2. I
Experimental Typography
Project 2
Brandon Zurita
Song choice: Hero of War By: Rise Against
INTRO/
SONG
CHOICE
Decision
During the deciding process and research, I thought of what would be mean-
ingful to make words out of. The main thing that came to my head was song
lyrics, and this song spoke to me as its about war and the struggles people
in the army go through that others don’t often see, this drove me to do my
project on this song and gave me a lot of ideas to work with. Overall I had
a lot of fun making the different pieces and putting some meaning behind
each one as well as experimenting with everything, this is the process of
all my pieces going down to each respective final.
3. II III
LYRICS
He said “Son, have you seen the world?
Well, what would you say if I said that you could?
“Just carry this gun, you’ll even get paid”
I said “That sounds pretty good”
Black leather boots
Spit-shined so bright
They cut off my hair but it looked alright
We marched and we sang
We all became friends
As we learned how to fight
A hero of war
Yeah, that’s what I’ll be
And when I come home
They’ll be damn proud of me
I’ll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
‘Cause it’s a flag that I love
And a flag that I trust
I kicked in the door
I yelled my commands
The children, they cried
But I got my man
We took him away
A bag over his face
From his family and his friends
They took off his clothes
They pissed in his hands
I told them to stop
But then I joined in
We beat him with guns
And batons not just once
But again and again
A hero of war
Yeah that’s what I’ll be
And when I come home
They’ll be damn proud of me
I’ll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
‘Cause it’s a flag that I love
And a flag that I trust
She walked through bullets and haze
I asked her to stop
I begged her to stay
But she pressed on
So I lifted my gun
And I fired away
And the shells jumped through the smoke
And into the sand
That the blood now had soaked
She collapsed with a flag in her hand
A flag white as snow
A hero of war
Is that what they see
Just medals and scars
So damn proud of me
And I brought home that flag
Now it gathers dust
But it’s a flag that I love
It’s the only flag I trust
He said, “Son, have you seen the world?
Well what would you say, if I said that you could?”
“HE SAID SON”
“HAVE YOU SEEN THE WORLD”
“JUST CARRY THIS GUN”
“YOU’LL EVEN GET PAID”
“I SAID THAT SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD”
“A HERO OF”
“WAR”
“IS THAT WHAT THEY SEE”
“JUST MEDALS”
“AND SCARS”
Page 1-8
Page 9-16
Page 17-24
Page 25-32
Page 33-40
Page 41-48
Page 49-56
Page 57-64
Page 65-72
Page 73-80
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
LYRICS
4. 1 2
“He said son have you seen the world?
What would you say if I said that you
could?”
Digital
-
Analogue
-
Digital
WEEK
2
-
-
“HE
SAID
SON”
WEEK
1
-
-
“HE
SAID
SON”
Idea
The Idea behind this part of the lyric was talking about a recruitment
officer talking to a young man about going to war. This is the
inspiration behind the overall look of the text I wanted to make a
higher up figure talking down to a boy inside the text which would
be shadowed in the next phase of the analogue and fixed again
in the digital. The lyric actually gets repeated later on and is very
impactful so I knew I had to add it to the words
and phrases I wanted to use.
Experimenting cutouts
For this week multiple experiments were conducted revolving around
the idea of printing and cutting the shape. I used an exact o knife to
cut out the shape and then placed the piece on top of a few different
backgrounds. The first one that I attempted was this floral mat that I
had which gave a really interesting backing to the shape. The second
experimentation was put up against a window with the trees in the
background. And finally one of my favorite experiments this week was
the light shining through and projecting onto the wall as the shadow
was a main aspect to it that I really enjoyed working with. The shadow
felt as though it sort of gave that feeling of shadows coming from a
room. Moving on to the next iteration bringing it back into digital I am
wanting to play with the idea of the door and window idea and see
what I can do to make the piece pop more, taking out the paper
and making it look as though the projection is coming from
another source. The main challenges in this piece was definitely
finding a good way to do lighting in a dark room and also cutting
out the shapes as they were very intricate and somewhat hard
to maneuver the blade around to get that precise cut.
6. 5 6
WEEK
2
-
-
“HE
SAID
SON”
WEEK
3
-
-
“HE
SAID
SON”
Iteration 3
In this iteration I added a wall digitally to look like a hallway
and make it look like the light source and the type was coming
from another room. This worked really well and was exactly
how I wanted to get the piece looking as I wanted it to be
almost like you were a passer by who had just seen this.
