Time Limit: 120 minutes
Categories: Illustration, Paper Engineering, Physical Prototyping, Photography, Type Design
Challenge: Design a typeface that will be composed from elements in the world around you. Assemble your twenty-six-character alphabet using only found objects or environments. Letters may be documented through collage, photography, photocopying, digital illustration, and other appropriate mediums. Avoid examples of computer typefaces out “in the wild,” documenting elements of existing writing or signage, or pulling into your typeface anything that might be considered a traditional letterform.
My take away: I decided to make my typeface in the negative, taking white rice on a black surface and letting the negative space form the letters and then photographing them. It came out more consistent than I was expecting once all put together. Messy way to make a typeface, but very satisfying to draw into the rice. Glad I went with rice instead of sugar though, that wouldn’t have been fun to clean up.