Mashup: Process

Research

For the final assignment of the Visualizations class, the goal was to explore communication and construction of lettering and words using isometric drawing techniques. The task was to design and create a poster that illustrates the definition of an invented word. Basically, adding applying a range of elements (color and value) and design principles was what I had to go through.

For the research, I was asked to watch a 25-minutes long podcast named 45: Mashups, Remixes, and Frankenfiction. After watching, I learned the definition of mashup and how it can be created and used. Then I brainstormed words for practice. I started some mashup words but was not able to create ‘good’ combined mashup words. For this process, I gained an idea of what the mashup is and decided to move on to the next step to create some better mashup words.

Exercise

The exercise was to select a font that would represent some aspect or quality of your personality. I decided to use a smooth and curved font that reflected some of my personality, such as flexibility and gentleness. Then I had to write my name or initials using the font selected. After writing it down, I transferred the text to an isometric grid and created an extruded 3D isometric illustration of my initials using Illustrator and Photoshop. My font was challenging transferring to the isometric grid since there were so many curves in it. For color application, I chose blue because it not only was my favorite color but also symbolized imagination and intuition, which were also one of my aspects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iterations

I started off this process by making a list of a minimum of 30 different words, consisting of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. I was asked to make a list while looking for possible associations between words. Then I created word mashups using one noun in combination with a verb or adjective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mashup words I made were lossion, foobowl, elevatus, optillusion, and mountunnel.

• lossion: love and passion
• foobowl: football and SuperBowl (I decided not to go with “footbowl” because it just sounded exactly the same as ‘football.’
• elevatus: elevate(d) and status
• optillusion: optical and illusion
• mountunnel: mountain and tunnel

Then I applied color and designed the letter of the words.

• Lossion
  • I made the letters overlap with each other to give a rhythm and a joyous feeling. I replaced the alphabet O with the shape of the heart.
•  Foobowl
  • I designed this word by simply replacing the letters with things related to football and SuperBowl. I used college and NFL football team logos. I also drew a football and the logo of SuperBowl to replace the letters.
• Elevatus
  • I was going to design this word by giving each letter a different height to show elevation but ran out of time and could not design.
• Optillusion
  • I first replaced the alphabet ‘O’ with a drawing of an eye to symbolize ‘optical.’ Then I replaced other letters with modified letters that gave an optical illusion.
• Mountunnel
  • the consecutive alphabets N were my key to this mashup word. I drew the first n for the entrance of a tunnel and the second n for the exit of a tunnel. Then I designed other letters using things related to mountains and tunnels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Productions

 

For the final composition, I decided to go with the mashup word ‘elevatus.’ Even though I could not design the word in the previous step, it was because I believed I could design the word that would give a good visual representation.

• Definition of elevatus
  • noun
    • an elevated professional and social standing of a person
  • verb
    • to elevate the position of someone or something

I started this process off by selecting a font and giving each alphabet a different height (e with the shortest height and s with the tallest height). I illustrated shading using a yellow color scheme. The reason I chose yellow was that this color represents accomplishment and cheerfulness that correspond to the meaning of my word. I also put shadows underneath the letters to give more elevating value.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to move on to the next step after applying the color and the shading, but the word did not stable and was a little challenging to recognize due to the shading, so I drew black edges (or borders) for clarification and stability of it.

 

Then I added an arrow that goes under the word then goes up for representation of elevation and put shading on the arrow as well to give elevating value.

 

Putting drawings of items next to the words and the arrow was the next thing I did. I added a trophy, an arrow on a target, three towers of coins, two bundles of bills, bills falling, and a paper airplane. They were to give some “status” value because these items usually represented and symbolized that word. Trophies and money strongly represent my mashup word since when a person’s status is elevated, he or she earns more money and respect. The paper airplane in my poster is used to represent a message that lets someone inform that his or her status is elevated, which is a kind of old-school way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I created a background for my poster using a blue color scheme. I also added a shading of this color to make viewers’ eyes go from the bottom to the top for elevation value.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last thing I put in the poster was the full definition of the mashup word and the way to pronounce it.