REFLECTONS FOR 'BUILDING BLOCKS' WEEK: PRODUCTION

Here are my daily reflections for the second week of the 'Building Blocks' project. This week contained production stages within a small span of time to fufill the requirements of the brief and ensure my outcomes were well-rounded.

20/11/2023

Further Research

At this stage, prior to developing HNECMB and MINFIG further from their prototypes, I decided to collect some research regarding both of my typefaces, their inspirations and their origins, as something to consider when I did go on to create the finalised types. This also allowed me to gain an insight into similar designs, and the choices behind them, why they are effective, ect.

I researched the Minifigure initially, finding resources in the library on the history and success of LEGO as a brand to support the iconography of the miniature as an object, and to rationalise my choice of using it as my object. This proved useful- it was through this research I was able to learn some insights into the design of mini figures and how this developed through time, which I could express in my font made from them (I also aimed to pay homage to the mini figure as accurately as possible without changing too much, so I also was able to pick up on some of the key features of the object.) I also discovered that the figures were a lot more 'iconic' than I had previously considered, despite one of my resources being fairly outdated (2014) at the time of writing, I discovered that literally billions of them had been produced.

I also researched a little into biomimicry, as this was the original inspiration for my taped typeface, 'HNECMB'. It was here where I learnt about the origins of the honeycomb structure in nature, how they were created and why. Going forward, I was able to configure some design choices from this; honeycomb structures are rigid, and known for being strong. Seen originally in nature, but then expressed in architecture and design. Here, I knew that my own design had to be firm in itself too, to keep that aspect of the honeycomb consistent so the inspirations and typeface name could come through accurately and be recognisable.

Overall, the research process went well, was thorough and done timely, so I was able to go forward without any issues.

21/11/2023 Developing the typefaces; HNECMB and MINIFIG as finalised products

Following this research, I began the most crucial stage of this project- developing the actual alphabet itself as a vector in Illustrator. I wouldn't be able to continue past this point until this stage was done, and it was vital here that there was accuracy and attention to detail in my work. Before starting, I knew it would be time consuming, so came prepared to spend time on it in order to create the typefaces as best as I could in the short time I was allocated.

This process went slower than I liked, as specifically my HNECMB typeface had not been developed enough to get created into a final typeface just yet. A lot of the time spent on this vector was tweaking, making notes and changing the way the letters looked. This typeface was a challenge, I felt that a lot of the times it came across as messy, ineligible, or inconsistent and found myself having to start again multiple times. I finally came to a solution; I had outlined in my 'rules' for keeping the font consistent that I could only add five diamonds upways in height. I discovered quite late on that making this number 6 rectified most of my problems- whilst I was grateful to come to a solution and produce a typeface I was happy with, a lot of time was wasted. Luckily, though, my LEGO typeface was created fairly smoothly and I was definitely very pleased with the vector from that side of things.

22/11/2023

It was at this stage that I realised I did not have a lot of time, with a lot to do, and this day was dedicated to ensuring everything was completed onetime. Luckily, though, now the typefaces were fully vectorised and created, I could go on to make the supporting elements such as the specimens, moving image, and physical models as well.

For my type specimens I decided to create two A3 posters each, one that demonstrated the fonts full alphabet, and another that placed it in a context it may be used, or helped to visualise it. For HNECMB, I took a very simple approach, selecting colours that best emphasised the font, and then creating a specimen that highlighted the geometrical elements that inspired the typeface. Simple was best here, as the font itself was constructed of very simple elements, only using identical diamond shapes to convey a honeycomb looking structure. It took a while to discover which looked best, as I had tried to make more elaborate posters and found they looked ineffective, but when I did create the final simpler versions, I found they were the most appropriate.

For the MINIFIG specimens, I wanted to have some fun with them. The A-Z was colour picked from official LEGO branding, and I tried to replicate the logo with my own letters through the stroke and border colours. I was very pleased with this- and my other specimen, I am also very proud of. I was inspired by LEGO instruction booklets, and replicated my own showing the audience how to 'construct' the font by creating a 3D model of the typeface name. I think these are the outcomes I was most happy with overall.

I decided to create a moving image for HNECMB as I had an idea to explore the texture of honey through 3D motion, and how this reflects the typeface name and design origins. However, this was challenging, as I was trying out something completely new in After Effects, which took time. I was following tutorials but kept running into small errors or skipping steps that required me to go back and realise what I had done wrong to try and rectify it. However, as I did push myself to learn something new, I was very pleased with how the finalised video came out. My improvement here however, would be to find a way for it to match some of the other specimens better- as though it looked appealing, it felt a little out of place.

The models themselves went okay. The HNECMB one was simple, as I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve - I wanted to create something quite natural, so cut out diamonds in thin strips of MDF and arranged them on a thicker board of wood. This was effective, and the process was simple, just like the posters, so I felt it all timed in well. However, with my MINIFIG model, it was quite ambitious. The idea was to create the typeface name using real minifigures, which did work, however, I found that my method to colour them a block yellow with spray paint wasn't as effective as I thought it was going to be. In future, I would dedicate more time and tools to perfecting this paint job on the plastic, as it came out fairly patchy and smudged in some areas, which took away from the 'shape' of the letters I was trying to showcase.

Overall, if I had more time I would've liked to have seen how these outcomes could've potentially looked, but I believe that I did well. I am proud of the type specimens specifically, and think they look effective.

23/11/2023 Project crit and feedback.

Here, I was able to print off my posters and display all of my cross media work together. I also was able to gain feedback from my peers on the project as a whole.

Seeing all of my work together, I felt proud of what I achieved in the time. Although, there were definitely some areas of improvements. These were mainly fine tuning, such as the paint on the model, or the moving image being developed further. I feel like with more time and research, this project could be developed further and these improvements could be made. My peers were very receptive to my work, and I received a lot of comments on the LEGO typeface specifically, which was affirming as this was also the one I was most proud of.

REFLECTIONS

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