I Beseech You by Carrie Mae Weems

The piece I really enjoyed from our trip was I Beseech You by Carrie Mae Weems. I was drawn to this piece because I love photography. I think this piece is very relevant to my project because it features a very unique typeface that’s based off other typefaces. The typeface of the piece is very uncommon and to me looks to be reflective of older typefaces, like Bodoni, particularly because of the sharp serifs. The typeface is also sort of hollow which is reflective of Imprint MT Shadowed. However, some letters, such as the lowercase ‘A’s and lowercase ‘Y’s are very distinctive and irregular. The lowercase ‘T’s also feature a few unique extension on the apex that makes them appear extra sharp. While this typeface emulates parts of specific typefaces, when creating my typeface I wanted to emulate the characteristics of typefaces from the time period in which my text was written. Like the typeface used for I Beseech You, mine also has some unique features, however these take the form of the thorns and roses. The extension of the ‘T’s in

The t featuring an extension on the apex.

particular has inspired me to experiment with the structure of my typeface.

As stated in the illustration reading by Timothy Samara, “putting photographs together increases their semantic power and creates narrative or storytelling; the instant two images can be compared, whether juxtaposed or arranged in sequence, a viewer will try to establish meaningful connections between them”. While Samara was talking about two photographs in this quotation, I feel that it is very applicable to I Beseech You and its use of a photograph and text. The addition of the text over the image causes viewers to created a narrative as Samara mentions about and as many people did in class when we looked at this particular piece. When my typeface and poster are finished I want people to look at them and create some sort of backstory based off of them.