Text Design

For this project I was given a random word (person, place or thing) to incorporate into an image similar to a graphic design. The word I received was "phone" so I incorporated the word telephone (which was longer, more specific, and more representational of my image) into the cable of a stereotypical dial telephone. My media was graphite on paper.

To create this piece I first had to think of a way to express and incorporate the word into an image and then choose from my ideas. Once drawing, I started with the box and dial, then drew the phone and lastly, the cable with the word. This was a basic project which didn't focus on composition, so the only technique demonstrated here is informal balance. This project evolved in that originally I was going to have the phone and cable going out to the side in a more panoramic composition, but I decided to have the cable in front of the box to fit a more traditional format.

I chose this design because I thought the coils in the cable would resemble cursive letters and allow the writing to somewhat blend. I chose a dial phone only because it is probably the most widely recognized symbol for a telephone which makes it good for graphic design. This piece relates to my life because the first dial phone that I saw was at my grandmother's house when she had one which was similar to the one I have depicted. I think this piece could be stronger if I went over the lines in sharpie to make them more solid and distinguishable.

The most challenging part of creating this piece was drawing the dial—the platform of which is depicted at an angle. Therefore i had to draw a "circle" that also appeared to be at an angle, which was not only difficult but also prevented me from using a circle stencil. I am most proud of the idea for this design, mainly because that was the focus of the project, but also because I think I incorporated the text effectively. This work illustrates my strength as an artist in my ability to incorporate text into a basic piece with a graphic design style. It illustrates my weakness in imprecision in lines on the phone and the coils of the cable.