The Letter "R"

Recently in my typography class, we had a (seemingly) easy task of drawing out the letter “R” in the 5 major typefaces: Baskerville, Bodoni, Century, Garamond, and Helvetica.  Of course things were much easier than they seemed, as the letter turns out to be the most challenging letter for type designers to create, and therefore the most rewarding.

This exercise was definitely a challenge: patience and precision were needed to execute the letterforms with great craftsmanship and a steady (as possible) hand.  I decided to present my collection of “R”s wrapped in a piece of tracing paper which I had sketched on, used for a recent project that included the word “Happiness” as well as to create the spacial arrangements of the “R” project.  I then added words that either included or started with the letter “R” to the tracing paper around the letterform that showed through, creating an interesting packaging (and protective covering) to the set.  I definitely enjoyed the challenge!