“Into each life some rain must fall,
some days must be dark and dreary”
- Longfellow
“The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops.
Eventually.”
- Eeyore
Whether considered a pessimist, a loner, or just a misunderstood pragmatist, Eeyore is a commonly maligned and beloved character of the children’s classic Winnie the Pooh. With the original work going into the public domain in early 2022, I decided to use it as the basis of a type project. The typographic illustration is based on a later, more familiar interpretation, but since that version isn't made from type, this should be safe.
The project started with an outline of words which I stretched and skewed into a recognizable shape. Adding color helped, but it was still a little too vague. Eventually, I added more typographic elements — some legible, some completely distorted — to make the final full-body figure.
The next issue was using type to create a complete book cover setting to place the character into. Every element on the final cover (with the exception of the light green background shape) is made from text. Building the sky was a repetitive but simple process of layer after layer of the quote “thanks for noticin’ me”, which is also used to make the idea of grass at the base. The barcode was a fun additional challenge. I created a custom barcode from an online generator. When scanned, the code reads “it could be worse.” I then chose to overlay it on the same text, then remove enough of the the bar to leave recognizable letters. Fun fact: the final barcode is still scannable!
