MY PORTFOLIO

WILLIAM SPEED

Graphic Design+44(0)787527353will.speed87@gmail.com

WILLIAM SPEED

Graphic Design+44(0)7875277353will.speed87@gmail.comwww.williamspeed.co.uk

MY PORTFOLIOWill Speed

MAKING BOOKSHow we experience type in three books.

These are three books I have made, exploring how we experience type: visually, tactically, and aesthetically. One book is printed, one is embossed and one cut out. A font with a name that starts with the respective letter represents each letter of the alphabet e.g. A is in Arial, B for Bauhaus and so on. I was able to utilise a range of different font types such as Old Face, Sans Serif and Black letter. The front covers have been letter-pressed as I felt that this was an experience of type in itself and the uniformity of the covers added a cohesive element to the work.

POLYSTYRENE TYPEPolystyrene, not just a cup.

I wanted to experiment with letters created with positive and negative space and used the medium of polystyrene to achieve this. Although the letters form the word ‘type’ I thought of the letters as individuals rather than as part of a whole. This can be seen through the variety of fonts used; Times for the ‘t’, Helvetica Bold for the ‘y’, Garamond for the ‘P’ and a Rockwell ‘E’.

GIANT LETTER ”R”Over scaling a letter.

This uppercase letter “R” is made from cardboard and measures over 5ft tall. My theory behind this is to take letters out of their comfort zone; this it is the easiest way to subtract the letter’s relation from words. I wanted people to experience singular letterforms. The font used here is Baskerville.

GIANT LETTER ”g”Over scaling a letter.

I made this ‘g’ at Camber Sands beach in Kent. I was exploring new ways of interacting with letters, letterforms and language and decided to use the traditional seaside pursuit of sandcastle building to help me with this. The ‘g’ is a lower case Times New Roman and measures over 24 feet in length.

GIANT LETTER ”E”Over scaling a letter.

Mown into a lawn and measuring 13 feet, this is another large-scale letter. As the ‘g’ allowed for a greater level of interactivity with letters, I wanted to continue to explore this idea.

I have used the upper-case ‘E’ from the Rockwell font because the straight lines of the letter are a stark contrast to the cursive nature of the ‘g’.

TOY SOLDIERSPutting the ‘m’ in army men.

As the image of people forming letters has become somewhat cliché, I was looking for an exciting twist to the concept. This idea was inspired by the work of Happycentro, particularly the 2009 piece in which toy soldiers were super-glued together and then spray-painted. The font is loosely based on Helvetica bold, as anything more decorative would loose visual impact through the irregular nature of the soldiers’ shapes.

MOULDED”Tt”Expanding foam ‘t’.

Using a card base I formed a Times ‘t’ using expanding foam. Although the original intention was the upper and lower cases of ‘t,’ I preferred the stem and finial of the lower case, as this creates a stronger visual.

GIANT LETTER ”A”Over scaling a letter.

Using a mulch-bag on grass I created a letter ‘A’ using the negative space left. The ‘A’ is a stencil font. I chose this font because the font mirrors the stencil I used to create the letter.

J/j SEEDSVisual Consumption.

A small-scale letter made from sesame and sunflower seeds using Rockwell. I wanted to show how our eyes consume words and images in a similar way that our mouths consume food. The lower and upper case forms of ‘J’ have been used as I felt it was important to explore different versions of the same letter.

ICE “T”Time for t.

The images above were created as part of a project about time. The letters all actively demonstrate the passing of time; ‘t’ and ‘i’ are both made from materials that melt; ‘m’is made of decomposing pumpkin the ‘e’ is made of burning materials.

Pin Hole Alphabet.A Photo-Typo Graphic Project.

A project that combines my interest in typography and photography: Letters were cut into frames of pin hole cameras.

LETTERPRESSLearning from lettering.

I want to encourage the viewer to interact with the letters in a way they may not have previously. As the letterforms have been abstracted, it has led me to ask, Can we have letterforms without language? Can they stand alone?

