Overview For this assignment, you will need to create a found (or staged) alpha

Overview
For this assignment, you will need to create a found (or staged) alphabet from your daily surroundings. You will be capturing these letters with a digital camera and cropping them and placing them on the grid provided for this assignment by your instructor. Mimicry, Mental Models, alignment, legibility, serial position effect, and framing all are principles that should be considered when photographing your alphabet.
Found Alphabet Overview Video
Assignment Instructions
Look for the unexpected and consider what constitutes a letter. Letters are merely a composite of straight lines and curves that are organized in common ways. The main objective of this design process is to create a set of letters that have visual unity.
The difference between visual unity and conceptual unity is:
Visual Unity: The visual characteristics of the design are similar. (Colors, Related Curves, etc.)
Conceptual Unity: The idea behind the design is what unifies it, but may not look like they belong together. Things relating to Sports, Letters taken from Cereal Boxes, etc.
You can use this Found Alphabet Doc to lay out your letters.
Example:
Below are two examples of alphabets by students. One is found, and the other is staged. The main thing to consider is that they both have visual unity. Stylistically and based on the elements, they look like they belong together.
Found the alphabet in spilled ink. The letters were created by cropping the images.
Staged Alphabet. The letters were created by manipulating one balloon that was filled with water and cropping the images.
Common Errors and Warnings
Do not use existing letters: Do not simply take pictures of children’s blocks with letters, or existing letters on products, the aim is to use Closure and Law of Pragnaz and help the audience to “see” letters in their everyday. The shape of the wreath on my door can be cropped and pictured to look like an “O” or a “Q”. My wine key or wine opener can look like a “T” when photographed just right, making us see interesting shapes that are letter-like!
Maintain scale and Alignment: If you want a typeface or font to read as unified and whole, and be easily read, align the tops and bottoms of your letters, this creates Consistency and ease of legibility. Remember, a typeface or font is a functional design, it does have work.
Backgrounds: Do not take photos of your letters with complex or busy backgrounds. Consider the Contrast, maybe shoot on a dark or really light ground to highlight the shape of the letters, or simply make seeing the letter easier. Try to shoot with even lighting, if you have hot spots in your photos, this can interfere with the audience’s ability to see the letters. Or, if it is too dark.
Writing: A typeface or Font is a functional design, it conveys more than just the single letter pictured. The style, colors, and subject matter pictured all come together to tell a story. Think about how Contrast, Alignment, Consistency, Storytelling, Framing, Affordance, Conditioning, Mental Model, and Mimicry all can be used to describe the kind of typeface or font you have created. Tell the reader about the “Voice” the letter style implies. Would it be used for a coffee shop/music store? Could it be used for a children’s book, what kind? Why? USE YOUR PRINCIPLES.