8. 9 10
Analogue
-
Digital
-
Analogue
Idea
The Idea for this portion of the lyrics was to make something out of clay,
I felt like this sort of material works well with making world like features
because it gave the colours I needed and helped make the piece look
like it was our actual world or a cartoon version of it. There is a lot you
can do with clay and it was one of the easier options for sculpting the
word with the various pieces. There are some complications when it
comes to this of course, mostly thinking about the final iteration came to
mind as at this point I wasn’t sure what the last iteration was going to be.
WEEK
1
-
-
“HAVE
YOU
SEEN
THE
WORLD?”
WEEK
2
-
-
“HAVE
YOU
SEEN
THE
WORLD?”
Experimentation used:
• Clay
• Photoshop
• Brush tools
• Glow stick liquid
Experimenting Clay
For this part the main experimentation was conducted in Photoshop. The
first step to creating my piece in this part was making the word “world”
out of clay. I came up with the idea of making the O the shape of our
world with the clay and that got me thinking about the other letters in
the word. I decided to make every letter have some sort of relevance
either in colour or shape, then I thought why not have similarities in
both which brought together the idea of making each letter look like earth
but in the different shapes of the letters. The next step which was done
in the next week was taking it into Photoshop and seeing what I could do.
The main thing I tried to emulate with regards to this was making it look
like it was in a surrealistic space. The favorite of these experimentations
was definitely the glowing ones on the next page as it looked as though
they were floating in a space and gave it that outer worldly effect that I
was going for. They are also a lot easier to work with for the next step.
“He said son have you seen the world?
What would you say if I said that you
could?”
10. 13 14
WEEK
3
-
-
“HAVE
YOU
SEEN
THE
WORLD?”
WEEK
4
-
-
“HAVE
YOU
SEEN
THE
WORLD?”
Iteration 3 and 4
With regards to this part on week 3 and 4 I started with printing
out the piece from week 2 and then taking glow sticks that have
been broken and flicking the liquid onto the page to create that
glowing effect that the sticks emanate. On the camera the glowing
effect is a lot more prominent as well which made this work. The
reason for the glowing parts was to try and make a background of
stars and outline the word world. This didn’t turn out the way I had
hoped per say as the word was sort of lost however thats where the
week 4 Iteration comes in. I chose to take this piece forward one
more week and use the piece I did in analogue as a background
and then continue on to make the digital piece take control with
the glow stick part I made stay in the back which I think worked
the best as it looked sort of like a galaxy behind our world.
11. 15 16
WEEK 1- Analogue WEEK 2 - Digital WEEK 3 - Analogue WEEK 4 - Digital
12. 17 18
Experimenting Shooting Paper
The basis of this whole part was revolving around the idea of a gun. For the
second week after I made the gun in the shape of a gun I wanted to print it out
just to make a target in a sense like they have at the shooting range. I had a
BB gun so it would be interesting to take it out and shoot at the paper just to
see what kind of effect I could get from it. I thought the holes would make
a good random aspect to the design and look like gun shots through a target
especially when held up to a light which was the next step after the shooting.
When it came to photographing the lighting part I wanted to make the light
shine through and look like they have in the movies, but without smoke and
dust it was sort of an impossible feat to overcome and didn’t work the way
I drew it up. On the bright side of all of this I think the pictures themselves
turned out really well and had this interesting shadow made from the lamp I
used al0ng with the shine through the holes just came together really well.
Digital
-
Analogue
-
Digital
Idea
The lyric talking about carrying a gun is the start of the whole premise
to this song. The recruiter is talking to the kid and saying you can
see the world if you go to war essentially. This made me want
to create the gun word into something and thought the best way to
do this for the first week was to digitally make the word gun into the
shape of a gun which was done in Photoshop and outlined using a
real shape of a gun and cutting out the word using a clipping mask.
WEEK
1
-
-
“JUST
CARRY
THIS
GUN”
WEEK
2
-
-
“JUST
CARRY
THIS
GUN”
“Just carry this gun, you’ll even get
paid, I said that sounds pretty good”
13. 19 20
Experimentation used:
• Shooting paper
• Lighting
• Lighting through holes
WEEK
2
-
-
“JUST
CARRY
THIS
GUN”
WEEK
2
-
-
“JUST
CARRY
THIS
GUN”
14. 21 22
WEEK
3
-
-
“JUST
CARRY
THIS
GUN”
WEEK
3
-
-
“JUST
CARRY
THIS
GUN”
Iteration 3-1
What I wanted to do with this iteration on the 3rd week was create
a spotlight or a light shining out of the middle hole. The way
that it was accomplished was by making a circle and diffusing
it with opacity and blurring the edge to give that light effect.
