Department of Health & Human Services - COPD Poster

"Just found this poster online. I always wondered how this lettering art turned out in the finished product. This lettering was done for the Department of Health & Human Services back in 2010. The job was to create the words hack, cough & wheeze in styles that would portray each concept, then fit the words within the shape of lungs, which I was to design as well. At this scale the details aren't as obvious as they are at poster size.

"hack" was done using sharp, angular shapes; "cough" was done to feel organic with irregular shapes; "wheeze" using an undulating outline to convey vibration. In conforming letterforms within graphic shapes all caps are usually preferred as they are relatively square and more uniform space fillers which enables better distortion to conformity. 

Utilizing lowercase is more problematic so rarely done. But I felt lowercase imparted a more erratic, irregular feel. I could have made the letters conform perfectly to the lung-shape, but to do so distorts the characters to the point of becoming rather psychedelic in feel, which the client wanted to avoid."

~2010, Don Marsh~
©Don Marsh

Client: Department of Health & Human Services