PPP: SELF INITIATED PROJECT = COMMISSION $$$

After completing the Circus Leeds brief it made me realise that those types of commissions were not really the kind I was hoping to get in the future due to the outcomes nature not really being my style. I wanted to get some work relating to music, record labels and specifically hard-core punk labels as this particular genre of music was a personal favourite of mine. To get the attention of some bands and labels within this genre I decided to curate the first Leeds Hardcore Punk playlist given the fact I had background knowledge and friends within these bands I felt like this would be a fun and easy task. I approached several local record labels and bands that I knew and some that I didn't asking for help to curate the playlist.

After carefully putting the playlist together of Leeds hardcore punk bands over a month, I designed an appealing cover image for the playlist using a photo I had taken of one of the bands featured a while back and a few symbols relating to the genre as well as my own logo. This gave it a slightly more official appearance. I then posted in on instagram, tagging all the bands/labels featured and all the people who helped make it. It got shared a bunch of time by these other accounts and my follower count increased loads with people within that community.

A week later, I was contacted by a new client from Boston who was a drummer in a hardcore punk band over in America. He stated that he found me through the Leeds Hardcore playlist (somehow). He was starting a new electronic dance label with undertones of punk and wanted me to create the cover art for his new complication. 

After a lot of back and fourth between the client and giving him several options to choose from we ended up on this design which he was incredibly happy with. I invoiced him and he said he'd pass my name onto several other bands and labels in Boston. He also later came to me for more work, asking me to create some merchandise for his new label. The decision to create the Leeds Hardcore playlist was a very good one.

STUDIO: CIRCUS LEEDS WIN/DEVELOPMENT

After winning the Circus Leeds brief I got in touch with them to push the idea a little bit further. They wanted me to send them variety of colour options for the logo to see if it could become a little more playful. They also wanted a mockup of a banner that they were considering investing towards and a poster template that they could use with the relevant typeface I gave them to ensure their future posters would look consistent and on brand.

After some playing around with different colour combos, these were the final deliverables for the brief including an invoice,

 

STUDIO: DISAPPOINTMENT ZINE FINAL DEV/OUTCOME

After receiving some final feedback on the zines's layout, I reorganised a few of the pages type setting choices mainly the front cover making the title in the clearer sans serif type and the definition in the deflated typeface. I was told to do this by most of my peers due to the main cover originally not being that clear.

I finally managed to create a word search on the last page with one key word taken from each apology. I made sure I didn't include one of the words in the game so that when the audience completed it they were left with a sense of disappointment.

STUDIO: TYPOGRAPHY COLLAB SWAPPING TYPE

After I had experimented on my half with the initial typefaces, me and my collaborator John swapped files and I began working on each others typefaces in their current stages to see how many more physical idea we could generate. I followed the same concept as before but whilst using John's type. Below is what I was given to start with.

I took some of John's letterforms and overlaid them to create new forms and shapes. After this I began refining the jagged shapes to create several letters to see how legible this type idea could be. I then experimented with the bloating tool which supported our concept of the type holding its breath. After several experiments I selected the variation I liked the most and applied it to more letterforms. 

These are my final outcomes for the development of John's files. After this we'd meet up and share the work we had done with each others type. 

STUDIO: TYPOGRAPHY COLLAB DEVELOPMENT

After getting some feedback from Leah, the designer who ran the initial workshop, we began developing our favourite concepts and type. 

The developments below express the concepts of turning all straight letters to curved ones and then from curves back into straight ones. Recycling letterforms and then up cycling them again in an attempt to create their original form has created some really interesting shapes and a grid system to work through. I also developed the concept of drawing a letterform that looked like it was holding its breath. This gives the letterforms a lot of physical character that could be played around with a lot more.

After experimenting with those two separate concepts and expressing them through the type with unique grid systems, I then combined the two concepts together. This meant taking those up cycled curved letterforms and bloating them out as they were in fact holding their breath also. I did this by bloating out the serifs like a large chest and making the rest of the connecting type incredibly light as if it were an inhaling stomach. 

After this I then played around with a few bloating tools on illustrator to see other possible outcomes and simplifying them. This gave John and I the option to end up generating a typeface family through the workshop just like the original Glyphworld typefaces. 

STUDIO: GLYPHWORLD WORKSHEET

John and I began the collaboration by working our way through the glyphworld experimental type workshop. After we finished every page we'd look through them all and decide on our favourite letterforms and concepts.

Below we selected our favourite illustrated letters based on shape and initial concept fro that letter.

STUDIO: DISAPPOINTMENT ZINE PHYSICAL DEV

I began designing an initial layout for my zine using the content I had gathered and the idea I had developed. I selected a title typeface that would be placed on the cover and travel throughout each page as a reminder of what the zine was. The typeface was titled 'Grind Grotesque'. I selected this as  I felt it was a great visual representation of deflation, a feeling common to those who have felt disappointment. I included it on the cover alongside a definition of disappointment.

The dimension of the book were taken from a sized up version of my phone given the fact all the content was collected from this device I felt it was relevant to keep its shape. I sized it up slightly to create a more book like shape so that the whole thing wasn't centred around the idea of the phone.

I used several abstract typesetting layout to set the type for each apology making sure the reader would be taken on a difficult journey throughout each page, representing the difficult journey I travelled through within the large collaborative project. I made sure I censored any names included to avoid any further conflict.

After printing a cheap mockup of the initial zines layout, it gave me more perspective onto how it was read physically and how I could change some aspects of it. After reviewing this I went back and pushed the development of the layout further, playing with more typesetting options and how the reader could get lost in each page.