Pattern Book

This book is a collection of patterns formed by exploring letter shapes. A few examples of these patterns are shown.

Disclaimer: The above artworks were a part of Student Degree Show-June 2011 at University of Bedfordshire

Abstract letter series

Idea of opposition means presence but absence at the same time. Putting the same idea in context with type, I started observing the negative and positive space of each letter. This led to the question: is it possible to transform the negative space into positive space? I started this quest by observing different fonts. As ‘I’ says me, myself; I started observing different ‘I’s. The question was does it reflect different moods or phases of my life. Can I connect with different shapes of I? I selected blackoak standard font as it would bold and simple, seemed like made out of basic geometric shapes. To observe the negative and positive space, I arranged this ‘I’ in a pattern by repeating and rotating it several times. This resulted in a pattern, where the letter ‘I’ was lost to a certain extent and we could only see a design-pattern. I made a few more patterns with the same ‘I’. On observing the patterns carefully, I could recognize new shapes that were definable as letterforms. So what happened here? The negative space was turned into positive and the original positive space turned into negative. This exercise resulted in forming the entire series of letter shapes.

The letter shapes formed were free from the details of type yet had basic characteristic in order to be recognized as letter shapes. The newfound letter shapes are minimal and look abstract when seen individually. But when seen in a series, one can recognize it as letter shapes.

Disclaimer: The above artworks were a part of Student Degree Show-June 2011 at University of Bedfordshire

Installation

The idea of minimalism led to the idea of breaking the alphabets into basic geometric shapes i.e. into rectangles and semi circles. This experiment resulted into an installation. The idea was to break the letters into geometric shape to an extent that the letters were not seen as letters anymore.

When these shapes are seen in a group of two or more, they again start forming letters. They start making sense. The shapes become letters powerful enough to convey. It is a way of seeing. The viewer understands as per the viewer’s own understanding and knowledge. From each angle/perspective the letter changes, it appears in one angle and disappears with the change in the view point. Hence this has an idea of opposition (letters present but not present, still but change as per different perspective/view).

In the present context of the happenings around the world, many connotations can be attached to this installation. Firstly it shows the broken bits and pieces. It can be compared to the disturbances and tensions happening in many parts of the world at present. But again it conveys us a message to rebuild things from the broken pieces. It suggests that even when the communication has failed, if we look around we have hope to rebuild and re unite from the broken surroundings.

Disclaimer: The above artworks were a part of Student Degree Show-June 2011 at University of Bedfordshire