Alaina Pellett: When I first read the creative brief about this project, I had so many ideas running through my head. I work at the cafes here on campus and have always loved looking at these projects hanging up on the walls at the library. I knew I wanted to take a more artistic approach to this project while still adhering to creating my own font. I love the idea of graffiti or street art and knew I wanted to make a font that kind of represented this idea. I added large serifs and finials to exaggerate each letter and make them take up a lot of space. Each letter also has something I drew inside it that starts with the letter to represent it. For example, in “A” I drew an apple and an arrow inside. While I wanted each letter to be able to stand by itself, the way I arranged them on this grid was to kind of give the illusion of them running together. To do this, I added some ornamental paint drips to the bottom of each letter. Something that also inspired me for this project were the letters (also known as initials) that began a story or new chapter in old storybooks.

Alex Tandy: I loved doing this project! This poster is a carefully designed display of all 26 letters of the alphabet designed as foods. I decided to choose food as my theme for the typeface because there are so many different types of foods out there to work with, and I thought it would give me a wide berth of options for the best results. Throughout it, I experimented with different linework and thickness, different types of foods, and multiple ways of designing the letterforms. I wanted a poster that was cohesive and clean, while also harboring many little details that can be seen up close.

Caden Marinacci: For this project, I went with the theme of everyday cartoon references. Every letter is based on something I’ve seen in cartoons recently or from when I was a kid. My creative process was pretty straightforward. I would draw the letter out in pencil in my sketchbook, then stare at it until I could relate the letter to the form of a cartoon character. If that connection couldn’t be made, I picked a character whose name started with the letter I was on and would “dress” the letter up as that character. All letters were drawn by hand in pencil, traced with a black marker, and then scanned into Illustrator to be colored. I’m very happy with how it all turned out.

Gretchen Stoner: My theme for my alphabet project was a beach/summer theme. I wanted something with bright colors and something that would be engaging to others. I used mostly colored pencils and used sharpies for the outline of each letter. I used similar colors for the background of the letters for consistency. I used elements that remind me of summer and created some common scenes you would see during this time. I used block letters and sans serifs to create my alphabet. Some of my illustrations make up the shape of the letter and others are inside the letter. I sketched out each individual letter then colored and outlined them. I then scanned them as PDFs and uploaded into Photoshop. I removed the backgrounds and adjusted the levels of each image to make the colors stand out more. I exported all of the letters and created this print ready version.

Hannah Lisk: This project caused me a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but in the end, it was definitely worth it. Technological issues aside (hard to forget) I really enjoyed every second of this process. Originally, I had planned to make every letter a different medium because I think I’m capable of executing a lot of different artistic approaches. I realized, though, it wasn’t a realistic idea, since most of my art supplies is back at home. So, I pivoted, and landed on making a quilt blanket out of my letters. I love all things embroidery and fabric, so finding images to use was very stimulating for me. It also proved to be very challenging too. It was difficult to find a background fabric that contrasted well enough with the fabric I used for the letter itself, and on top of that, both fabrics needed to have similar color palettes. And on top of that, each colorway of each letter needed to look good next to the surrounding ones, I needed to make sure there weren’t repeats. All in all, though, I believe my hard work paid off. I think my poster is very playful and visually appealing and I’m happy with how it turned out!

Izzy Hauck: When I started making my poster, I knew that I wanted to do with a familiar medium since it was such a big project and since we needed a physical copy, I deiced to start my poster by using watercolor pencil and pen. I am familiar with the medium, so it made it easier to use for a physical version, I also used this as an opportunity to get a baseline of what I wanted for the design to be and what colors I wanted for my alphabet. With my physical versions, I then transfer my design to a digital copy by redrawing my design or fixing some of the designs on the program procreate. When thinking of what I wanted my overall theme to be I decided to go with something I know well overall, mythology. With my overall idea being mythology, I really like the idea of using different mythical creature from different mythology like Greek, Norse, Celtic, Chinese, Japanese, Roman and Astronomy. Though since I am using so many different mythologies, I had to do a bit more research on the mythical creatures that each have, mainly Chinese and Celtic mythology.

