PRIMARY TOOLS & MATERIALS:
NEEDLE & THREAD, INKJET PRINTER

Additional Tools & Materials: Cardboard, Adobe Illustrator, camera, scanner

This letter began in the thick slab serif typeface Acknowledgement. In Adobe Illustrator I chose my letter, then drew a series of vector lines that I then masked inside the shape of the letter. I played with amounts of lines and adjusted spacing between the lines until there was at least a little hint of a line in each corner of the letter. I knew without those clear corners the letter would lose its chunky slab characteristics. 

Once I was happy with the lines inside the letter, I printed the design onto some thick navy blue card stock. I then took an upholstery pin and poked my needle holes at the end of each of the printed lines. Then all I had to do was connect the dots with my needle and thread. 

I took photos of the letter from various distances and angles, and even held it up to my desk light to create the twinkly star effect you see in image 6. The best representation of the letterform, however, came from scanning it. 

I think the biggest takeaway from this letter study was the idea that the corners of the letter wouldn't be as clear if there wasn't at least a hint of the line segment there. This is easy to manage with one letter where you can customize the width and spacing of the lines, but for a complete letter set I'd have to compromise and choose a standard size and spacing for the line pattern. This would inevitably lead to some letters that hold their shape well, and some that struggle. I'd love to try this again with an S or an O to see how those line edges stand up to complex curves.