28/3/2022 - 29/4/2022 / Week 1 - Week 5
Nurul Adlina Rizal / 0345429 / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Advanced Typography
Task 1: Exercises

LECTURES

Week 1:

AdTypo_1_Typographic Systems

- typographical organization is complex because elements are dependent on communication in order to function
- hierarchy, order of reading, legibility and contrast
- shape grammar is a set of shape rules that apply in a step-by-step way to generate a set, or language, of designs.

8 Systems

Axial

- all elements are organized to the left or right of a single axis
- doesn’t have to be straight
- single line

Radial

- all elements are extended from a point of focus

Dilatational

- all elements expand from a central point in a circular fashion
- can be simple/complex

Random

- elements appear to have no specific pattern or relationship

Grid

- a system of vertical and horizontal divisions
- different sizes and weight for hierarchy

Modular

- a series of non-objective elements that are constructed in as standardized units
- each square same size
- can move it around

Transitional

- an informal system of layered banding

Bilateral

- all text is arranged symmetrically on a single axis

Conclusion

- allows the designer to break free from the rigid horizontal and vertical grid systems

Week 2:

AdTypo_2_Typographic Compositions

Principles of Design Composition

- emphasis

Fig 1.0: Emphasis in Typographic Compositions (10/4/2022)

The Rule of Thirds

- photographic guide to composition

- suggests that a space can be divided into 3 columns and 3 rows

- intersecting lines are used as a guide to place the points of interest

Fig 1.1: Rule of Thirds in Typographic Compositions (10/4/2022)

- generally never used

Typographic Systems

- most pragmatic and most used system is the Grid System (or Raster Systeme)

- termed as the Swiss (Modernist) style of Typography

- post-modernist era

- order was replaced with apparent chaos but this chaos was exciting and new

- asymmetry, random, repetition, dilatational, radial

Other models / Systems

Environmental Grid

- the exploration of an existing structure or numerous structures combined

- extraction of crucial lines both curved and straight are formed

- organizes information around this super-structure

Fig 1.2: Environmental Grid (10/4/2022)

Form and Movement

- exploration of an existing Grid Systems

- static versions of the form placed on spread

- care was taken to ensure visual connections and surprises on every page

- forms could represent images, text or color

Fig 1.3: Form and Movement (10/4/2022)

Week 3:

AdTypo_3_Context&Creativity

Handwriting

Why is it important?

- because the first mechanically produced letterforms were designed to directly imitate handwriting

- would become the basis or standard for form, spacing and conventions mechanical type

- the shape and line of hand drawn letterforms are influenced by the tools and materials used to make them

Fig 1.4: Evolution of the Latin Alphabet (18/4/2022)

Cuneiform

- earliest system of actual writing

- used in number of languages

Hieroglyphics

- fused with the art of relief carving

Early Greek

- built on the Egyptian logo consonantal system

- mostly capital letters

- Greek was often read in a format known as the ox plows / boustrophedon (left to right then right to left)

- served as models for formal lettering for imperial Rome

Roman Uncials

- 4th century Roman letters were becoming more rounded

- could be written faster

English Half Uncials

- in England, uncial evolved into a more slanted and condensed form

Emperor Charlemagne

- fall of the Roman Empire

- resulted in general illiteracy

- a court school was established Carolingian Miniscule

- language was standardized - pronunciation, spelling

Black Letter

- gothic was the culminating artistic expression of the middle ages

- Italians used the term gothic to refer to rude or barbaric cultures

- Blackletter is characterized by tight spacing and condensed lettering

The Italian Renaissance

- Antica

- more perfect / rationalized letter

Movable Type

- printing (wood block)

- pioneered in China but achieved in Korea

East Perspective in Typography

India

- the Brahmi script is the earliest writing system developed in India after the Indus script

- most influential writing systems

- oldest writing were Indian scripts

- Pallava was highly influential, becoming the basis in Southeast Asia

Indonesia

- historical script: Kawi , based on Nagari but indigenous to Java

- widespread, Kawi became the basis of other scripts in both Indonesia and Philippines

- used for contact with other kingdoms

Jawi

- was introduced along with Islam

- traders taught people of Jawi

- Jawi is of greater importance because it is the script used for all our famous works of literature

Week 4:

AdTypo_4_DesigningType

Why design another typeface?

Xavier Dupre (2007)

- type design carries a social responsibility so one must continue to improve its legibility

- type design is a form of artistic expression

Adrian Frutiger

- Univers and Frutiger

Purpose: create a clean, distinctive and legible typeface that is easy to see from both close up and far away. extremely functional

Limitations: Letterforms needed to be recognized even in poor light conditions or when the reader was moving quickly past the sign. He tested with unfocused letters to see which letterforms could still be identified.

