Environmental Typography

This first image is from our class exercise on Tuesday. It wasn't one of my favorite ones but unfortunately it was the only image that showed up when I tried to open up the jpeg files on my PC after using iPhoto. This "s" was from one of the construction beams sitting outside of Johnston Hall. Anyone who sees this image can tell that this was most like spray painted on to the construction wood with it's blurred edges and higher concentration levels of colors in certain areas. Since the writing on the beam spelled "kbs" I'm assuming it is the initials of the construction company that provided them. Aside from the typography, the stark contrast of the black on the orange background grabs the viewer's attention and makes the letter pop. Having the "s" spray painted on versus nicely engraved or created with tape/stickers, etc...it gives it a more rugged look which is commonly associated with construction projects.

This set of text I googled "creative typography" and it was one of the many search results. It is actually from a website called http://www.ffffound.com/. I'm not sure what the purpose of the web site is, but nontheless it is a dainty, fun font. The use of the phrase "pretty little things in life" combined with all lower case lettering and the curly-q font reminded me of something a young girl may draw when she is figuring out what handwriting is "cute". I remember many times in junior high my friends and I would write notes to each other and make fun dots above our i's, curl in certain letters, have hearts in place of the dots above the i's...and so on. This typography could be used in an advertisment about flowers or in a women's magazine as a header of a beauty section. This conveys a completely different message than the rugged spray-painted "s". With this typography the designer can convey a light hearted message aimed at pleasing the child within us.

This is my favorite of the three examples. The first time you look at this picture, it almost appears as though the "k" was carved in to the tree bark, which especially caught my attention because when I was in high school friends and I attempted to carve something in to a tree and it is pretty much impossible unless you have some heavy duty tools. Not only is this typography eye-catching, but it truly creates the illusion that it was created in nature. Once you take a second look at the photograph you can see there may have been some minmal carving in to the tree but the "k" seems to have been created by a series of shimmering rocks and pebbles. In comparison to my other two examples, this one was the most rustic, while still being very elegant and visually pleasing. I looked at the website it was featured on and they had other examples of creating letters through nature, visual illusions and (of course) graphic design. I would love to know just HOW the creators put together this piece...it's hard to say if they filled in a base carving with rocks as I had mentioned, or if the stones were hot-glued on the tree. At the same time, I doubt hot glue would stick to tree bark.