Image Making Through Type: Hijab Stylist

Visual reference of how hijabs can be used differently

Hijab means a veil worn by some Muslim women in the presence of anyone outside of their immediate family. And stylist means a designer of fashionable styles of clothing. Hence Hijab Stylist is someone who design and create variety of hijab styles.

As I was researching about hijab stylist, hijab photography and many more, something caught my attention, which was the flow of the hijab. That sparks me an ideation to crate a flowing typography for this occupation. Hence I decided to do more research on the flow of hijab and any kind of cloth, to understand how it flow naturally.

Typography style
First try out with the name; Zyie
Second try with the name; Azizah

After researching on the typography style, I went to experiment and explore on the variations of flowing typography using a normal paper. One of the things I discovered was using a longer name is easier to create the flowing typography. At first, I wanted to use ‘Zyie’ for this, but then I changed it to ‘Azizah’, which is much more longer.

By trying out on paper, I allows me to understand better on how flowing typography works.

References how cloth flows
Some drawings to understand how it flows
Photograph of my shawl
Process
Sketch 1; I did not manage to execute the typography style that I reference to.
Sketch 2.1
Sketch 2.2; I manage to understand how the flow and folds where going about
Sketch 3; Trying other fabric that has larger folds as compared to sketch 2
Sketch 4.1
Sketch 4.2

After outlining on Illustrator
Trying out different shades

After outlining my name on Illustrator, I felt that my name was too flat and I was worried that viewers might not understand that my name should flow and have foldings like a cloth. Hence I tried out different methods of creating the darker shades (image above with 1st try, 2nd try and 3rd try) to show that some parts of my name is folded. I tried using gradient mesh for 1st and 2nd try but it was difficult to create the folding part. Hence I use an easier method, with is the gradient tool (3rd try), which turn out quite nice.

Added the shades to forma flowing and folded kind of typography

 

Tried on my other name. Right: No shading. Left: With shading
Exploring different shades of pink

Why pink? It is because women are the one who wears hijab and pink represents feminine. To complete the whole image of a hijab stylist, I added a silhouette of  a woman face. With that, it shows that the lady is wearing a hijab that flows through the air.