Typography | Task 01 Exercises

29/9/2023- 27/10/2023 / Week 1 - Week 5

Kerly Ooi / 0358726

Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 01 / Exercises

LECTURES

Lecture 01 : Typo_0_Introduction

In the first lecture of the semester, Mr Vinod's lecture introduces us about Typography. Over 500 years, typography has progressed from calligraphy to lettering to typography. Typography, for example, is used in animation or animated forms (beginning of the movie titles or animation GIF). Typography may also be seen and used in website design, app design, signage design, bottle labels, publications, posters, logo types (trademark or mark that consists of letter) and many other aspects of the design discipline or in everyday life.

Typography :

"the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible (clear), readable, and appealing when displayed."

Mr. Vinod also introduces to us about the two Typography terms, Font and Typefaces.

Terminology :

Font: refers to the individual font or weight within the typeface,

I.e. Georgia Regular, G. Italic and Georgia Bold.

Fig 1.1 Fonts

Typeface: refers to the entire family of fonts/ weights that share similar characteristics/ styles,

I.e. Georgia, Arial, Times New Roman, Didot and Futura.

Fig 1.2 Typefaces

Lecture 02 : Typo_1_Development / Timeline

Early letterform development: Phoenician to Roman

People from the ancient time, writing for them meant scratching into wet clay with sharpened stick or carving into stone with chisel.The forms of uppercase letterforms, evolved from these tools and materials.Uppercase letter forms are simple combination of straight lines and pieces of circles, as the materials and tools of early writing required.

Fig 1.3 Phoenicians votive stele Carthage, Tunisia

Then, The Greek changed direction of writing. Not like the Phoenicians, who read and wrote from right to left, the Greeks invented a method of reading from left to right and right to left alternately. This is known as 'Boustrophedon'.

Fig 1.4 Boustrophedon

Etruscan (then Roman) carvers working in marble painted letterforms before inscribing them.

Fig 1.5 Phoenician -> Greek -> Roman (more refined version)

2. Hand script from 3rd -10th century C.E.

Square capitals, can be found in Roman monuments. These letterforms have serifs added to the finish of the main strokes.

Fig 1.6 4th or 5th century: Square Capitals

Rustic Capitals were the compressed version of square capitals. It allowed twice as many words on a sheet of parchment and took less time to write. It wad also easier and faster but slightly harder to read due to their compressed nature.

Fig 1.7 3rd - Mid 4th century: Rustic Capitals

Roman cursive was utilised for everyday transactions and for speed in general. Lowercase letterforms were born during this time.

Fig 1.8 4th century: Roman Cursive

Uncials, incorporated some aspects of Roman cursive hand, in the shape of the A,D,E,H,M,U and, Q. It does not have lowercase nor uppercase letterforms. To be more precise, consider Uncials as small letters.

Fig 1.9 4th - 5th century: Uncials

2000 years after the Phoenician alphabet's inception, Half-uncials mark the formal beginning of lowercase letterforms.

Fig 1.10 C. 500: Half-uncials

In 789, Charlemagne, Europe's first unifier since the Romans, issued an order standardising all church writings. The monks rebuilt the letters in majuscules (uppercase), miniscules, capitalisation, and punctuation, establishing the norm for calligraphy for a century.

Fig 1.11 C. 925: Caroline miniscule

3. Blackletter to Gutenberg’s type

In Northern Europe, Vertical letterform know as Blackletter or Textura gained popularity. Where else in the South, 'Rotunda’ gained more popularity.

Fig 1.12 C. 1300: Blackletter (Textura)

Fig 1.13 C. 1400: Rotunda

With Johann Gutenberg's engineering, metalsmithing, and chemical talents, Gutenberg created a machine that makes information documentation considerably more efficient. His type mold required a different brass matrix, negative impression, for each letterform .

Fig 1.14 C. 1455: 42 line bible

Fig 1.15 Johann Gutenberg

4. Text type classification

These are the progression of letterforms from Blackletter to Sans Serif, from top to bottom:

Fig 1.16 Development of letterforms

Lecture 03 : Typo_3_Text_P1

Typography : Text / Tracking : Kerning and Letter-spacing

Definition :

Kerning : Refers to the automatic adjustment of space between letters.

