When creating the initial sketches for my letters  I was hoping to create a very ornate font. Hopefully my font would have still been easy to read and usable but it was also quite flowery.  However after quite some time playing with fontStruct, creating this particular style of font did not seen possible.  I had been hoping to create a font somewhere in between  Blackadder ITC and Curlz MT .  In order to create the curls I had to make the font quite large.  Since it was my first time working with FontStruct I was uncomfortable working at such a large size and was overwhelmed by detail.  I decided to regroup and attempted a different style that was more suited to the strengths of the application and my inexperience as a typographer.   Afterward I experimented with FontStruct by working with the different bricks and seeing what kinds of patterns and shapes I could make.

While exploring the limitations of FontStruct I was interested and amused by the circular bricks.  Circles are something that I have always found aesthetically pleasing and I was reminded of the wall art that many people create with circles.  Traditionally circles have symbolized togetherness, eternity, love, family, etc.  These are concepts that most people enjoy and can relate to in some way.  The wall art that I mentioned tends to create the appearance of bubbles floating toward the sky or Champaign in a glass   I decided to attempt a similar style within the constraints of a font.  I attempted to create a font that was fun and elegant while still being usable. 

I wanted to base the general shape of the font off Times New Roman because of its popularity and because it is generally accepted.    I also took inspiration from Imprint MT Shadow because of the strip of white that is present in the side of each letter.  As Turchi might say  this blank space is important, perhaps even more so that the filled in area and should be evaluated accordingly.  To me Imprint MT Shadow seems more intricate than Times New Roman while still being easy to read. 

The circles or bubbles and more dense on the right side of the letter than the left.  This creates an A symmetrical appearance that I find to be more interesting than symmetrical ones.   For the shape of this letter I was influenced by popular drawings of suns with curvy rays.

  I have used this concept over and over in my own paintings and artwork. While I did not think that I could create the hard curves of the sunrays, I was able to create the varying degrees of thickness seen in the rays. Of course some of the letters came out better than others for example I preferred the outcome of the letter “B” much more than the letter “E”.

One problem that I came a crossed was when creating the lowercase letters was that Lupton talks about having the bottom of curvy letters such as “o” or “e” hang below the baseline.  The rationale behind this is that “if a typeface were not positioned this way, it would appear to teeter precariously, lacking a sense of physical grounding” (p.35).  However because the lower case letters themselves were only 12 grid blocks high this made a bigger impact on the look of the letter than I would have preferred. 

Here is a screen shot of my font; Have chosen to call it Void because the shape of the letters is made up of small round holes. 

After completing my font I attempted to find a color palate on Kuler that accentuates the mood and character of the font.  (Or at least the mood and character that I tried to project with the font.) To do this I continued to use an image of a sun with curvy rays.  I chose one of the mosaics that I made back in high school as my inspiration. 

While the colors of the mosaic itself are more diverse than I would want in a four sample color palate it did provide interesting inspiration for colors to chose from. I tried to chose ones that I believed would complement the style of the font.  Therefore I chose deep purples, yellow, and dark gray for my color palate.  The purples and yellows are complementary to one another on the color wheel and I thought that the combination of the three would make it possible to highlight and subdue different items when creating a presentation.  Also yellow is symbolic of happiness, rebirth, regenerations, hope, warmth, nature, etc. While purple is symbolic of royalty, wealth, opulence, etc.  Dark Gray is symbolic of Stability, Power, Trustworthiness, Conservatism, etc. Of course the symbolic meaning behind these colors are all culturally ground. Each person will see different meaning in these colors because of their background and personal perception.