Typography is a really important element of design. My students probably cross their eyes when I say “design your type” because I do say it a lot. But most new designers are used to typing papers or texting where design isn’t really a big consideration.

Professor Victoria Martin student work

These projects are from my design fundamentals class. I ask students to create portraits with Adobe Illustrator using only characters found on the keyboard. This piece above is by Alex. He built up great contrast and texture . While the piece below was created by Rona and she used curvy organic typefaces to create the feeling of feathers. Note how she used a more structured typeface for the legs and feet.

Professor Victoria Martin student work

The last week students work on the project I invite them to add color. This painting  and the portrait below  were both created by Nicole. If you notice the top image doesn’t have a lot of type left (if any at all), but I didn’t care because she did an amazing job on both.

Professor Victoria Martin student work
student work: Professor Victoria Martin. Palm Beach State College, Art and Graphic Design

Immediately following this assignment the students have to create 5 ads. This project is a nice beginning of developing typographic skills.