Letter-spacing : To add space between the letters.

Tracking : The addition and removal of space in a word or sentence.

Fig 1.17 Kerning and Letterspacing

When add page to a body of text or a word the readability of that text reduces.For example, a large amount, a paragraph of text with a lot of letter-spacing (diagram shown on image - bottom right). If its done in entire paragraph it would be very difficult to read as we tends to read as a whole not by reading individual word.

Fig 1.18 Normal, Tight, Loose Tracking

Uppercase letterforms are drawn to be able to stand on their own, whereas lowercase letterforms require the counterform created between letters to maintain the line of reading.

Fig 1.19 The difference between Normal and Loose Tracking

Fig 1.20 Tight tracking

Typography : Text / Formatting Text

Flush left : Most closely mirrors the asymmetrical experience of handwriting. Each line starts at the same point but ends wherever the last word on the line ends. Spaces between words are consistent throughout the text, allowing the type to create an even gray value.

Gray value : Text on white page (grayness too dark - not enough reading or given kerning to the text) (grayness too light - too much letterspacing)

Fig 1.21 Flush left Alignment

Centered : imposes symmetry on the text by giving equal weight and importance to both ends of the line. It converts text fields into shapes, imparting a graphical element to otherwise non-pictorial data. Because centred type makes such a strong form on the page, line breaks must be adjusted so that the text does not seem jagged.

Fig 1.22 Centered Alignment

Flush right : Emphasises the finish of a line rather than the beginning. It can be beneficial in circumstances when the link between text and picture is ambiguous (such as captions) and there is no tendency to the right.

Fig 1.23 Flush right Alignment

Justified : This format imposes a symmetrical shape on the text. Achieved by expanding or reducing spaces between words and letters.

The ensuing openness of lines can result in 'rivers' of white space running vertically across the text on occasion.

Line breaks and hyphenation is required to avoid this problem.

Fig 1.24 Justified Alignment

Typography : Text / Texture

Different typefaces are appropriate for different messages. Type with a relatively large x-height or a relatively wide stroke width forms a darker mass on the page than type with a relatively small x-height or a lighter stroke width.

Fig 1.25 Anatomy Of a Typeface

Differences in grey value are highly visible in font variation. Contrast refers to the thick and thin strokes. Clearer contrast makes the text easier to read.

Fig 1.26 Difference of gray value between different typefaces

Typography : Text / Leading and line length

Type size : Text type should be large enough to be read easily at arms length.

Leading : Refers to the vertical gaps between the lines of text.

Line Length : Shorter lines require less leading; longer lines more. A good rule of thumb is to keep line length between 55-65 characters / is the spaces between the left and right edges of a text.

Fig 1.27 Examples of variation in Leading

Typography : Text / Type Specimen Book

A type specimen book contains samples of fonts in various sizes that serve as an appropriate reference for type, text size, type leading, type line length, and other factors.

Compositional Requirement

Text should create a field that is able to hold a page or a screen.
Useful to enlarge a type to 400% on the screen to gain a clear idea of the relationship between descenders on one line and ascenders on the line below.

Fig 1.28 Sample Type Specimen sheet

Types of Families that we'll be using throughout this semester

Fig 1.29 Types of Families

Softwares used for Typography

Differences between INDesign and Illustrator

Illustrator - Create graphics, graphical creations (logo etc).

If we have large or limited amounts of texts, and wanted to show how the way text is presented, we’ll use INDesign. (business cards, pamphlets, leaflets, brochures, books, posters etc)

Lecture 04 : Typo_4_Text_P2

Typography : Text / Indicating Paragraphs

Examples / Ways :

1) ‘pilcrow’ - a holdover from medieval manuscripts seldom use today or a symbol that is available in most typefaces, used in text to indicate paragraph spacing.

Fig 1.30 The 'Pilcrow' , Week 3

2) 'line space' (leading* - space between each line of text) between the paragraphs. Hence, if the line space is 12pt, the paragraph space is 12pt. To ensure the cross-alignment across columns of text.

