36 DAYS OF TYPE 09
36 Days of Type is a project that invites designers, illustrators and graphic artists to express their particular interpretation of the letters and numbers of the Latin alphabet.
There are a total of 18 penguin species most of which are endangered. I used 36 days of type as an ode to them and also play on negative space to create the shapes and the final designs. I completed all the sketching in Adobe Fresco and designed the type in Adobe Illustrator.
I had the opportunity to collaborate with Evan Abrams to make the type move. Evan is a motion graphic designer and educator and they stream on Behance weekly. You can watch some of their past streams on https://www.behance.net/ecabrams and make sure to check out their YouTube Channel as well. They animated some of the glyphs of the typeface on their streams. Scroll down for replays.
Animation
We set a couple of the letter forms into motion to show some of the character of these charming creatures. We've got the "E" glyph preening their flipper, and the "I" glyph marching around.
The animation makes use of a few techniques: Puppet pins to get the smooth deformations, expressions for easy looping, and some custom rigging solutions for the head movement.
The animation makes use of a few techniques: Puppet pins to get the smooth deformations, expressions for easy looping, and some custom rigging solutions for the head movement.
When addressing design systems like a font, we want to create animation systems that will make the work cohesive, and easier. Creating a rig for the head, eye and beak movement made a lot of sense because that element would be reused in all the pieces, and provide a lot of the feeling of life we were after.
Here you can see the "look at" behaviour created with a simple aTan2 function, and a faux 3d effect linked to a slider. These two simple controls gave us a lot of latitude to make the characters "feel" more lively. And the cute blinking helps too. By linking it all to an invisible assumed head shape we're able to add more realism to the movement of this unreal and abstract form.
To see how the whole process happened, check out the streams below!
Typeface Design by Anika Aggarwal
Motion Graphics by Evan Abrams
Get in touch - Anika Aggarwal | Evan Abrams
Disclaimer: This work was created to showcase the designer's skill, expertise and talent and may not be used for commercial purposes. All rights reserved. All art, images, designs, and material are copyright of Anika Aggarwal and may not be resold, added to design or any other unauthorized form of distribution or reproduction without express written permission.
