After the first experimentation with the idea of calligraffiti and scaling up the designs that I have developed so far, I thought I would take this idea further to see how far I could take it and still be effective. Of course I had o push it too far to gage this, and that is what I have done.
At first I drew out a girid similar to the ones I found useful at the smaller scale. However, I actually found that because I was unfamiliar with the width of the paint brush my estimation of X hight was actually way off and produced squashed leter forms.
I then spent some time simply acquainting myself with the brush and the somewhat thinner inks, without a grid and with greater openness to making mistakes.
I filled a couple of sheets like this, The flicks of ink that were inspired by my research into calligrafitti started off far too much and I had to learn to pull them back because they tend to interfere with the legibility of the text I am not careful. I found the key to allowing for this was the directional components of the splashes. The left to right direction of the reading and of the angle of the serifs are the best way to start, a curving flick from this point is not too intrusive either.
I then looked into experimenting with the three dimensional aspect that I found in earlier work (from the fact that the text sits on an isometric grid) I used the thinner inks to angle drips from the points of the serifs in the same way that I drew lines at a smaller scale previously.
Another problem I encountered with this was the way that the drips cross over the letters earlier in each word in the opposite direction of reading, clashing slightly and sacrificing legibility. As I found at the smaller scale the suggestion of three dimensions also creates the visual dilemma of what the letters are sitting against. This is tricky to communicate with such a difficult to control medium because the distance from where the line connects to the letter to the hypothetical surface should be consistent, but doing so with ink drips is nigh on impossible.
I also looked into exaggerating the change in medium in another way than splatters of ink. using smaller amounts of ink on the brush to create discernible bristle marks and faded finished to strokes. This introduction of extra texture didn't seem to do anything positive. I think this is because the letter forms are quite complex and they need a definite silhouette to be 100% readable and this takes that away.
As I experimented with this much larger scale of calligraphy I found that a much longer format than normal paper dimensions was required to allow the type to look balanced and feel like it had enough space. So, I stuck together two A1 pieces and set to work on the grid. From previous experimentation I had a better understanding of the medium and the space needed for the stroke width to be accommodated with comfort. I also implemented the proportional scale variations that I had developed on the smaller sketches so that the hierarchy of information was maintained and the sentence structure not lost.
From earlier experimentation I found that at larger scales the lettering needed larger stroke width to feel balanced (approximately a 5th of the hight) so I also made sure that any larger words had a proportional change in width.
I had a few tricky moments with the descenders of the 'p' s because they are more of an entire arm movement than a flick of the wrist, which is harder to make smooth but I think the result is acceptable.
I also looked into implementing the three dimension experimentation I did at a smaller scale. I used a Pentel brush pen so that the lines weren't too sharp in contrast to the inks on the rest of the letters. Again, the scale of these lines made consistency difficult but just going for it seemed the best solution.
I was concerned about the high texture of this ornamentation being too busy and dominating the lettering. However, I tried to mediate this by applying it only to the key words (new and old) in the sample. If nothing else this does combat the tendency of black-letter to merge into a pattern of sorts because of the horizontal connections created by the mid letter serifs. I also like the way the 'drop shadow' plays with the eye; it creates depth but also makes you question which word is in fact in front, depending on how you look at it, it could be either.
The increased visual texture of the words 'old' and 'new' is alleviated by the use of the directional splatters of ink on other areas of the piece.
I found this experimentation with scale and media fascinating. I think scale is something that is often overlooked as valid experimentation but it completely changes the details and the way you consider and construct the letters. Although it may not seem like drastic innovation, I think that this experimentation is innovation of a more gradual kind that mimics the innovation of the postmodern age that I examined in my essay.
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