Typography
Drop Caps
/// Overview
Nine drop caps, each living in its own graphic world drawn from the shape of the letter.
/// The Challenge
A drop cap has to set the mood of a page before anyone reads a word. These capitals started as a university typography exercise with Mariana Buitrago: draw them, build their grids and open a paragraph with each one. For this case I took nine of them further.
/// The System
One rule runs the set: the shape picks the world. Each letter's main feature names its world: a capsule, a fold, a blade, a lid. Each world gets its own palette, a display and a text typeface, and one image that rhymes with the outline. I never redraw the letters; every board uses the final outline.
/// The Process
Every capital started as a pencil sketch and was rebuilt in Illustrator on circles, arcs and straight cuts. I explored each world first as a vector key visual. Then I measured the letter, gave it its image and tested it as the opening of a sample page.