This project had two parts: creating our own typeface using FontStruct (a free, online applicable font builder) and then presenting the typeface on a type specimen poster.

After experimenting on the FontStruct platform, I decided to create a font where each letterform exists in the negative shape of a rectangle. The forms themselves were inspired by paper cut-outs and origami animals, the song “Paper Tiger” by Beck, and the Chinese-originated definition of “paper tiger,” something that seems threatening but is actually ineffective and futile. I wanted to create something that seemed bold, but that was actually delicate and playful. For other symbols (such as parentheses and periods) I created more illustrative elements that would represent periods, quotation marks, and the @ symbol. And like one of the typefaces I found in the Matchy Match project, Eklipse, I wanted to see if I could  “defy limits of legibility” and symbol interpretation.

In order to present this typeface on a poster, I began to separate the page for different parts (the typeface name; the typeface used in a quote; all numbers, letters, symbols; typeface used in email address). My poster became more of symmetrical layout with disrupting, overlapping, dissymmetric background illustrations and elements.

I had difficulties with how I wanted to lay out and communicate all of the elements I had in mind, and developing certain hierarchies through scale and color also became a challenge. I think the poster turned out a little cluttered and irregular because it has many differing elements happening all at once (such as different colors/shades, overlays/opacities, scales). However, I do think the poster was in the high-spirited and dynamic direction that I had envisioned. If I were to work on it again I may want to decide on different colors (maybe a more monochromatic or limited color scheme), take out certain recurring elements (such as a few of the bands of text that go across the page) and refine the layout altogether in order to make it a clearer and more cohesive poster.