Morphology

abstract blobs made of spheres morphed together. a thin winding line runs around and between the blobs.
A curved metallic form made of concentric circular waves.
2020

Morphology, in linguistics, refers to the forms and structure of words in language, and their relationship to others. More generally, the word relates to the forms of things—anything, not just words.

This project explores its various meanings in three parts. First, interpreting "morphology" in the more general sense, by exploring abstract 3D forms and texture.

Then, I explored the specific linguistic definition of the word, comparing the differences between the sentence order of different languages as well as the structure of words themselves.

The final result is a poster which combines the 3D forms with typography.

Part one

Exploring the forms of abstract 3D objects

A happy, abstract 3D-rendered image depicting spherical blob-like shapes conjoined together. A line swirls around them, running throughout the scene.
Abstract scene depicting a wavy ceiling made up of thousands of nub-like shapes of different sizes and angles, with textures reminiscent of gummy candy.
A curved metallic form made of concentric circular waves.

Part two

Forms and structure of words in language

using English and Japanese to show contrast in types of sentence structure. the Japanese text reads, "it's easy, it's intuitive." while sentences in English generally follow a subject-verb-object order, Japanese places verbs at the ends of sentences, with verb objects coming before them.
Showing contrast in sentence structure. While sentences in English generally follow a subject-verb-object order, Japanese places verbs at the ends of sentences, with verb objects coming before them.
A poster consisting of the word "mellifluous" split up by its syllables. Each syllable is contained in concentric wavy rings, and the letters are warped at different angles. Text at the bottom reads, "sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding".
Breaking the word "mellifluous" into its syllables
A poster containing Portuguese words scattered about, with bullet points to separate the syllables of the verbs. The words, when read from top to bottom and translated, read, "a dream I have, that you criticize, that they insult, that I'll continue dreaming".
Highlighting the complexity of verb conjugation in Portuguese. compared to many other languages, Portuguese has a great amount of different verb forms.

Part three

Morphology in two interpretations

Japanese and English text from a previous typographic poster overlaid in front of hazy suggestions of abstract 3D forms.
Japanese and English text from a previous typographic poster overlaid in front of hazy suggestions of abstract 3D forms. This poster has a different color scheme than the previous.