#abstract typography

“Type is like silly putty: endless possibilities and lovely to play with.” ~ Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich

The second project for my “Design Technology and Concepts” required me to dip my toes back into Illustrator to complete a collaborative typographic abstraction. The assignment tasked us with manipulating letterforms where we were set to work under four rules: Use one color (Black), ONE typeface, and ONE weight and size.

We were free to use whatever letters we desired to compose our project, with the ideas ranging from our names to a piece of literature, or simply a random assortment of letters we fancied. As long as we abided by the rules, had three abstractions, and 5x5 sized frames, the criteria would be satisfied.

To keep it simple, I initially chose to start off with my name, using the font, Party LET Plain, first as it appeared to hold more stylistic potential. As I began the initial steps of the design, I found myself running into one small problem—I didn’t like it.

While unique on its own, the typeface had a lot going on, and the distinct curls and extended details of letters combined gave a quirky yet messy result I didn’t find satisfying to look at. In “Becoming a Graphic and Digital Designer: A Guide to Careers in Design,” it is quoted that typefaces don’t necessarily have to reflect a client’s personality as “some of the more really dreadful designs stem from the notion [that it does].”

I feel like my original impulse was to find a typeface that matched my personality and work from there, ultimately leading to my “dreadful design”. When I moved on to the second artboard, I found myself enjoying the process of my final result more when I went with a simpler font. I geared away from playing with the letters of my name and moved on to the title of one of my recently favored songs, “Face Myself” by Ethan Bence.

I started with the “F” first, placing a heavier emphasis on the letter as I enlarged it more than the other letters. From there, I worked in separate font boxes, toying with the placement—I wanted to see how I could be clever and connect the two words “Face” and “Myself”. I found myself incredibly receptive to the idea of making the “E” of “Face” resemble an “M” when angled a certain way (see image 1 below). 

However, I felt like the result left more to be desired and I decided to shift the entire perspective of the typography so that when viewed, people wouldn’t have to angle their heads or strain their eyes too much (see image 2 below). I was so focused on making the design unique and legible that I forgot the whole point of an abstract piece.

My professor had to reiterate the point of abstraction, detailing how legibility isn’t the goal of this specific assignment and challenged me to revise my second artboard. It was a little troublesome attempting to shake the desire to make the words past the point of recognition as I already liked the finished product and I had already developed a mentality of making each art piece as legible as possible when incorporating typeface. 

My professor encouraged me to try extending the words, pushing some of the letters closer together to further obscure them. He also introduced me to a new tool, “Trim View,” which masks all content outside the canvas board. It was helpful advice as the tool allowed for a more organized approach and with me I find life to be much easier when things are organized.

After shifting around the typeface, and adding additional letters such as “I” and “J” to resemble extended curls and lines, my final result matched the abstract criteria for the project.

I don’t believe I grasped the full concept of abstractness in this image as some letters are still relatively visible, but the image itself is busy and after slowly beginning to trust the process, I found myself liking this image just as much as the prior result. I liked it enough to replace my first attempt with the letters of my name.

For my next artboard, I found myself fairly accustomed to the initial font of Arial Black, and after getting up close and personal with it I grew to like the font more than the alternatives Illustrator offered. As Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich, a Brazilian Designer, stated “Letter forms are like people: it takes time to get to know them…” It just took a little time for Arial Black to be used again for the second art piece, and the third finally.

Additionally, I was still receptive to completing the project based on a song I liked. I decided to go with a repeated lyric, “It’s you” in Odetari’s song, “I Love You Hoe.” The title is a bit explicit but the song has a bumpy beat and the sound of a song usually attracts me more than the lyrics do. I liked the way Odetari’s refrain correlates with the beat, it's particularly catchy how “You” echoes back into the full lyric of “It’s you” by the end. I wanted to incorporate the echo-like lyrics from the song, leading to this end result:

With this composition, I still lacked the abstract adjective of the project in my pursuit of making the text resemble an echo. My professor informed me the design looked more like a book cover than a genuine abstract piece and encouraged me to revise it again, pushing for something more complex than legible. 

