#type exercises

space150 v41 identity banner text by Gertrude Stein set in Lÿno by Radim Pesko

Your future.

for the low low price

I’ve created business cards before but never within a perfect square. I used the guidelines in Illustrator to determine symmetry between the black and white backgrounds as well as the border.  I then used guidelines to line up the logo with the phrase “Bibiana Designs”. I also really focused on using the square to my advantage. I created an invisible square within the border for all of the text to be centered. I also made sure that there was the exact same spacing between the text and the border from top to bottom and side to side. Although, it technically becomes a rectangle because the space from the sides is different from the spacing between the bottom and top of the text to the border.

For this exercise, I didn’t want to complicate the design, which I feel would be easy when creating something like a business card for yourself. How can one effectively communicate oneself through one little design? In response to this thought, I decided to go with something simplistic yet graphically effective. I set up the information with regard to hierarchy of scale, making my name the biggest and occupation a few font sizes smaller. I put “Graphic Design” in italics to add some variety to the text (and because it just felt right). I added the purple circle as a graphic element to play off of the text. I think the circle sits nicely in the space along with the text, and adds subtle personality to the entire composition.

For this exercise, it was difficult to choose an adjective that I wanted to illustrate. I found myself overthinking the project – I could only think about typographic expressions that would have been way too complicated. I was feeling pressure. I decided to take it as a sign and choose that very word. I decided to make the font color red for the cliché reason that red signifies negative energy. I added the black area to provide weight and contrast for the word to interact with. I’m pretty happy with the simplistic nature of it. It reminds me of that one Talking Heads album.

Similar to the first exercise, I wanted to create a composition that possessed visual interest while maintaining legible letter forms. With this in mind, I chose the lowercase form of the letter “k” since it is composed of angles, and the uppercase form of the letter “D” since it is made up of a closed form. I thought the combination of these forms could make for an interesting relationship. I wanted the letters to be appreciated for their shape, so like the first exercise, I had the forms fill the composition. The shapes created by the letters draw attention to positive and negative space, while the letters are still easily identifiable.

For this exercise, I wanted to choose a letter that embodied qualities that hold potential for graphic experimentation, specifically lines coming together to form a closed area. With this in mind, I chose the capital form of the letter R. I wanted to make sure that the finished product made the letter less of a letter and more of a design, so I had the “R” fill the entire composition. Additionally, I filled in the area between the two lines that make up the bottom half of the letter, creating a visually interesting graphic element while the letter is still recognizable.