Albatros is the result of a research on the correlation between genius and mental instability in great artists, philosophers and poets. As in Baudelaire's poetry, it symbolises those who are misunderstood and thus isolated and derided. The albatross is a clumsy bird, but once in the sky and raised over the mass it shows everyone its great wingspan. We are all albatrosses until we are given the opportunity to discover the wings power.
Working under the theme of 'Rebirth', I have focused my first font on the idea of post-war architecture, or otherwise commonly known as modernist/brutalist architecture. Buildings constructed following the Second World War were built using new technologies of construction. These types of designs were known for their use of modern materials such as concrete and steel as well as their interesting geometrical forms. I was heavily influenced by the architecture featured in Owen Hopkins' book 'Lost Futures' which looks at the disappearing architecture of post-war Britain and how changing external contexts played a role in the subsequent destruction of these buildings.
Naples WIP
UPPER CASE ONLY
My typeface has been created in line with the theme ‘dangerous’. From my chosen theme I explored the idea of sharp edges (blades/swords/razor) and decided to create a serifed typeface in which the serifs are extended or curved into a point to mimic the shape of a blade/sword/knife. I chose ‘Naples’ (“Italy’s capital of crime”) as the name due to its historical reputation as a dangerous city and it's links to the Camorra.
Any feedback and criticism would be appreciated as the font is a work in progress (WIP).
I designed my font around the theme ‘Elegant’ studying the Crown Jewels that are owned by the British Royal Family. I focused on the structure within each jewel and particularly was interested in how the light catches on certain shards within the stones. My initial idea was to shade each of the sections using a different colour, however this proved difficult with the ‘Fontstruct’ software. Eventually instead of shading with different colours I shaded uses the small dots to create a stipple effect which I believe to still be just as effective.
This font was based upon the theme of starvation, deriving from the topic of malnourishment. I looked at waste and used/ empty rubbish, in particular food packaging, that I felt represented the fragility of starved beings. Looking at stretched and warped plastic, such as that of empty crisp packets, gave eerie imagery that looked unnatural and like bare skin stretched across bone. I looked creased and stretched materials to extract each letter and manipulate it through fontstruct.
The industrial revolution gave rise to mass manufacturing; whereby machinery replaced humans, and production snowballed. Textiles were being produced at a rapid speed and in vast quantity, and it was also a pivotal time for print - with the fist linotype machine being invented at around 1883. Mechanised printing meant that newspapers' expansion paralleled the rising population. 'Strength' is a typeface inspired by the widespread industrialisation. The sans serif and square letterforms are a reference to the vast number of red brick factories being erected - the square shape of the font mirroring the literal building blocks.
My first fontstruction was inspired by Eastern Art at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. I loved the dragon decoration on the old ceramic pots in this section and have tried to portray a similar theme in my letters. (work in progress)
This font is produced based off of the buzzword "filthy" which led me to explore the Japanese Yakuza Gang. Inspired by their illustrative tattoos, and jewellery, I produced a typeface which replicates links. Not only do the links visually represent those found in chain necklaces, but they are also metaphorical representations of the fundamentals of gang behaviour, and the brotherhood that is formed
After watching a documentary on how the elderly are often lonely and forgotten about, it inspired me to create this font detailing the feeling of isolation and becoming disconnected from a community.
The circles that make up the font represent individuals in a community. I chose to have a number of the circles grouped, then others separated, illustrating how one can be surrounded by people but still feel isolated and alone. As this is a common issue in the world today, I found it appropriate to portray this struggle, especially with current world-wide events.
With the given theme of Protection, I looked into the human immune system and the biological human features. Researching further into antibodies, I created a type face of the antibody structure which resembles the shape of a capital Y. Following symmetrical shapes and doubled lines, I created an alphabet that mimics the original structure of antibodies, with similar joints and angles.
