Moderne: An Art Deco Typeface Design — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Moderne: An Art Deco Typeface Design

Name: Krista Rumfield
Major: Graphic Design
Hometown: Fort Wayne, IN
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project

Abstract

One of the most important elements of design in typography. Typography allows designers to convey a message in multiple ways. Typefaces must be legible but must also evoke personality and emotional connections to the content. As designers it is crucial to understand the anatomy and structure of typefaces to grasp the relationship to the viewer. After studying the fundamentals, each of us created our own alphabet string.

The project started with inspiration from hand-lettered signs around Kenosha that were photographed and analyzed. I was drawn to a tattoo parlor's signage that featured tall, thick stems and thin crossbars. My interpretation of these letters led me to develop a font with an Art Deco style of the 1920s.

The next step was to hand-draw multiple variations of each letter-form on graphing paper. After experimentation through trial and error, a cohesive font began to emerge. Once the basics were drawn, images of the sketches were scanned onto the computer and fine tuned in Adobe Illustrator. Then another program was used to convert the vector images into a font string that can be used in other formats.

Once the typeface was complete, we each created a graphic and informative poster describing the font's characteristics and overall style.

Poster file