Final Draft CULT

Rationale:

For my font I chose to createa display font using Pop Cultural references superimposed and integrated into the characters.

I came upon the idea of using Pop Culture after seeing the “Zoo Display Type” example on our first type creation exercise. I began attempting my own similar font using objects relevant to myself; originallyby integratingthe silhouette of a Volkswagen Van (my favourite car) into an upper case K. Afterwards I decided that rather than expanding on my favourite objects it would be more appealing to create a Popular Culture type using icons such as the van. This would also expand the amount of potential uses.

The basic shape of the letters was inspired by the Slab-Serif Rockwell and how its lettering is geometric but still interesting. However, becauseunlike Rockwell my font had no serifs, I used a similar technique to Arielof cuttingaway small segments from some letters (i.e. the terminal of the shoulder on the lower case ‘a’ is slanted) to create interest.

I used a scanner to import my type concept into Adobe Illustrator and traced it onto a grid to ensure proper geometry. Once I had laid down basic lettering I began planning which letters would represent which icon. After choosing each letter’s corresponding image I imported and traced their basic silhouette and features.Then using the pathfindertool in Illustrator I introduced the traced images into the letters. Depending on how the image was originally (i.e. if the image was an actual silhouette or my own improvisation) I had to use different techniques to capture the image. This is most prominent between the G where I used one solid print and Zwhere I mixed lines and solids together.

Finally I created the modified types; firstly using my original base type as a bold version. For my second modification I chose to create a light font over italics as it would have more real world application than abold serif type which is rarely used.