OUGD403 Studio Brief 1 - Development

OUGD403 Studio Brief 1 - Development

After looking into my research and thinking about which direction I should go in, I found that my research was certainly a big help in informing which ideas I should with. I want to experiment first however as my chosen font of Vignelli's six is Futura, therefore I want to create a typeface that plays off Futura and uses the same elements. As well was creating a mind map to genrate ideas and asking peers for their ideas of dynamic, I set off looking into the word 'Dynamics' by experimenting with different fonts, predominantly Futura, shown below. I made subtle changes to some while with others I completely changed the look so that the Futura font was not recognisable. I played about with different tones of the letters, while my research informed my ideas to create certain ones that were a bit different, such as the bottom right hand B which has a bit more movement, to do with the idea of dynamic as a form of energy. 

I found that the uppercase B was the letter that I found easiest to work with. I looked at the ideas from my experimentation page above and took four of these ideas and developed them. After talking to peers and my lecturers, I found that versatility was something that I wanted to take further as they interpreted 'dynamic' as versatile. Therefore I thought about making a typeface that could be flexible and versatile so that it can be used for almost anything. After this research with my peers I found that developing 'dynamic' into a typeface is actually quite hard. I found it difficult to create this while experimenting and found it quite restrictive, so I continued to work with my ideas and see where it takes me. For the top left hand 'b' (Image 1) I used Futura as a basis and cut off the cap height and the base line to create a new serif. For the bottom left hand side 'b' I used this same idea but cutting a rounded edge into the serifs to create a distinctive serif, while using this idea for the uppercase 'B' on the bottom right hand side. Although I don't think these are particularly versatile, I think they have interesting characteristics therefore went to creating this in upper and lowercase 'a' and 'b', in image 2. 
For the upper left hand side 'B,' I decided to take forward the idea from my experimentations of a typeface with more movement. This is because when I think of 'dynamic' I think of movement and energy, initiating this design of a more curvy, rounded letter. I also took this deign and explored it with upper and lower case 'a' and 'b' on Image 2. I think as a whole on Image 2, both are not aesthetically pleasing and do not feel like a family of letters. 

Image 1

Image 2

I continued to play around with different ideas such as these in image 3. The first page was looking into movement and continuing to experiment to develop ideas and see which works and which do not. Page two of image 3 were ideas based around modifying Futura to make them more versatile. However I found that neither are aesthetically pleasing and do not capture what I was trying to achieve. I also experimented with using colour and backing the letters on black paper. I find these are interesting ideas and some I found work quite well, however I do not think they would be suitable for a body text, therefore I decided to continue my work in black backed on white. 

Image 3

Image 4 & 5

During the interim crit, I got very useful feedback on my ideas and work. My group told me that they preferred the direction of movement within dynamic, which came quite surprising to me as my peers who I had spoken to before all thought of versatility when thinking of dynamic. However this feedback was pleasing to me as personally when I think of the word 'dynamic' I think of movement and flexibility, so it was interesting that my group preferred these ideas as well. They gave back some really interesting ideas and all seemed to agree that they preferred the italic style and thought I should play with movement more and perhaps it being bolder too. In addition as one dynamics definitions is constant change, they came up with an idea of a constant change in the letters, such as going from an old fashioned font to a modern one who express this idea. At the end of the interim crit, I also asked my group to make a tally on the letters to see which were their favourites, and as a result my group preferred these letters below, which were more in the direction of movement. Therefore, I believe I will focus on this for my 10 ideas, as well as exploring others with the help from my feedback.