Matthew Carter

- the son of Harry Carter, Royal Designer for Industry, contemporary British type designer and ultimate craftsman.

-Verdana

Purpose: the font was tuned to be extremely legible even at a very small sizes on the screen due in part to the popularity of the internet and electronic devices

Considerations/limitations: commonly confused characters such as the lowercase i j l.

Edward Johnston

- Underground typeface

- create a typeface with bold simplicity that are truly modern yet rooted in tradition

- combines classical Roman proportions with humanist warmth

Purpose: London's Underground railway ordered a new typeface for its posters and signage from the calligrapher Edward Johnston.

Considerations/Limitations: rooted in history, rooted in traditional calligraphy but it has an elegance and a simplicity that absolutely fitted the modern age

General Process of Type Design

1. Research

- understand type history, type anatomy and type conventions

- determine type's purpose, what it would be used for, what different applications it will be used in

- examine existing fonts that are presently being used for inspiration/idea/reference/context

2. Sketching

- some sketch their typeface using the traditional tool set then scan them for digitization

- some sketch their typeface using digital tool sets, such as Wacom

3. Digitization

- professional softwares that are used in the digitization of typefaces, amongst the leading software are: FontLab and Glyphs App

- Adobe Illustrator to design or craft letterforms and then introduce it into the specialized font apps

4. Testing

- important component in the design thinking process.

- part of the process of refining and correcting aspects of the typeface

- prototyping is also part of the testing process and leads to important feedback

- the readability and legibility of the typeface becomes an important consideration

- however not as crucial if the typeface is a display type

5. Deploy

Typeface Construction

Roman Capital

- using grids can facilitate the construction of a letterforms and is a possible method to build/create/design letterforms

Construction and considerations:

- important visual correction is the extrusion of curved and protruding forms past the baseline and cap line

- also applies to vertical alignment between curved and straight forms

- visual correction is also needed for the distance between letters

- white space between the letters should appear the same, this is called 'fitting' the type

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 1: Exercises

Typographic System

Visual Research

Fig 1.5: 8 Typographic Systems by Kimberly Elam (4/4/2022)

Before starting to sketch the different typographic systems, I properly looked at each of them to understand what makes each typographic system unique and special. What are the characteristics that separate them from the rest.

Other than that, since I wanted to do the sample text titled "All Ripped Up: Punk Influences on Design", I looked at designs that were influenced by design.

Fig 1.6: Punk in Graphic Design (4/4/2022)

Fig 1.7: Posters in Punk Design (4/4/2022)

They do not follow a specific style of font and their formatting is usually a controlled randomness. They also have a collage style.

Idea Exploration

Sketches

Fig 1.8: Sketches (4/4/2022)

Making some small thumbnail sketches of the 8 different typographic systems.

Drafts

Axial

Fig 1.9: Axial System Drafts (4/4/2022)

I made my axial system layout in asymmetrical since it creates more visual interest.

Grid

Fig 2.0: Grid System Drafts (4/4/2022)

Grid System made from 3 columns.

Transitional

Fig 2.1: Transitional System Drafts (4/4/2022)

I put the text in the order of how I would like the reader to read the pieces of information first.

Bilateral

Fig 2.2: Bilateral System Drafts (4/4/2022)

Experimenting on what makes a typographic system considered bilateral.

Final Works

in JPEG

Axial

Fig 2.3: Axial Final Layout (4/4/2022)

I chose this over the first layout since it is more interesting to look at and directs the viewers eye each important information. As an Axial typographic system suggests, the texts follows the single red line.

Grid

Fig 2.4: Grid Final Layout (4/4/2022)

This Grid design is shown from separating the page into three different columns and rows. Emphasis and contrast is shown by using different text sizes and fonts.

Transitional

Fig 2.5: Transitional Final Layout (4/4/2022)

The transitional layout guides the viewers eye from left to right to left again.

Bilateral

Fig 2.6: Bilateral Final Layout (4/4/2022)

This was chosen over the other layouts because of the angle shift and the last line having a different angle than the rest of the text. It creates visual interest.

Radial

Fig 2.7: Radial Final Layout (4/4/2022)

The texts surrounds the corner circle.

Random

Fig 2.8: Random Final Layout (4/4/2022)

All the texts are put in random order with a bit of transitional layout in it.

Dilatational

Fig 2.9: Dilatational Final Layout (4/4/2022)

The text curves according to the circle placed. There are 3 smaller circles of equal size and 2 larger circles to put focus on the title and location of the lectures.

