Typographic Posters – American Cities
This project was completed during my undergraduate studies for an advanced typography course. We were asked to design three fonts that were thematically connected. I chose to do fonts for different major American cities. All of the type was created by hand.
Skills:
Typography
Layout Design
Graphic Design
Programs:
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
inspiration
I was inspired by a number of sources for this project. Urban scenes have always been an interest of mine, particularly in my fine arts work. However, given that this project was so open-ended, I wanted to investigate this theme through graphic design as a change of pace. I will go into further detail when discussing each poster about specific content that was inspirational for me.
sketches
I had never created type prior to this project. It was a bit daunting but I got into a rhythm after sketching for a few days. To the right is a snippet of some of those sketches. At this time I had not decided on the theme for the posters so I wrote words that I enjoyed too. All of this process work made for a better result in the end.
new york
For the New York poster, I edited a collage of different images taken in New York City and filtered them. I then let this image shine through the type. This creates a good amount of negative space to break up the chaos of the original image. The font is stretched and conveys movement and activity that I often associate with busy New York City.
los angeles
The Los Angeles poster went in a different direction and designed a more playful font. I paired it with a free image I found and edited. The blue font and palm trees inspiration drew on the Eagle’s “Hotel California” cover. The font I designed for this poster is more rounded and relaxed. The blurring around the edges creates a more vintage appeal to the work.
chicago
And finally, for the Chicago poster, I decided to use my own image. I liked the font to be a part of the environment rather than something pasted on the poster. I matched the text to the shadows in a way where it will not be missed but does not change the mood of the image. The font is round and sturdy and came out of one of the sketches that I experimented with.
