Type Tuesday: The Letter C

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!

Honestly, when I first started to think about this design project, I found myself a bit overwhelmed.

For the last few weeks, it’s been non-stop at JP. Whatever brainpower I had left at the end of the day or week to even start to think about this letter C project, it wasn’t going to happen. I kept falling into a place that left me completely uninspired.

Rather than pushing it to the side, I kept it on the back burner and would mentally get back to it when I could. During this time, I came up with some wacky ideas. Here’s a few:

• Weld a custom letter C made from scrap metal
• Build a letter C from wood and stain it with a rich amber color
• A C-Note, use 100 dollar bills to create a C
• Photograph 100s of different Cs currently being utilized in marketing and advertising

I told you, my brain was all over the place.

Then one morning when my alarm went off, it just hit me. I finally figured out what I wanted to do with the letter C. I realized I looking at this the wrong way. Yes, I was struggling to find the best solution, but that just meant this letter C project was a problem I needed to solve. Which is completely my line of work.

When clients come to JP, we understand that the client needs quality design work completed in a timely manner. The projects then become the “problem” that I will find the “answer” to through my designs. It’s my job to acknowledge, review, assess and resolve that problem. I’ve been pretty successful, considering I’ve been in this industry for more than 15 years now.

Problem solving is the element that got me excited about this project. It wasn’t creating an original letterform or building something three-dimensional, but it was illustrating how we as designers mentally have to navigate through project obstacles and boundaries (like time, budget, client requests) to find those seamless solutions. It’s all about the process and how I get to a place that I honestly am able to provide solutions to clients.

Rather that using any of the 10,000 fonts…

..I just started to design the C around a concentric pattern.

After that, I manipulated the letterform to create this maze.

I wanted the Cs to create visual representation of how problem solving, in this instance, in regards to design work, required me to start a center point to think about what I wanted that end-result to look like. Here’s the solution to my C-mingly endless problem:

–Peter Carrion, Senior Designer/Photographer