Interaction Design · Project 1 of 3 · Weeks 1–5
Typography Project 1: Type Prototype
Designing a typeface that communicates the world of a story
FORMAT
Individual
WEEKS
1-4
METHODS
Short story analysis · Letterform sketching on graph paper · Typeface design · Vector construction · Adobe Illustrator · Type specimen design · Critique
TAGS
Aesthetic Psychology, Design Education, Design Thinking, Semiotics
Why this project
This project assigns short stories rather than letting students choose for two main reasons, both learned through experience. First, when students select stories themselves, they tend to pick familiar ones — stories they already know or visual cultures they've absorbed. Familiar choices evoke predictable responses. In contrast, assigned stories, especially those with layered meanings not immediately apparent, compel students to read carefully, engage deeply with the language, and make formal decisions based on nuance rather than familiarity.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is one story I have assigned. Its formal elements — such as oppression depicted through enclosure, madness conveyed through repetition, and liberation represented through destruction — aren’t obvious typographic cues. A student designing a typeface for this story must understand its underlying dynamics, not just its surface theme. This comprehension results in more detailed, formal work.
Asking students to draw letterforms on graph paper before creating vectors isn’t a nostalgic nod to pre-digital methods. It’s the best way to develop sensitivity to proportion and structure. Those who sketch on graph paper — working through how a curve transitions into a stem, where a serif begins and stops, and how to maintain consistent weight across forms — arrive at the vector stage with many formal choices already made. Students who jump straight into Illustrator often make reactive decisions, tweaking curves until they seem right without understanding why. The graph paper encourages intentionality.
The history of display typeface design — from Futurist typography’s experimental forms, through Bauhaus’s geometric fonts like Herbert Bayer's Universal and Moholy-Nagy's experiments, to expressive twentieth-century advertising faces — provides students with a framework. It shows that display type has always responded to specific contexts, moments, or arguments. The typefaces they create are part of that ongoing tradition.
The Brief
PROJECT PROMPT
Design a display typeface inspired by an assigned short story. The typeface should reflect the story’s essence, tone, setting, and time period. Remember, it’s not an illustration prompt but a formal design brief. Your typeface should feel integrated into the story’s world.
Start by sketching your letterforms on graph paper, paying attention to proportions, weight, crossbar height, element endings, and how to fit curves and diagonals within the grid. Name your typeface. Then, design a specimen sheet showcasing your typeface.
A complete uppercase alphabet is mandatory. You may also include lowercase letters, numerals, and punctuation.
DELIVERABLE
Short story analysis notes — submitted before sketching begins
Graph paper letterform sketches — full uppercase set, photographed and submitted
Final typeface: minimum complete uppercase, built in Adobe Illustrator
Type specimen sheet: typeface name, full character set, sample text, designer name
Illustrator file (.ai), exported PDF
Self-assessment — see separate assignment sheet
What I've learned from running this
I have spent over fifteen years assigning short stories, then allowed students to select their own for one semester. After that semester, I resumed assigning stories and haven't looked back.
When students choose their own stories, they tend to select familiar visual cultures like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or stories that have become popular movies. The resulting typefaces are competent but predictable because students are illustrating existing associations rather than making deliberate choices about tone, time, and atmosphere. Assigning a story, especially if it’s unfamiliar and formally complex, removes that shortcut. Students working on a story such as The Yellow Wallpaper must read the story, grasp its formal intentions, and create typographic equivalents that capture its qualities. This process yields work that is more precise, more surprising, and more formally resolved.
Using graph paper consistently follows a pattern: initial resistance, then genuine discovery. When students sit with graph paper, a pencil, and analyze how a letter is constructed—where the weight falls, how terminals are formed, how consistent stroke width is maintained—they develop a deeper understanding of typographic form than screen-based design alone offers. The eye begins to grasp the nuances of the form, while working by hand. Students who have drawn their uppercase A twenty times before recreating it in Illustrator understand the letter in ways students who only draw it digitally do.
The type specimen sheet turns the typeface into a coherent system rather than just a collection of letterforms. This is directly related to GD1 Project 2, in which students create a set of symbols. Students who create designs that are uniform and follow a consistent formal logic across the uppercase produce specimens that read clearly as typefaces. Those with inconsistent forms cannot hide that lack of coherence; the specimen reveals the truth.
