Calligram

For this calligram project, I started with really elementary school designs as my sketches. I had used a peace sign and a football. The text was not altered at the vector level (on my sketches) and it was just plain text on curved paths. I then chose to do a different design and in which I chose a turtle. I am big into snorkeling and the marine life so this project was fun to do. The turtle is my favorite marine animal and I even have 2 turtles tattooed on me.

I started out with looking at turtles online on Google for inspiration and then came up with this sketch of a turtle:

After scanning it on the computer and importing it into Illustrator, the design started. I wrote a list of words related to the subject to help start and get the process moving quicker. Manually sizing the text and then creating outlines so I can individually edit each anchor point took hours and hours to get the shape of the turtle. I would run out of words every so often in which I would stop and think of a few more to keep going.

Here are some screenshots while creating it:

After completing the turtle, I ran through many different sets of color combinations and eventually chose this as my final.

Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of the calligram and could definitely see myself making more in the future. I think the text coming together is very easily read and the composition of the turtle is easily defined.

Doing this project really helped me start to get into Illustrator because it helped teach me how to edit each anchor point and path to make it in whatever shape I would like it to become. I think this project was a great choice to help the class gain knowledge about Illustrator to help for future projects.