(if we have a point size of 10 (typeface), ideally leading would be about 12-12.5 or sometimes 13) (2.5 - 3 points larger than the typeface point size)

In design, we can actually give a value for paragraph space and that value should be the same as leading space.

How to create a paragraph space ?

Select all the texts
Go to control bar (top)
Press on the ‘pilcrow’ symbol
Go to space that indicates 3mm
Change to 13 pt - Hit ENTER
InDesign will then automatically do the conversation formula

Fig 1.31 Example of line space , Week 3

Line space v.s. Leading

Leading space - is a space between two sentences.

(can google Linotype text for deeper meaning of Leading)

Line space - takes into consideration the base line of one sentence to the descender of the other sentence.

Fig 1.32 Leading vs Line space , Week 3

3) Standard indentation - indent is the same size of the line spacing or the same as the point size of the text.

indentation was used to save space in newspaper
Should never have ragging on the right
Best use when the text is justified

Fig 1.33 Example of Standard indentation , Week 3

4) Extended paragraph - creates unusually wide column of text.

(despite this problem, there can be strong compositional or functional reasons for choosing it.)

Fig 1.34 Example of Extended paragraph , Week 3

Typography : Text / Widows and Orphans

(It must never occur in our design)

In traditional typesetting, the kind that still endures among conscientious commercial publishers, there are two unpardonable gaffes - widows and orphans.

Designers (specifically those that deal with large amounts of text in websites, books, online magazine, printed magazine, newspapers or online journal etc. *Must take great care to avoid the occurrence of the above mentioned.

Widow - is a short line of type left alone at the end of a column of text.

Orphan - is a short line of type left alone at the start of new column.

Fig 1.35 Widows and Orphans , Week 3

Typography : Text / Highlighting Text

Below are some easy examples of how to highlight text inside a text column. Different kinds of emphasis require different kinds of contrast.

One of them tends to be highlighted it using italics information. (good way of highlighting different / differentiating text within a large body of text) (another way would be increase the boldness / weight of text by making bold or medium).

Fig 1.36 Italic and Bold , Week 3

Fig 1.37 Bold (using different font) and Colour , Week 3

For example, the Sans Serif font (Univers) has been reduced by .5 to match the x-height of the serif typeface .8 not equal to 7.5.

Fig 1.38 Bold Sans Serif , Week 3

Reduced aligned figures (numbers) or All Capital acronyms embedded in text by .5 as well, to ensure visual cohesion of the text.

Fig 1.39 Reduced aligned figures , Week 3

When highlighting text by placing a field of colour at the back of the text, maintaining the left reading axis (on the right from fig 1. 39) of the text to ensures readability is at its best.

Fig 1.40 Differences of maintaining the left reading axis , Week 3

To retain a strong reading axis, some typographic elements must sometimes be placed outside the left margin of a column of type (extending rather than indenting).

Fig 1.41 Differences between in/outside placement of highlighted text , Week 3

Quotation marks. Bullets, for example, can form a visible indent, breaking the left reading axis. The intended quotation at the top was compared to the expanded quote at the bottom.

Fig 1.42 Using bullets to highlight , Week 3

Typography : Text / Headline within Text

A head indicates a clear break between the topics within a section.

In the following examples ‘A’ heads are set larger than the text, in small caps and in bold. The forth examples shows an A head ‘extended’ to the left of the text.

Fig 1.43 A headline text , Week 3

B head is subordinate to A heads. B heads indicate a new supporting argument or example for the topic at hand. as such they should not interrupt the text as strongly as A heads do.

Here the B heads are shown in small caps, italic, bold serif and bold san serif.

Fig 1.44 B headline text , Week 3

C heads, although not common, highlights specific facets of material within B head text. They not materially interrupt the flow of reading. As with B heads, these C heads are shown in small caps, italic, bold serif and bold san serif. C heads in this configuration are followed by at least an em space for visual separation.

When insert C heads in larger body of text, is important to have two spaces, sometimes known as M space between the heading the C head and the X for that particular paragraph or column.

Fig 1.45 C headline text , Week 3

Putting together a sequence of subheads = hierarchy.

There is no single way to express hierarchy within text; in fact the possibilities are virtually limitless.