Iteration 3-2
This was by far my favorite piece of all the iterations, this is because
it was what I originally envisioned, I created the light coming through
the holes which is what is usually seen in the movies when there are
bullet holes in a wall. The way it was done was by using a brush tool
and making it look diffused like the spotlight with opacity and blur.
16. 25 26
WEEK
2
-
-
“YOU’LL
EVEN
GET
PAID”
WEEK
1
-
-
“YOU’LL
EVEN
GET
PAID”
Analogue
-
Digital
-
Analogue
Idea
When I think of paid I immediately think about money, so what better
way to portray paid then making the word out of money. This posed
some problems as it was rather hard to shape the bills to a letter and
have it stay. The way I thought about going about this is by holding it
and fixing it in post most likely in Photoshop or something similar.
Experimenting Money
I took to the digital side on the second week of this part. Fixing the fingers
that were in each piece was the first step whcih was relatively easy
just needing to take a different piece of the same bill and meshing it to
where the finger was. Other blending modes were used to make it look
as though it was one. When it came to experimenting I did a lot of digital
experimentation from using bevels and emboss to strokes and even
making an ATM and collage. The one that worked best in the end was the
bevel and stroke used in my first iteration and this is what I took forward.
18. 29 30
WEEK
3
-
-
“YOU’LL
EVEN
GET
PAID”
WEEK
4
-
-
“YOU’LL
EVEN
GET
PAID”
Iteration 3-1
For this iteration I wanted to take all the images previously
taken of the letters through the Canadian money and
stack them together to fit, it looked interesting as the bills
went in all different and connected really well.
Iteration 3-2
This was the other iteration where I decided to take the tools of
Photoshop and break away from the squared parts of the bills which
created this totem pole like figure and had the pieces from the
outline of the bills which created a really cool outline for the word.
19. 31 32
WEEK 1- Analogue WEEK 2 - Digital
WEEK 3 - Analogue
WEEK 4 - Digital
OVERVIEW
-
-
“YOU’LL
EVEN
GET
PAID”
OVERVIEW
-
-
“YOU’LL
EVEN
GET
PAID”
20. 33 34
Digital
-
Analogue
-
Digital
“Just carry this gun, you’ll even get
paid, I said that sounds pretty good”
WEEK
1
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
WEEK
1
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
Idea
The Idea behind the I said that sounds pretty good portion was to make
something that looks like a sound wave going into an ear. This was achieved
digitally to create that effect originally, however I thought to myself it was a
little hard to turn that analogue so I kept the rest of the digital work together
and took out the ear just so I could experiment more on the next weeks
iteration. That decision helped a lot as I was able to come up with a new
way to show the original goal but done in the in-out-in method. Overall this
experimentation of stretching the letters was done to again create that wave
and I think it worked out pretty well moving on to the following weeks.
21. 35 36
WEEK
2
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
WEEK
2
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
Experimentation used:
• Rolling paper
• Camera through
• Deformed type
• Colour coordination
• Photography
Experimenting Paper Role
In this iteration I went with trying the paper curled with the words going to the
ear. The whole idea worked well as it looked like a tunnel that reached the ear
and the overall idea was brought to life through this. I wanted to make a tunnel
so that the next digital iteration could have something really interesting to work
with and intertwine the analogue with the digital within the walls this way.
22. 37 38
WEEK
3
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
WEEK
3
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
Iteration 3-1
The first thing I did to this was push up the vibrancy and the
contrast to give that vibrant look. I also found that when doing
the roll I had lost the “I” in I said so I brought that piece back into
it to look more like the original and have every aspect there.
Iteration 3-2
The second of the 3rd iteration was my final and the last thing I
did to this work. I wanted to put together something that would
make the side wall easier to read so I colour coordinated the
words see and Pretty good to come together and started writing
the word down the tunnel. Not only did it make it so that it was
more legible but it also gave a really cool sense of depth.
23. 39 40
WEEK 1- Digital WEEK 2 - Analogue WEEK 3 - Digital
OVERVIEW
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
OVERVIEW
-
-
“I
SAID
THAT
SOUNDS
PRETTY
GOOD”
24. 41 42
“A hero of war is that what they see?”
Digital
-
Analogue
-
Digital
Idea
For this Iteration I was really trying to encapsulate what spoke to
me in terms of what symbols a hero has. The first thing I thought of
was a cape as thats a huge symbol of superheroes, The problem
with it was there was too much imagery and not enough type in my
iteration so I instead redid this part and made the type as blocky
as possible which ties to the strength of a hero. Making this kind of
text would also help out with further expanding what I wanted this
part to be since it would give me lots of options to work with.
