Tag Archives: iterations

Adrienne’s Story

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Dimensional Letterforms

Jump to: Research | Concepts | Iterations | Final Reflection

My final dimensional letterforms

Twenty-six forms that represent sounds combined can create words with meaning that develop story. The visual depiction of these iconic symbols can be as simple as the scribbles of a preschooler to structural objects as seen in Lo Siento’s 4D alphabet.

Lo Siento 4D alphabet

Research

OOOOOooooooo

Both capital and lowercase letter “O”s are the same form and structure. When thinking in three dimensions, I immediately think of spheres, donuts, and targets. Taking this glyph further than extruding the surface to make a three-dimensional form is a goal.

  1. Vectorstock-circle-spherical-design-element-vector
  2. laundry-amazon
  3. www.notimeforflashcards.com
  4. Isamu Noguchi’s Skyviewing Sculpture in Red Square at Western Washington University
  5. Torus-istockphoto

Lowercase h

Or is it a chair? The stem and leg of this glyph brings ideas of architecture and furniture design. But when looking into the visual vocabulary of the lowercase “h”, I discovered how to draw a bird or to craft a house. I do love a good Old English form too.

  1. Chair + h SandroJalabadze-Dribble
  2. www.drawinghowtodraw.com
  3. www.notimeforflashcards.com
  4. logodix.com/chair
  5. Old English printableletters.org

Lowercase g

The lowercase “g” is the glyph to understand what a typeface can do for you. It’s form is versatile and unique with an ear, bowl, sometimes loop, other variants are tails. It is an obsession, just as the ampersand, to most type geeks. So much character can be derived from one character.

  1. https://qz.com “Can you recognize the letter “G”?” by Thu-Huong Ha & David Yanofsky
  2. free-printable-gothic-calligraphy-lowercase-letters-gothic-calligraphy-lowercase-G
  3. G. Ogaki Poster display typeface by Aron Jancso
  4. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G-samples
  5. The italic ampersand from Baskerville and the g from Newzald.

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Concepts

The beginning of letterform exploration in two dimension…

Sketches by Adrienne Hooker
Sketches by Rowan Wang

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Iterations

I wanted to tackle the patterned torus for the letter “O” but unfortunately time ran short so I had to settle for my oldest child, Oscar, being encased in multiple O’s. It was my first attempt at bringing in a 3D scanned model into Shapr3D and the program handled it well.

My next letterform is the lowercase “h”, fashioned after a modernist chair. It was fairly quick although a couple of the edges could be rounded better.

The letterform that took the most trial and error was the lowercase “g”. This glyph has so much character, I wanted to try and sculpture a two-story version in the round.

Test Prints

After modeling each letterform in Shapr3D, I test printed each on my Jellybox printer to get a sense of form but also how the models worked together. Each model took approximately 1 1/2 hours to print.

The C‘h’air felt more like a loveseat rather than a chair with the 65mm 50mm dimensions. So I’ll reduce the width to 35mm for the final print (as seen in the 3D view below).

First test print, 100% scale, coarse preset, no raft/supports, printed on side
Predetermined dimensions of 65mm x 50mm are more of a sofa than a chair.

The caged Oscar test print results were better than expected. The top connections of the multiple O’s need to thicken, but overall the bust and curves held up well.

The sculptural lowercase ‘g’ is still a work in progress, but I was successful in creating the top sphere with ear and the bottom tail. I’d like to refine the connection between the two stories. The 3D view is at low resolution since Tinkercad couldn’t handle a model with more than 300,000 triangles in the mesh. Initial print 100%, coarse preset with raft and supports. The ball of the ear snapped off when removing supports and still need to remove more support material underneath the top story and in between the tail.

Timelapse of 360° view of test print. Need to flatten bottom a bit to stand upright.

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Final Prints & Reflection

Deadlines always push the limits to what we can achieve. I attempted to print my final letterforms at home so the class could use the 3SPACE lab, but unfortunately, my Jellybox said no. With a thermal runaway error midway through the prints, I had to go into the lab.

Jellybox final prints never made it past 50% due to temperature errors.

But I would say my printing issues at home were kismet. For the first time all term, being in the lab provided that in-between time with students. It felt good to have those teachable moments again (just as much for me as them). I thoroughly enjoyed this special topics class, and I hope I can dive into the 3D relm with students another time.