Jordan Schoonover: When I initially heard about this project I jumped for joy; my brain filled idea after idea of all the different things and ways I could explore this project. I dove head first into this project and at first I didn’t have any real direction. For the few letters I did whatever felt right, going in detail to find something that gave the letter clear form while also thinking outside the box to the best of my abilities. Then I reached the letter k and decided to start incorporating my own artstyle into the letter forms, thinking less about how recognizable it was as the letter, rather I let my hands and mind run free. My art style is very distinct for its focus on eyes, teeth, and a sort of monstrosity approach. By allowing my mind to run rampant, I was able to effortlessly create the rest of my letters while still having a great time doing it. By the time I was done, you could visibly see my transition from exploring different ideas to coming to something concrete that I could flow with and overall I’m extremely satisfied with how my alphabet poster turned out!

Lanette Valentine: For this project, I wanted to challenge myself when creating my alphabet by doing something completely different than what I’ve ever done. I wanted to try, as I haven’t really seen it be done, to create the entire alphabet out of fruits and veggies from different places in the world. The challenges I knew when going into this was finding all of the fruits and veggies from all parts of the world. I first started with simple fruits and veggies, but when it got towards the middle, that’s when problems were starting to show. From finding good reference photos to even scrapping whole designs because it wasn’t working for the letter was very challenging. I wanted my alphabet to be different and inspirational so that others can look and see other fruits and veggies from other parts of the world. I covered places like India, Asia, South America, Mexico, China, Japan, Brazil, Africa, and many more. I wanted to do this alphabet as I wanted to challenge myself, but also show parts of the world in this piece. Overall, this project had its challenges, just like with any other piece, from difficulty to finding photos for accuracy to even finding some fruits and veggies that would work for this.

Letitia Oteng: For my A–Z Project, I drew inspiration from jellyfish. Jellyfish are free-flowing, beautiful, and interesting to look at. I wanted to create an alphabet set that would emulate that while also being fun. The process of creation was a bit difficult because this could go in any direction, the possibilities were endless, and I couldn’t find this being done before. I had to consider balancing the type aspects with the jellyfish aspects. Things started off more illustrative, but as time went on and I kept experimenting, I was able to create letters that had the curves and textures of a jellyfish while maintaining the recognizable form of the letters. Some letters have the jellyfish head, while others delve more into the decorative tentacles. At the end of the day, I just wanted people to look at it and think, Oh, jellyfish, while still knowing that this is the alphabet. I think some letters lack this a bit individually, but as a whole, it’s pretty cohesive.

Overall, I think the project challenged me to think intentionally about each small part of a whole. It also challenged me to have fun and free-flow as well. There were definitely times when I was overthinking things, and that showed in the final product. When I thought a little too much, the letters started to lose that natural, flowing quality I was aiming for. Letting go and allowing the forms to develop more organically helped me get closer to the feeling I wanted something that felt light, fluid, and just a little bit whimsical. Additionally, this project gave me a deeper appreciation for people who create type and fonts. There’s so much work that goes unseen. I can tell that these creators put in a lot of time and effort, all with the hope that what they’ve made will communicate something, even if it’s just a small part of a bigger picture.

Madison Barrickman: When tasked with coming up with an idea for this project, one of the first things to come to mind was to make a spring themed alphabet. After somewhat of a harsh winter, I know many people were longing for warmer days. The spring theme allowed me to draw out all sorts of ideas into letters instead of having it become repetitive, which I really enjoyed. In the end, I feel really content with how my project turned out.

Mateo Mora: Inspired by my love for claymation, this project was an opportunity to create a piece that both challenged consistency and pushed the boundaries of a common typeface. I chose to sculpt each letter out of platinum white oven-bake clay to promote texture and dimensionality. The letters were then colored and edited within Adobe Photoshop, fitting into one of six hues chosen to match the typeface’s playful nature. Letters were each sketched individually prior to sculpture to best find unique manipulations of the forms’ structure, weight, and balance. Photographing the sculpts for this project was challenging — without access to a consistent location or studio, the strength of highlights and shadows became a major variable with little solution found in the editing process. The typeface now sits on a plain off-white background, showcasing the unique depth, tilt, and shadow present in every letter.