Process Angela Valera

Communication is key. “Personal communication has undergone a revolution.”(Sheifer) Instead of writing a note, one can just send a text message or send an email. Technology has made it possible for us to communicate with each other more efficiently with the minimum amount of effort. Software corrects our mistakes (spelling and grammar), so we don’t have to worry about silly things like that any more. Not only how we communicate has changed, but also the way we speak/type/write back and forth to each other. We use slang and abbreviations to shortening the time we spend texting some one back. Why waste time writing out each letter for each word when you can say a simple phrase with only 3 or 4 letters, such as, ttyl, omg, brb, lol, lmfao, nbd, etc. This way of connecting with each other has definitely effected the way we orally communicate with one another. If you don’t believe this to be true, ask yourself when the last time you had a casual conversation without using any slang or “lazy” speech.

When starting research I looked at different ways I personally communicate with my friends and family. I text, e-mail facebook, twitter, and way back when I didn’t have a cell phone, my friends and I would send handwritten notes back and forth in and between classes. I found some of these old notes that my friends have given me, and the letters and content I found in the notes was very interesting. Abbreviations were used in these notes just like how they are used now in texting and chatting online.

Creating this typeface I wanted to draw attention to similarities and differences between the digital and handwritten communication. I started placing my own handwriting over typefaces that were made for the web (Arial, sans serif and Georgia, serif). To get a variety of forms, I started to trace over letters I found in my friends notes and layered each individual friends’ handwriting over the two web-safe typefaces I chose to work with. I ended up with five sets of handwritten letters and two sets of web-safe. Each layered letter made a very interest overlaps. Transparency was used to better see the intersection between each letter form. After accomplishing this I decided to take a clipping mask over each of these elaborate letters. The clipping mask was the web-safe typeface, Arial. The idea was to see the intersections happening within the sans-serif typeface.