The Professional Photoshop Book - Volume 7 2015

MASTER 3D LETTERING IN PHOTOSHOP

In code: Charles Williams specialises

in text that is challenging to read, and this was a particularly challenging

brief, for Wired Germany. The aim was to “create a typographic double page

spread to accompany a feature about quantum cryptography”

Learning to read: “Coming up with a

solution that both challenged legibility (as part of the concept), but

could also be easily read,” was the key challenge here. Perfect for a designer

who says he questions legibility, admitting he now puts a little more

onus on it than he used to, because he “got bored of non-designers saying

‘Cool....what is it?’”

Jazz it up: Describing himself as

“pretty old school when it comes to Photoshop,” here Williams used the

program “to add subtle shading to the image to accentuate the

legibility of the vector type”

Lost in translation?: pleased with the results, although, Williams was

since the text is in German, “it was hard to ascertain the legibility. The

client had no problem reading the final version, whereas even I struggled!”

Font of all fonts: Williams doesn’t

have favourite font, he sees “in the same way a bricklayer sees his/her

bricks or a surgeon sees his/her scalpels: tools of the trade. I use type

as a springboard for something else – a combination of type and image, so

I create bespoke type for each project that forms the basis for the more

elaborate, ‘exploded’ end product. I often look to bold geometric san-serif

type-faces for ‘inspiration’, such as DIN 1451 and Gotham”

Of course, hand-lettering and the hipster look isn’t the

only thing happening in typography. Williams has

observed various other trends that are dominating

the typographic landscape. These include: “Angled

hard shadows falling off 3D type,” which he describes

as “sexy, popular, yet shady, like a femme fatale.”

Then there’s “‘Ugly’ type, where the type is distorted

and transformed in a faux-naive fashion, disregarding

conventional rules such as holding the Shift key down

when you transform the scale of the type, lending it

an avant-garde, artful aesthetic, especially when

paired with a certain Yves Klein-y deep blue.“ And

“stripes. This is one trend I am definitely a fan of,

though it’s not just limited to type. Using stripes to

create simple 3D forms, type or otherwise.” Lastly,

“impossible shapes. Escher-like 3D forms that are

confusing yet somehow very pleasing to behold. This

is everywhere! I love using this trick but it has become

so ubiquitous that I generally only use it as part of a

wider stylistic approach, or if a client specifically

requests it.”

As Photoshop has become more and more

powerful in terms of creating 3D, this is clearly a

typographic path that is going to be pursued. “3D

typography has exploded in use over the last few years

with many people using Cinema 4D to create 3D text

and then bringing that in to Photoshop to compose and

tweak,” says Klement. “I have noticed a current trend in

getting 3D typography to look as real as possible with

approach. “The idea of minimalism, specifically

regarding typography, makes a lot of sense to me,”

says Nickerson. “The main purpose of typography is

to inform and hopefully enhance an idea. It’s our

way of putting crazy ideas into a somewhat tangible

form, so breaking things down to its bare content

and having a clear idea of what is trying to be

explained seems like a good route to take.”

For Mach, graphic design as a whole is going

through a transitional period because “designers

realistic textures while still holding a polished 3D

generation. In my personal work I am also trying to

achieve this realistic 3D look, I work in Cinema 4D

with the many tools available to create 3D letterforms

which I then render out in separate passes to tweak

later in Photoshop, with the separate layers I can

blend them together.”

But – perhaps because of the intricacies of

hand-drawn and 3D work – there’s also a shift in

typographic style toward the less-is-more

Soho House:

Charles Williams admits “It’s difficult

when you spend all your time working

with type and images as your

eyes and brain become

hyper-attuned to the intricacies of

the work you and others are creating,

so you are less good at identifying

areas of illegibility that the general

non-designer public would

© Charles Williams struggle with”

© Charles Williams

Graphics & new media

154 The Professional Photoshop Book

144-155 New Type Rules Feature.indd 154 06/10/2015 15:29