Type & Skyline

Artwork By: Alexandr Aubakirov

I found this photo on Pinterest and followed the link to find it is part of a beautiful series by artist Alexandr Aubakirov.
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This photo initially captured my attention from the interesting perspective, taking a skyline and rotating it on its side.

I was then drawn in by the artist's playful use of depth with the type.. If you notice, each letter interacts differently with the skyline giving each one it's own depth in the photo. Some letters are in front, some behind, and some intertwined. The artist also added slight shadows on the letters behind the buildings to make it all feel real.

The white type contrasts with the black buildings and the textured sky, and the blocky shape of the type reiterates the shape of the blocky buildings.

For my first attempt, I used a photo I took in Italy.  I used a similar blocky typeface to which I applied a mask to outline individual sunflowers under the text.  I ran into trouble adding shadows.  A soft shadow behind the flowers onto the type made the text appear to be 3D, which was not the look I was going for.  I removed it to maintain the flat look in a real environment.

My second attempt, I took much more literally.  I used a photo I took of the New York skyline taken from Brooklyn Bridge Park.  I kept the vertical spacing of the letters equivalent, and moved each horizontally to create an interaction with the buildings.  For this one the shadowing worked much better than the first.