A typographic mark built from my own initials, developed through 50 sketches, 7 digital translations, and two rounds of critique.
This project came before the Type Fundamentals Book and ended up being part of it. The goal was to take my initials, D and K, and combine them into a single typographic mark using only existing letterforms. No effects, no color, no distortion. Just type.
It started with 50 hand sketches. Fifty individual takes on how D and K could be paired, scaled, overlapped, or modified. After a critique where classmates gave feedback on which directions were working, I selected the strongest ideas and translated seven of them digitally in Illustrator. Each one explored a different approach: mixing typefaces, adjusting size relationships, sharing strokes, or rethinking the letterforms entirely.
50 sketches, 7 digital translations, and 1 final mark applied to the label of the Type Fundamentals Book.
After a second round of critique, I landed on 1A: a lowercase "dk" in Helvetica where both letters share a single vertical stroke. The "d" sits to the left and the "k" extends from it, making the whole thing read as one unit. That mark went on to be used on the cover of the Type Fundamentals Book →, a companion project from the same DSGN 106 Typography I class.