Oblique Lo-fi 3D type design experiment

Whilst designing my last numeral set, Klaws, an experimental number two emerged that I was rather fond of. Unfortunately it did not fit with the Klaws style, but was strong enough to become the basis of a new personal project. Ironically the number two did not make the cut for Oblique either!

The extreme contrast between the heavy, solid core and light extenders was powerful. However, as the thick stem was applied to the other numbers the variation in angle of such a dominant feature became jarring. What if all of the numerals could be based on the same stem and angle? To do so, would require the use of an italic typographic design style, something I had not attempted before.

Although challenging, the approach worked. The oblique orientation of the letterforms led to the project title, so the required letters were also developed for – Oblique – however, this time I backed away from the idea of creating the complete alphabet!

With the 2D design for numbers complete I was intrigued to see how they would work in 3D. However, sophisticated 3D typography was very popular at this time, so I wanted to go for a completely different, lo-fi aesthetic.

Bringing the illustration files into C4D, I quickly extruded the numerals by the same value. I then simply screen grabbed each at their best angle. The screen shots were brought back into illustrator where the 3D versions could be re-traced in vector form. For each number, its orientation now dictated the design direction via use of simple lines to create confusing 3D planes and ambiguities. This approach was continued with the additional typography used to emphasise the structurally impossible nature of the design.