Studio brief one - Alphabet soup - (OUGD403) Design skills

We had our module briefing for the module titled 'design skills'. Within that we had already done a small brief called 'What's my type' as part of that I decided the typeface that most represents my personality is Helvetica. Helvetica will now become a starting point for our new brief 'Alphabet soup'. 
This brief must be completed by 17/10/14.

The brief specifies the final piece produced must consist of 10, 10cm x 10cm letterforms. Each letterform must be based on Helvetica and adapted each in a different way in accordance to the random work we choose. The word I chose was 'stylish'. When editing the font to become something else I must consider many different factors such as clarity, legibility, ease of reproduction, usability, functionality, mood, personality and tone of voice.

Before we were given our individual words we were put into groups and given a word. The word my group received was 'traditional', we discussed the connotations of this word and the directions you could take ideas from. 

This is our mind map.

The photo is not great but it shows our mindmap and the ideas process I will use to decode the word 'stylish' which will hopefully lead me to some ideas for my font variations. 

This is my mind map of the word I chose at random 'stylish'.

The main things I got from doing this was that I could go in all different directions with this project. Some of the initial ideas that spring to mind are going in a high fashion direction. I really like the font Bodoni and it makes me think instantly of high fashion and definitely the word stylish. I could experiment with adding serifs and mixing up the variation in weight throughout the letters.

This image shows the difference between the letter h in Helvetica on the left and Bodoni on the right. For one idea I could experiment with different variations between the two typefaces to make a mixed more stylish version of Helvetica.

The next idea the mind map gave me was to explore other countries ideas of style as inspiration. The two most interesting cultures I thought of were Chinese and African/tribal styles. 

This image shows some great examples of African style. They often use bold colours and bold shapes. Series of circles are often used to create patterns creating a really interesting aesthetic. I could use bold shapes as additional decoration to create an african style theme. 

This shows the logo for an African safari. I love this style of typography, I think its very good for showing both African style and also current fashion and design styles in Britain at this current time. I think I could apply this style to Helvetica quite easily and effectively.

These are some quick examples of the type of edits I could make to create an effective African style inspired version of helvetica.

Chinese style is full of symbolism to promote luck. The colours red and gold are both suppose to give luck. The Chinese are very proud of their culture and most imagery you see shows this. With images of intricate patterns and bamboos. The Chinese often use brushes and calligraphy pens to write so creating type that mimic that kind of style would most definitely show this style but it would be hard to keep an element of Helvetica whilst doing this.

This shows a brilliant Chinese style typeface the slanted ends on the strokes look really effective and I could do an idea alike this quite easily and effectively.

This is an experimental adaptation based on the Chinese style that I quickly mocked up.

Something I really want to experiment with in this is the ends of the strokes, I have already talked about how I could add serifs and theres tonnes of different styles I could play with like that. But round edges is a style in design thats becoming increasingly popular. A great example of this is the newer versions of the Iphone operating system design. Its designed with lots of bubbles and no sharp edges.

These are some quick test edits I did to show what Helvetica might look like with rounded edges, its a simple change that completely changes the look of the typeface and it could be a really effective idea.

Another big style in graphic design at the moment is simplistic geometric forms. Really blocky fonts are something thats really in, they cannot be used as body fonts as they aren't very legible but they are great for branding and create a really individual style. Above is an example of the type of fonts that are currently 'stylish'. I could try make Helvetica more blocky and simplistically geometric.

These are some mock up examples of more blocky versions of Helvetica. Personally I don't think they look great but its just a brief idea at the moment.

When I was thinking about style in graphic design something I thought of was the kind of art and design that I personally find attractive and would consider 'stylish'. I love hand draw patterns, mandalas and dot work patterns and theres endless ways I could apply that kind of thing to Helvetica. An example of how I could do this has already been shown in my summer project in the image above. This was one of my favourite pieces from the summer project and it would be great to try out other letters in this style.

I then went on to think about the rest of my summer project and how great it would be to look at my other favourites from the project and apply that style to Helvetica. I love the P above as im really in to stripes and op art and it would be great to apply these principles to the font. 

This is an quick mock up of one of the other ways I could mix the ideas of OP art and Helvetica into one stylish final product.

This is another example of how I could make this possible. Its really simple, I made the strokes a lot thinner in this one so it messes with your eyes a lot more its really effective.

Above in an example of some typography I personally think is really attractive and represents the kind of style I enjoy. I could experiment with something like this but it could be quite difficult because id have to make the Helvetica base more simplistic and geometrical for it to work.

When mind mapping the word 'stylish' one of my first thoughts was one of my favourite films The Great Gatsby. This film is amazing and screams style to me. The way its directed and created gives it a brilliant sense of glamour. The typography used for the films branding is brilliant the 20's art deco theme is a clear sense of style. I would love to create a typeface that shows this same glamour and individuality.

This is an experiment I created based on The Great Gatsby style.

Another branch of design and style is architecture and interior design. My favourite types of architecture include sharp geometrical shapes and lines and could prove as brilliant inspiration for this project. Below is an interesting example of how architecture can inspire typography and create a really interesting final look. 

So overall I have come up with quite a few ideas just from the brief first mind map. I will need to think of some more ideas an experiment with perfecting the way they look by hand drawing them and messing around with different variations until I have ten great Helvetica variations that represent style. These are a few more images I found that I find inspiring.