Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about lettering and graphic design.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking and exploring together in this lesson.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to create a letterform that expresses a chosen emotion or theme.

Before we start, I'd like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these keywords down.

The words we'll be using today are expressive, typography, letterform, and colour theory.

I'm going to say those words again, and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Expressive, typography, letterform, colour theory.

Good job.

Now, let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at each of their definitions.

Expressive, means you are conveying thought and feeling.

Typography, is when you arrange letters and text in a way that makes them readable and visually appealing.

Letterform is the shape and design of a single letter.

Colour theory is the study of how colours can affect human perception and emotions.

Pause the video here to make a note of these key words, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we working through together in today's lesson.

Identifying different styles of letterforms, creating an expressive letterform.

In this first learning cycle, we'll explore identifying different styles of letterforms. Expressive letters can be seen all around us from book covers to advertisements, logos, and posters.

Throughout history, people have created expressive letters.

Let's take a look here.

Illuminated letters are a form of expressive letters.

The first letter on the page of a manuscript was decorated, often using reflective gold.

This form of design was most popular in the Middle ages.

Take a look there, an image of an illuminated letter.

Can you see how that is expressive.

In typography, letters are used for more than just creating words on a page.

Letters can be designed to express emotions and ideas in ways that make us think and feel differently when we read them.

Taking a look at the each of those letters, what do they make you think or feel? A letterform is the shape and design of an individual letter, but these elements can go far beyond basic shapes.

They can become works of art that communicate and express a range of emotions and ideas.

You can see this example here, how it's beautifully decorated to become a work of art.

Expressive letterforms can be designed to convey mood, tone, or energy through their shape, style, and colour.

What are the differences between these designs of the letter A? What mood does each letter A convey? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner about these two questions and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? What were the differences that you could see in each of these designs? What mood did they convey? Well, looking at this first one, that sharp, jagged, A, it might feel quite aggressive or energetic or powerful, and this soft curvy a might feel gentler or more calm.

Did you think the same or something a bit different? Well, graphic designers can use letterforms to match the meaning of a typographic word or message in logos, posters, and advertisements.

Looking at these three here, I'd like you to discuss with a partner what emotions or ideas each of these letterforms make you think of and why.

So pause the video here and have that discussion and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? What did each of these letterforms make you think of and why? Well, Andeep says that "The first letterform looks sophisticated and professional, like something from a magazine." And that "The second one looks like it would be fun to make using black ink as it's so energetic." Laura says, "I like the decorative elements around the first letterform, and the third one looks more graphic and like a shield, which reminded me of comic books and sports logos." What did you and your partner think? Which letterform did you like the most? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What is a letterform? Is it a formal document, the shape and design of a single letter or a type of letter paper? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about that question and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said a letterform is the shape and design of a single letter you are absolutely right.

Well done.

Colour can be used in art, graphic design, and typography to help convey ideas or emotions more effectively to the viewer.

Aisha says, "I love how the colours have been blended in this letterform." Intentionally choosing colours based on how they affect our perceptions and emotions is known as colour theory.

Colours can affect our emotions.

How do each of these colour combinations make you feel? Pause the video here and have a moment to think about that and press play when you're ready to continue.

How do those colour combinations make you feel? Well, maybe this first colour combination, the bright warm colours like red, orange, and yellow, they can express energy or happiness.

Perhaps these cool blues or purples can create a sense of calm or mystery.

And this final colour combination, these dark shades of colours, might feel more or serious.

By using colour theory, warm and cool colour palettes can be applied to letterforms to influence how they look.

As well as their colours, can you think of any other ways that these letterforms could enhance their warm and cool styles? Hmm.

Pauses the video here and have a think about that, and then press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, there are many elements that can be used in letterform design to help convey an idea, including line, shape, pattern, and texture.

By selecting different elements and colours that match the style of a letterform, more impactful and expressive typography designs can be created.

So let's take a look at these.

On the left, the warm colours for this letter A, have been combined with fiery lines and energetic mark making techniques.

