For this project, we were assigned to create a symbol that represents a word from another language that does not translate neatly into English. For my word, I chose the Norwegian word “Forelsket”, which briefly translates to, “The euphoric feeling at the beginning of love”, but the word itself is more complex than that. The closest approximation that I could find is the English word “crush”, however, instead of describing the act of having a crush on someone, it more describes the feeling towards that person.
Since the word was Norwegian, I wanted to incorporate ancient Norse runes into my design, I decided to incorporate the Elder Futhark rune “Wunjo” which translates to “joy”, and in the alphabet, it is the equivalent of the Latin W. For the design itself I wanted to derive the Celtic and Norse designs from pre-colonization. The designs often consist of simple designs that utilize a lot of lines and shapes organized along a central movement line. To do this I used the rune as a central line and added lines and shapes to create movement around it. I used lines to add tension and organic shapes to add movement. To tie in my typography, I used the same runic alphabet but altered some of the symbols that wouldn’t be recognizable I had to flip the E onto its side and had to flip the L vertically. I added the same lines to the type that I did to the symbol and created a hierarchical structure that leads to the definition of the word
Sources
Daniel McCoy, Norse Mythology for Smart People, norse-mythology.org, Accessed 25 November 2020
Elder Futhark Runes: Mountfort, P. R. (2003). Nordic runes : understanding, casting, and interpreting the ancient Viking oracle. Destiny Books.