Alphabet Soup - Illustrator Workshop - Typeface Research

As my word is stretch, i wanted to look at some other existing typefaces that might come under this bracket. Even though i have a basic idea in my head of what i want the final typeface to look like and white letterform i will be basing it off, i wanted to get some more influence of a whole typeface and how it should work together, to make sure i don't make any mistakes...

Source // FLICKR

This font looks stretched, not in the same way i will be going for but i really like the idea. It has long exaggerated features of the type 

Type with a bit of a 3d depth to it, sort of like the style i want to go for. The same concept anyway.

I had a look through some fonts across the web to see if anything like the idea i have has been done before. I came across some that have a similar concept...

As you can see some of these fonts have a similar idea to the letterform i have already created of the stretched 'T'. I think the angle of the font named 'CubeFont' is the best attempt at this style. The angle is similar to what i will be doing. I also like the texture and half tones used in this particular font. very successful . 

Some 3D 'Inspiration, Technique, Great Design' Type I found in one of my back catalogues of Computer Arts Magazine.

3D Bulb Text found on WLT

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Research - Si Scott

Love Si Scott's work. When i seen my work in progress it sort of reminded me of some of his work, even though his is also very different. I like the way he uses intricate lines, swirls and patterns to create these beautiful typefaces and images. He also mostly works black on white, which works the best for this style.

Source // Si Scott Studio

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Group Crit Feedback

The main thing i wanted to find out from my group crit was if i was taking the right route. Which style of font should i go for? which works best? which best describes josh as a person as well as just his hair?

Everyone in my group liked the more realistic style the best. Some things that people liked about the font was...

- The gaps left that had been created by the hair

- The seductiveness of the overall letterforms

- The realistic elements to the type

- The detail and intricate elements

- The way it works as a series (although unfinished)

I asked if my typeface was too literal, only showing what everyone would see about josh rather than his personality. I was then asked if i wanted to show Josh as a person by this, or if i wanted to include more detail about his personality? which would work best?

Overall i like the idea i have, i think it is a strong, unique idea that will work. It shows josh as a person and has a comical aspect but also with deeper meaning.

I have tried to make the font not only a literal translation of his hair, but also been influenced by other elements of his personality.

- He likes the sea and Caribbean islands, therefore i have moulded the hair to also react like waves, and think this is a natural link with the two anyway.

- He is also a chilled, laid-back character, which again is reflected in the waves and intricate wavy lines of the hair.

- He likes reggae music, which again links into both of these

- He also mentioned his family a lot, so i have taken influence from this, trying to include literal translations, roots grow and expand, much like roots of somebody's hair.

I am glad i had the chance of the group crit. It has given me  a strong idea of where i would like to take my font, and what i want my finished typeface to look like, and how this represents Josh. 

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Research

Looking at more hair illustrations.,looking for the different styles of drawing hair in a more 'cartoon' like style in preparation for creating a new typeface. 

Source // SPRAY GRAPHIC

Think about adding different weighted lines to emphasise different areas of the drawing, and keep the lines very disorganised, and not creating a pattern,  seems to work the best in this type of style. 

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Research

Mt bingo. Illustrations. Came across these which reminded me of my font. Really nice illustratiosns made up of intricate lines, shapes and curves 

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Font Research

For my typeface, i want it to be inspired by 'HAIR'. The reason being, Josh has lots of it. 

Here i have been looking at some 'HAIRY' existing fonts. 

Source // Behance

A font i found on the Behance Network, created from a cut up wig. I am going to be hand drawing mine, but can use actually hair/wigs for inspiration, maybe scan them in and draw from them. Really clever and nice idea, executed in this case, really well.

Another 'Hair' inspired font i found again on Behance. This font was inspired by 'Futura'. Another well executed attempt at a similar idea to the last. 

Design made from cut out paper by the same artist as the last image, Craig Ward. This isn't associated with hair but has taken inspiration from leaves and vines and is a really nice idea. 

Source // Type Nuts

More hair inspired Typeface. This time, using bows  on the end of each bunch of hair to form the letterforms. Might be something to think about before panning my own type. 

Hair Font from Nacho Gil on Vimeo.

Moving image, Hair Alphabet created by artist Nacho Gil. Really like the concept of this and how it has been executed. Obviously, my font won't be moving image, but  i will take influence from this and the movement of hair, before creating my own.

Source // Dilo Klak

Like this font alot. It is inspired by hair but has a much more illustrative feel about it than the others i have researched. Using these fine hand drawn wavy lines, the artist has built up these really nice letterforms that almost look like balls of fur. 

Alphabet Soup - Font Research

Source // I Love Typography

I found this font on 'I Love Typography'. I think it relates to my word stretch, as the calligraphy style letters stretch out creating a pattern around the phrase. This is a really well thought out and presented design. 