WEEK
2
-
-
“A
HERO
OF”
WEEK
1
-
-
“A
HERO
OF”
Experimenting Spray Paint
The reason that the block letter is part of week 2 is because I
had revised it during this week for my next part. I started by
cutting out the HERO word in cardboard and through the page.
I still wanted the cloth feel of the cape so I took old underwear
for the cloth and then placed the cardboard with the word on
top, I proceeded to spray paint on the cloth to keep that feel
and use the colours of black and yellow as it would give
that grungy feel.
26. 45 46
WEEK
3
-
-
“A
HERO
OF”
WEEK
3
-
-
“A
HERO
OF”
Iteration 3-1
The image was chosen in this part and I used different photo
effects like brightness, contrast, and vibrancy to make the colours
pop more in the image. This was done to keep the original
barely touched and keep how the cloth look came together.
Iteration 3-2
This was a major change in the digital side, I wanted to
add army camouflage as the whole song is about war and
the heroes that take part in it, I used opacity settings and
other blends to make the boarder frame the full piece while
not looking to drastically different from the image.
29. 51 52
WEEK
2
-
-
“War”
WEEK
3
-
-
“War”
Idea
The main idea was to form around the word war, when I think of war I
think a lot about dirt and grunge so I wanted to emulate that with ink in
water. I know that inks usually have little pieces that also react to the
water and somewhat look like dirt and grime. I also thought the blur
from the water would give an interesting effect possibly like the rain
and in various war scenes you can see this type of dark weather in it all.
Experimentation used:
• Ink in water
• Transparency on background
• Blur
Experimenting Ink and Water
When working with ink and water it can be really tricky, the first time
doing so I wanted to try and see if I could get a smoke effect by dropping
ink in a glass of water in the shape of a letter but that didn’t end up
working the way I wanted and it just dissipated and would not work no
matter how many times I tried. I ended up going a different route
and I used the bottom of a glass and wet it with water as much as
possible and ended up drawing on top of the small puddle with ink
which fused together and made what is seen above. Moving on to the
digital part of this experiment I blurred it more and gave the piece
a more motion blurred look which gave it a hectic feel that
I wanted to go for.
30. 53 54
WEEK
3
-
-
“War”
Iteration 3-1
I thought it would be interesting to print on transparent paper and
have a background show up behind it full of snow and dirt. The
camera angle was done to see if on an angle it would look tilted and
give perspective to the whole thing, I believe it worked quite well
especially with the blue tint on the snow making it look like its floating.
Iteration 3-2
This image was much the same as the previous except more
head on and I personally enjoyed the way it turned out better.
The blue tint was still there but you can also make out the word
a lot better and the dirt and grime that I wanted to encapsulate
with the word war is really seen all over this piece.
WEEK
3
-
-
“War”
33. 59 60
WEEK
2
-
-
“IS
THAT
WHAT
THEY
SEE?”
WEEK
2
-
-
“IS
THAT
WHAT
THEY
SEE?”
Experimenting Word Shaping
The whole point of this was to make it look like eyes in a
way to associate it with seeing. I cut out the iris and put over
some other objects that I think would look visually interesting,
what I found out was the one that looked best was putting the
holes over the light bulbs as it looked like glowing eyes which
really worked well and was the piece I went forward with.
The bulb gave a line effect over the eyes and shadows.
Experimentation used:
• Object out of words
• Cutting paper
• Shining light or image
through
34. 61 62
WEEK
3
-
-
“IS
THAT
WHAT
THEY
SEE?”
WEEK
3
-
-
“IS
THAT
WHAT
THEY
SEE?”
Iteration 3-1
I wanted To try and make the eyes work together so first off
I added them together digitally to see if that could work but it
looked as though they are floating there and weren’t connected
which is why I felt it didn’t end up working too well.
Iteration 3-2
Connecting the two with that background gave it some form of
connection almost like it was a mask and something I wanted
to go for. Its looking as though you could see through the eyes
into the light which was a concept that came to me when I did
the light bulbs as well and I think this tethered it together.
35. 63 64
WEEK 1- Digital WEEK 2 - Analogue WEEK 3 - Digital
OVERVIEW
-
-
“IS
THAT
WHAT
THEY
SEE?”
OVERVIEW
-
-
“IS
THAT
WHAT
THEY
SEE?”
36. 65 66
Analogue
-
Digital
-
Analogue
Idea
The idea behind this was to make the letters be shaped out of medals
that you wear around your neck when you win something, that was the
basic premise. I felt as though the medals he was talking about were
the war medals of honour so I wanted to show that in some way.