Fig 1.46 Example of hierarchy , Week 3

Typography : Text / Cross Alignment

Cross aligning headlines and captions with text type reinforces the architectural sense of the page — the structure — while articulating the complimentary vertical rhythms.

In this example, four lines of caption type (leaded 9pts). Cross-align with three lines of text type (leaded to 13.5pts).

Fig 1.47 Example of Cross Alignment , Week 3

One line of headline type cross-aligns with two lines of text type, and (right; bottom left) four lines of headline type cross-align with five lines of text type.

Fig 1.48 Example of Cross Alignment , Week 3

Lecture 05 : Typo_2_Basic

Typography : Basic / Describing letterforms

Typography employs a number of technical terms. These mostly describe specific parts of the letterforms.
Lexicon is just another word for terminologies.
Knowing a letterform’s component parts make it so much easier to identify specific typefaces.

Baseline - The imaginary line the visual base of the letterforms.

Median - Imaginary line defining the x-height of the letterforms.

X-height - Height in any typeface of the lowercase 'x'.

Capital letters are generally wider and have more surface area on the top.
The ascending line tends / sending stroke tends to be slightly above the capital letter, this is what we call an optical adjustment.

Fig 1.49 Baseline, Median, X-height , Week 4

Stroke - Any line that defines the basic letterform.

Fig 1.50 Stroke , Week 4

Apex / Vertex - The point created by joining two diagonal stems. (apex above the vertex below).

Fig 1.51 Apex / Vertex , Week 4

Arm - Short strokes off the stem of the letterform, either horizontal (E,F,L) or inclined upward (K,Y).

Fig 1.52 Arm , Week 4

Ascender - Portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that projects above the median.

Fig 1.53 Ascender , Week 4

Barb - The half-serif finish on some curved stroke.

Fig 1.54 Barb , Week 4

Beak - The half-serif finish on some horizontal arms.

Fig 1.55 Beak , Week 4

Bowl - Rounded form that describes a counter. The bowl may be either open or closed.

Fig 1.56 Bowl , Week 4

Bracket - Transition between the serif and the stem.

Fig 1.57 Bracket , Week 4

Cross Bar - Horizontal stroke in a letterform that joins two stems together.

Fig 1.58 Cross Bar , Week 4

Cross Stroke - Horizontal stroke in a letterform that joins two stems together.

Fig 1.59 Cross Stroke , Week 4

Crotch - Interior space where two strokes meet.

Fig 1.60 Crotch , Week 4

Descender - Portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that projects below the baseline.

Fig 1.61 Descender , Week 4

Ear - Stroke extending out from the main stem or body of the letterform.

Fig 1.62 Ear , Week 4

Em/en - Width of an uppercase M, and em is now the distance equal to the size of the typeface (an em in 48 points, for exp). An en is half the size of an em. Most often used to describe em/en spaces and em/en dashes.

Fig 1.63 Em/en , Week 4

Finial - Rounded non- serif terminal to a stroke.

Fig 1.64 Finial , Week 4

Ligature - Character formed by the combination of two or more letterforms.

Fig 1.65 Ligature , Week 4

(find example from google) - images

Link - The stroke that connects the bowl and the loop of a lowercase G.

Fig 1.66 Link , Week 4

Serif - Right-angled or oblique foot at the end of the stroke.

Fig 1.67 Serif , Week 4

Spine - The curved stem of the S.

Fig 1.68 Spine , Week 4

Spur - extension the articulates the junction of the curved and rectilinear stroke.

Fig 1.69 Spur , Week 4

Stem - The significant vertical or oblique stroke.

Fig 1.70 Stem , Week 4

Stress - Orientation of the letterform, indicated by the thin stroke in round forms.

Fig 1.71 Stress , Week 4

Swash - Flourish that extends the strokes of the letterform.

Fig 1.72 Swash , Week 4

(often used in weddings) (13m46s)

Tail - curved diagonal stroke at the finish of certain letterforms.

Fig 1.73 Tail , Week 4

Terminal - Self-contained finish of a stroke without a serif. This is something of a catch-all term. Terminals may be flat (’T’ above), flared, acute, (’t’ above), flared, concave, convex, or rounded as a ball or a teardrop (see finial).

