Process - Record Recode

How can I design a strong typeface basing on one art movement or term?

First of all I needed to choose an art movement which I am interested in. To gather photographs and images I look at the Tate website and visited the Tate Modern. Searching for a style that impresses and interests me I enjoyed looking at "De Stijl" (= "the style") which is a circle of Dutch abstract artists that was founded in 1917. I am fascinated by the simplicity and geometry that this design expresses. Even though "De Stijl" mostly bases on the primary colours and has not a lot of details its artworks look   artful.

To have a better understanding of my art movement I informed myself about its history. "De Stijl" was founded by a dutch group of painters, architects and designers that formed an artist union. The designs were influenced by cubism and are a combination of abstract art and modern architecture and design. The artists used strict geometry such as horizontals and verticals.

Then I started experimenting by looking at the most famous designs of this art movement that are structured with black lines and coloured in red, blue and yellow.

My designs should look architectural, abstract, simple and include the primary colours. This showed me how to symbolise and contextualise the art movement.

After that I thought about going deeper and looking at not just the origin artworks but also at some versions inspired by "De Stijl". 

 (Het Nieuwe Instituut en de Stijl)

I focused on the geometrical shapes as well as the colours and the layout. Because the image that I was inspired by had only some patterns of black lines I tried to use those as little as possible.

Afterwards I looked at a paining that inspired me to draw.

To experiment with different techniques and materials I also used some coloured masking tape to design letters.

 (Daniel Roozendaal)

The Bauhaus is an art movement that is quite similar in design as "De Stijl". The letters include curves which I replied to in some more designs. The main point was to create letters that focus on the geometry and structure.

All the designs that I created were influenced by almost similar images that are based on the dutch art movement. Therefore I looked at imagery that is inspired by de Stijl but includes more and different colours and shapes. However, the geometry and abstractness is still presented.

 (Tara Hutton)

(Fritz Glarner)

(Kenneth Martin)

Then I had to design my first typeface that is inspired by my art movement but bases on an already existing font style. The task showed me that it is very important that my letters are well readable because once they are not ordered as the alphabet anymore they are harder to recognize.

Furthermore I started with tracing plain letters in black that would build the pattern and structure and respond to my art movement. After I picked the best designed I created the whole alphabet in this particular style and edit it on Photoshop. Because "De Stijl" is using the primary colours I added them to my design. Additionally, I decided to create a background that has the simple and geometric structure of "De Stijl" to create a harmonizing image. 

I think that the task helped me to decide which font style I am going to choose. I liked the typographic design of my second experimentation which focusses on the geometrical shapes and does not include that many black lines because it relates to "De Stijl" in the shapes and colours but does not copy the style but instead add my own style to it.

Then I designed the whole alphabet in this typeface. Because I want that all letters are layout in the best way as possible I designed two different versions for each letter.

I also decided to choose this specific font style because it is designed digitally using Illustrator and therefore it has a clear structure, straight lines and looks more like an architectural artwork than a usual painting.

The peer feedback helped me to push my ideas further and do not only experiment with the font style but also with colours. 

I decided to stick to the original colours such as red, blue and yellow and wrote the phrace "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" because in this way the style and layout of the typography becomes more clear and all letters of the alphabet are involved.

To bring my outcome in any context I thought about laying it out as a poster for a exhibition at the Tate Modern.

Then I structured my design sheets including the various experimentations as well as my research which inspired me. I decided to place the research image next to my own experimentation responding to it. In this way it becomes more clear which creation bases on which artwork.
Furthermore I used a plain font style that is well readable and does not distract from my own work.

Furthermore I wanted to communicate De Stijl not only by showing design sheets but also by creating a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) that conveys the art movement.

To express the architectural artwork I thought about designing a background which shows a painting related to De Stijl and decreased the transparency so it would not distract from my typeface.

The black lines of it are placed by looking at the rule of thirds.

Because the art movement bases on geometrical shapes such as verticals and horizontals I took photographs of the single letters which seem to be moving on the straight lines of the backgrounds painting. The letters form the word De Stijl.

Looking at my outcome I am convinced that it communicates the art term not only due to the word and painting but also by mean of their movements.

The peer feedback gave me more positive feedback and shared the same opinion as me. They gave me the idea of experimenting with different backgrounds for instance using a building in construction to express the aspect of architectural influences.

Comparing both GIF's with each other I think that I prefer the first outcome because it is more simple and has a stronger expression.

To experiment with different layouts I came up with the idea of creating a GIF which concentrates on the architectural shapes first and "build" the letters using black lines.
This is the GIF which I prefer the most because it communicates the art movement in the strongest way.