For me, 'free time' typically means throwing myself into personal projects that reflect what I have learned, or that serve as an introduction to what I hope to learn in the future. After taking my first graphic design course the fall semester of 2018, I decided to use the winter break to get more familiar with Adobe InDesign and to practice tracking and kerning.
With my new basic knowledge of typography (weight, picas, serifs and all,) I was noticing new things all around me. One of them being the characteristics of the text on the cover of Frank Ocean's 2016 album, 'Blonde.'
After doing some research I learned that the typeface used on the album cover was most likely created specifically for the project. Further intrigued, I found that John&Jane, an independent branding and graphic design studio, had used some of their free time to create a usable typeface. The image that you saw when first opening up this page is from their construction! Eventually I was able to find a usable downloadable typeface similar to the one used on the album, created by Reddit user 'the_real_kanye.'
From here, I asked my incredibly talented friend Audrey Cannon for permission to use some of her photos for a project. She happily agreed, and I spent the next few weeks creating lyric posters for various tracks off of the album... Below is what I came up with.
click the images to expand