Building.

One of my final projects for my typography class was to design an entire alphabet.  My own typeface.  All 26 majuscule letterforms.  WOAH.  This was a challenge that excited me but also struck a note of fear in me.  I would be BUILDING my own alphabet.

On the day we received this assignment, our teacher Maurizio Masi gave us a “crash course” on letterform designing basics.  Maurizio is an excellent instructor and great at clearly explaining his lessons; he really broke down the fundamentals of this project and the class began sketching out ideas to start shaping some sort of interest or direction.  One thing that inspired me was the letterpress blocks which I have grown quite interested in.  Everything about them intrigues me; naturally they found their way into my sketches.

Back in my lil design studio at home I spent a couple of days playing around with ideas.  I really let the creative juices flow and sketched with no particular purpose, no specific idea in mind.  I just let it flow.  I also looked up typefaces endlessly for inspiration after my sketching, and tried to get a strong understanding of what I did like and didn’t like.  Finally I decided for certain that my letterpress blocks would be a part of my project, but that I would do two iterations: a full set of majuscule letterforms, and then another set of the same majuscule letterforms incorporated into the letterpress blocks that I sketched out.  Once they were inked out on my tracing paper, I could turn the sheet around and the letterforms would look like authentic letterpress blocks.

I played around more and more with letterforms and somehow, they all started pouring out of me.  I really enjoyed this project and am pleased with my results… hope you like them too!  This project took me about a week; Although this is no where near the amount of time, work or dedication that is put into a full typeface development, this assignment helped me appreciate the amount of all of those elements that go into building such a strong and important element of communication.  Much respect to all typeface designers out there!  They don’t always get the respect and appreciation that they deserve yet they are some of the most influential people in the world.  Without them, what (or where) would printed (or digital) communication be?