'PASTE'
A font which can be used to add a handrawn effect. The font evolved from me intially using toothpaste to create an alphabet and finding it effective , My aim was to try and recreate similair characteristics within my font. The tootpaste flicked off at the ends and collected in certain areas which created a really intersting typographical style. The lines are wobbly and unique on each letter as I wanted the font to have movement, energy and a bounce.
Constriction is a type inspired by the idea of tension. I initially was looking at the idea of danger, how two objects may not be dangerous until they are put together. I questioned what the suspense is between those two objects. In my current design I have focused on the physical look of tension, looking at twisted metal as inspiration. I decided not to create the whole of each letter in a twisted form as I wanted to only empathies it in certain areas.
A typeface first inspired by the theme word destruction which lead me to think of climate change and desforestation. After looking at small pieces of bark that had been broken off in the process of tree clearing I focused more on the textures created by the wood. I contstructed a 3D word from this idea by building plaster casts of bark. The shapes and patterns here created the base for the structure of these letters. I wanted each letter to be made up of small pieces, representing the broken bark; a side product of deforestation. Along with all the smaller patterns inside to show the many different textures that are on the wood.
A second typeface inspired by the theme 'systematic', developed through finding hidden shapes within geometric architecture and using them as building blocks for the letterforms, this time blacked out to create a bolder more imposing style. Sister font to - STACKED
This is a clone of STACKEDMy first digitally rendered typeface that focused around the theme of energy and its synonyms. I wanted to explore a typeface that would create the illusion of movement without using decorative elements such as gradients, serifs or superfluous details.
The minimalistic approach was inspired by typefaces designed by Paul Rand and the concept was inspired by 'sans forgetica'
This is a cloneHere is my first fontstruction coming to you from a graphic design student at UWE Bristol.
This font is based around the theme 'rebirth' and to me rebirth means growth, open-minded, seeing the world in new ways- an awakening.
So I went down the path of spiritual journeys. Throughout lockdown I have been listening to the one and only, Joe Rogan and his podcasts. Many of which discuss the topic of psychedelics and how they have changed peoples perspectives on life - positively. I then took these topics and found my 'Rebirth'
This font represents; psychedelics, trance and being in the state of stupor...
This type face was created inspired by the theme ‘rebirth’. It took a lot of hand rendered type and photographical experimentation to create a font that I believe captures people coming together through rebirth whether that’s in a spiritual means or something else. I began by photographing people linking together to create shapes in the form of letter with their bodies. After drawing from the photographs, I decided to take a more abstract approach and applied this to my sans serif font.
THEME: PROTECT
A display font inspired by one of the UK's first and most influential free-party sound systems- Spiral Tribe. They helped create a culture of freedom and expression through art and music which was heavily (and still continues to be) suppressed by the Police. They used tribal patterns frequently in their artwork, which is the reasoning behind the spiral shapes within the letters.
The weights are varied throughout the letters to make it more playful and psycholdelic, as the rave culture is against agression and force used frequently against them by the police. New age travellers embrace harmony- which is why the letters are sized so that they work together in words to create a wider pattern.
This display typeface was inspired by the return to traditional Celtic iconography within the insular manuscripts of 6th Century Britain. Each letter is highly ornamented, incorporating chains of interlinked geometry that translate the flowing forms of Celtic knots into the grid based format of Fonstruct.
Folded is typeface based on the idea of paper folding. The idea of the paper folding technique was inspired by my original theme of the life and mind of an introvert. The word introvert means a person who thinks 'inward', so therefore to start off with i played around with the idea of 'inward thinking' and came across the idea of folding paper as when folding paper things become distorted and changed and can also be seen as a inward action or to look inward when folding things in half for example. This later on led me to this typface.
Aloe is a font based on shadows and geometry. The idea is to create the illusion of depth within the font. The concept all stems from diligence, at first I thought about the characteristics a diligent person has and wanted to represent this in a font.
My font theme is systematic, I aimed to make a font that was precise and but also referenced technology in the patterns of a motherboard and the pixelated style. The dots also help form the illusion of curves.