A little reflection

From the 19th to the 21st of March I had the pleasure of attending a typographic workshop run by the pan-European design collective Underware, as part of the Ulster Festival of Art & Design.

The aims of the workshop were to create two logotypes, sketch as much as humanly possible, and learn about type design in the process, all of which were achieved to their full potential.

My time at the workshop reinforced the idea of rapid prototyping on paper. When you forget about producing something that looks remotely polished or complete and focus on getting an idea or concept down on paper, it really helps you to quickly progress on to something more solid.

Producing the works

The two logotypes I created were based on the Polish technical death metal band Decapitated and Italian DJ Benny Benassi. We chose two contrasting artists and swapped their appearance to avoid any clichés, so I swapped Decapitateds aggresive looking type for Benny Benassis blocky appearance and got stuck in.

After a few experiments I decided to push the blocky theme as far as I could by starting with actual blocks, then I removed as little as possible from the overall shape to define each letter. As a big fan of minimalism, I had a lot of fun with this approach

With the Benassi logotype I started with sharp, fast pen strokes to emphasise the aggressiveness of the music. After a while I started to break from that form, and with help from the Underware guys I ended up with something I think looks interesting. Once we were happy with our sketches we recreated a final piece on the computer.

As a closing touch to the workshop we were shown how to bring our logo types into font lab and the basics that are involved in creating a file that was ready to install on any computer for use.

Final thoughts

I came away from the workshop with a much stronger appreciation of type design, I think it feeds on my fascination with minimalism too with the

I've had an appreciation for typography since Developing an interest in it as one of the many areas on my degree. I'd recognised (thanks to the Standardistas) that written content is a vital design element and we need to be able to shape that content effectively if we want our designs to work at all. But I never imagined actually designing type, that was of course until I got my first taste of it at the workshop and I've been itching to get at it again since.

I can't help but sound over dramatic when I say that the workshop changed something in me, but it really did!

This is a wee test

This is a test

SO it looks like something has broken somewhere in my basic little, and probably easily breakable, Content Management System. I apologise for the issues it might be causing you, but I am doing the best I can to help prevent such stuff from happening again.

Fortunately it's pretty easy to help you on your way due to the size of the site. Above you is a short series of links. They will help you find everything that this site has to offer, including my work from previous years.