To help ask this question I have deliberately designed the typeset to be difficult to read, as this will encourage the reader to really think about the letters, the letterforms and the relationship to the overall meaning of the words.

PEOPLEIt’s like ‘meta’ or something …

I wanted to explore the idea of words illustrating themselves. I collaged the images and incorporated catalogues and telephone books as these have a close relationship to people as the clothes we wear and our telephone use helps to define us as individuals, much like how typefaces have their own personalities.

I used the Bauhaus font as it is bold enough for the images to be seen and the letters to be appreciated. The look of this piece came from a Pop Art influence.

SCREEN PRINTINGScreen printing more fun than print screening.

In the letterpress, more attention is paid to letters and how they look and how we interact with them compared to today’s digital use. The letterpress allows us to enjoy the beauty of the letters as letters instead of as part of a set, because individual letters are used.

In an experiment with screenprinting, I gathered together a collection of fonts. The fonts were a-z with each font being represented by a different font that matched the letter e.g. A for Ariel, B for Bauhaus and so on. I was able to utilise a range of different font types such as Old Face, Sans Serif and Black letter.

IN THE DARKROOMDeveloping my talent.

To produce this image, I developed an photograph layered with acetate onto test strips of photo paper. This was part of a series of experiments with photograms.

ILLUMINATING IMAGESExperimenting in image making.

Inspired by the tradition of shadow catchers, I created an image projector from a domestic lamp, challenging the way we relate objects and pictures. The images are reminiscent of Rob Ryan’s cutout style.

COLLABORATIVE CARDINGIt is a team effort.

This is a collabortive manifesto based on individual identity and the group’s dynamic. The points that formed our manifesto were photographed and made into a series of postcards.

THE PERSIANSKING’S COLLEGE LONDON GREEK PLAY 2010

PHOTO

: Imogen Ruth Hill PO

STER: Will Speed

BY AESCHYLUS

THE GREENWOOD THEATRE55 WESTON STREETLONDON BRIDGELONDON SE1 3RA020 7848 2399 / greekplay@kcl.ac.uk

FEBRUARY 10TH AT 2:30PM AND 7:00PMFEBRUARY 12TH AT 7:00PM

FEBRUARY 12TH 2:30PM AND 7:00PMPRICES £8/£5 CONC.

FEBRUARY 12TH 2:30PM AND 7:00PMPRICES £8/£5 CONC.

IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES

THE PERSIANS

PHO

TO: Im

ogen Ruth H

ill POSTER

: Will Speed

KING’S COLLEGE LONDON GREEK PLAY 2010

BY AESCHYLUS

THE GREENWOOD THEATRE55 WESTON STREET

LONDON BRIDGELONDON SE1 3RA

020 7848 2399 / greekplay@kcl.ac.uk

IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES THE PERSIANS

The Persians (Persae) is the only surviving Greek tragedy that treats a non-mythical subject. It was first performed in 472 B.C., barely seven years after the final defeat of the Persians, and is a

representation of human suffering that remains relevant to this day.

At 6:00pm on Thursday 11th February, before the eveningperformance, there will be a discussion of Aeschylus’ Persae,

with contributions from Professor Simon Goldhill of King’s College Cambridge and Dr Lindsay Allen of King’s College London. This

event is free and open to the public.The King’s College London Greek Play has been an annual

tradition since 1953. It is the only production in the country to be performed every year in the original Greek

FEBRUARY 10TH AT 2:30PM AND 7:00PM

FEBRUARY 11TH AT 7:00PM

FEBRUARY 12TH 2:30PM AND 7:00PM

PRICES £8/£5 CONC.

SHOWING

IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES

FREELANCE WORKIt’s all greek to me.

The King’s College, London’s Greek Play is a unique annual event, and through my contacts I was offered the opportunity to create the poster, fl yer and programme. I worked closely with a photographer on this project as the director wanted to create a style similar to that of the National Theatre.

FREELANCE WORKBlue project.

For this brief I worked with UCA and Barnado’s to create the promotional materials for a fashion show directed by Peter Jenson.

