Created an alphabet composed of insects corresponding with each letter. The insect concept paired with a simple sans serif typeface provided a cohesive foreground for the insects to interact with each letterform. This design is intended to be minimalistic and hyperrealistic with a design system and rules applied to achieve these contrasting attributes. Utilizing a hyperrealist approach with the insects was an interesting constraint that allowed me to explore my fear of bugs closer than I might have wanted to!
Final Poster and key
DESign Process:
Visual Research
Visual research included sourcing around 5 images from Pinterest for each category of the brief: celebrities and public figures, aninmals, or emotions with brief captions on why I chose each image.
DESign Process:
Ideation + SKetching
Crazy 8’s are an ideation exercise where you fold your paper into eight boxes and spend one minute on each sketch. I followed this excercise with more refined sketches deviating on the three different constraints of the alphabet.
DESign Process:
Early Iteration
Conceptually, still deciding between a hyper realistic approach or a more illustrative approach. I sourced stock images of the environments in which each insect lived and then masked the habitats to each letter form in Photoshop. Finding habitats for 26 insects proved to be a challenge, so I decided on exploring a different approach.
DESign Process:
Rules
In order to create a cohesive alphabet where each letter worked on its own and as a unit, rules needed to be established to maintain order. The rules for this alphabet were simple in that each insect needed to interact with the letter form in some way.
DESign Process:
Composition / layout
After sourcing high resolution images for 26 bugs to their corresponding letter, i created a 6x9 grid with one inch margins. This composition provided enough negative space for each letter to stand out individually while also complimenting one another collectively.
