Introduction
In this activity I described a range of personality types in designated areas on an A4 template. I chose an appropriate lettering style then carefully and creatively rendered my name in the given area. Elements I considered included the style, weight, size, letter-spacing and case of the characters, and I gave special attention to the size and placement of my name in the given area.
What did I learn from this activity ?
- Using fonts to express personality.
- Using style to express emotion, eg loud large letters, fast slanting backwards, stylish female.
- Using metaphors in design elements.
- Using contrast in design elements, black / white for emphasise, eg panadol tablet 1/2 black / 1/2 white.
Preparation
I setup a light table using dvds, a sheet of glass, and my tablet for a light source. The name plates went through a process of brainstorming mock-ups. The teachers example added spikes, waves, stripes to each letter rather than excessive props. This could be used to make letters melt, on fire or electrocuted. I went from the definition of personality type, to listing items that apply to that type and replacing each letter. As requested the final design needed to be well balanced and this played an important factor in initial choice.
Results
Discussion
| Chameleon | A mock-up of the animal was difficult to read. A chameleon hides their personality / colour / identity, so i used a magnifying glass with inner font half and figure waving. |
| Hiccups | Mock-ups of a mouth, hand and glass of water were resolved by a bubble formation. For readability the font was created out of bubbles rather than placing them inside. |
| Truck driver | A sketch of a truck grill would result in letters across a number plate. I rebuilt the body from my letters. Probably not as a fitting as a logo / name plate in terms of readability. |
| Chief | I replaced letters with appropriate chief items, hat, sausage, knife, frypan, oven, rolling pin and saucepan. This worked well and resulted in a clear formation of symbols. |
| Headache | Mock-ups of a long panadol tablet with contrasting white / black letters. I decided to add spikes to the font, a clamp on the first letter and a spike into a head on the last. |
| Footballer | A mock-up of goal posts and a football letter was replaced with a surrounding football and inner emblem. The centre font emphasised A grade, and under the laces AFL league. |
| Gender illusionist | This design needed to include a stylish font and feminine items. I choose to brand a stick of lipstick and the resulting design included a title and set of lips for appeal. |
| Rockstar | A tradesman with 3D letters, roof and dividers was replaced with a large star shaped centre A surrounded by letters with microphones, conveying the impact of a loud rockstar. |
Conclusion
This activity was successful in introducing the visual diary and thumbnail process for the development of images in quick succession. I enjoyed creating the above portraits, gradually became competent in complex shapes. I chose to use pencil in favour of ink, however I have previously used a drawing board with ink and razor blade. I setup a temporary light table, and in the copying process I found I lost some of the character formation / emotion. I managed this by continuous error checking and the final result was very close, if not better, than the original sketches. As the course progresses, this lesson will be an invaluable experience for the creation of logo designs.
The ACM states designers should be critical in their creativity when exploring ideas. Thumbnails do not need to be complex, they explore background and foreground elements, and with positive and negative space are instrumental in the success of the final design. Senior designers view the ability to choose between thumbnails a valuable asset. The expression of ideas are a designers intellectual property and signing and dating thumbnails with a copyright sign establishes ownership. Copyright is free and automatically protects the expression in the artwork not the idea or concept.
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