TYPE IV: MY CONCLUSION

The past several weeks of typographic exploration have served as a fun learning experience that challenged me to reach outside my comfort zone of using on-screen type. I started with the concept of using highly ornamented type and a projector to embellish or contradict the meaning/context of a 3D surface, such as an outdoor environment. After realizing that word choice/surface choice was much more important than I had assumed it would be, I found that most of my experiments were arbitrary and lacked an interesting or compelling concept. Feeling lost and unsure of what I could do to make this experimentation have a more dynamic purpose, I decided to create a grid out of thumbtacks, in hope of coming up with a better structure for my exploration. By projecting previous photographs of the word "dead" distorted on a corner wall onto the grid allowed me to create a new typeface with angular, geometric character by tracing the projection with string. I developed ornamentation out of physical objects and subverted the meaning of the word, which accomplished one of my original questions. I even was able to create an a banner for the designalogue and for my own blog out of this gridded typeface that I discovered.

Overall, I learned that typography is a complex tool that can be used in many different mediums and to create various emotions when combined with image(objects, surfaces, textures, etc.) I experimented with how a word could interact with an object to support or subvert its meaning, while also keeping in mind the way the type appeared to begin with. A word written with intricate ornamentation instead of a sans serif block typeface can also suggest new meaning for the word or the surface it is projected onto. All of this is very fascinating to me and I'm grateful I had a chance to explore it.