Visual Communication, the Letter Portrait

Typography Portrait, PART ONE- The LETTER PORTRAIT: (from “Design for Communication” by Elizabeth Resnick)

Before you get started: Create a "lastname_typography_letter_portrait" folder on your network space. Save all of the work that you complete for this project into that folder.

Assignment Brief: Your assignment is to create a “Typography Portrait” using Adobe Illustrator. A Typography Portrait is a portrait that uses only typographic characters for its pallette.

Use letters (which might be thought to represent sounds) to illustrate your face, thinking about how your design reflects you as a designer and as a person. Think about identity and study your face and its characteristics. Examine the different letters to determine what will represent you best.

Professional and Highland Graphic Design Student Samples for Inspiration: Click on this link to see some samples that might inspire you!

Objectives: Create an awareness of the design possibilities of typography.

Resources: Here are the links to the photographs that I took in class the other day: (Barbara, I uploaded the wrong photo for you, the better version is on the Q: Drive, you can download it there.)

Click on the thumbnail of your picture to bring up the larger version, then RIGHT-CLICK to save the picture to your "lastname_typography_letter_portrait" folder.

In addition, please RIGHT-CLICK on the image below to save it to your folder, as well. This will be our practice image for learning how to manipulate text in Adobe Illustrator:

Adobe Illustrator Learning: We have not used Adobe Illustrator at all yet, so we have to start at the beginning. Watch the Video Tutorial below to get started. PLEASE FOLLOW ALONG with the video. It gets you started on the PRACTICE TYPOGRAPHY PORTRAIT of the image above. You will receive credit for completing the practice portrait!

Video Tutorial: Adobe Illustrator Basics- Opening the Program, Placing Images, Manipulating Text.

The Process for completing the Typography Portrait:

  • Watch the Video Tutorial and recreate the sample Typography Portrait above. Make sure to DELETE or use the EYEBALL to get rid of the original image, then EXPORT this as a JPEG and save it to your "lastname_typography_letter_portrait" folder.
  • Place your picture from the link above into Illustrator. Resize the image as needed to fit onto your canvas. If excess parts of your photograph go over the edge of the canvas, don't worry, they will not be seen on the final JPEG.
  • RENAME your picture layer as ORIGINAL PHOTO.
  • Create a New Layer and call it "Typography".
  • On this new layer, use the TEXT TOOL and the GARAMOND FONT to type all of the following:
    • All of the lower case letters of the alphabet
    • All of the upper case letters of the alphabet
    • All of the keys on the top row of the keyboard, from the single quote, through all of the numbers to the equals sign.
    • All of the SHIFTED symbols from the top row of the keyboard, from the tilde to the + sign.
  • Use the EYEBALL icon to TURN OFF the ORIGINAL PHOTO layer, as needed. You will be turning on and off this Layer as you go to see the progress of your typography portrait.
  • Using the letters, numbers and symbols you have just typed, you will be creating your typography portrait. Here are the RULES for the project:
    • You can only use each LETTER, NUMBER OR SYMBOL ONCE for the entire portrait!
    • You can ROTATE or RESIZE your letters as much as you wish, but...
    • YOU MUST RETAIN THE ORIGINAL SHAPE OF YOUR LETTERS (by holding down SHIFT when resizing).
    • Do your best to create a typographic portrait that looks like you and is true to the original photograph!
  • If you need to save your HEAD SHOT portrait before it is completed, make sure that you FILE>SAVE AS an .AI FILE! This will preserve all of the layers and letters for later manipulation!
  • Make sure to DELETE or use the EYEBALL to get rid of the original image, then EXPORT this as a JPEG and save it to your "lastname_typography_letter_portrait" folder.
  • If anyone wishes to try to create an INVERTED portrait, where the letters are white on a black background, you can. You will need to use the RECTANGLE SHAPE tool in illustrator to place a new layer between the Photograph and your TEXT. Your letters will have to be in WHITE instead of BLACK.

SAMPLE PORTRAITS: See below. (Please note that not all of these portraits are following the same rules for creation that you are above. Many of them use repeated letters, you cannot do so for this project! You will be allowed much more creativity when you complete the SENTENCE PORTRAIT, coming in a few weeks!)

Grading: This assignment will be worth a total of 125 points:

  • 25 points for proper completion of the practice Typography Portrait..
  • 50 points for proper completion of the personal Typography Portrait, while taking into account all of the rules of the project.
  • 50 based upon Mr. B.'s whims, regarding the overall look, creativity and artistic merit of the final product.