Abstracting a Letter in Illustrator

Explore the physical shapes of letters by abstracting a letter (basically blow up a type face).

• First set-up your page 8.5" x 8.5" square.
• Then select the "T" tool,
• Adjust the font to something Sans Serif, or a simple serif.
• Set the colour to black (it is the default).
• Adjust the size to fit whole page or beyond (each font responds differently in size).Use the scale tool to enlarge the font to extend beyond the print borders, size and the rotate to turn it, but don't flip or reflect it or stretch, or skew. 
• If it doesn't get large enough, then try to object>create outlines and then scale your letter.
• Abstract the letter so that you can barely recognize the letter, but retain the basic qualities of the letter to be able to identify it (with work). It sounds easy, but it is quite challenging to keep 'em guessing.
• Save As "AbstractLetter1.ai" 
• Then File> Save for Web and Devices- Select jpg and maximum quality.

Reverse your text and background so it is white text and background is black and letter is mirrored.

• Add another layer for the background
• Use the square tool and draw a background across the whole doc
• Select black for the fill.
• Select the letter using the "T" tool to  
• Then turn the fill to white and stroke to black.
• Use the reflect tool
• Flipped so it could be read in the mirror (if it wasn't abstracted).
• Save As "AbstractLetter2.ai" 
• Then File> Save for Web and Devices- Select jpg and maximum quality.
•  Post both Abstract Letters to your blog.
• Then print out each letter. We will tack them on the board and have a guessing game.