Futhark Project
The concept
Create a series of smartphone backgrounds, based on the ancient norse futhark alphabet.
The research
I read the book "Runemal, the great book of Runes", a very detailed resource on the subject. This 500 pages book explains at great lengths the historical meanings and symbolism behind all 26 runes, all tied to everyday parts of the ancient human life.
The project
Futhark is a cuneiform alphabet originated in the northern part of Europe. When not used for writing on stone slabs, it was etched on tree bark or small sized stones and used for divination purposes. So I decided that my design would have a very linear style.
The alphabet is split into three parts of eight letters, called "Aett" (pronounced eight), each tied to a The first Aett is Freya's, and it is tied to the harvest, to spring, and to new beginnings.
The second is Heimdall's, it talks about hardships, represented by ice and hail, thus bound to winter.
The last one is Tyr's, representing summer and its undirected warmth and power.
I wanted to represent this clear separation of themes with colours, so I chose green, blue, and red.
These would adorn the runes part of each Aett. Since I also need to create a background, I created symbol to contain all the runes, and cycled through the colour spectrum around it.
The last touch I gave the lines has been changing the pressure of each stroke, resembling an etched stroke on a stone or tree bark.