Type Tuesday: The Letter B

This is the continuation in the series of designs based on the alphabet from our Creative team. Each post will include their designs and a peek into their process. Enjoy!

After being tasked with Type Tuesday, it brought with it the usual
suspects one would expect. Never sure where to start. Underestimated how B comes in many shapes, sizes, themes and colors.

So naturally, when my eight-year-old daughter notices daddy’s sketches we both realize…

Bazookas, baseballs and vampire bites seemed amiss. It wasn’t the best possible B we thought it could be.

Among the many sketches, we found remnants of possibilities taking shape.

We gathered our tools. Got some hand drawn type. Flagged a dozen iPhone captured goodies. Now let’s see what we get on the other side.

Here’s the selection of the all black from the black inked outline and then masking the selection to preserve the ink and paper texture.

Looks like the outline could use a texture. And a base color. Red should do… JP Red. Hello!

Initial results from the iPhone grab bag. We’re getting closer. The pixels are getting to know each other a little. We’ll let the levels & curves sort each other out for now. Let’s explore that.

Observe how the pixels push visual weight around. Now shape and emphasize the observed effects. From a California Dreamin’ look to rainy city night lights with movement.

I like this edge of twisty banding patterns.

Then I masked darker textures for better visual balance. Reshape those curves a just a little bit and tidy up the layers.

Logic grouping. Clean up bottom half of curves, then mask out and minimize jagged edges from burn & dodge layers.

Happy “B”

Enjoy. – Jason Robbins, Web Developer/Designer