The Play Process / Introduction / 6 Steps
Case Studies / Under My Bed / Rhyming Slang / Fat Type
Extras / The Wall / Download / About Me

Rhyming Slang

Thought Map / Finished Form / Leftovers / Added Value

Curse words have a curious history and an even more interesting present. The words were hard and unbreakable. Now, they’re changing, adapting to new users, hiding among everyday speech and typography. The game is to find it among the sheep. The Seed, a screen capture of the last frame of an old movie, contains a sense of mystery and drama. Taking those cues, the Morsel smiles with its eye wide open. The thicker body of the letterform carries through with a theatrical style of noir.
 
Day One

Copy and Paste. The computer makes copying anything ridiculously easy. From the hand-lettered “e” comes a similarly constructed letterform: a lowercase "l".




Quick Brainstorming. After some quick firing of the ol' brain, one obvious direction forward is word connection. What does "el" mean to me? What can I spell? The first four words that surface are easy words, simple and small. Since I've created three letterforms already, I chose to hand-letter the rest of the word "elephants."

Day Two
Content Through Evolution. Manipulating
and building upon the previous character creates a word. Quick brainstorming develops several content directions. Now that I have
one solid word, what happends next?
Day Three After a few rounds of brainstorming, the phrase of “elephants and castles” struck as an idea open for experimentation. I remember reading an article about the street use of "rhyming slang." That phrase is part of a this urban culture, using innocent phrases in place of naughty, nasty words. For example, the word “look” rhymes with “butcher’s hook”: “He went to his car to have a butcher’s hook in the window.”

I found a database with an insane list of popular curse words and their sneaky, ho-hum phrases used in their stead. I picked my few personal favorites and continued lettering into Day Four.
Day Four
2-D to 3-D. Now that I have this idea of "one stands for the other," I feel my form needs to reflect that. So, the simple square, 2-D print just won't do to fully project that physical feeling. How about printing front and black? That seemed like an obvious solution, but curse words are aggressive and need an actual "thing" to do it justice. And I admit, it took me all of Day Four to come up with a solution (it also took about 2 showers to make the mental connections; yes, I think in the shower).

The kid next door, a little blonde boy with a loud huffing laugh, loved to curse. After chasing all the girls from fence to fence in the backyard, he’d smile while a garbled mouthful of harsh words puffed out and landed in little girl ears. Huff—Shit—Huff—Bitchface. Eventually, tired from being in the sun during a sweat-box summer, the words slowed, deflated under the sticky heat. The sun burned him, sweat beading along his collar, until all that was left was finally just a little boy.

Day Five

New Form.
Toys! I think a great way to show the duality of these phrases
is to physically flip something from one side to the other. And a toy block connects with the idea of innocent phrases. I skewed the blocks 35°,
making it of a novelty block.
Day Six The Story: Morning Glory. Duality is key for these skewed toys. One side is fairly innocuous, containing a single phrase. The phrases on one side rhymes with a common curse word on the opposite side, creating a toy
more for adults.



The title plays on the two-sided block as
a teaching tool.This toy block, however, teaches curse words and negativity.