For the letter A on the right, the shape of the letterform has been rounded to bring a fluid style with the cool colour palette.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

In colour theory, which colours are associated with warm colours? A, B, or C.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about this and press play when you are ready to continue.

If you said that C, is associated with warm colours, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to first of all match each letterform to its description.

So we've got each of these letters here, which one is illustrative, which one is minimal, which one is sharp, which one is decorative? So pause the video here and give yourself some time to match each letterform to its description, and then press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Shall we take a look? So this first one is minimal.

Then we have the second one, which is sharp.

Then the third, which is illustrative, and the fourth is decorative.

Well done if you're able to match those letterforms to their descriptions.

Now having a go at the second part of this learning task, I'd like you to write any other adjectives that could be used to describe each letterform.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at writing some adjectives to describe these letterforms, and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Shall we take a look at some examples? So maybe for the first one, you might have said it looks wooden, rounded, or smooth.

The second one, jagged, edgy, busy.

The third one, graphic, bold, monstrous, or the fourth one, classical ornamental architectural.

Well done for having a go at that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson lesson.

We're now going to explore creating an expressive letterform.

To create an expressive letterform, it helps to start by drawing or lightly sketching the basic shape of the letter.

You don't need to have neat handwriting skills for this.

Creating an expressive letterform uses drawing and designing skills.

You can see there a lightly sketched basic shape of the letter A.

You can experiment with the design of a letterform.

Try making it three-dimensional, change elements or add decorative details to alter its style and personality.

Here's three examples of how we could change that letter A.

Making it three-dimensional or then changing the elements, maybe add in those decorative detail like those leaves there.

The space around a letterform can also be used.

Creating a border, adding decorative features or using more colours can help turn a letterform into an impactful typographic design.

An expressive letterform might even suggest multiple ideas and emotions together.

Can you see how both warm and cool colours have been combined in these letterforms? That's right.

We've got the warmer colours on that left side and the cooler colours on the right side.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Is this statement true or false? To create an expressive letterform, you should have neat handwriting skills.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here and have a think about this and press play when you are ready to continue.

If you said that that's false, you are absolutely right.

Why is it false? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner to explain why this statement is false and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you say? Well, you might have said designing and drawing an expressive letterform does not require any handwriting skills.

As letters can be designed using many different art materials.

Think about what emotional idea that you want to be expressed through the letterform design.

Aisha says, "I like football, so I could use black and white hexagon shapes and a green pitch for my letter to sit on top of." Jun says, "Retro video games are my inspiration.

I want a letterform that looks pixelated with bold colours." This can help when choosing the shapes, styles, and colours for your design.

So here's Aisha's, go.

"I sketched the outline of this football letterform in pencil first, then I drew hexagons and coloured it in using pencil colours." Can you see that football inspiration there in Aisha's design? Here's Jun's.

He says, "I used felt-tips to create my pixelated video game letterform.

I used a ruler to get straight lines and I counted the pixel squares to create symmetry." How well do you think Aisha and Jun, have incorporated their ideas into their expressive letterforms? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Do you think they did a pretty good job of showing the football and the video games in their letterforms? Which one did you like the most? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which of these themes is this expressive letterform based on? A, oceans, B, space, or C, animals? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to answer this question and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said that the theme this letterform was based on was space, you're absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to design your own letterform that expresses a chosen emotion or idea.

Think about what emotion or idea you want to be expressed through the letterform design.

Then use colours, shapes, patterns, and decorative elements to help represent your chosen emotion or idea.

Pause a video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at designing your own letterform that expresses your chosen emotion or idea and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you find that? Well, maybe you have drawn something like this.

This drawing was made using oil pastels, using a natural landscape theme, mountains and trees influence the letterform design and colours.

Well done for having a go at that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about designing an expressive letterform.

Letterforms can be designed to express and communicate different emotions and ideas to the viewer.

Colour theory can be used when choosing colours to help to convey expression.

Colours, shapes and styles can be combined to enhance typographic impact.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.