For this assignment i used Helvetica Neue Bold Outline. I decided to use this style of Helvetica because it really stood out to me and seemed like a design in itself. I approached this assignment with the idea of experimenting more with placement. I decided that for some design i would do things like rotate the word, break up the letters of the word and place them on different areas of the page and place letters within letters to create a flow so that your eye follows the letters in a certain order so that you know what the word is and it is done so in a very unique way. An example of a placement i did was using the word Strict and breaking the letters up and grouping the letters in groups of two and one group of one and spread the groups far apart on different levels. This keeps the flow of viewing the word from left to right as well as giving an opposite meaning to the word strict by making it more non strict.

From this assignment i learned how important things like, size, placement and letter spacing are in giving words meaning and depth. If you want to give a word a stronger meaning you may want the word to be bigger and centered in the middle, while if you want a word to have a softer tone you may go with a smaller word size and place it off center to draw away some attention. I also learned how interesting Helvetica can be with all the different types of Helvetica you really have to study and get to know a lot of these types in order to find out what types work best with a certain design. It was a very interesting and eye opening assignment.

This project was a very interesting project, one that I feared at first but then I came to find it actually enjoyable. The assignment had a few restriction, which I thought would limit my creativity but I found it really helpful in focusing my design and the task at hand, which was to make these word expressed them self. When I went to into designing each word I really paid attention to their meaning and how I could mirror those meaning with my design. I tried to be intentional with my typeface choice. Its size, its placement and even it spacing was purposely chosen based on what the word means. I tried not to stray from the meaning of the word.

I use Helvetica Neue Light for the word ELEGANT. I chose the typeface for the simplicity and light quality it has. When I saw It, it exudes the word elegant. I also notice that the word had  a symmetrical quality, to the left and right of the “g” there are three letters each, so I knew I wanted to do something with the “g”. So I decided that to capitalize each letter except for the G, and it really made the word mean what it means, it added some “umph” to my design. I chose to bring the text to the bottom center  because I really liked how there was alot of  negative space and how it made the whole design feel. It made it feel much more elegant.

For the expressive word project, I used the typeface Helvetica LT std in black condensed oblique. My design approach was to create something simple that could also capture the eyes. I used different sizes of the typeface to create the feeling of the word. I wanted to express the opposite feeling that the words meant to create oxymoron effect. For example with the word “quiet”, I made the wanted to make the words loud and bold. I tried used all caps and big lettering for certain letters like the “T” and “Q”.

This project made me really learn about how sizes and typefaces can really effect the feeling that a word gives off. I was surprise to know how much thought and time it really takes to put a simple word together, in order to really express the emotions of a word correctly. Everything from the sizing, the spacing of the letters and the negative space plays in huge role in the outcome of the emotions you’re trying to show your audience.

I enjoyed this project because it was truly the first time I used Indesign to create anything at all. At first I didn’t really understand the project, I didn’t know what it meant to illustrate the word without actually creating a picture. Some of my sketches were actual formations of hearts, and flowers for the word romantic– but that was wrong. I settled with the word Quiet. I feel that this word is so simple but can be shown in so many different ways. I ended up placing the word quiet on the upper right hand corner, and copied it again and again overlapping each other while making the word bigger and gradually making it way down. It basically shows an echo in an empty room.

I used Helvetica Neue, I used this type during my internship because it was their set type of their labels and I really liked it. So I used it for this project, and I think it was a good decision. Overall, with this project I learned that even the slight positioning, the repetition, the sizes of words can really show the true meaning of the words. And I believe thats what Graphic Design is all about– showing the audience without actually showing it.

I really like this project because it was my first time using the InDesign to create my own expressive words. At the beginning, I thought it was easy to create expressive words in my own style. But after I made some of them, my brain was plain because I had no ideas what to create for the next few words. It was fun and enjoyable to select different styles in Helvetica and combine the letters in different ways.

For my expressive words, I used mostly Helvetica LT Std because I think it is straightforward and simple. I bolded them and made them larger. I think my best work is the last page of my pdf which I made romantic in a straight line. In my opinion, I agree that male’s romantic should be straight as a line.

What I learned from this project is that brainstorming is very important as a designer. And it is also very difficult to come up with favorite works. It is hard to create your own words in your own style because after seeing so many style of other works which are already impressive in your mind, you always want to copy them in different style. It is hard, but it is much interesting and proud to have your own designs.

I spent a lot of time working on this project because I wanted to explore more about what InDesign can do as I am new to it. In this project, the first thing I had to do was to choose a typeface that would work for the majority of the words. After searching through Helvetica family typefaces and weights, I ended up choosing Helvetica Light because it is the most neutral to me. If I want my words to be bold, increasing sizes would do it. Or if I want my words to look softer, Helvetica Light size 48pt or less would be a good choice.

