Project 1

Font Monster

Grading Rubric

Overview

For this first project, you’re going to use Adobe Illustrator and the letters/characters from one typeface to create a font monster. This should be both a creative experiment and help you get a feel for some of the tools in Illustrator.

Make sure to put significant time into this assignment and try out different combinations. See what you can create with the limited set of characters.

Samples/Inspiration

Process

You need to pick a single typeface and create a font monster using only the characters from that font. You can overlap and rotate the characters as much as you want, but they are the only elements you can use. This is a 2-color project: a solid color for the background, and a single color for the letters.

1. Create a new letter-sized Illustrator document (8.5″ x 11″).
2. Create a rectangle at your page size and set the background to your desired background color.
3. Lock the layer that has your background color box on it.
4. Create a new layer above the first one, select it so that you can add elements to it.
5. Using the text tool type the full alphabet, upper and lower case letters, along with all other characters. It is best to have these set to the side of the artboard.
6. Select all of that type and change the color to your desired color (if needed).
7. Use the Select Tool (top arrow) to select the block of type and convert it to outlines: Type menu > Create Outlines
8. Now drag copies of the letters onto your artboard (using the option key as you drag) to make up your design. Resize and rotate the characters as needed.
9. Once done, name your monster and put the name of the typeface on the page.
10. If you found this to go quickly and you still have time left, I encourage you to start a second creation. Challenge yourself and see how creative you can get with it.

Submit Your Work

1. Name your file with LastName-Project-1 (i.e. mine would be Hayes-Project-1)
2. Right-click on your final file and compress it into a zip file.
3. Upload the compressed zip file to my DropBox account.