Week 6 — Assignment “Intertwine, Plus”
Discuss + Studio due Sunday (end-of-day). Reply to other people’s posts by Tuesday.
Project 1: Experiments in Typographics—a series of tutorials in Adobe software. The design exercises explore digital drawing and typographic design, and are assigned weekly over the course of five weeks. (We will apply these experiments in Project 2.)
1/
Discuss:
- Reflect on your design experiments and your design research in archives/collections from the past five weeks. What in particular are you interested in exploring further—both in terms of techniques and in terms of subjects / design contexts (i.e. book jacket design, album covers, posters, or any formats that you were drawn to in the collections). Write your thoughts in a 200 word minimum entry as a comment below.
- Reply to at least two other people’s posts (below) by Tuesday.
2/
Studio:
- In Illustrator, create a new file with a 10 in x 10 in artboard. You will make several artboards at this size in the same file (like last week).
- Watch the “Week 6” class video.
- I will show 1. the intertwine tool 2. compound shape masks 3. type on a path and 4. gradient color across words and letters. On (4) four artboards, do the steps I demonstrate using letters, words, images that you wish to explore and learn the skills. Then —> create (4) four additional artboards / design variations (or more) building upon the preliminary ideas and steps of the demonstration, making compositions, and filling the whole artboard with a pattern (see featured image). Open direction. Explore, test, and expand. Try making different decisions from one variation to the next to see what happens. You should have at least 8 artboards/8 pages in your PDF submission, or more.
—> Explore: color, layering, text/typography, photographic images, asymmetry/symmetry, modularity, grids, other structures, additional shapes, etc. - Save and package your Illustrator file and upload the packaged folder to onedrive. Export your Illustrator artboards as a PDF.
Links:
Intertwine tool
Intertwine tool 2
Folded type edge
Review Perspective tool with graphics
Masking with multiple shapes
Review envelope distort
Objects on a path
Type on a path
Type gradient color
*featured image: Rachele Riley, 2025
I think one tool that I was really drawn to throughout the last few weeks is the pattern tool and the repeat->grid tool. I say these tools stood out to me the most because with the majority of the artboards I created, I used a lot of repetition throughout each piece. Even with week 2, before we knew how to do the repeating tool with objects, I repeated certain patterns over and over again. I think I really am drawn to repetition and pieces with typography. I think eventually I started to lean more towards poster-like illustrations. Some in week 3, 4, and 5 I did it based on songs and the lyrics like Sonder by Brent Faiyaz, Super Rich Kids (WITH NOTHING BUT LOOSE ENDS.) and Bad Religion (UNREQUITED LOVE) by Frank Ocean and “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” by Tame Impala (Feel like a brand new person). This also pushed me to try to work with more 3-D designs. A lot of times when I think of illustration with illustrator, I think of 2-D designs and kind of flatter illustration, but using the 3D tools make me think of space and the use of space. I would be interested in honestly anything dealing with design. (I think the ones I would be in favor of would be album cover and poster design.) I want to eventually get into creating mock ups for products and clothing. With the archives/collection I think a lot of the pieces I chose are some way related to patterns, looks like printmaking, or collage.
One Drive Link:
https://uncg-my.sharepoint.com/personal/r_riley_uncg_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fr_riley_uncg_edu%2FDocuments%2F_Rachele%20Riley%2Fteaching%2FS25%2FART%20448%2FJayla%20Miles%2FWeek%206%2FWEEK%206%2Epdf&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fr_riley_uncg_edu%2FDocuments%2F_Rachele%20Riley%2Fteaching%2FS25%2FART%20448%2FJayla%20Miles%2FWeek%206
These works are incredible! I love the logo/album art style you achieved with Illustrator. I love how the color schemes all match, with the same pastel tones of pink, gray, and white. I can tell you definitely have taken a lot of time with experimenting with bold typefaces, and it works very well! Awesome work!
Hi Jayla! I totally agree that the 3D tools are something I had not thought to use for text before, or at least never really had the opportunity to experiment with. It does allow me to make use of all the space on the page and see what kind of visual effects I can create on a 2D plane.
I was interested in the book jackets and also I’m not sure if we went over this in particular, but I am interested in album covers as well. Typography has a lot of rules that I like to follow when it comes to front matter, main text, or back matter for a book. With this being said, with so many rules sometimes I like to experiment which is why I love this class because we still use type but we are doing it more illustratively, like making display text rather than readable text. I like the freedom along with this but I also value the rules of typography for example no indents on the first paragraph of a book page or any page. Also not mix fonts with others and never use tarcking with main text, just small caps. Throughout this class, the illustrative techniques have encouraged me to be more creative with text and throughout my work. Coming up with different color schemes and images and mixing them. It is a lot of fun, but I also take it seriously when I need a graphic portfolio. I think it would be interesting to get into album covers because I love to paint, create physically do photography, and work with Adobe products which could incorporate all of this. I am a more illustrative artist but I can venture into being professional too if I need to.
