BOOGEYMAN
TIMEFRAME: May - June 2018 (8 weeks).
ITEMS PRODUCED: Font, Type Specimen Poster.
ROLE: This was a student/passion project. I was the sole contributor to this project. The client for this project was my professor, to who I reported weekly progress. All aspects of the design and production were left to me.
PRODUCTION TOOLS AND SOFTWARE: Pencil and Paper, Lightbox, Printer, Illustrator, Glyphs.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this independent study was on the awareness of Sleep Paralysis. This was executed in two steps. The first was creating a custom typeface that reflects what sleep paralysis is. The goal for the font is to have two different weights that show the contrast of what we’re familiar with (reality), and what we have yet to understand (sleep paralysis).
The first step was executed by hand. The second step was bringing this font to life into a vector format. The final step uses the font in a type specimen poster to show how each weight can work together.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Those who experience sleep paralysis. There is no set age demographic as anyone can experience it. “approximately 8% of people experience sleep paralysis, rising to around 28% in high-risk groups (those that have a disrupted sleep pattern) and up to 34% in those suffering from psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. http://www.thesleepparalysisproject.org/about-sleep-paralysis/prevalence/
CONCEPT: This project focuses on creating a typeface that tells a story of what sleep paralysis is. With two additional projects to support this topic to talk about the effects of sleep paralysis well the font will take on the visual role of the experience of sleep paralysis.
CHALLENGES: One of the challenges of this project will be my lack of experience creating a typeface from the ground up. And covering the right tone and message of the type. Taking a mental health issue and delivering it in the visual of a typeface can go one of two ways. Amazing, or you’ve done something very wrong. One of the larger issues I face is the understanding of the experience of sleep paralysis. So it will be important to present the same energy to the audience, more spastically to anyone who has never experienced sleep paralysis before.
PROCESS: The first step was to pick a topic that I could invest myself in. In this case, it was sleep paralysis. After I picked a topic, a ton of research had to be done to make sure I’m delivering the correct message. From there I had to build a typeface from the ground up. Once the typeface was complete the next phase is to showcase it in a type specimen poster.