I took a new approach to the project as I forced myself to get into the mindset that people shouldn’t be able to read the letters. Taking the letters for “It’s you,” I played with the shape of them individually, shifting them around into certain formations until I got this as the result:

During presentations, one peer commented that the piece looked like dinosaurs praying to a monument. I didn’t see it at first until she said the white gaps looked like teeth and the tiny “o”’s looked like eyes. It was an amusing connection and our professor took the time to explain how people tend to naturally link new images with preexisting ones or they’ll use negative space to build their perspective that way.

I thought with the “I”’s being arranged in a certain way around the larger “O”, the allusion to buildings under the sun would be depicted. The thinner slants are also just the letter “I” rotated and stretched with the “shadow” in the middle being an upside-down “Y”. My professor liked the design and my way of thinking when I approached the design. He decided to challenge me for my third artboard, giving me three limitations: use three letters max, no repetition, and all of the letters must be the same size.

I came up with multiple alternatives, starting with the rather lame first attempt (see the image using the “S,” “M,” and “L”). I initially thought the three letters would be good to make a cat shape but I quickly realized that wouldn’t be the case, leaving me to pursue other letters and continuing with no real end goal in mind. I saw a lot of unique images coming together slowly over time. 

When I asked my roommate for her opinion, I discovered that a lot of the images I saw didn’t transfer over to her perspective. For example, looking at the image that used “S”, “I”, and “X”, I originally saw a Narwal sitting on a platform, the “X”, with the “I” as the nose and the left end of the flipped “S” being its tail, just minus the fin.

I think if I were to resubmit the project, I would’ve included the “PSC” abstraction (See the second to last image) as it looks a little more abstract. After presenting the artboards to my class, I realized the letters of the “SXI” image, the one I submitted as part of the final, were still legible. 

My professor complimented my designs but reminded me that in a professional setting, the designs would probably be analyzed more critically as my three chosen artboards did not follow the instructions thoroughly. He brought it to my attention that the guidelines said one font size, which is missing in both the first and second typography, and my final “3-letter only” submission had words still legible. 

While I wasn’t penalized with reduced points for this project, I think it’s important to take note of the experience. If I am to be a professional designer, I must be willing to thoroughly examine and follow the given requirements of any project. Michael Bierut, a Senior Critic in Graphic Design, quotes that Designers shouldn’t always attempt to “sell clients [on a design], listening is just as beneficial.” 

While some designers may be able to sway a client on a certain design, consistently neglecting a client’s wishes in favoring of doing what you think is best will likely result in a loss of potential clients, which is a route to be avoided as developing a business requires clients first to build it, and to get clients you must get them through work and your environment. 

Earning people's trust is the most important factor in design, this statement is reinforced by Alexander Isley, another Graphic Designer whose studio’s specific goal is to “convince potential clients that a small firm with resourcefulness and vision can provide both strategic and design services.” This is especially true for clients as clients who tend to specifically ask for a certain designer are usually more receptive towards continuing to work with said designer as they’ve had prior positive encounters. This helps spread good word of mouth and a higher chance of a designer getting good business.

However a designer can only accomplish this if they are mindful of their responsibilities and as Antonio Alcalá states, “You are only foolhardy if you are ignorant of your responsibilities.” 

In illustrator I used the clipping mask tool to create abstract typography. Using the word “Effect”, based off my research of the butterfly effect. In a bold sans serif font I rotated and resized letters, before placing them below the grid layer and creating a clipping mask. The letters EFT are fairly similar in appearance with the curved C being the main outlier. This resulted in most of the grids resembling each other.

This task gave me an opportunity to experiment with legibility. Some letters can still be read but the overall word is difficult to discern.

On a new artboard I copied these squares and arranged them together, varying width and giving thought to the composition. I decided to keep the shapes in the centre of the piece, while leaving white space around the edge. Using a set of splatter and drip shapes, I placed drips around the piece and created texture with a larger square of specks that I made white.