Here are more examples of quick experimentation on illustrator- using monochrome black and white with pattern swatches, using 72 point size helvetica consistently to show the range available- from simple line patterns to "decorative primitive" patterns.
Although I had, of course, with the rest of our class group gone through the Illustrator workshops we were offered, unfortunately, at the time, I didn't find them to be a great benefit. As I had never been fortunate enough to work on Illustrator before, I found it difficult to move with the fast pace, but, after spending around six hours on Illusrtator, intensely working my way through, exploring new tecnhiques, I feel a lot more comfortable with it, and excited about the new techniques it will surely open up to me.
The h's above were created using a 'twist' and 'tweak' techniques through the transform tool bar.
After experimenting with using the 'h' tool for a while, I got a bit tired of it's shape and form, and decided to experiment with letterforms with counters.
I experimented with different block colouring to see how it would affect the shape of the letter. My favourite was the third along on the top row- though, i thought it makes it looks quite 'a' like.
Again, experimenting with counters- I thought that I might have a promising line of expeirmentation with 'o', but without the addition of an ascender or descender, I tired of it rather quickly, and the bloat and pucker tool, I think, made the letterforms look quite childish.
My last experiment with counters- filling, using patterns, etc.
I like the variety of techniques and experimentational samples I have created so far, but, ideally, I would like to see some sort of consistency in my final A1 sheet design, as well as consider which letteform I would like to use for my twenty-six designs.
As I have been told, and know from experience, 'x' is a notoriously difficult letterform to work with- with perfect symmetry and a lack of curvature to experiment with.
This is the exact reason that I chose to use it- I feel that this project could be a great excuse to really push myself, and work as hard as I possibly could to make the most of my developing knowledge of the Illustrator software.
I decided to follow the same technique as my previous experiments by creating a "counter-filled" like effect on 'x's' in horizontal and vertical format using the same helvetica typeface I have used throughout my time on this project.
I quite like the one to the left, as I think, optically, it is still obviously an 'x' with the inverted arrow like shapes pointing inwards, but the 'x' to the right looks a bit too similar to an 'n', and this style, I believe, would be too confusing in terms of the 'readability' requirement of this brief.
However, when I started, once again to play around with transform tools, I was really inspired by the shapes I could create from my 'x' letterforms- creating starburst shapes that reminded me of wings or feather shapes. Until now I had used black and white alone in order to maintain uniformity, but became curious about the affect that addition of colour may have on my letters...
The series above shows the same letterforms with blues from the 'cool' palette in swatch colours- I really like the airy, light feeling that the blue gives the letterforms- in contrast to the bold black and white, and think that the colour really enhances the shape, now looking calm and relaxing.
After my last colour series, I wanted to see how the x's would look in a lightly darker shade, as it was proving a little difficult to see the palest on screen.
The last experimentation was using another colour palette on swatches- 'pop art'- using bright, bold colours. I really do like the variety of colours,and I think it could affectively be presented in a wide range of colours, but I think that the blue is certainly the most effective for what I hope to go onto achieve in my serires. Inspired by my experimental letteform 'x's' above, I am going to, hopefully, create a varied, yet uniformed series of 'x's' inspired by wings and featherforms.
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