Fig 1.74 Terminal , Week 4

Typography : Basic / The font

Full font (A type family that has many typefaces) of a typeface contains much more than 26 letters, to numerals, and a few punctuation marks.
To work successfully with type, we should make sure that we are working with a full font and also to know how to use it.

Uppercase - Capital letters, including certain accented vowels, the c cedilla and n tilde, and the a/e and o/e ligatures.

Fig 1.75 Uppercase , Week 4

Lowercase - Lowercase letters include the same characters as uppercase.

Fig 1.75 Lowercase , Week 4

Small Capitals - Uppercase letterforms draw to the x-height of the typeface. Small Caps are primarily found in serif fonts as part of what is often called expert set.

Most type software includes a style command that generates a small cap based on uppercase forms. Do not confuse real small caps with those artificially generated.

Fig 1.76 Small capitals against Uppercase letters , Week 4

Fig 1.77 Comparison between Small capital and Lowercase letter , Week 4

Uppercase Numerals - Also called lining figures, these numerals are the same height as uppercase letters and are all set to the same kerning width. they are most successfully used with tabular material or in any situation that calls for uppercase letters.

Fig 1.78 Uppercase Numerals , Week 4

Lowercase Numerals - Known as old style figures or text figures, these numbers are set to x-height with ascenders and descenders. they are best used when ever you would use upper and lowercase letterforms. Lowercase numerals are far less common in sans serif type-faces than in serif.

Fig 1.79 Lowercase Numerals , Week 4

Italics - Most fonts today are produced with a matching italic. Small caps, however, are almost always only roman. Forms in in italic refer back to fifteenth century Italian cursive handwriting. Oblique are typically based on the roman form of the typeface.

Wont find small capitals in Italics, they don’t have it.

Fig 1.80 Italics , Week 4

Italic vs Roman

Fig 1.81 Italics vs Roman , Week 4

Punctuation, miscellaneous characters - Although all fonts contain standard punctuation marks, miscellaneous characters can change from typeface to typeface. It’s important to be acquainted with all the characters available in a typeface before you choose the appropriate type for a particular job.

Fig 1.82 Punctuation, miscellaneous characters , Week 4

Ornaments - Used as flourishes in invitations or certificates.

Fig 1.83 Ornaments , Week 4

Usually provided as a font in a larger typeface family.
Only few traditional or classical typefaces contain ornamental fonts as part of the entire typeface family (Adobe Caslon Pro)

Typography : Basic / Describing typefaces

Once recognise the parts of a letterform, we can apply what we know to identify the different typefaces.
Keep in mind that some, all, or combinations of these styles may be found within one type family.

Roman - the letterform is so called because the uppercase forms are derived from inscriptions of Roman monuments. A slightly (underline) lighter stroke in roman is known as ‘Book’.

Fig 1.84 Roman , Week 4

Italic - named for fifteenth century Italian handwriting on which the forms are based. Oblique conversely are based on roman form of typeface.

Fig 1.85 Italics Oblique , Week 4

Boldface - Characterised by a thicker stroke than a roman form. Depending upon the relative stroke widths within the typeface, it can also be called ‘semibold’, ‘medium’, ‘black’, ‘extra bold’, or super.

Fig 1.86 Boldface , Week 4

In some typefaces (notably Bodoni), the boldest rendition of the typeface is referred to as ‘Poster’.

Light - A lighter stroke than the roman form. Even lighter strokes are called ‘thin’ .

Fig 1.87 Light , Week 4

Condense - A version of the roman form, and extremely condense styles are often called ‘compressed’.

Fig 1.88 Condense , Week 4

Extended - An extended variation of a roman font.

Fig 1.89 Extended , Week 4

Fig 1.90 Roman, Italic, Boldface, Light, Condense, Extended , Week 4

Typography : Basic / Comparing typefaces

The 10 typefaces mentioned in the following slide represent 500 years of type design.

The men and women who rendered them all sought to achieve two goals: easy readability and an appropriate expression of contemporary esthetics.
As a beginning typographer, we should study these ten faces carefully.

