SUMMER LANGFORD

My works take on a mix of typography and illustration and are based around my interpretations of the world around us. Most works generally take on a form from societal standards, to challenge them, or take on a form where I let atmospheres around me to guide how I work on the artwork at hand. I find this course helps me to take a social stance against things but also to find ways to embrace nature and the flow around me. I also find I prefer inclusiveness in my works, both for people and for nature and color as well as I experience new things daily and always meet new people from different backgrounds and ideals.

I find my interest in typography extends from how much I have learned from it in my courses at university and find it is a literal way to bring a message across, especially when it does merge into my illustrative works. I like to merge the two together due to the experience I have gathered through my years at Eastern Michigan University but also like to work with image and type separately as well. Usually when working with typography, I take on literal takes with it to push a message blatantly through so it is in a person’s face, much like I prefer to be blunt to get a point across. This helps to alert viewers what my typography work is to depict and why, usually being an easy and straightforward message if it is a compilation of multiple words not in a sentence. Imagery though, takes on its own form. Illustrations and abstracted forms are usually based from sound, the energy around me, or from societal issues. These works are to bring forth a form of movement either in the image or through someone as they observe it.

I am working through new ways with type as well, as seen in I Am Not and Stacked and Tipping, as a way to make abstract type and find more unique ways to integrate it into my more illustrative work. The artworks I produce are meant to make people think upon what they are viewing while also taking on a straightforward message from the works.