Typeface Design Process Book

MOTOR CITY

INSPIRATION

OK Used Cars | Cannon Fal ls , MN

The letters “U”, “A” and “R” attracted me the most and served as my jumping of f point for init ia l sketches.

I ’ve a lways admired hand letter ing ever s ince I was young. I ’ve made i t a habit to take photographs and document o ld signage and typography that I f ind in the environment, a l though these were found images, I instant ly fe l l in love with the c lumsiness of i ts construction.

OK Used Cars | Cannon Fal ls , MN

SKETCHES

From the photos came rough sketches of the letter forms. As I moved the penci l across the paper, I t r ied staying within the parameters of the surrounding letters to i ts approximate size. I knew that I didn’t want to spend too much t ime messing with the detai l o f the forms since i ts purpose was to serve as guidel ines in the digita l realm.

The next step was to scan them in and careful ly begin creating the letter forms in I l lustrator with the pen tool .

POST MODERN GLYPHS

These glyphs were the fourth part of an assignment during the f i rst hal f of the quarter where we were assigned to develop six “key letters” : O, C, D, E, V and G and create a post-modern typeface.

This was my f i rst attempt at the digita l rendering of the letter forms, which was highly unsuccessful despite the amount of t ime I put into them.

After a l l o f the f rusterat ion and tedious work, I real ized upon closer inspection that the reason I was attracted to the letter ing on the side of this bui lding was because of i ts essense. You could see and feel the l i fe of i t and i ts creation. The physical bui lding facade gave the letters depth and texture, whi le the transit ion points were more spontaneous.

I knew I wanted a more horizontal , a lmost squared look to the “O”. This one is far too vert ical in i ts height.

Terminals are sharp and abruput, counter emphasizes weight towards the bottom of the form.

Same issues as “C”. Stem leaves counter space stuf fy.

Arms and crossbar terminals sharp, a lso leave counters wide open.

This test pr int was to see how the more resolved forms with rounded counters and strokes appeared visual ly at three di f ferent s izes on paper. I was pleased that the forms st i l l fe l t f luid at the smal ler s ize, so f rom here I made cut outs and wedged ‘stenci ls ’ for consistancy throughout the rest of the letter forms.

At this point I fe l t that I had enough glyphs to where I could start constructing other letters f rom parts and pieces f rom the ones I a l ready had.

The ref lection tool in I l lustrator saved hours of work and f rustrat ion, e l iminating the need to draw the second hal f of i ts equivalent s ide.

Creating circ les helped keep consistency in weight throughout the forms on a l l points, rather than using another shape such as a square that would prove uneven and imbalanced results .

Antique Ol ive served as a good reference for the top heavy shoulder form I was trying to obtain.

My professor demonstrated with exaggeration in their forms how my letters need to re late in some aspect to one another with a heavy top shoulder, or at least a hint of the weight transfer.

I t ’s t rue. This screen shot remained the only reference I had three days before the .ot f f i le was due, complete with numerals and punctuation due to an unfortunate technological mishap. And yes, I learned my lesson of the importance of backing up your f i les the hard way.

Also, documenting your process is cr i t ical for this reason upon many others.

SUBCONSCIOUS INSPIRATION

Growing up in the Detroit area, instances of these letter-forms are seen everywhere, being the Motor City capita l where Henry Ford evolved the industr ia l future of America.

Whi le looking for photographs to display and compliment the typeface for presentation, I came across this abondoned bui lding faced with letters holding many simi lar i t ies to my typeface. The symbol ism as wel l as the deminishing words inspired the name, Motor City.

DETROIT

DETROIT

Motor City pays homage to the classic cars’ curvilinear shapes and industrial construction.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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BIKE

BREAK

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

1234567890

BIKE

BREAK

THE QUICK BROWNHAMBURGER

PETER PANCAPTAIN HOOK

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