Fig 1.91 The 10 typefaces , Week 4

The differences - the accumulation of choices that renders each unique. Beyond the gross differences in x-height, the forms display a wealth of variety, in line weight, relative stroke widths and in feeling. For any typographer these feelings connote specific use and expression.

The Rs display a range of attitudes, some whimsical, some stately, some mechanical, others calligraphic some harmonious and some awkward.

Fig 1.92 Different between typefaces , Week 4

Lecture 06 : Typo_5_Understanding

Typography : Letters / Understanding

The uppercase letter forms below suggest symmetry, but in fact it is not symmetrical.

Easy to see the two different stroke weights of the Baskerville stroke stroke form. (img below)
Each bracket connecting the serif to the stem has a unique arc.

Fig 1.93 Baskerville 'A' , Week 5

Typography : Letters

Uppercase letter forms may appear symmetrical, but a close examination shows that

the width of the left slope is thinner than the right stroke.

Both Baskerville (previous img) and Univers (Img below) demonstrate the meticulous care a type designer takes to create letterforms that are both internally harmonious and individually expressive.

Fig 1.94 Univers 'A' , Week 5

The complexity of each individual letterform is neatly demonstrated by examining the lowercase ‘a’ of two seemingly similar sans-serif typefaces — Helvetica and Univers.

A comparison of how the stems of the letterforms finish and how the bowls meet the stems quickly reveals the palpable difference in character between the two.

Fig 1.95 Helvetica 'a' & Univers 'a' , Week 5

Overlaying both letters - To see the difference in strokes and shapes and contours of the both letter forms.

Fig 1.96 Overlaying both letters , Week 5

Typography : Letters / Maintaining x-height

X-height - Generally describe the size of the lowercase letterforms.

However, Curved strokes, such as in ‘s’, must rise above the median (or sink below the baseline) in order to appear to be the same size as the vertical and horizontal strokes they adjoin.

they have less space touching the median line and tend to exceed the median line.
All letter forms that are curved generally will exceed the median line. (by a bit) - (can see from diagram/ img)

Median line - the line above the base line. (lower cases above the base line)

Fig 1.97 Lowercase maintaining x-height , Week 5

Typography : Letters / Form / Counter-form

As recognising specific letterforms is developing a sensitivity to the counter-form ( or counter) —the space describes, and often contained, by the strokes of the form.
When letters are joined to form words, the counter-from includes the spaces between them.
The letter is particularly and important when working with letterforms like lowercase ‘r’ that have no counters per se.
How well we handle the counters when we set type determines how good the words hang together. — in another words, how easily we can read what’s been set.

Fig 1.98 Form & Counter-forms , Week 5

To understand the form and counter of a letter, examine them in close detail.

Examinations also provide a good feel for how the balance between form and counter is achieved and a palpable sense of letterform’s unique characteristics. It also gives you a glimpse into the process of letter-making.
The sense of the ‘S’ holds at each stage of enlargement, while the ‘g’ tends to loose its identity, as individual elements are examined without the context of the entire letterform.

Fig 1.99 Form & Counter-forms , Week 5

Typography : Letters / Contrast

The basic principles of Graphic Design apply directly to typography.

Examples of contrast — most powerful dynamic in design — as applied to type, based on a format devised by Rudi Ruegg.

The simple contrasts produces numerous variations: small + organic/ large + machined ; small + dark / large light…

Fig 1. 100 Examples of Contrast , Week 5

INSTRUCTIONS

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Task 01 Exercises - Type Expression

Our first assignment entails drawing up a couple of type expression sketches using the eight words that were voted on. These words are Smoke, Soup, Spooky, Power, Impact, Crunch, Drunk and Fold. We were then asked to choose four from those to sketch out the meaning of words.

1) Sketches

My sketches with the chosen words are shown below : Drunk, Smoke, Crunch and Power.

Fig 2.1 Type expression sketches , Week 1

2) Digitisation

First attempt :

Fig 2.2 Digitised sketches , Week 2

Fig 2.3 Digitised sketches , Week 2

A) Drunk

I used Univers LT 75 Black to create the first 'Drunk' design.

Fig 2.4 Drunk progress #1 , Week 2

Duplicate the same word.

