PRIMARY TOOLS & MATERIALS:
PLAY-DOH, LIGHT TABLE

Additional Tools & Materials: pencil, paper, camera

This groovy letter is a tribute to psychedelic poster artist Wes Wilson. Wilson's hand lettered posters are known for their violently bright color schemes, Art Nouveau-style illustrations, and thick, heavily stylized, often difficult to read letters. 

I created this letter using inspiration from Wilson's use of color, and demonstrated the quirks of his particular style of type using backlit, bright yellow paper. Constructing the letter was only a matter of making "snakes" with Play-Doh - one large, and one small, then rolling them together to make a tie dye-like texture on the letter. Then I rounded the edges and curled the two open ends into the center, creating a coiled shape. Using the light table, I was able to highlight the faint swirl within the two coils - a technique Wilson often used to differentiate his otherwise identical, blocky letterforms. 

Wilson's style and craft is difficult to replicate in just one letter, since so much of what he's known for is how he seamlessly combined letters into shapes and illustrations. But I can certainly appreciate his style; I had a difficult time attempting to replicate his squarish letters with Play-Doh.