The other day I saw a shirt that said “what type are you” and had a picture of a blood droplet. Being the type geek that I am, the first thing I thought of was typeface, not blood type. I decided to make a series of t-shirts or posters for the type obsessed. It would simply read, “what type are you?” set in ~60pt type contrasted with the first letter in ~950pt and the name of the typeface to go along with it. I started off with my favorites, “futura” and then “helvetica.” Soon I had about 5 or 6 letters from the alphabet, so I figured I’d do the whole alphabet. They’re more poster-like than t-shirt-like. Only finished a dozen so far but here’s a teaser.

These are my latest versions of my wasp symbol. The problem statement is to communicate frantic and sluggish. This process was quite a tedious one. One of the most challenging aspect was abstracting something all the while communicating, maintaining elegant form, and be simple enough so even pedestrians will get it in <5 seconds. I’m quite happy with it and even happier that it’s done. Excited now to learn about color, an area where I’m just a neophyte.

I came across this gem while glancing through a book, Notes on Graphic Design and Visual Communication by Gregg Berryman. Short little book that cuts to the meat of what graphic design is with practical teachings and samples. This symbol designed for the California Conservation Corps symbol by Michael Vanderbyl really caught my eye. It’s done in four shapes, two black & two whites. It’s balanced with tension; stable and geometric. I love the simple shapes repeated throughout and the message it communicates. It has very efficient use of white space. Now if I can only do the same for a wasp…