Project 1: Paper Letters

Objective

To start seeing letters as more than just a line.

part 1

You will work on making letters from black and white paper focusing on expressive and unique letters. It is okay to start with creating letters that seem familiar but you are encouraged to experiment with each e. Can an e be sad? What happens when the shape isn’t round? Can you make a thin e and a bold e? In the end you will have a 24 different lowercase e’s to show. Work quickly and intuitively, don’t overthink.

This will be done on a 24”x18” sheet of white paper divided into a grid of 6x4.

part 2

Choose an interesting e from part 1. Using that e you will construct your name through the same method of cutting black shapes and glue white shapes on top of them. Consider the kerning of your letters and keep in mind that the letters should belong together. Look at the black and white shapes from your e and see how you can use them in the new letters. If you need to see how certain letters are related to each other, set your name in a digital font and examine how the letters relate. We will refine the proportions and shapes of the letters to make them more exact in the next step.

This part will be done on a 17”x11” (landscape tabloid) sheet of white paper.

part 3

Scan or take a photograph of your paper name. Now work on digitizing your letters in Illustrator using the pen tool. This is the step where you want to make sure the proportions and shapes are exact and relate to each other. Work on refining your letters shapes and the kerning until everything is perfect.

Your name will be set in black and will be printed out on a 17”x11” (landscape tabloid) sheet of white paper.

Requirements

Checkpoints

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