Project 01 - Hyperbolic Letterform

In this project we had to study the qualities of Illuminated letter forms - oldest forms of typographic design - and later design our own illuminated letter - our initial. During such time I came across an Art Nouveau book with illuminated letters, and which ended being the focus of my research. Those letters varied from organic to mechanical or handwritten, and they were always decorated with an element from nature. Looking at the prototypes of 'Y's', I felt there was a lack of variety in shapes. Other letters had more variety, while there was only one type of 'Y.' A 'Y' that with a mechanical shape. I ended up deciding to generate and use a shape that would incorporate more curves and, thus seem organic and handwritten since we were meant to do this by hand. After what I added the nature element. Initially, I planned to add more than one, but due to complications, I ended adding just one element. After scanning the original drawing, we had to trace the image and modify it or add color on Illustrator. I could not figure out how to add color on Illustrator. However, the image ended up inverting the back and white, and here are the results:

Original

Traced as logo + imperfections corrected

Traced as high quality image + imperfections corrected

I had some fun doing this, but I felt rather ignorant when it came to trying coloring the final result due to lack of Illustrator knowledge. For instance, the shade behind the cat on the black background image, I have no idea how that appeared, and when later I tried eliminating it... I just could not. It was interesting how the shade was produced only for the cat and not for the 'Y' itself too. There is a lot more to learn from Illustrator, and I think I may try to slowly learn more and more on my own, when I have the time.