Typography Manipulation Testing

 In one of my previous blog posts, I identified the font 'Face you fears' as a possible font we might want to use for out typography. Now I have learnt some basic skills in how to manipulate text I decided to use Pixlr - a similar program to Photoshop but free. at home to see the outcome of manipulating the text.

Attempt 1
Here you can see the letters A - D before they have been manipulated.

I then decided that from my previous post where I incorporated text with the picture of rain, I wanted to try and recreate a similar effect, so I began work with the smudge tool.

Here you can see that I dragged, or smudged either side of the letter 'A' down, so it looked like it had been smeared on some paper or a surface, I think it adds some realism to the text.

Next I decided to do the same effect on the letter 'B', however in hindsight I would have dragged it down differently. I think that perhaps if we were to use this technique I would have to drag all of the bottom half of the 'B' down. as it doesn't really look realistic.

The same goes for the 'C' and 'D'. At the time I wasn't really sure which direction I should smudge it in. I think I found this easier in my Photoshop post because I was using a background image as a slight guide to my smudges. At least I can take this on board when we create our actual typography.

Here is the first attempt at my first manipulation of the 'Face your fears' font.

Attempt 2

  

 I decided to have another go at manipulating font, because I really wasn't happy with the original outcome. I decided to place the letters closer together, because that is how they will appear when written anyway, but also to try and use a much more subtle approach to manipulate the font.

I decided to pick out areas which naturally stuck out on the font and smudge them out a little, so it wasn't quite so neat and could give the impression of wear and tear, as if it was on a real surface. I was much happier this time round and I think the more subtle approach looks a lot more professional and this is necessary for our final typography.

Here you can see my gradual progression with the smudge tool and blur tool in Pixlr to smooth out edges and create a particular look. I personally think the image below looks a bit like it was scratched/written on paper with charcoal, by hand because of the smudged edges.

I was much happier with this outcome, and it looks more professional than my first attempt. However, I do not feel after this process that the 'Face your fears' font is necessarily the right choice for our typography. I do not think it looks as great when manipulated, so we perhaps need to try out some other fonts before settling on a final decision.