Today I spent my, time working on my own idea for a machine. I did some brainstorming so that I would have an idea of what to do. I did some research on machines and tools throughout history. I did this because I wanted to explore the possibilities that I could have with recreating a historic tool and use it for something different. I tried to create a version of an old-fashioned plow. When I tried to use my pushpin and tape machine, but the pushpin was not heavy enough to create a proper typeface. I chose to not continue with this concept as it would not get the result that I would like.
I have already done some research on what a machine is, so I just continued from that previous point of research, with some additions. I researched the Norrønn language, in the letter form, that would mean old Norwegian. I did this because I knew they had some different lettering and a different way of writing than we do now. It was quite interesting to see how almost modern that written language actually looked, it is written like a slimline gothic font.
The definition of a machine can mean a part of a process and that is what I decided to base my own machine on. I will make a set of loose set rules that I would have people follow during the crit. That would be my machine. I made up all the letters in the alphabet with two triangles and that would be one of the two rules that people have to follow. I want to have the rules quite simple, so people can make the letters in their own way. I have my answer to the question, but it would be interesting to see people’s iterations. I have cut out all the triangles needed to create the entire alphabet my way and a few extra, in case.
What did you throw away?
During my process, I tried a lot of different versions of machines. I tried some with pencils taped together but it was way too easy, and I wanted a more thought out project. The one I have decided on requires quite a bit of thinking, and let people explore possibilities I have restricted myself from. I tried a couple of other ideas but none of them tickled my fancy, and I was not intrigued enough to explore them further. I tried using a cassette tape, and the shape was interesting, but I was not able to come up with an idea as to how I could create a machine other than use nails and create different letters with placing the tame differently. Having the pencil hanging and moving and creating the letter from the control of a sting, was also one of my ideas, but I could not get the pigmentation right, so it looks like someone bearly touched the page that I tried that on.
I set myself a lot of rules, all the letters had to have the same cap height, all of them had to touch the baseline. All the letters also had to consist of two triangles, not more not less, I was not allowed to change the shape of the triangles or anything like that. I might have pushed the legibility, but I feel like that is not that important at this stage, and within an alphabet order you can understand them. With the number of rules, I set I don’t believe I could have set that many more before I would drive myself crazy.
How would you develop this further if you had more time?
If I were to have limitless time, I would definitely make them 3D, so that people could interact with them, but then I would have to create a way for all of my letters to stand upon itself. That is simply not something I have the time to do now. and if I had the money I would have made the triangles out of something other than cardboard.
What the issues?
The idea started with, drawing triangles after each other, it looked horrible, so I put it aside for a while. During that time, I worked with circles and how to create them into an alphabet ether with just one circle cut up into pieces or several ones and using the connected spaces. But I thought there might be a good idea under the horrible triangles, so I played with them and introduced another triangle type to the mix, I just started tinkering with it and after a while, I got something ok out of it. I continued with taking it into illustrator, where I introduced the baseline and cap height rules, there I had to change a lot of my letters. I refined so much I could, but I felt like this was a font that had to be played with to really get the full effect. So, I cut out 67 pieces out of the cardboard. And I made a grid that can be used during the crit.
Evaluation
I feel like I managed to create an interesting lettering machine, that is not that obvious. And my version of the font came together nicely, I do feel like I could have. The typeface does look a bit messy for me at the moment, but I was told that this is not supposed to be the end product, so I guess it could look a bit shabby. I do really enjoy the idea though. I just wish the execution could be a bit better, but that is always the case anyway. I feel like i did a quite good job today concidering I did not really have a clear idea going in to this project.
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