Type projects tomorrow

Hello everyone,

I gave a truncated introduction today for our next project and we'll discuss it more fully during class tomorrow, but I just wanted to stay ahead of our work in class, and ask you to start looking and thinking about typefaces/fonts, as that will be the focus of our next couple of projects. For class tomorrow, please choose a single letter in a single font and print or draw it out at roughly 3" x 4.5". Actually, you may want to sketch out a few letterforms and pick and choose as you start working with them. Perhaps begin by choosing a typeface you like or are comfortable with, and print it out as a pangram.

This can be a draft version only, and you may want to alter, change, discard, or re-draw the letter as we move deeper into the project. As we discussed today, the letterform can be a typeface you use regularly, hand-drawn, and may also be characters from other alphabets. Ideally, you'll have a specific reason for choosing the letter you do. What makes this letter stand out to you? How does it's meaning transform as it is turned different directions, duplicated, erased, or broken apart?

As a few starting points (and I'll be screening some video works on Thursday as additional frames or entry points), here's some of the places I've been looking at for interesting approaches to type:

dafont.com is a website with thousands of free typefaces that can be downloaded for both Mac and PC platforms.

Imaginary Forces is the company that did the movie titles for Transformers, Se7en, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and many more. Here's the title from Se7en, as an example of their process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY

Laverne & Shirley (notice the *L* on every shirt that Laverne wears; it became her symbol)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRmKzxhMzwo

Emigre was the first type foundry to make typefaces specifically for MacIntosh computers, back in the day)

The Letter People

Mr. N?