Abstract typography gets to the heart of letterforms
Tim Fishlock delves into symbology, icons from another era, and abstracting letterforms in his latest typography project Shapeset.
London-based designer, publisher and artist Tim Fishlock is the man behind beautiful 3D typography project Shapeset. "I've been experimenting with designing alphabets and letterforms for the last six or seven years," he says. "The fact that most of the letters in the Roman alphabet began as pictures - icons from another era - has always interested me.
"I'm fascinated by symbology and the idea of a pictorial shorthand. I also like the idea of abstracting letterforms to the point where, taken out of the context of the letters that surround them in an alphabet, they become lovely objects in themselves.
"This was something I explored in three dimensions with my Alphabet Relief piece. Encouraged by that, I decided to apply the same construction technique to my best known alphabet, Shapeset."
Working on the project on and off for over a month, Fishlock created each letter in the Shapeset alphabet from sections of mount board glued together before hand painting them in acrylic.
"The appeal of the original 2D version of Shapeset is in the semi-transparency of the overlapping colours," Fishlock comments. "The challenge was to reproduce this effect in solid 3D shapes, something I think works surprisingly well."
Like this? Read these!
- Free graffiti font selection
- Illustrator tutorials: amazing ideas to try today!
- Great examples of doodle art
Have you seen any cool typography projects recently? Let us know in the comments below!
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Get top Black Friday deals sent straight to your inbox: Sign up now!
We curate the best offers on creative kit and give our expert recommendations to save you time this Black Friday. Upgrade your setup for less with Creative Bloq.
The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.