ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY - TASK 3

on

31.09.22 - 29.11.22 / Week 08 - Week 15
Oon Shan Nen / 0348775 
Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 3 : Type Exploration & Application
LECTURES

Lecture notes from Week 1-5 were completed in Task 1 blog.
INSTRUCTIONS


Task 3 : Type Exploration & Application
  • Research
When we were briefed about this assignment, I thought of redesigning typeface from album cover as there are some really interesting ones. I did some research and chose 3 that I would most probably try out. 

Idea #1:
My idea for this is to combine both of these typeface together as one. 
Figure 1.1 Research #1

Idea #2: 
For this one, I just thought of completing the typeface but I also realised that it has pretty thin strokes that's not something I would usually choose to do. 
Figure 1.2 Research #2

Idea #3:
For this one, I also wanted to just complete the typeface because I really like the style of this typeface. 
Figure 1.3 Research #3
  • Sketch
Sketch for Idea#1 :
As mentioned above, for this idea I wanted to combine both typeface together so it would have sharp edges poking inwards as well as outwards.
Figure 2.1 Sketch #1

Sketch for Idea#3 :
Figure 2.2 Sketch #2

Figure 2.3 Sketch #3

  • Digitisation
Uppercase Letters
For the uppercase letters, I firstly digitised them based on the sketch I did as I completed the sketch for all uppercase. But then the letters weren't consistent anymore and it felt like they were totally different fonts so I had to explore and make adjustments so they were more consistent. Letters I,J,K, and L that was sketched out had slightly more narrow vertical stroke which I had to make them thicker to match the other letters. I also took some time trying to create the letter R because it needed a heavy round bottom but letter R usually is heavier at the top section and lighter at the bottom. 

Figure 3.1 Digitisation Progress for Uppercase Letters

Finalised Uppercase Letters

Figure 3.2 Finalised Digitisation for Uppercase Letters, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Lowercase Letters
The difficult part of creating the lowercase letters was the descender. For the first few tries of the letter g, p, q and y, they looked very unbalance to me so I had to keep making adjustments until they were slightly more balanced in terms of weight. 

Figure 3.3 Digitisation Progress for Lowercase Letters

Finalised Lowercase Letters

Figure 3.4 Finalised Digitisation for Lowercase Letters, Week 13 (22/11/2022)
Finalised Numbers

Figure 3.5 Finalised Numbers, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Finalised Punctuations
Figure 3.6 Finalised Punctuations, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

  • Fontlab
After digitising in Illustrator I copied them into FontLab and started doing some more adjustments such as the kerning and tracking. 

Figure 4.1 Fontlab Progress, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 4.2 Fontlab Progress, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 4.3 Fontlab Progress, Week 13 (22/11/2022)
  • Applications
My idea is to create a K-pop season greetings for NCT Dream with the typeface I designed. Season Greetings is a special package released by K-pop Groups each year with a different concept. 

Example of Season Greetings: 

Figure 5.1 Research for Applications #1, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 5.2 Research for Applications #2, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 5.3 Research for Applications #3, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Progress for Applications : 

Figure 5.4 Progress for Applications, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

1) Desk Calendar 

Figure 5.5 Desk Calendar #1, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 5.6 Desk Calendar #2, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 5.7 Desk Calendar #3, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

2) Sticky Note

Figure 5.8 Sticky Note, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 5.9 Sticky Note, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 5.10 Sticky Note, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

3) Photocard

Figure 5.11 Photocard, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

3) T Shirt, Tote Bag, Mug

Figure 5.12 T-Shirt, Tote Bag, Mug #1, Week 13 (22/11/2022)
Figure 5.13 T-Shirt, Tote Bag, Mug #2, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

More T-Shirts but with simple design : 
These text on the shirt are lyrics from the group's song for this album. 

Figure 5.14 T-Shirt, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Figure 5.15 T-Shirt, Week 13 (22/11/2022)

Final Submission

Figure 6.1 Typeface Information, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.2 Final Type Design, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.3 Calendar #1, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.4 Calendar #2, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.5 Calendar #3, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.6 Sticky Note #1, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.7 Sticky Note #2, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.8 Photocard, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.9 T-Shirt, Tote Bag, Mug #1, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.10 T-Shirt, Tote Bag, Mug #2, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.11 T-Shirt #3, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.12 T-Shirt #4, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

Figure 6.13 Final Compilation, Week 14 (29/11/2022)

FEEDBACK

Week 10 
General Feedback: Don't have to work so fast, can slower down the pace to explore more. 
Specific Feedback: Put more attention to the width at the bottom part because that's what special about that typeface.

Week 11
General Feedback: N/A 
Specific Feedback: N/A

Week 12 
General Feedback: 
Specific Feedback: The size of numbers is wrong, its supposed to have same cap height as the letters. The punctuations are fine except parenleft and parenright. No one would wanna buy a desk calendar or cards these days so don't do that for application.

Week 13
General Feedback: N/A
Specific Feedback: N/A

REFLECTION

Experience: 
I honestly really liked this task despite the difficulties faced. I've been excited for this task since we were briefed about it which was weeks ago before we actually start on this task. I spent a little more time on digitising the punctuations, I found them harder to create compared to the letters. Even till now, the final outcome for my punctuations are still not what I really like. Also as this is our final task for this module, I personally feel happy that I'm able to actually create a whole typeface that can actually be used especially when we were first briefed about this module, I keep thinking the workload is going to be crazy it's unbelievable we have to design all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters as well as the numbers and punctuations.  

Observations:
I realised the importance of the sketching stage after sufficient research. As I didn't spend too much time sketching out everything I had to spend more time creating the lowercase letters, numbers and punctuations. Sketching can be very useful as I felt a little more safe when creating the uppercase letters since I already had all of it sketched out and I just had to digitise them in Illustrator. Eventhough the final outcome is not exactly the same as the sketch because of the adjustments made through the digitisation process, it still really helped me get started. 

Findings:
From this task, I noticed the punctuations are harder to create because there are a lot of details in the punctuation marks that are usually forgotten about but is important. 

FURTHER READING


Reference:
Carter, R.
(2014). Typographic Design: Form and Communication, 6th Edition.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Basic Principles of Legibility

The contrast among individual characters makes it possible for the reader to decipher written information without confusion. Three qualities upon which legibility is dependent: contrast, simplicity, and proportion. In the strictest sense, legible typography is a means of communicating information objectively. However, typographic designers sometimes bend the traditional criterion of legibility for expressive purposes.

In spite of the innumerable variations of size, proportion, weight, and elaboration in letterform design, the basic structure of each letterform must remain the same. Sufficient contrast must exist between the letters in a font so that they can be easily distinguished. 

Letters can be clustered into four groups, according to their contrasting properties. These are letterforms with strokes that are vertical, curved, a combination of vertical and curved, or oblique. 

The perception of a letter is based upon the form/counterform relationship. Counterforms are as significant to legibility as the shapes of the letters themselves. 

If text is set entirely in capital letters, it suffers a loss of legibility and the reader is placed at a significant disadvantage. On the other hand, text set in lowercase letters forms words that are distinct, based upon their irregular word shape and internal pattern. A variety of letter shapes, ascenders and descenders provides rich contrasts that assure satisfactory perception. 

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