Our client (Mary Scott) is catering to the needs of her volunteers, and what she thinks is vital for her volunteers to know if she is not there.  The concept of these pieces do not talk down to the audience at all.  There is a need for visual aid at the church, in order for the volunteers to be successful, and this is evident through the use of colors, placement, organization and images. 

The purpose of these signs is to inform.  With the large, colorful headings at the top-center of each sign, it is clearly marked what each sign is trying to tell.  The left-aligned placement of each image, along with the right-aligned placement of the text creates unity and clarity in each sign. 

The only issue that I still have with these signs are the choices of colors.  The red is an obvious choice to represent emergencies, so this color had to be used to cater to the specific audience, but I still don't like the use of yellows for some reason.  I'm not sure what color I would use instead, but for some reason that choice of yellow seems a tad juvenile to me.  Large fonts were also used to grab the attention of each volunteer (audience).  Overall, our client was happy with the signs, and we successfully completed the purpose of this assignment.