in Final, Hello, My Work, Process

Hello, my name is

For the first exercise of this semester, we were challenged to describe aspects of ourselves in the space of a name tag.

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Crafting – or anything even vaguely related to crafting, really – occupies a disturbingly large portion of my time/conscious thought/life in general so that was the theme I designed my name tags around.


Typographic solution

While conceptualising the typographic solution, I came across this amazing example of weave typography from French graphic design studio Zim and Zou.

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I thought that it was apt because I’ve really been enjoying embroidery and hand weaving as of late, so what better way to describe myself? I also felt that cotton thread would add a more interesting textural element to the completed design, despite the basic font.

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I chose to work with 300 gsm watercolour paper because it wouldn’t be as flimsy as regular cartridge paper. However, the thickness of the paper made it that much more difficult to puncture holes for the template and ended up taking way longer than I had initially anticipated. I also failed to consider the spacing of the holes, giving the final product a haphazard and rather random look. While I personally don’t mind that, if I were to attempt woven typography again I’d definitely give more thought to the planning process instead of diving in headfirst, and also mentally prepare myself for the tedium of repeatedly stabbing paper with a needle at precise, regular intervals. (The results are worth it though)


Abstract solution

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I had the most trouble coming up with an abstract way of representing myself because I didn’t really know where to start. I decided to address the ~feeling~ of creating instead, and felt that the best way to capture the exciting potential of infinite possibilities that crafting presents was through a blooming watercolour rainbow, tie-dye fashion. The colour scheme also ties in with the rest so that all three tags read quite coherently as a whole.


Conceptual solution

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I chose a literal interpretation for the final conceptual solution. I wanted to throw it back old school to the days of colouring books and “cut along the dotted line” paper crafts because these remind me of arts & crafts classes in primary school – those were always my favourite classes. The first few letters are stuck on at an intentionally skewed angle to make the composition more dynamic and playful with the cutouts at the back.