Form + Letter + Word

  • Rhea D'Souza
Foundation Project: Form+Letter+Word
This project was unlike any other since it was representative rather than abstract. It was also more conceptual in the sense that we had to depict the meaning of the word we picked. From a small selection of words, I picked ‘surprise’ after experimenting with a series of little mock models.
I went with this structure since it looked like an explosion. I also introduced various elements of surprise within each letter. For the letter’ ‘s’, I left the ends open so when viewed from different angles it would be hidden from view and would then be suddenly visible. The letter ‘i’ has a large void in the centre and the tip of it continues on the other side. I also used varying sizes of the letters ‘r’ and ‘s’.
After constructing the form, it had to be photographed in different settings or angles that would emphasize on the meaning of the word or that would represent it in one way or the other. I mainly experimented with hand gestures and light. I took a series of photographs where it looked like I was tossing the word in the air or that it was levitating. I found the hand gestures to be very expressive so I was fairly content with the results. The model was photographed at different times of the day to test the effects of natural light. At day time, certain parts of the model would be highlighted while others remained in shadow. At around sunset, the silhouette highlighted the negative spaces of the model.