Experimentation used:
• Aluminum cutting
• shaping aluminum
• Transparency paper
• Rainbow paper
WEEK
2
-
-
“JUST
MEDALS”
WEEK
1
-
-
“JUST
MEDALS”
“Just medals and scars, so damn
proud of me”
Experimenting Metal
There was a lot done in the first week and admittedly some mistakes
when it came to cutting the aluminum as I did injure myself, however, the
images turned out well and were ready for the digital touch. I didnt want
to do too much to the original so what I did was add a glow around each
medal and of course reshaped and resized them to be similar in size but
different enough to work together. With all of them put together the glow
worked really well and was ready to go back out into analogue. Overall
there wasnt too much done to this iteration but i thought that was okay
as there was more in store for the analogue part of the assignment.
37. 67 68
WEEK
2
-
-
“JUST
MEDALS”
WEEK
3
-
-
“JUST
MEDALS”
Experimenting Transparency
During this experiment I wanted to try and create more of a shine to the
medals, I thought of different ways to go about it but I remembered an old
personal project I undertook in making custom Pokemon cards. I used
a similar process to that in which i have this reflective paper along with
transparency paper stuck on to make a rainbow effect that showed better
with the flash and the camera. The background I ended up with was what I
wanted and the way it showed up on camera was an even greater bonus.
38. 69 70
WEEK
3
-
-
“JUST
MEDALS”
WEEK
3
-
-
“JUST
MEDALS”
Iteration 3-1
Through all the rainbow looks I really enjoyed this sort of matte rainbow
look that this iteration gave. The little bubbles also added a sort of water
rainy effect which works to the sad aspect of the song and the theme.
Iteration 3-2
This was a different angle of the previous and I liked the angle the best
because of the blur to the further away portion. The matte finish was
still there with the rainbow but that blur added something special to it.
40. 73 74
Analogue
-
Digital
-
Analogue
Idea
The Idea behind this part of the lyric was talking about a recruitment
officer talking to a young man about going to war. This is the inspiration
behind the overall look of the text I wanted to make a higher up
figure talking down to a boy inside the text which would be shadowed
in the next phase of the analogue and fixed again in the digital.
The lyric actually gets repeated later on and is really impactful so I
knew I had to add it to the words and phrases I wanted to use.
“Just medals and scars, so damn
proud of me”
Experimentation used:
• Ripping paper
• Wetting paper
• Shaping rips
Experimenting Ripping Paper
The experiments conducted here were purely to make the scar word
look like actual scars and try to make them as realistic as possible
through the digital phase after the ripped paper bit. The ripped paper
really helped to give it a natural feel and the outline worked to create
the digital version of the scars word. The blood red colour played a
huge factor in creating this rendition as well and making the highlighted
bevel made for a sort of risen look that scars and scabs tend to have.
WEEK
1
-
-
“AND
SCARS,
SO
DAMN
PROUD
OF
ME”
WEEK
2
-
-
“AND
SCARS,
SO
DAMN
PROUD
OF
ME”
42. 77 78
WEEK
3
-
-
“AND
SCARS,
SO
DAMN
PROUD
OF
ME”
WEEK
3
-
-
“AND
SCARS,
SO
DAMN
PROUD
OF
ME”
Iteration 3-1
This was the final out where I wet the paper to mold to my arm
and shape around to look as though there is a sort of scab
that wraps around the arm spelling scars, I think it could have
worked a little better perhaps if the cutting was more accurate
but for what it was with a little camera work it turned out well.
Iteration 3-2
This image was similar to the last although the lighting and other
aspects were different to have a more interesting look and feel
to the overall image. This was my favorite out of all the iterations
for the scars and definitely worked the best for the analogue.
43. 79 80
WEEK 1- Digital WEEK 2 - Analogue WEEK 3 - Digital
OVERVIEW
-
-
“AND
SCARS,
SO
DAMN
PROUD
OF
ME”
OVERVIEW
-
-
“AND
SCARS,
SO
DAMN
PROUD
OF
ME”
44.
45. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi Im brandon, I am a graphic design student currently
studying at OCAD and creating designs. There are a lot
of things Id like to do to take my career to the next level.
Aside from designing I enjoy a lot of other activities such
as guitar, video games, and hockey. There is a lot of things
I take my design practice to, for example I am doing a few
different personal projects of my own on the side with
some friends, one invloving creating the art for a video
game and the other being my own personla project creating
and designing clothes. I hope you enjoyed my book about
my process with this project, I had a lot of fun making it!