Fig 2.5 Drunk design progress , Week 2

Select effect, then select Warp and under wrap, select Arc Upper to get the effect.

Fig 2.6 Drunk design progress , Week 2

The outcome :

Fig 2.7 Drunk design progress , Week 2

Moving on, these two are the other two 'Drunk' design that i have created.

Fig 2.8 Drunk design #2 & 3 , Week 2

For the image above to the left side, I added the effect of Radial Blur to make it looked blurry at the word 'D' and 'k' mainly to show the visual of a drunk person.

Fig 2.9 Drunk design progress #2 , Week 2

B) Power

Fig 2.10 Power designs , Week 2

C) Smoke

For the second smoke design, I apply Grain to the texture of the word and roughen the corner of the wording.

Fig 2.11 Smoke design progress , Week 2

Fig 2.12 Smoke design progress , Week 2

For the third smoke design, I apply drop shadow to make a layer in the word by appearing to be floating and casting a shadow on the background layer beneath it.

Fig 2.13 Smoke design progress , Week 2

Fig 2.14 Smoke designs , Week 2

D) Crunch

For the first and second crunch design (from the left). I used different fonts (Univers LT Std 75 Black & Futura Condensed extra bold) to create the words and adjusted the character rotation, font size, leading, tracking, horizontal and vertical scale.

Fig 2.15 Crunch designs , Week 2

Final outcome :

Fig 2.16 Final Type expression (JPEG) , Week 3

Fig 2.17 Final Type Expression (PDF) , Week 3

3) Animation

We must select one word from the finished digitisation and convert it into a gif animation. In class, Mr Vinod requested us to create a rough gif animation. But, before making the animation, I watched Mr Vinod's tutorial and work accordingly.

We were required to use Illustrator and Photoshop to complete this task.

Fig 3.1 First attempt of designing 'Drunk' , Week 3

Rough GIF animation :

Attempt # 1 :

Fig 3.2 Draft animation , Week 3

I completed another one because I was dissatisfied with the first.

Attempt # 2 :

Fig 3.3 Draft animation , Week 3

Attempt # 3 :

After listening to Mr Vinod's feedback. He asked me to create another animation with the letter 'smoke'.

Fig 3.4 Smoke's animation progress , Week 4

Final GIF animation :

Fig 3.5 Smoke animation, Final , Week 4

Task 01 Exercises 02 - Text Formatting

In this assignment, we watched a video that taught us the basics of Adobe InDesign. We were then instructed to type our names in 10 various typefaces and format them as seen in the image below.

Exercise A :

Fig 4.1 Text Formatting with Kerning & Tracking , Week 4

Fig 4.2 Text Formatting without Kerning & Tracking , Week 4

Fig 4.3 Difference with and without Kerning & Tracking , Week 4

Exercise B :

After studying the fundamentals of Tracking and Kerning, we were to apply it to a page layout. First, I went through the lesson to understand more about InDesign and what to expect from the task. The picture below depicts a try after following the lesson.

Fig 4.4 Learning Text Formatting , Week 4

Then I created a few layout designs to determine which would look the best. I also tried to keep it as basic as possible because simplicity always looks good. Below are some of my layout design ideas.

Layout # 1 :

Fig 4.5 Layout 1 , Week 4

Layout # 2 :

Fig 4.6 Layout 2 , Week 4

Layout # 3 :

HEAD
Font/s: Univers LT Std (57 Condense)
Type Size/s: 32 pt
Leading: 25
Paragraph spacing: 0

BODY
Font/s: Univers LT Std (55 Roman)
Type Size/s: 9 pt
Leading: 11 pt
Paragraph spacing: 11 pt
Characters per-line: 55-65
Alignment: Left align

Margins: 12.7 top, 12.7 mm left + 12.7 mm right + 40 mm bottom
Columns: 2
Gutter: 5 mm

Fig 4.7 Layout 3 , Week 4

Fig 4.8 Layout 3 with grids , Week 4

With Mr Vinod's specific feedback, I make some changes to the ragging, headline and fonts to my layout # 2. The image below is my forth layout (Final layout).

