Personality Alphabet

Rational
What is the problem you intend to solve?: I am creating an alphabet and 6 glyphs which will represent five important personality traits of my partner, Eddie.
Who needs to know?: Obviously my partner, Eddie, but also a general audience, and therefore it must be easy to understand for those who may not know him.
What do they need to know?: Eddie needs to know why the typeface is relevant to him, and why I've made the decisions that have led me to my final outcome.
Why do they need to know?: The typeface will be personal to Eddie.
What will they respond to?: Eddie will connect to the outcome if it is clear, visual, legible, readable, and easy to understand.
What research is required?
Primary- I will need to find out first hand information from Eddie about his personality by asking him a series of questions.
Secondary- I will research existing letter forms that are relevant to what I am trying to communicate about Eddie's personality.


Week One Progress Crit
Issues raised
In my one week progress crit, I shared with other classmates and my tutor the work that I had completed at this stage. It made me feel confident that my ideas were working as planned, particularly the theme of the maze, and the mysterious shadows, but made me realise that I need much more development until I can reach a final alphabet.
Actions Taken
To develop my work further, I need to try every single letter of the alphabet with the style I am aiming to use. When experimenting with things such as uppercase type and italics, I need to use quite a few examples to understand that a style can work with some letters but not others.


Final Crit
Which personality traits did you choose to respond to and apply to the typeface?

The five adjectives I decided suited what I understood of Eddie’s personality are laid back, fun, mysterious, indecisive and informal. Unintentionally I seem to have concentrated on the adjective ‘mysterious’, and not added any aspects of ‘fun’ to the typeface. There are aspects of ‘indecisive’ and ‘informal’ applied to my font, but after development, I ended up removing the aspects of ‘laid back.’

What are the reasons behind the design decisions you have made for the typeface?

I used the font ‘Trisect’ which contains connecting thin lines, which I believe look like the lines in a maze, showing how I think Eddie is confusing and mysterious. I have also been inspired by the font ‘Wyvern Blocko’, which contains a block shadow, which I have added into my typeface to show how parts of Eddie are hidden, like things hiding away in shadows. I have only drawn outlines and not filled in the typeface with block colour, to show that Eddie doesn’t come across as being bold, and also to show there are things about himself he seems unsure of. For example, when completing the initial questionnaires we asked each other when gaining first hand research, Eddie left many questions unanswered.

The font ‘Jigsaw’, where the pieces aren’t joined together but are separate like a stencil, also represents Eddie’s indecisive nature, as bits of the letters seem to be missing. I have also used a font which Eddie said he liked, to help make this font visually attractive to Eddie. I have used a lowercase typeface, as Eddie is an informal, relaxed person, and I feel uppercase would have suggested that he was a bold, loud person. Originally, to show that Eddie is laid back, I had the letters physically leaning back, but decided this was too much of an obvious design decision, and that it didn’t add anything to the attractiveness of the font.

In what ways are the results effective?
I feel that I have responded to some personality traits better than others, in particular 'mysterious'. Eddie may disagree that he is not particularly mysterious, but this is just how i have interpreted him, as I do not know him very well. I think the other aspects of his personality that I have applied to my font are not obvious unless they are explained. Therefore, I think my typeface looks good, but is not completely effective.

To improve and develop my typeface, I could experiment with also creating a set of uppercase letters, and to check that the typeface is readable, by creating words and sentences with the letters at different sizes. 


Response from Tutor
The use of closed letters and block shadows actually make the letters easier to read, which goes against what I am trying to portraying about Eddie being confusing. The maze outline also gives away some of the letters completely, such as p and q. Letters such as t do not work as well with the missing gaps. 
To continue to develop this alphabet, I should try uppercase letters, as well as connecting each of the letters together and possibly creating a new name badge. I should trace over the final piece, and see what the alphabet would like without the use of shadow and outline, and fix 'problem' letters, so that this alphabet looks more like what I am aiming to communicate.

Final Piece: Alphabet & 6 Glyphs on A1 Tracing Paper

4.5cm x 9cm Name Badge