One Drive Link:
https://uncg-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/personal/r_riley_uncg_edu/Documents/_Rachele%20Riley/teaching/S25/ART%20448/Hannah%20Belk/Week_6?csf=1&web=1&e=iVlebV
I think that album covers are a great way to start working with mixing typography and imagery, as there are numerous styles you can create. I agree, using type as image is a great practice to understand visuals and how to build them up. Great work!
Hi Hannah! I also agree that this class is a lot of fun since we are not worried about “Can you read this text” and more worried about designing something that we find interesting using new techniques that we had not known about before. I have also been coming up with cool color schemes for my pieces which has been one of my favorite parts.
I have been interested in layering imagery and text together in unique ways. In my work so far, I have been using bold typefaces in experimental ways to create strange, surreal visuals. The images I have worked with have been bold, colorful, and liminal to fit in with the overall surreal style. I enjoyed looking through the letterform archive, as there were many different time periods available to explore and each example included the specific typefaces used. The techniques that I have used the most so far have been extrusions, blends, intertwines, and patterns. Repeated images and words have been a key aspect to my experimentations, as I strive for a maximalist, overwhelming style. The Illustrator tools and techniques we have worked with so far have been helpful in fueling new ideas and practices moving forward. In my upcoming work, I would like to expand upon the experimentation with form, color, and layering: to create even more interesting, nontraditional visuals. Conceptually, I enjoy delving into the idea of fears and discomforts. I have been focusing on weird, unnerving, and unconventional imagery mixed with text that holds an air of mystery.
https://uncg-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/personal/r_riley_uncg_edu/Documents/_Rachele%20Riley/teaching/S25/ART%20448/Kayla%20Stiles/Week%206?csf=1&web=1&e=EdGrOG
Hello Kayla!
I love how you’ve experimented with the types of tools we have learned this semester so far. I can’t wait to see your work in the future!! Great work 🙂
Hi Kayla, I also enjoy the maximalist style I think it can have some cool effects to drawn your eyes around. Im excited to see how your work can play into your style of wanting to deal with discomforts and weirds.
I feel the same way about seeing examples from the archive! I feel like it gives you good inspiration. I also agree that the tools that has been shown throughout the past six weeks has open a lot of doors for me. I would see illustrations done on Illustrator and not understand how they created it through illustrator, but I have been able to utilize the tools shown during class in everyday requirements. I also really like your designs especially page 6, it gave me a nostalgic feel. The image reminded me of older film with it having the different color, then the grain overlay with the shapes….I thought it was very cool.
In the last few weeks, I have been enjoying learning new techniques in Illustrator, I personally feel like this is the most I’ve been able to use the program and the most I’ve learned since I started school. I love the intertwine tool, especially when using curved lines to intertwine with text or text with another font. The different design concepts that we have been learning about have also helped me to get ideas on what is possible along with seeing what type of artwork I am not fond of. I love the posters and book jackets that I have seen so far, especially ones that incorporate various fonts and seeing how those work together.
Something I have been interested in trying (but haven’t yet) is having the warped text that overlaps regular text along with an intertwine of a line or possibly another bit of type on top or below. I am not sure how well this would work because of the overlap but if we are given the opportunity I’ll definitely be experimenting to see if I can do that.
A lot of the pieces I have done I am fairly proud of, especially with the interesting color palettes that I have been finding to use and make varying designs. My personal favorite might be the “Oceanic” piece from this week’s work (linked below) where I intertwined a light blue strand into a very unique typeface I found in Adobe. I’m excited to learn more throughout this class and keep trying out fun new techniques! 🙂
https://uncg-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/personal/r_riley_uncg_edu/Documents/_Rachele%20Riley/teaching/S25/ART%20448/Aniston%20Spradley/Week%206?csf=1&web=1&e=K4Jove
HII Aniston. I really enjoyed your designs for this week! I agree the oceanic one was great work in using those tools and I liked how it turned out. I don’t know what font you use but they are always a interesting font choice and I like them.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at design experiments and research in archives and collections. I learned a lot about typography and the many ways words can be made to look cool using Adobe Illustrator. I would say I experimented the most with patterns, and distortion. I really loved playing with the different type of warp settings for my fonts. I honestly think that I have done some form of warping in most of my projects. As a notorious perfectionist who overanalyzes everything in his work, I tend to critique and look at every single thing I do in a project to the point where it drives me crazy. However, I really enjoy this class due to the fact that we are allowed so much freedom. There are endless possibilities to explore our creativity, just from watching how to use tools in Illustrator we never used before.
For me personally, I also really enjoyed looking at posters in the archives. A lot of them had strong eye catching layouts that made me think about how to use space better in my own designs. Moving forward, I want to explore more experimental typography. With music also being one of my passions, I love how album covers combine typography and photography to create a mood that represents the music inside. Some of the vintage album covers I looked at used bold, experimental typography, while others were more minimal and clean looking.
