OUGD403: SB1- Alphabet Soup

Jumbled Letters
For this brief we are required to produce a type face. Eventually the whole alphabet, but initially ten letter forms of different styles and designs. To inspire us and give us a 'jumping off' point we were all give an existing type face to alter and a buzz word to give us a concept. 

My typeface: Helvetica

My buzz word: evolve

Mind maps- standard way to begin brain storming, writing out initial ideas in a badly organised spider diagrams, and filling up the pages with potential gold for later. It was bizarre- I had a lot of history information on my typeface thanks to the book 'Just my Type' (Simon Garfield) that I had just finished reading that day, and as a result my helvetica page was full whereas ideas for evolve were few and far between. I found it very difficult to not be 'literal' with my thoughts.

Helvetica mind map

Evolve mind map

To get the ball rolling on the ideas front we looked to each other. Passing buzz words and typefaces around the table we wrote our own interpretations on the back. We were instructed to "write down the first thing that pops into your head" and pass it on. At the time I saw very little use in this- it was interesting to get different ideas and a different perspective on my buzz word but I had already begun to develop some ideas of my own (based annoyingly off of my literal interpretations) and I didn't think too much of them. (It turns out, however, the best concepts I've designed so far are thanks to these buzz words and different opinions, if I hadn't had them I'd be stuck trying to translate idea to page getting increasingly frustrated until I snapped hurt my hamsters out of malice.) 

"The first thing that comes to mind"

So I began my research into helvetica- it's history, it's beginnings it's many, many uses whilst developing my concepts and considering what the typeface was going to look like. I had hit on a brilliant idea linked to my literal/initial interpretations of the buzz word evolve based around 'evolving' type. I had considered the word evolve and evolution and set myself out some research tasks to explore these ideas through type. I gathered examples of text from the original publication of 'On the Origin of Species' by Charles Darwin, as well as examples of his handwriting to help inspire unique letter forms. I found examples of text used in the periodic table of elements(and was a little gutted to find it wasn't helvetica).  I also researched a little into biblical text and typefaces to see if I could create a gothic version of helvetica text, however this would prove to be difficult. 

Bible texts in original Gutenburg and modern day St James. 

Original publication text

Charles Darwin's scribbled handwriting

The periodic table frustratingly in arial

A History in helvetica (well, technically courier...)
Helvetica- brain child of Eduard Hoffman and Max Meidinger, was born in 1957 in the Haas foundry of Münchenstein  to refresh and redesign a very thirsty and dry commercial market. It's a sans serif (in the grotesk sans category) and works beautifully because of it's simple modern shape and form, no flourishes, devoid of history, clean and unbiased- it was an eon away from the gothic typefaces of Nazi propaganda, the serif stiffness of British type and the swirly handwritten flourishes of the French. Practical, simple, here to do a job- it's Swiss in origin and in character, yet it has a distinct warmth lacking in many formalised typefaces, rounded edges allow eyes to glide from word to word (depending on format- it works beautifully for publishing, not so well on the internet) like a man in a three piece suit who goes around barefoot. Here are some examples.

American Apparel has based it's entire brand off of helvetica, you can take three steps in their store without seeing it again. 

The slight alterations give helvetica a lot more weight in the AGFA logo

It became hard to identify helvetica in day to day settings (especially with all the minor alterations companies make to to the typeface) and often I found myself mistaking it for arial (in one case I took a lot of images in a gallery of what I thought was helvetica typography, only to later discover it was arial)and so I found myself a handy identification guide on the internet and it sorted out the problem. 

Helvetica or Arial?

Interim Crit

The feedback I received wasn't exactly what I was expecting- I had hoped for more specific critiques  from my fellow students. It was the first crit so understandably people were nervous still I was slightly confused with majority of the feedback thrown my way. I was told to develop my 'fossil' concepts further, to try things representing sedimentary layers and possibly hinting on geodes as well as develop my squashed idea- perhaps working in a different medium other than pen and ink. This was all well and good I had things to do, but the honest opinions of my classmates on my work? I haven't a clue. I don't know which idea is the strongest, I'm not sure which of my concepts were translated the clearest and I don't know whether they even look good. I mean, they said they 'looked good' but was that genuine or out of nervous behaviour? Hopefully this fear will fade as the year goes on.