Beside graphic design I have a love for DIY crafts as well. A few years ago when I was in college we had a typographic assignment to create some kind of visual word pun (pretty much). Like most designers I know my first stop was to check Pintrest the idea capital of the world. At the time the top trend was String Art. This was the perfect thing for my project, it combined both my love of typographic and crafting. Now string art is fairly simple. It required little to no skills before hand and is surprising pretty cheap. For a college student with millions of other assignsment and no money it was perfect.
All you need are the following supplies....
-tacks, or some kind of small nail ( depending on what your using for your background. For this example I'm using form board )
-form board
-string or thread
-some kind of image to trace with the nails
Step 1
Print out or trace your word or image. You can do this either by printing the image or projecting the image on to your board.
Step 2
Once you have the traced image placed on the board begin placing your pins along the outline of your word/image. Be careful placing and make sure to stay on the traced lines. It maybe helpful if you create a series of dots on the line to make sure you stay on track.
Step 3
The next step is to begin adding the string onto the pins/nails. The best way is to do so in a criss cross like pattern, starting at the corners and work down. This is the longest part of the process and can be very time consuming. The trick is to keep a firm grasp on the string as you attach the string to the pins.
Step 4
Continue with adding the string in the criss cross pattern. Once you have that finished tie one of the strings into a knot on the last pin and continue with your next color. You'll keep doing this till the end.
Step 5
At this point you should be finished with the string process. All the ends of the string should be left, you'll tie them again around the pins and tie a knot making sure that its tight. Once you've done that you will cut the ends. Congratulations your done!
Step 6
Give your self a pat on the back because you have finshed your String Art project. Your project should look similar to the one below. If you really want your project to pop you can add black string around the outline of the word/image.
Hope all of this was helpful. I would love to see what you guys have created with your new found skill, feel free to post them to the blog or share them in the comments.
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