Museum Artifact Inspires Student to Create New Typography Font

Jaylen Snook, a graphic design student, went to the U of A Museum for inspiration, and he found it. 

Snook, enrolled in a typography class this past fall, needed to find objects with strong typographic elements to create a new font that related to the local area. After exploring the University Museum, he focused on a wooden canteen commemorating the Civil War Battle of Prairie Grove. That canteen inspired the font he created for an assignment. 

“I started this project by sketching the entire alphabet in this style and tried to make it as close to the original as possible,” said Snook, explaining the process. “Then we went through a round of critique and was told to digitize these sketches. As we continued to refine the typeface, Dina, my typography professor really pushed me to develop and expand on the existing forms.”  

The final product was to Snook’s satisfaction, he said.  

“I feel like it does a good job of finding a balance between being inspired by this amazing artifact and finding its own place in our modern high-contrast world,” Snook said. 

The University Museum’s collection includes over 7 million cultural and natural history materials. They are available for comparative and research purposes by faculty, students and visiting scholars.  

“Jay’s project is an excellent example of the unexpected ways the museum can be a resource for academic disciplines across campus,” said Laurel Lamb, curator of education and engagement. “From graphic design and art history to paleontology and general ecology, the possibilities are endless.” 

Snook also expressed his thoughts on the experience: “I think the museum is an invaluable resource for us, students.” 

About the University of Arkansas Museum: The University of Arkansas Museum traces its beginnings to the 1870s as a geology teaching collection. From a modest beginning, the collections grew to 7.5 million objects encapsulating the fields of archeology, ethnology, history, geology, and zoology. Today, the University Museum is an administrative unit of Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Educators may request loans of collection materials for their classes or arrange to bring their classes to the University Collections Facility (2475 N Hatch Ave) for a visit. We also fulfill our public service and outreach mission through programming and collection loans to regional community spaces.