Compress

I was set a brief to create 10 letterforms that explore and communicate my interpretation of the word 'compress'; focusing on the manipulation of existing typefaces.

I initially thought of using short hand, the compression of words, and to then manipulate them into some form of typeface. I looked at the origins of short hand and the different pen strokes used to represent the same words.

I hit somewhat of a dead end with this idea because I realized it would be hard to manipulate the shorthand into individual letterforms. Brain storming different ways I could represent 'compression' within letters, without going for the obvious squashing or thinning out of the letterforms, I thought about compression within a file. When you compress a file on a computer document it loses its quality and therefore creates pixelation. I liked this idea and looked for existing typefaces online that had a pixelated effect.

Below fonts top to bottom: superpoint round, 04b, abstract, redensek, superpoint square, v5 prophit

I looked at different typefaces, including ones which weren't already pixelated to see which one

I though could make the best effect when I pixellated them myself.

I took a stylized font, Promised Freedom, which wasn't pixelled already and on Photoshop experiment with different ways of pixellation, pushing the font to see how pixellated I could make it before it was illegible.

I decided after this that I needed a font which already had a pixellated feel to it. I chose

Redensek because it had a box feel to it. I experimented with colours, kerning, shading, stretching and the amount of pixelation.

For my final design I chose to add colour to help differentiate between the different letterforms. This piece is best viewed from a distance or when you blur your eyes. Viewed normally close up gives a totally different perspective, of just different coloured squares.