Final layout :

HEAD
Font/s: Univers LT Std (57 Condense)
Type Size/s: 68 pt
Leading: 63
Paragraph spacing: 0

BODY
Font/s: Univers LT Std (55 Roman)
Type Size/s: 9 pt
Leading: 11 pt
Paragraph spacing: 11 pt
Characters per-line: 55-65
Alignment: Left align

Margins: 12.7 top, 12.7 mm left + 12.7 mm right + 12.7 mm bottom
Columns: 2
Gutter: 5 mm

Fig 4.9 Final Text Formatting Layout (JPEG) , Week 5

Fig 4.10 Final Text Formatting Layout (PDF) , Week 5

Fig 4.11 Final Text Formatting Layout with Grids (JPEG)

Fig 4.12 Final Text Formatting Layout with Grids (PDF) , Week 5

Typo_Ex Text Formatting 1:4 - 4:4a

Notes from the video I watched :

“Kerning adjusts the space between individual letterforms, while tracking (letter-spacing) adjusts spacing uniformly over a range of characters.”

FEEDBACK

Week 1

Exercises :

General feedback : Ensure that the word drawings are not distorted, and attempt to explore as many sketches and concepts as possible.

Week 2

Exercises :

General feedback : Use simply the letterform and minimise the illustrations within the typography.

Week 3

Exercises :

Specific feedback : For drunk, it was fine, just make it closer to each other (lesser gaps between each words), for 'smoke' make the word 'S' thinner and adjust the angle of the word 'S' to represent the diffusion of the smoke . Whereas for Crunch is good, just make it larger in text and add background. Lastly, for Power, explore more on it as the current work does not express the word itself.

General feedback : Make sure to fill out the space of the given box, avoid leaving too much white space around the words, and make the words powerful by making it larger in size etc.

Week 4

Exercises :

Specific feedback : Should have gone for 'smoke' as it is better with just animating a single word 'S'. Create another animation with 'smoke'. For drunk, its too much motion and for Power it was a bit too much in the movement as well.

General feedback : We should concentrate on the expression of motion rather than imposing another meaning of it.

Week 5

Exercises :

Specific feedback : Adjust the ragging do not more than +3 or less than -3 and put the headline as one line (don't separate them). , try to change the fonts as well to see which one suits the best.

General feedback : The chosen image must be relevant to the specified content. Make sure that the leading have to be 2.5 to 3 larger than font size and the column must be in the same size.

E-portfolio :

All tasks' process work must be included in the e-portfolio. Every aspect of the e-portfolio must be updated at least once every week.

REFLECTIONS

Experience

On the 29th of September, I had my first ever Typography class. It was a fulfilling lesson as Mr Vinod provided us clear instructions and the expectations he had on us regarding our attitudes towards completing assignments etc. Mr Vinod also set a "To Do list" every week in Microsoft Teams regarding what to get done before upcoming classes. I think is a good way of reminding students to do their work and to keep their work up to date. The challenges that i faced was using Illustrator to animate our type expression exercise. It was equally difficult because we couldn't see how smooth our animation was or how it would turn out. Only after putting everything in Photoshop, we can only view our work. Fortunately, I had learnt a little bit of animation during my previous semester, in Foundation In Design, which helped me plan out my type expression animation. My text formatting assignment was also interesting because I discovered a new programme called Indesign. I also learnt about tracking and kerning, as well as how to avoid errors like ragging and learn how to create proper layout with the videos provided by Mr Vinod in his Youtube Channel to guide us on the steps.

Observation

With my observation, I noticed that Mr Vinod checks on our progression of work every week and provided feedback on the task we did. With that, I am able to improved on my work and it is extremely beneficial to me or anyone one of us in the class because he is letting us know what are his expectations so that we can produce great designs. When it comes to design, I learnt that there are many different points of view.

Findings

Typography is an important feature of modern design since it helps to express a message and create an attractive visual style. The use of too many different fonts in a design might be perplexing and using too many diverse fonts in a design can be overwhelming and misleading for readers as said by Mr Vinod. I also discovered that researching is vital in the brainstorming process because it broadens my range of creative thinking talents. Another thing I've learned is to always keep your prior explorations , as for the type expression exercise, I decided to use my other variant of the term "power" because my present one is too abstract.