Catching Bullets

 So now the rules for the lines were decided I needed to draw them. I went through a few iterations. As I was inspired by the New Alphabet I kept my marked up guide next to me. I started on three handraulic versions. The first one was during my ideation, see previous post for those doodles. It was more to decide if I wanted solid, outline, negative space, etc. Didn't go far. Then my first alphabet, in my notebook. I was still working out line weight and if there were curves (there weren't in the end). This is also where I decided on the name, White Line Fever. The madness that comes over you after driving too much. The second one is closer to what was done. No curves, but still working on line weights. My final version was done in Fontlab. Of course I let my 10 day license lapse before I took a screen shot, but here is my type specimen. Lessons learned: Taking on new software is challenging. Taking on new software that has a relatively small market is harder as tutorials are sc

 So I've decided to do a project for GICHD ( https://www.gichd.org/ ). Trying to unify the messaging in mine/UXO awareness and small arms and light weapons safety in conflict zones. This is a complex project and I do not plan on solving it, just constructing a framework and providing some ideas. The main problem in the area is competing NGOs. They are often personality driven, everyone knows everyone else, and there are clashing personalities. That is the main reason things that there are no non-safety standards. GICHD has managed to push through safety standards for a lot of UXO work, but beyond that education is up to each NGO. Some do great work, some not so much, or just rely on what is at hand. Ideally education and awareness material would be localized and be accessible by illiterate (due to education or age) people. Using an image of a SE Asian child in Africa is somewhat unrelatable to the local population. Globalization is solving this problem, but it still exists. To star

 So, we gotta make a font. Influenced by Medicine Hat. I hate driving in Medicine Hat. I'm going to make a font that reflects it. I love Wim Crouwel's work. That's an influence. So, looking at the New Alphabet for inspiration, I stared at its type example for too long. Figured out what the figures, math symbols, and punctuation represented. Eventually I started thinking how it related to Medicine Hat transport routes. I realized it didn't directly speak to the traffic, but it did look like roads curving around. While I was doing rubbings of type, I was walking roads, looking down, and realized that the road markings would make an interesting basis of the font. Turns out there are rules for road markings ( https://open.alberta.ca/publications/highway-pavement-marking-guide-2nd-edition/resource/14df908e-9c5d-41f8-82f9-09ac12b5d99a ). Here's the main page I used for my rules of the road. Once I had decided on road lines, I started doodling lines and shapes I see on the

 Composing pictures to blend text with the image is tricky. I started by brain storming concepts for the contents of book (image 1). Is it about people, places, things, etc? Concepts for layouts and spreads. Finally is there a unifying concept? During all of this, and keeping in mind the minimum of 20 photos, I settled on 24 photos in 24 hours in the Medicine Hat area. I wandered around with a notebook and pen and took pictures when I could. The locations for the images range from Medicine Hat to Redcliff to Basanno. Image 2 shows the initial brainstorming list of photos, followed by the first list of photos and times; this was superseded by the notebook. Getting the photos between 0700 and 2200 was easy(ish). I made a conscious effort to keep the notebook at hand and would divert my route when needed and if I had time; for the rush hour picture I just pulled over on my way to school and went up on the overpass.  I was opportunistic, and kept the project in mind when I was in areas tha

 The third part of the project was finding examples of vernacular design in the community. This was pretty straightforward but required a lot of looking around. I found things on businesses, former businesses, architecture, and in repurposed everyday objects. I had to look beyond ad hoc items, to find local or regional items, like the gate latch. The latch is something used in the west, I've been across the country and that is not a common design, but variations are found everywhere on the prairies. Pool noodles are also surprisingly versatile, and the Flat's house has a special surprise.

 Part two of the first Applied project was using metaphor to redesign bathroom signs in a specific area of the college that would be used by the population of that area. As a group project we first got together and pared down the areas we might want to do. That resulted in the Cafe, Sciences, Rattlers, Theater, and Humanities. We came up with different ideas for each and after some discussion decided that Humanities (Political Science) and Theater were the ones we wanted to execute. Some discussion about digital or physical production, and we decided on physical. Drawings ensued, more research on the subject matter, and then we gathered material. Assembly was the next class and went quickly. This was a fun project