Sean Steed

Due to my architectural background, the combination of designing spaces and two-dimensional surfaces has made me comfortable working with a variety of scales and materials. This way of thinking and working has heavily influenced the way I see and tackle design ideas and problems.

My process-driven practice celebrates experimentation by testing the limits of both analogue and digital tools. Archiving every step of the design process from initial sketches to final design iterations is key to understanding the methodology behind my body of work. 

This typographic collection of works covers three principal themes: Traditional formal type design, dimensionality and movement. Even though three-dimensional forms and animations beg to be developed digitally, I always start the design process with physical drawings. Influenced by my architectural background, it is the act of constructing forms and calculating transitions on paper that enables me to have a clear vision not only of the overall concept but of the smallest of details as well. 

The digital realm naturally made me think about scale in a new way, as there are not necessarily any limits to work with, compared to the physical world where I am often limited by the edge of the paper. Exploring the micro and macro has been a theme in my work since my undergraduate thesis, experimenting with the notion of zooming in and zooming out. This naturally led me to consider density and unconventional grid systems. 

This interest in scale can be seen in my typographic works. The final body of work ranges from typographic drawings done by hand with black pen on paper, inspired by architectural construction drawings, to the painting of large-scale letters influenced by sign painting and graffiti.