Creating 3D Fractured Letterforms

For a task involved in my HNC Course at South Cheshire College, I was given the aim to create letter forms of my initials using card and gum tape, fracture them, and then photograph them in a low key lighting style, which went on for use in oppositional pair spreads and editorial spreads.

To begin with I drew my initials using stencils in a Helvetica typeface, to create the 3D form of my initials this required me to have 2 of each letter to create at top and bottom face for the letter forms.

I experimented with how the letters could be fractured and combined into one single 3D fractured letterform containing all of the initials. It was interesting to see how all the letters could be arranged, and how the characters could be viewed and arranged in different ways to create a new style.

To create a frame for my letters I used small strips of card with incisions in the top and bottom which I could then fold out to create pillars to hold my letter together.

I then used gum tape, which is adhesive when wet to create the 3D letters. Once each letter was completed I went on to cut the letters in interesting ways to combine them. As you can see the letter "J" was cut on the stem at an angle, this meant that I able to have the other half of the stem protruding the other face of the S at a different angle, with the L attached to the top of where the S terminates. This object was then painted in white emulsion ready for photographing.

I am really happy with the outcome of the photographs. They offer so many different views of and shapes from just 3 letters combined. Looking at the object from different angle uncovered so many different patters and shapes within the letters, while still holding the original J S L characters. Doing this in a studio in a low key lighting environment gave me a great result with the white allowing the light to bounce off and the full focus is held by work. I also experimented with using a lightbox to light the letterform from below which was also very successful.