Wordplay with 3D Type
One of my favorite creative thinking exercises to get the wheels turning using letters of a word to reflect it’s meaning, something I’ve come to call Wordplay. It was an excercise in my first Typography class that later became integral to my visual synthesis process for generating imager and form within strictly defined parameters.
Wordplay Rules
Only use the letters of the chosen word; though some letters, or parts of letters, can be omitted if it reinforces the meaning (ex. the dot of a lowercase “i”)
The letterforms must remain unaltered, but can overlap
No skewing, resizing, or otherwise changing the native shape/outline
Only solid black letters
Only use one typeface and weight (Akzidenz Grotesk Medium, in my case)
Words can either be in Title Case or all lowercase
Some words may have too complex a definition to successfuly execute, but it’s no less fun to try!
One of these words breaks the rules, can you tell which one?
It wasn’t until I had got a hold on 3D Printing that considered Wordplay with physical, 3D letters as opposed to sketching or it in Illustrator. These were printed hollow out of ABS, and filled with sand to give them a bit of weight (trickier than it sounds, 3D prints DO NOT LIKE SAND). This had the added element of being able to position the letters on their extruded edges, allowing for curved transitions to be naturally affected by gravity. Being creatively “stuck in a Rut” was one of the things that got me thinking about this project again, and I was amused by the way the letters reflected my own feelings at the time: in a jumbled heap, unable to pick myself back up…
Currently I am in the process of printing all 26 letters of the alphabet—upper and lower case—as well as a few extras to make certain words possible. Ultimately I’d like to turn this into a game of sorts, where you draw a card with a word and it’s definition, and have to solve the word in some way. Stay tuned for more, or sign up for my Mailing List for project updates!
