Cross Coaster: City Range Models

I recently developed a brand personality with accompanying logos for an upcoming range of  3D Printed Rollercoaster Model Kits. These rollercoaster models are based loosely on 80's-90's rollercoasters and that era of the Theme Park industry. So I chose a font accordingly, I chose a grotesk condensed and bold typeface set in black coupled with a simple coloured typeface who's style reflects the rollercoaster and its target audience. For example the City Junior rollercoaster is aimed at children so I have chosen a rounded typeface which has a childish look but is still structured and functional, so it fits well with the grotesk bold face.

Collide Personal Analysis

"Whenever people ask me about my future I always think about my career as a designer. I always see my career as the main part of my life, and everything else falls into place around it. That is probably due to the fact that I love what I do, so seeing it as a key part of my life does not fill me with dread as it would some.

I think about my future often, I think about what I want to specialise in, how my work will have developed, if I will be working in an agency or freelance and will I have won an RSA Pebble or a D&AD Pencil. I get excited thinking of the possibilities and how many different things could happen.

I also consider what I used to look forward to a few years ago, how I wanted my work to look back when I first started my education. And I am happy at how far I have come, how I have achieved most of my hopes from back when I was sixteen. I draw decent typography, design functional contemporary layouts, I have received a Behance coin and I am in contact with many local studios. My sixteen year old self wouldn’t have believed how far I have come, so considering my future in another four years time fills me with wonder.

However, looking back on my life and forward into my future can be a bad thing, it can fill me with hopelessness. Why? Well because I can forget to focus on the now, I only achieved the things I have by acting there and then, not by dwelling on dreams and waiting for something to happen. So spending too much time thinking what I want to happen, stops me from acting to make them so. So sometimes living in the moment and putting aside what might need doing next week or even the next day, is the first step in creating the future I want."

- Emma Nicholson (Collide Project Document, 2016)

Here I talk about the times where I reflect on my past and future for the purpose of the Collide project. I consider my past and future often in order to measure my progress and set goals to motivate me forward. In my contextual portfolio I often talk about my progressive skills and interests as I experiment and research. These small reflections will help me pool together years of my creative practise in order to use them in my Collide project.

FS Me: An accessible typeface design from Fontsmith

I have just come across a typeface design whilst looking into Fontsmith for interest and I came across their accessible font FS Me. This typeface aimed to follow the rules on accessibility so it was legible for those with learning difficulties. When describing their font, Fontsmith (n.d.) said something wonderful: "People with learning disabilities are often treated as inferior by childlike design. FS Me is designed for adults, not children..." This is absolutely true and is an issue which needed to be addressed. Of course when you think of a typeface for those with learning difficulties, you shudder and think of the dreaded Comic Sans with its childish and mocked style. Having to use this typeface can be degrading for someone with learning difficulties because of its poor reputation, so having a typeface like FS Me from Fontsmith is a great innovation.

As well as the purpose of the typeface, from a typographers point of view I liked the small snippets of sketches they showed. These sketches showed footnotes of small amendments to the letters which is rare to see. This will help me a little in my letter sketching series, I will try and show some amendment notes in my next letter.

Fontsmith
(n.d.)
http://www.fontsmith.com/fonts/fs-me

Letter Sketching Series 17/12/15

Just a few hours after the previous letter, I felt motivated to draw this little sketch digitally. Usually the initial sketches are drawn here and there; be that in a lecture in my notebook, on a train in my little pocket sketchbook, or at a friends house on the back of an envelope while your waiting for a pizza. What I have noticed is that my motivation and drive to draw these letters and carry them through to a digital piece is growing more and more that I do them. I enjoy the process and since the letters are drawn absent mindedly here and there it does not seem a chore. But as I do more I have found they are looking to be up to a good standard. Typography has always been an interest of mine, and I started by learning how to set fonts and layouts, but drawing letterforms has always seemed daunting and an almost impossible task, but now I can see I am actually doing it, almost with surprising ease. It is this realisation that I am capable of doing it which strives me to keep going and improving. And now I find myself drawing original but realistic letterforms for fun as a way to get away from other work that is getting a bit much. So I have found myself caught up in a snowball effect where I am drawing more and more letters which improve with each one, plus I am loving the process.

Letter Sketching Series 16/12/15

Another letter in a series of sketches aimed to improve my abilities with designing type. With this letter I sketched it and digitally drew it much quicker than the previous letters which I will see as a good improvement which could help me move onto creating a range of letters in the time it took me to create one. Hopefully the speed I produce these letters will quicken to the point I can create a font weight in a reasonable amount of time.

Letter Sketching Series 05/12/15

The next instalment in my letter sketching series. Here I explore various font families and I learnt a lot from this practice. I got a better eye for detail when working with the lighter serifs and slight rounded corners on the sans.

Letter Sketching Continued

Another quick sketch in my learning letters series. A rough sketch in my notebook, taken into illustrator and refined.