In keeping with my intention I'm hoping to get in the groove of these weekly updates for the start of the new year however I'm finding this one a little difficult to get started with. This is mostly down to the fact I pretty much got everything off my chest last week so the tank feels rather low at the moment. There is one topic however that has been snowballing for quite some time now and over the past few weeks it feels like it's really gaining some momentum. During the last six months or so graphic design has seen a real re-emergence in my art sphere, this can be seen in the work I did for OTM, my growing interest in motion graphics and GFX and more currently as part of my UI project. In the recent weeks however I've stumbled onto something of a gold mine.
Typography is perhaps not the most interesting of subjects but hear me out on this one. During last week and the week before I've been delving deep into this treasure trove of a blog, link. It goes pretty in-depth regarding fonts used within science fiction films, Alien and 2001 for example and discusses the connotations of using certain fonts, how they enhance the mood or draw the viewer's eye to key elements on the screen. Very quickly this has had a major impact on my approach to font use in not only graphical pieces but also to environment work. It does seem like what I'm writing about are fairly obvious points to make, like I'm talking about something fairly standard however I do feel like there's been a light bulb moment of sorts similar to when I was beginning to get to grips with composition. I think most of this click is down to being more knowledgeable now then I was back in high school studying graphic design in regards to typography, now being more aware of font family names, examples of use etc. allowing me a far better understanding of what font I want to use and why I want to use it. I would also put much of it down to the more professional way I'm looking at the subject. Rather than simply choosing a font on the basis of "that one looks sci-fi, use that" I'm now researching, referencing and concepting to make that decision to push the theme or the mood within an environment or interface.
While I don't have any physical results to show for this change in thinking my UI project is the obvious one to begin feeling the repercussions of this. While I'm currently refining the design of the HUD from pretty much every angle the typography of the design was something that was pretty solid for the longest while, that is until earlier this month. Right now I'm toying with about five different fonts to use and even then once I'm happy with which ones I want to implement it's using them in a coherent manner to create a natural looking font design. I'm sure it's no surprise when I say that typeface is integral in the design of any graphical piece and so I feel a lot more confident in my direction with this more intelligent way of choosing my fonts.
Typography is not the first point people will mention when discussing what's integral into a successful environment but having read Typeset In The Future it's clear how important the typefaces were in the aesthetic design of the environments. It's a great way to sell authenticity in a design in general, from props to vehicles to characters and like I said it's not the first thing that comes to peoples minds when studying a great design which to me is partly what makes it so appealing to use effectively in my own works. Of course using the right font isn't gonna turn a bad environment into a great one rather it's a smaller, subtler building block to sell the bigger picture be that futuristic, historical or contemporary.
Riding of the wave of what I've come to realise recently and through my own explorations with UI and GFX it's clear that I want graphic design to play a more prominent role in my work. Whether that means fully committing down a GFX route or implementing it into environment or prop work remains to be seen but it's something that's currently on my mind. It's not the only thing either, the FMP is also creeping around the back of my thoughts and knowing that rest of the year will be beginning theirs after Christmas is beginning to drag it to the forefront. Right now I have a pretty solid idea of what I want to do and I've been strong on it since first year and through second year to now it's only become more solid, for better or for worse. While I'm currently in the mind-set to create an environment piece I want a core part the project to be graphically based such as through wall decals and signage or through in-game interfaces. Science Fiction seems to be the best genre to marry my environment and graphical skills into a single showcase and I'm confident of the direction to take artistically. It is a year away still so there's still a lot of time where it may all change, however much I doubt it, but I can feel all the core pieces aligning for it but between now and then there's more immediate challenges and projects to take up my time.
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