At the beginning – Drop Caps

Our first typographic exercise this semester consisted of drawing a drop cap for a children’s text. A drop cap, or initial, is the very first letter of texts, chapters, or even paragraphs. The expression “initial” derives from the Latin “initialis”, which means “to stand at the beginning”. This single letter is notably larger than the rest of the text and is traditionally decorated elaborately and ornately. As nowadays initials can have any shape and be in any style, we had no fixed guidelines concerning our designs. We were advised to first choose a style of illustration and then decide on an upper case letter. After sketching our ideas on paper we used Illustrator and Photoshop to finalize the letters, furthermore, we had to find a font that would complement our initial. The outcome is an assortment of colourful drop caps, diverse in technique and style, with themes of fairy tales, food, animals and architecture amongst others.