project one prototype postcards sketches drafts final version

PROJECT ONE

PROTOTYPE POSTCARD

sketches

I’ve always been a visual person, so when we were given instruction on this project, my brain wanted to make sense of, or give purpose to, the 9 letters. First, I googled 9-letter words that had no repeating letters. I jotted down a few of my favorites in my sketch book. Then, examining my list, I wrote descriptive words next to each of the 9-letter words I’d previously written down. I chose the final word based on what sounded the most interesting for me to design around. I settled on the word ‘unearthly’, as I thought it would be fun to create some text that looked alien-esque. My next step was to sift through common fonts, looking for ones I could easily skew to create my alien font. I settled on ‘Lucida Calligraphy’ and began sketching out my letters in small gridded boxes.

drafts

To create my font, I took the keywords I’d written down in my brainstorming process: ‘bubbly’, ‘skinny’, ‘tall’, ‘movement’, and ‘thin’. I then started with one element at a time. I added bulbous ends to look bubbly, straightened the overall slant of the font to make it taller, etc. When I’d fi nished, I looked at all the letters together and refi ned the details, making sure the letters lined up with one another and contained the same elements.

final version

I’ve traveled all over America, and a little tradition I keep is getting a postcard from everywhere I visit. When I have options, I usually choose colorful, graphic-heavy postcards over the simple ones, so in completing this project, I knew I wanted to use full color, and I wanted to present the letters in a way that could be read, but as a whole would look more like art. I think my fi nal design accomplishes that.