GRAPHICS PATHWAY - TYPE PLAYS & CD COVERS

The first workshop I attended was based on the art of typography and type play using light boxes to trace different fonts. We used Palatino, Helevetica Neue and Gill Sans, three very common fonts in modern contemporary graphic design. The use of light boxes was very rewarding and made the process of tracing a lot easier, I found that attention to detail produced some very good results and I could clearly see the difference between fonts. I enjoyed experimenting with colour and playing with the literal meaning of words interpreting them into playful and clever typography. We were encouraged to use only the letters of the words and restricted from using forms of illustrations to describe our intentions. At first I thought this was limiting my potential and reducing the number of possible outcomes however I later realised that using solely the letters to show your intentions is a skillful process and therefore more rewarding. I believe it requires more creativity and imagination. 

Some initial ideas and experiments with the type and placing of letters, some with colour
and some without. I found physically manipulating the type and text creatively
stimulating as it required a knowledge of words and their meaning as well as artistic ingenuity.

Some more type plays focusing on similar forms experimentation with the physical meanings of words.

Following this we moved on to creating p[otential CD or DVD covers for an album or a film for example. We could only use 12cm x 12cm squares to create our pieces realistic to actual life size CD covers. I tried using some of the previous playful type I created in the first task to use as an album cover in this task, specifically with the word 'missing'. I then tried using colourful numbers from different fonts and eventually moved on to experimenting with my own name. I created around 4 or 5 CD cover trials before picking my favourite design to use as a final piece.  

Playing around with the word 'missing' and then using numbers from different fonts creatively.

Some more trials using my name in different ways to create an album cover.

my final design concept, The original CD cover is on the right however I decided
to do another version with the text in blue but with the same design.

 I then tried them in an actual CD case, below, to see what they looked like

I used the original for the outside cover and the alternate version for the inside cover.

Images - Author's Own 15/11/13