Lesson One: Monograms are difficult.
The sketching has been the single most difficult piece of the newest project phase. I am quickly discovering that their are only so many ways to piece two letterforms together without completely obliterated all meaning and legibility. Creatviely combineing the two, singular elements to communicate specific properties about the element leaves very little room. I found myself illustrating with the letterforms on a few occasions. I struggled to get to thirty thumbnails, but let me tell you, not all of them are golden.
Lesson Two: Fonts talk too much.
Picking the six fonts, I felt relatively underwhelmed. I feel somewhat trapped by the 'font folio' stipend and unsuccessful in finding that 'perfect sodium font'. Maybe it's because alkali metals are so peculiar themselves that they need an individual, perculiar font to match its characteristics. I think I need to sketch with the fonts themselves, rather than my pathetically misaligned scribbles to fully capture what I need to get across. I'm sure that's what tomorrow will bring.
Lesson Three: Researching is easy, fun, and educational, too.
My favorite part of the assignment (suprise) was researching and writing about our element. I found a few elementary age sites that clearly expressed all the boring factoids about sodium. I also discovered a YouTube video (posted earlier) that helped me visually understand what sodium is and what it does. Seeing sodium in the real world informed my sketches exponentially.
I hope my writing selection isn't too obscure. I wanted to have fun with the writing portion of the assignment. This led to my decision to personify sodium, talking about how it feels. Like I said in class, I've done the boring element reports before. I don't even remember which it was because it was so boring and regurgitative. With the writing method I chose, I understand sodium in a different way, leading to a fuller understanding overall.
Thank god for Rousseau.
No comments:
Post a Comment