Typeface creation Inspiration

Lowercase b's

Bottle's Shapes and the Type 

Shape of the Bottle

Shape of the Bottle

Curvaceous Modern type 

Sleek and Sharp 

Mrs. Eaves (left typeface) got some hips. Don't mind the chicken.

A Sensational Read of excerpts from Tender Buttons

Methodology: 

After reading through the poems and researching Gertrude Stein and her methodology I decided to emphasize the sound because she wrote these poems with the sound having more importance than the meaning. This book breaks down the words into their phonetic syllable hierarchy with the phonetic stress changes becoming visual. The lines of the poems were arranged to create a dynamically visual rhythm. This allows to reader to recognize the sound and rhythm quickly. These poems were chosen for the narrative that their titles create. The narrative is about the process and sensations of reading a book which leads to a disturbance and realization. 

The materials used were to further the concept of the empirical experience of reading a book. The leather has its smell and tactile qualities, while the pages also have a tactile quality. Their smoothness contrasts with the feel of the leather.

Tender Buttons: Initial Idea

After reading through the poems and researching Gertrude Stein and her methodology I decided to emphasize the sound over the sense. She wrote these poems with the sound having more importance than the meaning, but I found it hard to initially get past where I thought there should be meaning. My idea is to break down the words into their phonetically syllable spellings with the stresses being highlighted. This forces to reader to recognize only the sounds and rhythm. This rids the poems of the initial hurdle over the senselessness.

My first concept with this breakdown of syllables reminded me of dictionaries, where you would normally find this kind of breakdown treatment of words to learn how to say words correctly. Next I tried setting the text into rhythmic lines with the spaces matching the undulations of sound. After showing my rhythmic pages to my roommate he voiced a concern about readability. After this I created a page of normal spelling but I kept the emphasis on the different sounds through hierarchical means. A mixture of these two ways is my new design methodology. By using the busted up syllables to clue the reader into the correct way to read the poems while still allowing them to see the original spellings I hope to push the reader faster into understanding the beauty of the poems.

My choice of poems and the materials I’ll use are to give the intimate empirical experience of book reading, which include tactile sensations and other sensory perceptions.