In this exercise, we printed out 10 large letters each in a different font and cut out a bunch of 3” by 3” squares. We then took four of these squares and glued them together into a shape that we found visually interesting; above is the shape I formed and below are the letters I used to form it.
The upper left box is a cut out from a capital M in giddyup type (shown above), which is a sans-serif type. I used the loop from the M. A loop is a closed off or partly closed off counter as found here in the middle of the M.
The upper right hand box is a square cut out from a capital M in futura light condensed type (shown above), which is also a sans serif font. Here I’ve used the apex of the M, which is where two ascenders, vertical lines that go above the x-height, join together at the letter’s highest point.
The lower left hand box is a cut out from a capital E in mojo type (shown above), which is again a sans-serif font. Here, I’ve used the counters from the E. Counters are the negative or “empty” space that occur in letters like G or more obviously in the letter O.
The lower right hand box is cut out from a combination of a capital P in univers 39 thin ultra condensed type, which is a sans-serif type, and a capital V in clarendon roman type, which is a transitional type. From the P, in addition to the counter, (defined above) I also used the shoulder, which is a rounded stroke that is connected to an ascender or a stem. I also used part of the stem that the shoulder is attached to; a stem is a major line in the letter that has other parts of the letter attached to it.
The way I combined the letters was based on nothing more than my sense of aesthetics. I liked the way that the black and the white flowed into each other and balanced each other out in the four quadrants.