BlueDirected by

Peter Jensen

www.ucreative.ac.uk

Friday 29th January 2010Doors open at 6:30pmShow starts at 7:00pmTickets £5.00 on the door(Proceeds Donated to Barnardos)

(nearest tube Goodge Street)

Credits:BA (Hons) Fashion StudentsBA (Hons) Fashion Promotion & Imaging StudentsWill Speed: Graphic Design Student

Fashion Show

www.ucreative.ac.uk

BlueDirected by

Peter Jensen

(nearest tube Goodge Street)

Doors open at 6:30pmShow starts at 7:00pmTickets £5.00 on the door(Proceeds donated to Barnardos)

Credits:BA (Hons) Fashion StudentsBA (Hons) Fashion Promotion & Imaging StudentsWill Speed: Graphic Design Student

Friday 29th January 2010

Fashion Show

CURATIONType Directors Club Exhibition.

I worked as part of a team of ten to produce the Type Directors Club Exhibition (TDC). It was held at JWT and featured a number of typographic pieces. The exhibition was in conjunction with the Typographic Circle.

CURATIONNo added sugar

In this exhibition I acted as curator and treasurer. It was held in Greater London and was put together by a group of graphic designers and illustrators to exhibit their work.

BOOK COVERSJudging books by their covers.

Opposite we see a collection of book covers created for a combined photography and typography project that comments on our consumerist society. I began by creating the font (below) before creating the photographic images.

ORIGAMI POSTCranes delivering air mail.

Originally about ‘secrets,’ this became a project that explored non-digital communication in a society that relies heavily on digital messaging. Alongside encouraging new communication methods, this also taught people a new skill through the use of the instructional poster. This poster (seen in the above left image) then progressed into an instructional booklet (above right) that taught the reader how to make a series of other origami shapes.

PLAYING CARDSPractising your poker-face.

I have re-designed the traditional card suit by basing the four suits on the seasons rather than the traditional shapes. I have further played upon the nature theme by having a tree represent the King, Queen and Jack cards in the deck.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONPuss-in-Boots-apest.

During a semester abroad in Hungary, I entered a competition involving re-telling the story of Puss-In-Boots usuing a purely visual medium without any words.

A-Z of Pinhole Photography.

The cover (a screen-printed image) folds out into a double-sided poster, the first side displaying the title and an image (see bottom, opposite) and the reverse showing instructions on how to make a match-box pinhole camera (centre, opposite).

Alongside the pinhole images, this book also contains the materials needed to make your own match-box pinhole camera in a cut-out compartment.

Type is saying things to us all the time. Typefaces can express a mood and atmosphere. Type adds a colour to the writing. Everywhere you look you see typefaces. It is natural to see letterforms, so natural that we over look them all the time.

A typeface is a collection of characters that belong together. We experience typefaces without thinking about or even acknowledging all the facets that make up even the simplest of type.

We read words all the time, but we do not experience the actual letters.

Letters are something that have evolved from the scribe’s handwriting, to the more standardised letterpress to the many fonts of the digital age.

Letters are no longer what they were in the age of the letterpress. Each letter was hand carved in wood or metal, intricately made, typeset sensitively and spaced with lead between letters. It was the last time people fully engaged with the printed letterforms in a way that is not experienced in the current age of digital letterforms where letterforms lose some of their substance From a very early age we have been trained that a letter has a certain associations (a is for apple). We look at letters in a certain way with certain expectations, that is if we look at letters at all.

This book is a brief enjoyment of letters made from a series of different outcomes in places and with materials that you may not have suspected.

The letters are not the same font, they are not a set or an alphabet, and they do not make a word. They are presented here simply to be enjoyed.

THE BEAUTY OF LETTERFORMSExploring letterforms.

H CAKEVisual Consumption.

This is one of the spreads from my book ‘The Beauty of Letterforms.’ The concertina format of the book allows the viewer to experience the letterform from multiple angles. We can enjoy the ‘h’ from Helvetica Bold made from cake. Delicious!