Source // FFFFOUND

I really like the design of this. The font is made up of these shapes with some straight edges and some curved. The font sits in the middle of this and looks stretched vertically. Really n ice design and layout.

Source // FFFFOUND

Similar concept of stretching the font to the last design. 

Alphabet Soup - Font Research

Source // Only Font

When researching the word 'Stretch' i found more words associated with it. 'Expand' was one of these. When i thought of this word and how we had to fit our letters into a box shape. I thought about expanding the letter 'T' so it was fat a square like. Here is a font called 'Squares' by Peter Borup Lund. Here he has executed a similar idea to what i had in mind.

Alphabet Soup - Font Source Research

Source // Design Fetish

Source // Type Inspire

Another idea i had was based from chewing gum. One of the first things that came into my head when i thought of the word stretch was 'GUM'. The top two pictures are of a giant chewing gum sculpture by fine artist 'Simon Decker'. I like the stringy, stretched effect created and would like to apply this into a letterform. The bottom picture is a more cartoon style cliche chewing gum font which i will also use as influence.

Alphabet Soup - Font Research

Source // Jedi Charles

My next idea was to alter the perspective of the font, which would be stretching it to look like it was coming towards you. I had trouble finding a font that looked like this, but realised that the most recognisable piece of text that does this was from the beginning of the legendary films that is 'Star Wars'.

Alphabet Soup - Font Research

Source // FFonts

The top font is called 'Cube'. This is a really contemporary font that takes on a 3d form.  This bottom font is called 'Archer'. It's a 3D embossed font, making the letterforms looked raised. My plan is to create something similar but stretching the shadow backwards more, to emphasise how the font has been stretched.

Alphabet Soup - Starting Point

I chose to go with the letter 'Tt' for my project for a number of different reasons. The first reason being that it is one of the more interesting letters to look at, when you think about both upper and lower case. When you compare some letters like 'Ll' and 'Ii'. Upper case 'T' is made from straight lines which would be nice to work with under the describing word 'Stretch'. Also the lower case 't' has nice curves and straight lines in so this will also be nice to work with to see what results i can achieve. The other reason was that the letter 'T' also has a personal meaning to me and i would like to think that this would encourage me to create better things with this letter.

I started to look at some fonts, just in photoshop, to help me chose what kind of font i would like to use as my starting point before creating my own letterforms from this. Here are some different examples that i looked at.

I fairly quickly came to the decision that i wanted to keep my starting point pretty simple much like the basic  'Myriad Pro' font at the top of the post. This is the most common font that you would likely see and recognise and this way it gave me more scope with my letters to work under the word stretch.

I did some basic skewing and stretching of some fonts in photoshop, just to give me a basic idea of distorting the original font by expanding and stretching it and also gave me some further ideas of how i could stretch my letters. I started to think of things that stretch and how to make a letter looked stretched.

• Making the font stretch 3D, Downwards or behind to look like it is coming out of the page. 
• Chewing gum, Stringy Font, Messy and stretched. 
• Messing with the perspective of the font to make it look like parts have been stretched towards or away form you 
• Elastic bands, long and stretchy 
• Stretched across the square, so it does not fit properly. 

Alphabet Soup - Initial Response

I picked the word 'STRETCH' out of the randomiser and thought i would start by looking up the word in the dictionary. 

stretch

   [strech]  Show IPA

verb (used with object)

1.

to draw out or extend (oneself, a body, limbs, wings, etc.)to the full length or extent (often followed by out ): tostretch oneself out on the ground.

2.

to hold out, reach forth, or extend (one's arm, head, etc.).

3.

to extend, spread, or place (something) so as to reach fromone point or place to another: to stretch a rope across aroad.

4.

to draw tight or taut: to stretch the strings of a violin.

5.

to lengthen, widen, distend, or enlarge by tension: tostretch a rubber band.

6.

to draw out, extend, or enlarge unduly: The jacket wasstretched at the elbows.

7.

to extend, force, or make serve beyond the normal orproper limits; strain: to stretch the imagination; to stretchthe facts; to stretch food to feed extra guests; to stretchmoney to keep within a budget.

8.

to extend or strain (oneself) to the utmost, as by intenseexertion; tax.

9.

to increase the quantity of (a beverage, food, paint, etc.) bydilution or admixing: They caught the bartender stretchingthe gin with water.

10.

Radio and Television . to prolong or slow down (action orpace) in order not to end too early: to stretch a show; tostretch the action two minutes.

Source // Dictionary\

I then drew a few more words that may help me when thinking about designing my letters:-

• Expand
• Draw Out
• Spread
• Elastic
• Lengthen 
• Widen
• Extend
• Tension
• Strain
• Tight