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ESQUIVALIENCE TYPEFACE
A display typeface of deformity posturing a pleasant name. The typeface that highlights both its process and obscenity.
OVERVIEW
I set out to create a display typeface unlike anything seen before, guided to this outcome through paying attention to process. Using a design/innovation thinking process produced a truly unique look.
TASKS
- Typography Design
TOOL
I wanted to make unique marks, a basis for the design. I chose to use a pipe cleaner as it had a distinct texture, fuzzy yet metallic in the middle. I realized its ability to morph into various shapes. I thought it would be interesting to see where this would take me. After dipping the pipe cleaner into acrylic ink, I was ready to go.
MARKS
Bending, rubbing, jotting, scraping, stamping…and so much more, I tried it all. Some marks even had qualities resembling the object that made them.
DIGITIZE
After studying the marks, I chose several that I felt would make the most interesting forms. The natural marks produced would then be taken into Illustrator to become a path through the use of Adobe Capture. By creating these paths, I could then start to construct the typeface.
CHOICES ALONG THE WAY
There are countless choices and decisions an artist makes along the way. Subtleties observed in the process that make for instant reaction, each unique to the project and artist. Though it is going through that process that brings us to new and exciting outcomes. After going digital, I quickly realized the absurdity of the shapes produced, there was an unpredictable nature to how the irregular shape reacted to the straightforward paths of letter forms. My first goal was to evolve from this, to make a discovery leading to a minimalistic outcome; to simplify the shapes to be a more natural looking typeface. However, I realized this is contrary to the very nature of the forms. They are filled with chaos and expression, change and explosion. Rather than moving away from this, it occurred to me to go full force towards it. Digging into the qualities rather than hiding. Any imperfections in fact were then places to amplify, to increase expression.