The Challenge: To use various "Uncommon objects" to create different ink marks and then connecting a typographic word to the mark created. 

Audience: Professor and Classmates

Design Process:

Phase 1: Mark Making

The process of making marks was quite messy. I had to put brown paper on the table I worked on in order to prevent the table from staining. I'm glad I did this because I created a variety of marks using different objects in addition to experimenting with various speeds, forces, and angles. 

Some of the objects I used included a CD, Plastic Vampire fangs, A sanitary wipe, and Plastic wrap. I was able to get a visually intriguing variety of shapes I could work from. After cleaning up my station, letting the ink dry, and photographing my marks, I would need to select some marks I would like to continue working with. Once I selected around 10, I would then need to come up with come word choice I might want to incorporate into the typography for the final project.

Phase 2: Word Choice

- Errupt

- Drown 

- Provoke

- Inferno 

- Slaughter

- Shot

- Bang

- Homicide

- Execute 

- Butcher

- Massacre

- Bloodsport 

- Sluaghterhouse

- Scratch 

- Drag 

- Scar 

- Wisp 

- Flow

- Breeze 

- Impact 

- Collision

- Consume

- Vigor 

- Lunar 

- Iris 

- Swarm 

- Glacial 

- Lunar 

- Hatch 

- Rabbit 

- Saturn

- Venus

- Diplopia

- Astigmatism 

- Fade 

- Riptide

- Fatal

- Collapse

- Spiral

- Hollow 

- Marrow 

- Cleave 

- Serrate 

- Split 

- Sever

- Undo 

- Divide

- Intersect 

- Smear 

- Drag

- Praise

- Evangelical 

- Reach 

Feedback: After pondering it over both on my own and talking with my classmates during critiques, I felt like Mark 2 and Mark 6 would be the best to work with. I liked the contrast between the two marks, how Mark 2 is "splattered" and formless vs the circular and cleaner shape of Mark 6. I also had many ideas on what words I would want to use, although I wanted to rethink more about my word options for Mark 6.

From there, I had to sketch out how I might want my marks to look with a word incorporated with in. 

After further experimentation, I decided the word I wanted to go with for Mark 2 was "Massacre." I chose this word because I felt that the splattered nature of the mark looked almost like blood. Additionally, the lower splatter almost makes an "M" if you look for it and the thought of actually incorporating the mark as a word was exciting. I also did a bit more experimenting with Mark 6's word and ways I could pick a word and incorporate it. The center circle from the shape looked like an "O" so I believed that it would be interesting to have a common theme of part of the mark acting as a letter between Mark 2 and 6. I eventually came up with "Claustrophobic" when I started thinking of words with an "O" in them that would fit between that space of the mark. The word choice felt unique and like a better option than my previous ideas. I'm glad that I decided to keep iterating with this word.

I scanned both marks into my notes app and then transferred the cleaned versions into Photoshop where I began to mask each shape.

After selecting the actual ink marks and masking, I got to work with creating my words. I was fortunate enough to get this done during office hours, so I could ask for assistance when needed. 

With "Claustrophobic" I simply used a rough-ish brush tool on my masking layer to "cut out" the letters in the center of the mark, I wrote each letter aside from the "O" free hand in this manner. I attempted to make the word fill the entire space of this section, even making the "Claustro" part squeezed together and "Phobic" large to emphasize what the word itself means (fear of tight / enclosed spaces) and how terrifying and large the fear can feel in contrast.

With "Massacre" I used a different technique to make the letterings. On my image layer, I would use my magnetic brush tool to select certain parts of the mark to make a "stroke" that I would copy and paste on a new layer. On that new layer, I could manipulate the stroke's size, angle, and placement to arrange varying strokes as letters. I did this for every letter except "M" because I felt that the mark already made an "M" shape.

For the next class, I showed these marks to my critique group and there was little to no feedback on ways I could make these compositions better. As such, I decided to let these pieces stand on their own.