Process Detail

Introduction

Text Abstraction Process Details

Illustrator screenshot of some potential text abstraction.

I spent a lot of time looking at fonts for the project. In the end, I gravitated towards fonts that were heavily stylized, a fact that I wasn’t aware of until the first in-class session. My first attempt used two script fonts and one Gothic one. The Gothic one, BaroqueTextJF, was the only one that wasn’t too stylized so I left that one as a way to prevent me from making the same mistake again. I created extra artboards to experiment with letterforms so that way I had options to choose from when it came to picking the final three squares. It is intriguing how each font seems to have its own personality associated with it. This was not something that I had thought of much until this project when I not only combed through the variety of fonts but moved the letters around to create unique images. I had trouble conceptualizing text abstraction which left my first few attempts lacking. Seeing examples of my classmates in progress projects helped me conceptualize the concept, giving me a direction on how to improve.

When we recieved our text abstractions, the class cut them using an Exacto blade, a cork-backed ruler, and a cutting mat. Mine didn’t always cut on the first pass so I made a habit of going across the line twice. This has left some lines in my cutting mat that might cause problems in the future. We then hung up our abstractions on a wall where other sections of this class had hung them. It was interesting to see how other classes had interpreted this assignment. At least one section prior to ours had offset their abstractions, making it so that a grid system is impossible.