Hello Clint!
The warp and fonts are so fun to experiment in Adobe illustrator , I’m glad you had a good time with it! The posters were amazing in the archives and I also agree that I love the combination of photography with typography with album covers. Great work!
There has been many different styles that we have looked at through the archives and even looking at other peoples picks helped to find more inspiration of what I liked. Many of the forms I was drawn towards were either very minimalist with a nice coherent color scheme or maximalist with a lot of different colors and contrast. I did not like the book covers as much since many of them looked like older styles and they had duller colors, but some of them were still nice with their designs. I like the posters the best, especially the Earth Day one I chose for week 4 I think. It had black and white photos but with bright colors drawn over. I also like more of handwritten text in the posters I think they give a more personalized feel. I also really liked layering text over each other like we did in the studio assignments to get a layered effect. I would like to explore more about the effects used on photos and text like combining the two or making them work alongside each other nicely. Such as the masking tool with shapes from last week and how you can mask it with the words was an interesting effect. I think it would also be cool to start using large sets of text like paragraphs and see how what we have learned can fit into it if it was a large body of text rather then a few words like usual.
One Drive Link:
https://uncg-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/r_riley_uncg_edu/ErfsRlnYEWBFoUX6_utsd5cBS2jGUL44e3GP_qK995lDZw?e=Lc7svc
Experimenting in Illustrator these past weeks has allowed me to learn more about the program as I my expertise falls more in photo editing in Photoshop but as I have found interested in learning more about typography, getting to understand how Illustrator functions has been great. Different tools and methods to get words to look amazing and unique has been nice. Also 3D text is something I never thought about but getting to work with it has made me love using perspective more. Its very dynamic and creates a new area to explore in and see what I can do with the tool. Something I am looking forward to working on is cover arts and posters. I think there’s a lot of creativity to test out in how a song makes you feel and how that can impact your cover art design. Its something I started doing at first but stopped doing it and now having these new tutorials, tools, and imagination I want to further my work. Posters with incredible typography and not just nice effects is something I have been wanting to fix up on my end and I will be testing out posters that can be heavy on type and not just pictures.
https://uncg-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/personal/r_riley_uncg_edu/Documents/_Rachele%20Riley/teaching/S25/ART%20448/Gerardo%20Gomez-San%20Juan/Week%206?csf=1&web=1&e=yU1LaT
Hi Gerardo,
I do agree with you that posters with incorporate typography just add so much more to them and allow for there to be an added story within the poster. I definitely think that you can tell some interesting narratives if you do it that way.
I agree, poster work is so fun to work on! I really like the last two illustrations you created for this week! The font fit really well with the illustration.
Looking back at some of our past assignments, I’ve realized that there are a few techniques that I’m really excited to explore further. One of them is the perspective grid tool. I’ve been having fun creating different illusions and making the text appear as if it’s on different planes. I think it’s a cool way to add depth and space to a composition, and I’m ready to perfect this skill to use in future projects. Another tool that I’m enjoying using is the blend tool. I’ve been using it as a quick way to make smooth gradients with texts by playing around with different color combinations. As for formats, I’m finding myself drawn to posters and album covers. I feel like they really allow for creative expression while providing strong messages. I would love to do work in those formats in the future. Throughout my practice assignments, I’ve been focusing on experimenting with color schemes and incorporating repetitive elements into my compositions. My goal is to practice creating a sense of unity/rhythm in my work. I’d love to continue developing these techniques and am excited to see how they evolve by the end of this semester.
Studio Assignment:
https://uncg-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/personal/r_riley_uncg_edu/Documents/_Rachele%20Riley/teaching/S25/ART%20448/Danielle%20Scott/Week6_ScottD_Folder/Week6_ScottD.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=zRArSa
Hi Danielle,
I am in the same boat as you when it comes to being more interested in creating album covers and posters. I think those are the most fun to make and, like you said, allows for more expression of creativity while also spreading a strong message whatever that may be.
In terms of techniques, I am, in particular, interested in exploring further with pattern making and experimenting with the different ways and styles that I can make different patterns. There were even times I was making patterns with patterns I had already made. I also wanted to try and make transparent text in the foreground of photos so it blends with the picture it is on top of. I also want to experiment more with creating clipping masks of photos and creating outlines of those clipping masks and just trying to test what I can make with those different ideas. Also in terms of subjects and design contexts, I wanted to make more pieces that were closer to what you would see on a poster or album cover. I experimented with the idea of album covers in the week when we made clipping masks and outlines of said clipping masks. I had taken previous album covers and tried to recreate them or add more to them just to try and add my own spin on them. Also being able to create our own unique shapes in Illustrator with the shape builder tool has been very good in creating unique designs of patterns which can work well for my poster ideas.