Below are the final prints of my three letters: lowercase h, O/o, and lowercase g. Not sure why it took me this long to realize I chose the letterforms for “hog”. As for printing, I would like to try my c‘h’air standing upright since the side on the plate didn’t keep it’s soft edge, and my lowercase ‘g’ has been printed on its side and upright with neither keeping it’s ear. The flattening of the bottom does help it stand better, but I’m not quite satisfied with how to finish it since the supports are difficult to reach or roughs up a beautifully pristine sphere. The caged O needed a little egg top and flattening of the bottom. Overall the 360° view of the letters are where I want them to be.

  • c‘h’air
  • caged ‘O’
  • killer ‘g’

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Chance’s Story

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Research and Concept:

For my story, I chose the letters “Tt” and “Yy.” I chose these because I feel as though there’s quite a bit of structure in them, but also room for creativity and room for change. For the “T” I think that the stems at the top are something I can’t ignore so for the most part I stuck with designing around what I could do and change while also preserving the integrity of the letterform. The largest part about letters and letterforms is what is communicated and while I want to create something cool and exciting, I also want to keep the original integrity in tact. Both T and Y are very similar so I want to keep the designs separate as the two deserve their own spotlight.

“T”-Inspiration:

  • Modern Vector Logo Letter T. T Letter Design Vector

“T”-Exploratory Sketches:

For the letter “Y” I wanted to do the same as far as preserving integrity, but I chose to be a lot more playful in these sketches. I feel like pushing and changing dimensions is something I will strive for in the finished product.

“Y”-Inspiration:

“Y”-Exploratory Sketches:

Iterations:

For my “T” design, I wanted to play around with the view from each side. I found this to be more difficult than I initially thought. My plan was to create the bottom right design from my sketches, however my dimensions were not working for what I wanted. At first I couldn’t get the angle right in order to fit all four sides. So then I moved to creating more of a platform to allow for more space (see image1). I ended up leaving what I had because it looked as though the T was getting too bulky. Which brings the project to what the viewer sees in the tinkercad iframe. I want to ideally create something that brings design to all four sides, not just the two it has now. Feedback is the next step in my process. Another design I tried can be viewed in image 2, this design was an effort to incorporate a lowercase t. If I did move forward with that design I would hollow out the lowercase t and make the same on all four side. Again, not entirely sure the direction I want to go yet!

  • Platform concept
  • Other design incorporating lowercase t

For my “Y” design, I had hoped to incorporate both and upper and lowercase Y, but ultimately I chose to go with the puzzle design that is in my sketches. I’m not set on this design (reference iframe), I more or less just chose one to draw out. I feel like this is nice, but some of my other designs might be a better fit for the assignment. For more inspiration, I drew out a lowercase y, just to see if I’d like to incorporate it into a different way. The puzzle is nice, but I would Ideally like to push the concept further.

Lower case Y, playing around with designs

For my T print, I changed the design as I didn’t know exactly what direction I wanted to go in. This print turned out decent, I printed it multiple times during the iteration process. Each time I couldn’t get the gaps exactly right. Pictures show that by the wonky structure. I will be adjusting that for the final.

For my Y print, it went better than expected, but I printed with a raft which caused the back to be raised on each piece. As a result, the Y was wonky as well. For the final I will take that off and see how it works then!

Final:

For my final on my T letterform, I fixed the gaps so that it created enough room for them to be flush with one another. In addition, I scaled it to 65mm to follow project requirements. This print worked the best using a raft. Overall, I’m happy with how this turned out. I wasn’t too sure of what direction I wanted to go with it, just that I wanted to incorporate both an uppercase and lowercase T.

My final Y letterform stayed fairly consistent start to finish. The only complications I had were in iterations with a raft causing a lip that pushed the pieces forward when stacked. I made the simple decision to not use a raft and it worked like a charm. I also scaled this letter to 65mm. I’m also content with how this turned out!

Unda’s Story

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Research & Concept

Each letterform has its own distinct characteristics of dimensionality and texture that allows it to be able to be recognized standing alone. Although letterforms are distinct there are still multiple methods used to customize the letterform’s structure in a way that still keeps its essence but alters the appearance of the letter character. No matter what alteration, typography allows us to recognize a letterform and its shape unconsciously.