For my design approach, at first I just played around with each word, quickly creating as many different designs as possible. Then I went over each design and made some adjustments. Since I am new with InDesign, sometimes I struggled to turn my ideas into exactly what I wanted. Therefore, while working on this project, I also watched some tutorials online to enhance my skills. I did not only try to captivate the meaning of each word but also wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing as well. For example, for the word “Quiet,” I have two different ways of thinking about how to design it: One is to make the letter “q” stand out from the rest of the letters; and one is going after its literal meaning, making the word really quite and small. Or for “Hostage,” I wanted to make it simple, bold, crisp, and constrained because that is what hostage should suggest. Therefore, I just simply used a much larger size 200pt with negative spacing and kerning to make each letter attached tightly to each other. I also tried to create an angled version of it. Generally, for all of the words, I wanted to see how they would look different just by using various sizes, positions, and angles. Sometimes, it got difficult because I ran out of ideas and designed each word similarly.

Through this project, I learned how to set up a new document in InDesign as well as what gutter, bleed, and picas are. I also acquired many new InDesign skills although I barely knew anything about about it before that.  I gained the understanding of tracking and kerning, which was one of the most important piece of knowledge I learned. Without proper space between letters or words, the design would look awkward and unpleasing. Understanding how letters stand next to each is as important as having the big idea for a design.

By Xinran Zhao

For the expressive word project, I used Helvetica as my designed font. Before making the design, I knew nothing about Helvetica. I even hadn’t heard such name. However, throughout the process, I found that Helvetica is a big family that contains different fonts. Even they all named Helvetica, they all look different. For example, Helvetica light and Helvetica bold are different from thickness. Helvetica compressed makes less space between each single letter.

When I made the design, I tried to make the words look balanced and beautiful. By achieving that, I changed the size of each letter and mixed the capital and small letter. I want my design give people the feeling of comfortable. Besides that, I think the most important thing to make the design is to enhance the word’s meaning. Since different Helvetica gave me different feelings, I tried to use compatible Helvetica font to each word to enhance its meaning. For example, Helvetica bold made me feel powerful, so I used it to make my design of hostage. On the other hand, Helvetica light made me feel soft and gentle.  Therefore, I used it for the word quite.

Victoria Barreras

When I was designing for this project for this project I thought about the meaning of each word. I also tried to think about what each word reminded me of. For example, for the word hostage, many of my designs look like the letters are trapped by the others. Another example is for the word strict, I designed the word resembling a mustache because I thought of my dad who has a mustache. For the word elegant I made my letters long and thin like a model.

For this project I decided to use Helvetica Neue because it was bold and made the letters look really sharp and clean. Before doing this project I would have never thought that you can bring out the meaning of a word without changing the font. For example for the words romantic and elegant I would have used a script typeface. By doing this assignment, I learned that by changing the size, case, and position of the letters you could describe the word without having to change the font.

Just like everyone did during the first day of class, I tried to work something out simply by using the software. However, it turns out pretty bad. After that, I know a good design always starts from a piece of paper and a pen and a good hand. I tried many types, some of them are simple, some are strange, and the longer the word is, the more difficulties will have. So I chose “Quiet” at the end, as the most short word on the list. I think I used the regular Helvetica, because I want it be as simple as possible.

What I learned from this project is that don’t try to play too hard on those words, it will make the design looks even worse than the original one. And typography is quite unlike fine arts, simple and clear will be the best.

Sejin Katie Im

The version of Helvetica I used was Helvetica Neue Ultra Light. I initially approached designing the words by making the words be expressive and design-like, which we were taught not to do. Soon after, I caught my mistake and transitioned into searching for the correct Helvetica font that’ll express the definition of the word. For certain words, I wanted to emphasize a letter that I thought would give the word a bit more feeling(?). For example, in my final piece of the word “romantic,” I opted to enlarge the ‘a’ because it was conveying a romantic feel to me. The movement of the letter, negative spaces around the letter, the slimness of the letter, all led me to think that the letter ‘a’ seemed romantic enough to emphasize.

Through this project, I learned the different elements to a font and its specific type and that a font that’s tweaked just a little can make a big difference. I’ve always assumed that a font was just what it was, without any variations. This project definitely opened my eyes in learning about the different variations that come with a font and their significances. This project also made me appreciate Helvetica. I’ve assumed it was just a simple font without any thick and thin relationship, but blowing up each letter up, playing with the font, made me realize that Helvetica was a lot more intricate in details than I had known.