present
/ˈprɛz(ə)nt/
noun: The period of time now occurring. (Oxford Dictionaries)
The word “Present” appeared after I hit the “Generate Random Word” button for my fourth “Random Words” post. I was really excited about this word when I first saw it, but admittedly, I kind of struggled with portraying it in a way that I was personally happy with. This word (at least in noun form) was something that has been resonating with me on a lot of levels lately. I am very much the type of person that looks to and thinks about the future a lot. Sometimes I need a reminder to just stop and live in the present, exactly where I am. I think it was this closeness to the word and it’s meaning that made me want to create the perfect portrayal of it, which is almost impossible by any standards, including my own, hence the struggle.
But, I digress. My concept for this piece was to create type that was so simplistic and abstract in presentation, that it becomes almost illegible, so the focus becomes less on the type and more on the photo within the type.
For the type treatment I decided to base the design heavily off of overly simplified, symmetrical forms to create almost completely abstract letters. I thought of them more as a frame or matting for the photo underneath. This was done by simply creating squares, then subtracting and cutting away certain parts of that square to create areas that defined what letter it is.
The photo I chose for this graphic was one that I took when me and my wife visited the Smokey Mountains in this past June. It was part of a moment in time that made me realize I need to put my phone and camera away to just experience and soak in what was in front of me. To be 100% in the present.
Pushing through the mental road block and working out the design to get it to a place where I was happy with, was a challenge and definitely pushed me to not give up on an idea.
Stay tuned for more Random Words posts in the future!