MATERIALTHE PROCESS OF A

BRANDY SHIGEMOTOTYPEFACE

MATERIALEXPLORATION

GUM

I initially had picked paint chips for my material, but when working with them I realized how hard it was to get a good typeface. Due to the “flatness” of the paintchips, there wasn’t much to work with. I then de-cided to pick gum as an alternate material. The gum was much more malleable and easier to use. Gum can be torn, chewed, rolled, and used in all most every different way.

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3Set 2

As I was strolling along the store I came across paperclips. I know that this might be a “typical” item but I think that they could be bent in several unique ways. The paper clips have a metallic color scheme consisting of blue, green, pink, and purple. I believe that it would be easy to make a typeface out of these objects because they are so bendable and flexible. It might be helpful to use a wire cutter in order to get a unique design.

PAPERCLIPS

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3Set 2

I also went and bought some assorted coin wrappers. They are a closed-end tube design that included 15 quarter wrappers, 15 dime wrappers, 15 nickel wrappers, and 15 penny wrappers. Using these might be a challenge due to the way they’re wrapped in a circular way, but I still think that it could make a cool design. I was thinking about the “project picture” and how it might be cool to use this and take a picture using a background of coins.

COIN WRAPPERS

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3Set 2

GUM:IN DEPTH

Names: Gum, chewing gum, bubble gum.

Uses: Chewing for taste, eliminates bad breath, nicotine gum aids in smoking cessation.

Features:

Color: Pink-ish, red-ish. Often has a white powdery sugar coating when first opened. Depending on the flavor, gum can come in any color, really. Weight: Very light, probably weighs a few ounces. Texture: Smooth, has some mini ridges. Smell: Very unique, very fruity. Taste: Artificially flavored to taste like watermelon. It’s very fruity and sweet but disappears quickly. Size: Comes in small rectangle sticks. Around 2 1/4 inch tall and 1/2 inch wide.

Inherent Properties: Fruity, sweet, chewy, colorful, sticky, stretchy, flavorful, able to be blown into bubbles.

ANALYSIS

Raw Materials/Processes:Gum is made in factories, where all the raw materials are melted and sterilized in a steam cooker. It is then pumped to a high-powered cen-trifuge to rid the gum of undesirable dirt. While still warm, they run the mixture between rollers, which the gum gets coated in powdered sug-ar to prevent it from sticking everywhere. Then the rollers have knives to cut the gum. It’s made out of sorbitol, gum base, glycerol, hydroge-nated start hydrolysate, less than 2% of: natural and artificial flavors, malic acid, mannitol, aspartame, aspartame-acesulfame, citric acid, acesulfame k, hydroxylated soy lecithin, colors, soy lecithin, bht.

Parts: There is a silver wrapper, and then the stick of gum. It’s very flexible and malleable. Easy to rip and chew without any tools. Gum is pretty recognizable, but once you start to roll it or tear it into very tiny pieces, it becomes less recognizable.

The title of my gum typeface is “dadgum” because I liked how the phrase is a euphemism that involved the material’s name.

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

Variation 1

Variation 1

Variation 2

Variation 3

TYPEFACE IN ANENVIRONMENT

It was hard for me to decide on an environment to take a picture in that would still match the meaning behind my typeface. Eventually, I settled on taking a picture of my typeface with an empty gum package and empty gum wrappers in the background. Dadgum is often used in response to an annoyance, and I always find it annoying when I go to reach for a piece of gum only to find that I’m out.

PHOTOSHOOT

Angle 1

Angle 2

Angle 3Angle 1

FINAL POSTER