36 Days of Type in 2021
Our Brand and Industrial Design teams worked together to take on the 36 days of type challenge held annually by 36 Days of Type. Here you are given the chance to explore the many ways A-Z and 0–9 can be stylized as a whole alphabet or individual letters.
Together we chose a grid, color palette and space theme to follow as guidelines. The rest we put in our talented team’s hands to make 👏 it 👏 work 👏 and the final result was out of this world!
“ Grids (or guidelines) are like underwear, you wear it but it’s not to be exposed!” — Mossimo Vignelli
We would like to take you behind the scenes of our process, something not a lot of studios like to do. Renders before and after the added CMF, illustrations turning into 3D works of art, and some tricks and tools that helped us out. Team work makes the dream work, so check out our take on 36 Days of Type below from a few of the designers.
Sean Missal / Lead Industrial Designer My approach to 36 Days was to create abstract shapes and objects that represented the typography, using each one as a different study to learn new Keyshot features and creative ways to symbolize what each letter stood for. It was a great creative outlet and a nice way to utilize the classic Industrial Design skillset outside of just product!
Robin Marich / Associate Creative Director I was inspired by the color palette that was chosen for my letter/number. Being a big sci-fi fan, I wanted my concepts to poke fun or provoke interest, such as the Mars Drone landing, 2001: Space Odyssey, UFOs, and the Voyager’s golden record.
Sami Lovelady / Designer & Studio Photographer For 36 Days I chose to give myself personal guidelines to use gradients, spatial awareness of abstract shapes and tilted perspectives, as well as try to use the full color palette we chose. I moved across multiple Adobe programs and used Illustrator to draw them out, moved them into After Effects to animate and them, then back to Photoshop to color correct and exporting looped gifs. Below are two tutorials that helped me learn how to make a chrome effect in photoshop and how to loop a figure 8 path in After Effects for my rocket ship number 8.
Celia Elmasu / Lead Industrial Designer After watching too many space documentaries during this quarantine, 36 Days was the perfect opportunity to sketch new alien forms or some surreal alien planet landscapes! I was really excited to use my everyday ID tools like Keyshot and Solidworks and explore new territories with them. Always loved teaming up with the graphic team too!
Gigi Aldrich / Designer & Illustrator I wanted to have fun with this year’s 36 Days and use it as an opportunity to hone my illustration and creative thinking. Space is not really my forte but I wanted to make sure my light-hearted and quirky style came through no matter what, so I had a lot of fun figuring out how to express my letter/number in less obvious ways. I first sketched out thumbnails of different ideas on paper and pencil and brought them into Procreate on my iPad Pro to illustrate and animate my letters. I feel like this challenge really pushed me to think outside of the box, and I actually can’t wait to do it again next year!
Norio Fujikawa / Executive Creative Director I immediately envisioned a sci-fi ship of some kind (surprise). With that in mind, the idea of going past the sun quickly followed with the orange background direction. Process was driven by the fact that I’ve been getting used to drawing digitally with my iPad Air and Procreate.
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