First Letter: “Z”

The first glyph I chose was the letter “Z” because I felt that it was a very unique yet simple letter. I like how angular the letter is and that it contains sharp edges. This letter form has two even horizontal line connected to the each end of an angular, vertical strip. When written it is similar to the shape of a zig zag. Depending on the font or style, the letter “Z” will sometimes contain the personalization of a serif or a san serif. Below are some examples of my own alterations of the letter “Z” along with sketches.

Second Letter: “U”

The second glyph I chose was the letter “U” because it is the first letter of my name and because it is completely opposite to the letter “Z”. I thought it would be interesting to go from a completely angular letter to a softer, more curved letter. The letter “U” contains a simple upwardly curved line. When it is in lowercase it additional has a tail attached to it. The “U” also can be alter differently depending on if it is serif styled or san serif styled. Below are some examples of my own alterations of the letter “U” along with sketches.

Iterations

My first iteration for the letter “U” was pretty straight forward because I was able to draw out the shape that I wanted on Illustrator and then transferred that file into Tinkercad. My “Z” letter took more of a process because I originally started with a design of a Z shape that is hollow on the inside but as I was playing around with the outline more I came up with a more 4D type of design that I really liked.

After looking at 4D letters and taking inspiration from letter sculptures, I thought that the “Z” was simplistic enough to be able to play around with its shape and angles as well as morph its form. I also really wanted to take advantage of how clean cut the letter is so I wanted to create a more challenging design for this letter. Because of that, I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to create the “Z” in a way that could be read at all angles when it is turned in a circle.

This is the first “Z” letter design I came up with.

This is my second “Z” letter design. If you move it around you can see that it takes the shape of a “Z” no matter what angle it is in.

I like both designs but I prefer how the second design turned out because I enjoy its unique 4D quality. The 2nd design to me also has a lot more potential as well to be altered in a creative way.

For the letter “U”, because it is the complete opposite of the letter “Z”, I wanted to take a different approach to it. My main concern when I chose the letter was how it was going to stand up on its own because the base of the letter is curved. After doing the research I came across many designs where the curve of the “U” is slightly more angular but still holds the true essence of the letter. I really love the style of old english and thought it would be clever to create a 3D print of a letter that looks like it came straight from a written pen or off a page of an old book. Below is the design I came up with. You can see that the bottom of the “U” is also sharp enough to stand on its own as well if needed.

Final Print & Reflection

Before printing out my final letter form I had to make some slight changes. For the letter “U” I tidied the corners up so that the letter form as a whole had a smoother edge. Below is the final design of the letter “U”. For the letter “Z” I decided to keep that the same because the test print came out really well.

Below you can see the two final forms of my two letters “Z” and “U”. On the top is the final design for the letter “Z” and on the bottom is the final design for the letter “U”.

Overall I’m super happy with the final prints for this last project. As shown above, you can see that both letters both stand upright on their own. I’m most happy with the outcome with my letter “Z” because it can be viewed as a “Z” in all directions. I’m also content with my letter “U” because I love how it is able to stand up on its own due to the old english font it is in. Both letters were fun to make and a nice challenge to play with their letter form.

The process to obtain these prints were mostly easy but I did come across some obstacles. The test prints for these objects came out super well even though I accidentally broke the “Z” taking it home. When I went to print out my finalized letters the 3D printer glitched and melted the back of the letter prints. The supports also didn’t print with the “Z” and so it spaghettied everywhere.

After this I reprinted the letter and they came out very nicely. The supports actually printed and the overall form of both letters looked clean. Below are my final letters together. They two prints came out the cleanest and are the sturdiest!

Caroline’s Story

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Research and Concepts

The Roman alphabet is such an intriguing thing. These little shapes or forms carry so much meaning when standing alone or combined with one another. Letters form words, and words hold power. Every letter in the Roman alphabet has been engrained in our brains since the earliest years of our life. They are unmistakeable in any form. 2D, 3D, Script fonts, sans serif, doesn’t matter.

Below are my ideas for my letter prints and some inspiration I drew from for them.

