OUGD504 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - INITIAL SKETCHES

After undertaking research into Charlotte Shane and Prostitute Laundry, I decided to carry on with the hand drawn style she has used for many of her projects, and sketched out the title to all three of her books several times, trying to get it to look right, and experimenting with underlines and little glyphs to make it look a bit more than just text.

I tried using a serif typeface to start with, as I wanted to show a bit of class in the typeface, however this hasn't worked well at all, it looks too round, so I think an actual typeface would work better if I want to go for a serif approach. I wrote out "Prostitute Laundry" as fast and smoothly as possible, to try and get a similar style as Shane had achieved herself. I wanted it to look quite loopy and swirly, to show a sophisticated, feminine side, as Charlotte Shane is a woman after all. I added varying weight to some of my favourite lettering, which works so much better, as it makes it look a lot more fluid and elegant, being more shapely. I experimented with different underlining methods and uses of glyphs to make it look more interesting, such as circles, commas, four leaf clovers and half moons, to see which looked interesting and which just looked a bit silly. I quite like the comma idea in the middle of the underline, as it is a slight reference to her as a writer, but acts as an illustration. The circles in the middle of the underline also work effectively in the same way, but look a bit more ordinary and a little like beads. The illustrations on the sides of the lettering look out of place and don't really support the title itself, but just stick out awkwardly. I also tried for more of a icon logo, of a bra and corset on a coat hanger, however I really don't like this design, as it looks awkward and there's too much space between the bra/corset itself and the coat hanger, as would be in reality, and I think this references too much to her sex work rather than her work as a writer. I also tried creating a circle that passes through the writing, looking a bit scruffy as I went over it several times, however this looks a bit weird and lie a rainbow as well, and doesn't really represent anything, except perhaps the two sides of her career.

I experimented more with different kinds of illustrations and glyphs to accompany the title text, such as dashes - , brackets [ ] , braces { } , and angle brackets < > . I thought this could be a link to Shane's work as a writer, the same as how I used commas previously. Although this sounds like an effective idea, it hasn't worked as I had hoped by hand at least, as I had to place them either side of the title, they look out of place compared to the swirling style of the text, and makes it look a little bit like computer coding of something. I experimented more with circles and the clover in the middle of the underline and outside edges of the text, which the underlined part looks effective, however I think things may look differently when I produce them digitally. I tried creating Prostitute Laundry using a serif style and only the initials, to create kind of a logo, however because of the shape of the letters they don't really fit that well together, and I worry how the other initials from the two other books will work together as well. I wrote out "The Cord" and "Nightmare Brunette" to see how it looked hand drawn, and I am really pleased with the outcomes, especially with Nightmare Brunette, as the letters really flow nicely together and it looks very elegant. The Cord was a lot harder to get right, as it it a lot shorter than the other two titles, and is made of letters that don't flow very well together. However I will experiment digitally to see if it will work on there better.

After these initial sketches the next stage will be to produce them digitally and to experiment with actual typefaces as well to see if a typeface would work better and look cleaner, or whether I should stick to the hand rendered approach.