Jerry Garcia Typography Picture

This project was for a typography class at Southern New Hampshire University. Our task was to design a portrait of a celebrity, artist, or historical figure using only words and a single font. To accomplish this goal, I chose Jerry Garcia as my celebrity.

Jerry Garcia was the lead singer and guitarist of the Grateful Dead. The band became famous during the late 1960s when the psychedelic movement and “Summer of Love” produced music festivals like Woodstock, and the Grateful Dead’s style of eclectic, free-form music drew huge crowds. When I toured with the band in the 80s and 90s, the feeling in the crowd still embraced peace, fun, and love for your fellow Deadheads. Everyone was a big, happy family. To represent this feeling, I searched for a font that flowed and was, for lack of a better term, groovy, like the 60s music scene. After experimenting with many font faces, I finally settled on the Boecklins Universe font. The look and feel of the Boecklins Universe typeface are free-flowing, artistic, and decorative, all qualities matching the style and genre of the Grateful Dead.

A prevalent iconic symbol of the Grateful Dead is the dancing bear. The bear is rumored to represent Jerry Garcia, whose affectionate nickname was Papa Bear. To incorporate the icon into the image, I created a bear shape out of the words “Jerry Garcia” and used letters for the eyes, mouth, and decorative details. The image is exceedingly small, so it initially looks like a line drawing, but upon closer inspection, the viewer notices the words making up the bear.