Studio Art: Words as Art

We learned about the basics of typography in class and now it's time to bring a creative approach to what we learned.  The image above of the Holstee Manifesto is a great example of great type design and it was created using the old fashioned letterpress technique shown in the video clip below.



We are going to take this design concept and use digital technology to create something similar.  We are going to use the designer Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich's work for inspiration.  He collaborated with Mucca Design and Adobe on a fantastic project called Words at Play which helped advertise Adobe's program with educational and unique images of authors made with type along with information about them and the font.  They project won some coveted awards and was eventually developed into a print book shown below.

Each student in class will create a word portrait in a similar way of a different author and being that it is National Poetry Month I will create a demo today of one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins.  Before starting the design we will research the writer and read some of their word to match their style with their design.  here's a terrific poem titled Forgetfulness by Billy Collins that was turned into a short film by JWT.



In the TED talk below Billy, who was a two-term U.S. Poet Laureate, explains the project and how his poems were animated for the Sundance Channel.