First Letter- N

The letter N contains two legs and one stroke line. I think there is a lot of potential to develop this letter in both a 3D and 4D Space. For all of my concepts I toyed with making the letter appear infinite in a sense. The fist wrapping around itself as though it were ribbon. The second taking a more abstract, sculptural shape where I connected the legs and stroke line with two more connectors, running back and forth between the connector line- somewhat taking inspiration from an infinity cube sculpture and the Nintendo design.

Second Letter- E

The letter E has one leg and three arms, one shorter than the rest. For my exploration with the letter E I toyed with negatives and removing part of the leg in the E while still maintaining its basic form. I also toyed with the idea of printing the arms and legs separately and placing them on top one another like building blocks, however balance may be an issue here.

Iterations

Here you can see both of my concepts for my prints in Shapr3D and Tinker Cad. I think both went relatively smooth, and I will try to print these first before making any changes. If anything I may try to smooth some edges on my “N”.

Final

When printing my final, I attempted to reprint both of my letters after refining some of their edges. I never ran into an issue with my “E”, however my “N” refused to print and would turn into spaghetti each time. I didn’t change any of my print settings from my first time printing, and after reaching out to my instructor for further help I was still unable to properly print. With that being said, my first prints became my finals as I ran out of time. I tried to re-print three times, each failing for a reason that is unknown to me. The final prints are good, but the edges aren’t as clean as I would have liked them to be.

Jonathan Berrang’s Form|Function

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F|F Research & Concept

Single Joy-Con Grip by 3DBotMaker on Thingiverse

This Thingiverse object is a grip for a Nintendo Switch controller. These controllers are very small and somewhat uncomfortable to use on their own. The grip is designed to increase the size of the controller by giving your hands something bigger to hold onto. It is designed to make it easy to insert and remove the controller, while (hopefully) still holding it tightly in place. There are also holes in the back so that you can push the controller out when you’re done using it.

After some planning, I realized that I wanted to make some changes to the model. While I knew the grip would be helpful on its own, I wanted to take it a step further and make the handles longer, making it shaped more like a traditional controller. Another improvement I was originally planning to make was changing the back side so it would be easier to hold. On the original model, the grip is perfectly rectangular, so I considered making the back curved to give my fingers an easy place to grip.

F|F Iterations

Original Model

Single Joy-Con Grip by 3DBotMaker on Thingiverse

This is the printed base model from Thingiverse, with no modifications added.

Modifications

After seeing how the model looked in the physical world, I started to make some changes in Tinkercad. At first, I planned on extending the handles and making the back side curved. However, after testing the original print, I thought the straight back still felt pretty comfortable, so I just focused on making longer handles. For my first iteration, I simply added some rounded shapes in order to achieve this.

After working on it some more, I wanted to make sure that when printed, the handles would fit to my fingers more naturally, so I decided to replace these handles with custom extrusion shapes. It was a bit hard to integrate my additions smoothly because the original model includes rounded edges, but I tried my best to align it as well as possible.

The base model came with instructions to print with 10% infill and .25mm layer hight, so I used these settings to print both the original model and my remix. The second version ended up, structurally, as I expected, however the “layers” didn’t seem to be as smooth as the original print. The settings were exactly the same, so it may have been because I used a different printer model for the second version. After testing my remix, I found that the extended handles did make the controller more comfortable to hold as I intended, although they could have been even longer to fit my entire hand.

Final Iteration

I then went back into Tinkercad and tried to figure out a way to make the handles match the original model better. The process was very tedious, but ended up accomplishing this by adding hole shapes around the handles, which “carved” the straight edges to be rounded.

  • The handles with sharp edges
  • The hole shape I used to “carve” the edges
  • Aligning the hole shapes
  • Rounded handles
  • Final print
  • With controller

The final model and print ended up working out very well. As I was smoothing out the edges in Tinkercad, I was worried that it would come out blocky, but once I printed it it actually ended up being pretty smooth. Because I didn’t make any changes to the base model, the controller fits perfectly inside the grip. It is snug enough to stay in place while still being easy to insert and remove. The handles are now a good size, and the controller fits comfortably in my hands. Overall, this project was very challenging, but I am very happy with the way the final product turned out.