Randall

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Two Letters

Two Letters

Using only two letters create a series of dynamic typographic compositions. There are many forms these compositions can take. Experiment with large and small letters, combining similar forms, contrasting very different letter forms. Ultimately your goal is to create beautiful and dynamic form by playing with letterforms.

Download the fonts here…

What is flow? 
As a designer one of your jobs is to control the attention of the viewer. By the design choices you make, you guide the viewer around the page. Your compositions will naturally have a flow to them. The viewer will start looking at something on the page and her eyes will move around the composition before coming to rest on a focal point. As a designer you have some influence over this process. Create compositions that activate the gaze and delight the eye.

Your objective with this assignment is to:

1. Understand how shapes interact to produce foreground and background relationships.
2. Learn how to manipulate letterforms using Illustrator
3. Create dramatic and dynamic visual compostions.

Rules of the Game

1. You may only use two letters per composition.
2. You make only use Garamond, Baskerville, Didot, Century, Helvetica.
3. You may only scale and rotate.
4. Do NOT stretch any letters.
5. Both letters must be black on a white background.
6. All work must be printed on a laser printer
7. All work must be trimmed to size (6″x6″)
8. You may use UPPERCASE or lowercase or a mixture of the two.
9. You may use only the regular (not bold) and italic fonts of your typeface.

Make 25 Compositions
Make 25 6″x 6″ compositions in Illustrator using any two letters from the five class typefaces: Garamond, Baskerville, Didot, Clarendon, Helvetica. You can use as many different pairs of two letters that you wish. The letter pairs do not have to be the same, but you must use two different letters for each composition.

1. Do 5 using two letters from Garamond
2. Do 5 using two letters from Baskerville
3. Do 5 using two letters from Didot
4. Do 5 using two letters from Clarendon
5. Do 5 using two letters from Helvetica

Think small / large / contrast / asymmetry  / space / drama / focus / flow

Format: 6″ x 6″ trimmed
Output: Laser (no inkjet)

Printing
Each 6″x6″ square must be printed and trimmed to the exact size using crop marks. When you print DO NOT use the “Fit to Screen” function located in the print dialog. I usually generate a PDF and print from Acrobat.  All work must be submitted in an manilla envelope with your name in the top right corner.  Folded and dog-eared work will not be accepted.

Due Monday, September 21

1. One PDF with 25 compositions on DropBox in your your folder/03_two_letters/lastname_twoletters.pdf
2. Choose ten of the most diverse compositions and print and trim to 6″ x 6″ ready to hand in.