Kimberly Irwin

The Process of a Material Typeface

Material Exploration

Fake Flowers

My first material is fake flowers. They are small white flowers along a stem. The stem is made of a coated wire that is very moldable so I figured that I could easily bend it into letters, however, the flowers and leaves add a little bit more dimension and could also be used to fill in the holes in different letters in a pretty and dainty way. They aren’t too horrendously fake looking in my opinion.

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Appetizer Forks

My second material is mini silver appe-tizer forks. They are made of plastic so I can easily break or cut them if needed. The appetizer forks could potentially have tiny roman tomatoes or something of the sort on the tips. This is something that would rot easily but even if that happened I think that that might be an interesting contrast to the very clean-cut silver plastic forks.

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Klick Klacks

My third material is the old children’s toy, knocker balls. It has a stick that you hold and then two balls attached to it that you knock together for a wildly good time. They are neon and made of plastic so they could easily be dismantled to be arranged in different ways. I have multi-ple mini knocker ball toys and they can be arranged to form an alphabet.

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Material Name: In Depth

AnalysisNames: This material has many differ-ent names such as Knocker Balls, Clack-ers, Klackers, Klick Klacks, and Quick Klacks.Uses: This object is commonly used as a children’s toy. It is a noisemaker and is used for entertainment.Features• color: This material is made of as-

sorted neon (pink, orange, yellow & green) components.

• weight: The material is less than one pound.

• texture: It has a smooth, slick, and hard plastic texture.

• smell: This material does not have a scent.

• taste: This material does not have a taste.

• size: In total, the material is 4 in x 4 in.

Inherent Properties: This material is bright; colorful; joyful; a time-waster; for the easily amused; entertaining; nostal-gic; retro; for children; and innocent.Raw Materials/Processes: This materi-al is made from plastic parts. To create it, plastic is poured into molds for the two swinging arms and handle and then the two arms are attached to the handle.Parts: This material is easy to take apart. It has three separate pieces, two swing-ing arms and a handle, that can easily be separated and put back together without

the use of any tools. You can also use scissors to cut the sphere off from one of the swinging arms.

ConceptThe title of my typeface will be “youth” because knocker balls are very reminis-cent of childhood and most adults would probably not be found with the toy. I also think this is a good name because Knock-er Balls is a very simple game that doesn’t require any thought or skills and in that way the toy symbolizes the innocence of the child that is playing with it.

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Typeface in anEnvironment

Photo ShootI chose my setting to be in grass sur-rounded by bouncy balls because Knock-er Balls are very reminiscent of child-hood. When I think of the toy, I think of playing on the playground during recess in elementary school with the cool, damp grass under my feet. Since the grass is very distracting I blurred and burned it so that the letters would still pop out.

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Final Poster