The following project was from an assignment based on the exploration of letterforms in public spaces. The main idea and outcome was for us students to gain an awareness and understanding of the design of letterforms by simply observing, recording, and then constructing.
The instructions were simple, I had to explore the city of Montreal in search for the two letters that I was assigned to. As my two letters were "G" and "N", I payed close attention to every storefront, product, and packaging that they appeared on, and snapped a photo whenever I found one that was interesting. After compiling a 9x9 photo grid of my favourite photos, we were asked to chose one for each letter and design/construct it in 3D.
My favourite one out of the two is the "G" based on the way it turned out, as well as the design decisions that I made in the process. The original photo is shown on the card, and was taken from a plastic bag from GNC, a supplement/health product store. My main idea for this was to play around with the short and wide form that the original letter possesses. It's quite unique and I wanted to show this by contrasting the letterform with the exact opposite (skinny and tall) through the use of negative space. I did this by strategically planning out and layering my pieces of wood so that once they were glued, another "G" were to be visible on the top and left side.
This piece is about 5x3.5x3 inches and was completed with only scrap wood.
For my letter "N", I decided to work with the one from the well known "UNO" logo. The main reason for this decision is because of its simplicity. I really wanted to challenge myself to create this simple looking letter become an original looking three dimensional piece. To do this, I decided to play around with contrast. As you can see, the whole frame of the letter is very industrial, and I went for a sort of rough look. However, the little addition of soft surface on the top, adds a little bit more of comfort to the eye, along with the slight pop of colour. Overall my main idea was to do something different. Usually, people seem to attempt to cover up the imperfections, while I really wanted show them off. The contrast between the pleasant looking outer layer, along with what usually lies within, really makes them work together as one, achieving a unique appearance of beauty.
The entire frame was welded together with scrap 3/16" steel rod, and the little pop of red is from an old t-shirt.
