OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Development

OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Development

While in the illustrator workshop, I learnt how to digitalise my letterforms using different tools. I decided to work with the pen tool as it was the best tool to use to get the curvy nature of the letters. Having previously used the pen tool, I found it complicated and hard to use, yet after the illustrator workshop and using it multiple times, I found it mush easier to use. Below, the images show how I got to my design on paper, to a digitalised letter. I began by scanning the letterforms in, then using the pen tool to get the basic shape of the letter, then using the anchor points and handles to make adjustments afterwards, which then allowed me to get the best shape. Originally I was struggling as I am not a custom to illustrator and had no idea how I would go about digitalising my letters and felt I was limited with time as I thought the curvy nature of the letters would make it a lot harder and time consuming to produce. This however, was not the case at all, after the workshop and a lot of questions I learnt how o produce the letters and I've become a lot more confident using the pen tool. I think the curvy nature of my letters has actually made it a lot more interesting for me as i enjoyed digitalising them with the pen tool, and the more I used it the faster I got with each letter and the more I learnt about the pen tool. This helped me achieved the exact look of the letterforms and I am pleased with how they have turned out. 

Grid Development 

When designing my grid, I started off with my letter forms on paper and used the layout pad to trace them, to then figure out a grid from those. Some letters I needed to adjust, but I did find recurring lines between the letters, which then allowed me to create an initial grid for my upper and lower case grid. To make the grid more accurate, I then placed multiple letters on top of each other with different characteristics such as ascenders and defenders, to accurately get the right grid lines. I also needed to get the correct point of connection for the letters so that my aim of making them all connect could work. Afterwards drawing out an initial grid, I then scanned this in and digitalised it, with this grid I then used my digitalised letters to adjust it slightly more, which allowed me to get the most accurate digitalised grid for all of my letters.