Ligature Brief

Ligature Brief - OUGD403

Within our group, during studio time we designed and developed a new character for one of the six typefaces listed in The Vignelli Canon. Our group focused on 'Futura' and focused on the abbreviation 'WUD?' standing for 'what are you doing?' Within our ideas we wanted to be subtle, not literal. We wanted to form a ligature which is using two or more graphemes or letters, joined together as a single glyph.

We looked at different ways the phrase could be used as a fast button on a keyboard to form type on social media to interact informally. This is due to the question commonly used over messenger.

Although, we worked in a group we independently created different styles of glyph working with different space, angles and shapes to see what worked best. We then came together as a group to see what glyph had the most potential and which was most suitable.

Within my designs I experimented with key letters and placed them in different ways and angles to see what worked best. We then came together in a group crit to combine all of our ideas together. We also explored ideas in Chinese and Korean.

Final Resolution

Our final outcome came from the idea that Sans-serif typefaces are used in text, therefore 'Futura' was an obvious choice for our group. Due to 'WUD?' being a question we feel our final outcomes flows and has elegance whilst being highly expressive. It's extremely free and loose. The design is also simplistic so works on a small and large scale and is still legible. In addition, the weight of the design means it works well in different colours and also in black and white. 

Finally, once we had our final outcome we tried  it on popular social media apps and thought it was a success.