mobl was a project created through my 3D Typography class. The first quarter of the semester we were given 3 adjectives every week with the objective of exploring materials and communicating chosen adjective through 3D type. From there we finalized our best ideas and continued to create an alphabet over our concept. My concept was MOBL. It was born out of a love for Memphis design and things that move. According to the history of Memphis design, the name of the concept was derived from a Bob Dylan song called "Stuck inside Mobile with the Memphis blues again". And since my type was kinetic, I thought MOBL was the perfect name. My first prototype was the letter B and it transformed from uppercase to lowercase. Because of time and money I chose to transform as many letters as I could with the least amount of 'units'. In the end I was able to create 4 units. Each unit transforms into a certain amount of letters.
The form of the letters came from the celebration of basic shapes in Memphis Design. From there I sketched letterform designs in Illustrator and worked toward creating a cohesive alphabet. I used foam core to create prototypes so I could figure out how to compose each letter within a unit. This was the most difficult phase. For my final product I chose to use acrylic. To actually create the 3D type, I calculated all of the shapes and joints I would need to create a mechanic piece. I used a laser cutter to cut out the pieces I needed. To create the outer casing, I used a heat gun to form the piece around the shape I wanted. I used acrylic glue and patience to create my forms.
The end goal was to create an entire alphabet with chosen material and then be able to create a 2D translation from it. A major highlight of this class is that this is the only class that gets to have an exhibition at the end of the semester. At the exhibition was able to exhibit my models, a poster, my process book and my video.
