Summer of Design - Project #2 - Photograph the alphabet

In the second of our Summer of Design projects we take a look at photography and typography. If you missed the first project take a look here.

Project #2 - PHOTOGRAPH THE ALPHABET

You will need - a camera, any camera - it doesn't have to be special!

Intro

Photography plays a big part in the designers life. Photography is often used to help communicate a mood and emotion. We can also use photography to help us record ideas and capture inspiration thought out our daily lives. So with this project we combine photography with typography. Typography is the study of letters, words and arranging them. We could go into this in much more depth but let's start of in simple terms... 

The project

As you go about your daily lives this week take a camera with you and try to capture every letter of the alphabet. Mix this up with making your own letters using various items you come across from stones, twigs or coins. Get your friends involved too!

Collate all your photos of letters and if you can, print them out and display them on a cork board or make a poster of the whole alphabet.

What are we learning here?

This project not only helps you notice everything around you, it also gives you a good introduction into letterforms and typography. You'll start to notice all the different typefaces and maybe start to think about how each typeface has it's own personality. 

Liked this project?

Why don't you try numbers next or extra symbols like ampersands(&) and pound signs? Another good photography project is to pick a colour and start snapping everything you see with that colour. This will come in useful for the next project #3 Interior Design.

If you have an interest to learn more about typography then you can get 40% off my Art of Typography Skillshare course by clicking on this link.

Modifications for younger children...

My son is almost 3 and doesn't know all the letters yet so this might be a tricky one for the really young children. What you can do is use it as an exercise to learn the letters... maybe focus on 1 or 2 at a time. One morning maybe you could set the challenge to find things around you that are S shaped, and take photos of them... for example. Or how about potato printing?! Or you can set a letter and try creating them out of different objects. My son loved helping me recently on the button alphabet... 

Keep updated

If you would like to be kept updated with the projects please like my facebook page and I'll be posting reminders there. I will also let you know what materials might be needed for the following weeks project.
Also if you would like to send me any of your projects to feature on my blog please email them to me hello@fayebrowndesigns.co.uk with the subject SUMMER OF DESIGN

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Summer of Design - Project #1 - 50 things

Firstly, a quick introduction to the Summer of Design! Over the next 6 weeks I'll be posting a design related project each week which will keep your big kids and little kids nice and busy and get their creative juices flowing... so even on a rainy day they can't complain about being bored!
At the end of the 6 weeks your kids will have worked on a range of fun projects that will have hopefully ignited a passion for design... whatever their age!

Project #1 - 50 THINGS

You will need - mixed media... whatever you can get your hands on!

Intro

This is a great project to get those creative juices flowing and to open your mind. I was set a similar project to this over a summer before starting an Art Foundation course and I really enjoyed it. I was 18, you are never too old for these projects!

I had to illustrate the sun in 100 different ways using any materials I wanted – pencils, paint, plasticine, photography, computer programmes – there were no limitations.

This is a great project to start at the beginning of the holidays and keep coming back to, some of the other projects might even make up some of the solutions.

The project

Pick one of the subjects on the image below and find 50 different ways to illustrate it – using whatever materials you like. If none of the words grab you, decide on something else. Or if you can't decide, print out all the words and pick one out of a hat. (double click on the image to see it bigger to print)

There are no right or wrong solutions – just have lots of fun with it and try to use as many different materials as you can. You could record all your ideas on a big A2 board or maybe photograph each solution instead.

What are we learning here...
Whilst the projects are all set to be fun there is also an element of learning and how this would help in the real world of designing. This is more relevant for older kids and teenagers who are really thinking about pursuing a career in design. What this project reveals it that in design there is hardly ever one correct solution to a brief. Let's say there was a brief to design a company logo but it must include a reference to a fish... this project helps you realise there are so many ways to draw or represent a fish (for example!) You will also find that the further down the 50 you get, the more and more you are thinking creatively... you are forced to start thinking of what new ways you could illustrate an apple or a sun. This boosts the thought processes and creative thinking.

Liked this project?

Why not pick another subject and try doing 50 more?!

(At the end of each project I'll make a suggestion for how you can carry on creating if you really enjoyed it)


Modifications for younger children
Occasionally some projects might need to be modified for younger children - see how you get on. My suggestion for children under 6 or 7 would be work with them and help them come up with 10 different ideas for say 5 of the subjects. Encourage them to use a mix of materials - you could even make a robot out of cardboard boxes! Or maybe bake heart shaped biscuits!

Keep updated

If you would like to be kept updated with the projects please like my facebook page and I'll be posting reminders there. I will also let you know what materials might be needed for the following weeks project (next week - a camera is needed - any camera!)
Also if you would like to send me any of your projects to feature on my blog please email them to me hello@fayebrowndesigns.co.uk with the subject SUMMER OF DESIGN

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Summer of Design

Every week during the summer holidays I'll be posting up a design related project to keep your kiddos busy and get their creativity side buzzing with ideas... Each project will be aimed at kids of all ages (even adults!) Obviously younger kids will approach it differently to teenagers and may need more parental supervision. 

The projects will be fun and open ended so there's no excuse to ever be bored!

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Gifted too... Day 2 - Alphabet

The fabulous Tigerprinters set a Gifted challenge each year for recent graduates. One of my friends suggested we could play along with some of the themes so here's my Alphabet! 

We were on holiday when I did this, is was really great to step away from the computer and just use paper to create the letters only using simple cuts and folds. 

It's been a while...

Hello! I've just noticed my last blog post was 27th March which was quite literally a life time ago now... Our little baby girl arrived on the 1st April. Despite a trip back into hospital for 8 days when she was 7 weeks she's now doing really well and she's a little cutie.

So I've been a little quiet on the work front but this month I'm taking part in a fun challenge called Gifted Too..! Which is basically playing alongside the wonderful Tigerprinters Gifted challenge (as theirs is just for recent graduates!) 

I'll be posting the themes I complete over the next month...