Modular

Fig 3.0: Modular Final Layout (4/4/2022)

This modular system was made with guides & grids of 4 columns and rows. I made the location 'Lecture Theatre 12' a bit bigger sized here to have a more interesting layout and variety.

in PDF

Fig 3.1: All Final Layouts in PDF without grids (4/4/2022)

Fig 3.2: All Final Layouts in PDF with grids (4/4/2022)

Type & Play: Part 1

Finding Type

Visual Research

Fig 3.3: Latin Alphabets (10/4/2022)

Latin Alphabets to refer from.

Images

Fig 3.4: White Tiger (11/4/2022)

Fig 3.5: Yellow Flowers (11/4/2022)

I mainly looked at nature for inspiration of shapes I could dissect. I was inspired when I looked at the stripes and pattern on the bodies of tigers. They have an interesting shape that I wanted to try dissecting. Other than that, I wanted to do something more like my style which was thick stem typefaces with random (yet consistent) shapes.

With that, I attempt tracing out shapes that I see that can possible be turned into type.

Fig 3.6: Letters in Tiger Patterns (11/4/2022)

Fig 3.7: Letters in Flowers (11/4/2022)

Fig 3.8: Outlines from Tiger (11/4/2022)

Fig 3.9: Letterforms from Flowers (11/4/2022)

Idea Exploration

I separated and chose the letterforms that I think look the best and consistent with each other.

Fig 4.0: Letters Extracted from Flowers (11/4/2022)

Fig 4.1: Letters Extracted from Tiger (11/4/2022)

Digitized on Illustrator

Fig 4.2: Letterforms Digitized (11/4/2022)

With Guides

Fig 4.3: Letterforms with Guides (11/4/2022)

The b counter is too small and the 'i' stem is short.

REFINING

Fig 4.4: Process of Refining the Letterforms (16/4/2022)

For the flower typeface, I used Myriad Pro and Arial Rounded MT Bold while for the tiger-inspired typeface, I used Futura Std in Light Condensed font.

For the flower typeface, I tried to look at it on its basic shapes and try to make them look similar to each other so that the typeface feels consistent.

Fig 4.5: Shapes extracted from the Letterforms (16/4/2022)

Process

Fig 4.6: Process of Rubi (18/4/2022)

Fig 4.7: Process of Tuby (18/4/2022)

Drafts

Fig 4.8: Flower Typeface Draft (16/4/2022)

Fig 4.9: Tiger Typeface Draft #1 (16/4/2022)

Fig 5.0: Tiger Typeface Draft #2 (16/4/2022)

I decided to refine both shapes that I had extracted because I genuinely like both of the shapes that were made. I wanted to see how far I could refine them.

Updated Process

Fig 5.1: Tiger Typeface (25/4/2022)

Fig 5.2: Draft 1 (25/4/2022)

Fig 5.3: Draft 2 (25/4/2022)

I worked on the tiger typeface a bit more because I had further ideas on how to refine it. It was hard to decide on how to portray the tiger stripes on to the typeface because it was very thin. After Mr Vinod's feedback, I realise that it would most probably look better with a thicker typeface so that the stripes and tiger pattern can be better shown.

FINAL

Did some changes based on last week's feedback. I made the stems thicker to better show the tiger pattern and attempted to make the sharp elements more consistent in the design.

Overall, there is repetition and variety as well as contrast in the thickness of the stems.

JPEG

Fig 5.4: Final Typeface in JPEG (28/4/2022)

PDF

Fig 5.5: Final Typeface in PDF (28/4/2022)

Type & Play: Part 2

Type & Image

Images

I look at beautiful photography that I wanted to integrate typography in. There were many options.

Fig 5.6: Image #1 (28/4/2022)

Fig 5.7: Image #2 (28/4/2022)

In the end, I went for an image that did not involve many colors so I could focus more on the composition of the text within the image.

Chosen Image

Fig 5.8: Chosen Image (28/4/2022)

When I looked at this photo, two phrases came to mind which were, Walk the Talk and Jalan-Jalan. The second on being in the Malay language and in a repetition of two words, I was not sure if it would be visually interesting unless I added variety to the sizes and color of the text and letterforms.

Draft

Fig 5.9: Draft #1 (28/4/2022)

I used distort in Photoshop to change the perspective view of the text so that it aligns on the road. This way, the text feels like a part of the image rather than a separate entity or a plain layer on top of the image.

FINAL

JPEG

Fig 6.0: Final Type & Play Part 2 in JPEG (28/4/2022)

PDF

Fig 6.1: Final Type & Play Part 2 in PDF (28/4/2022)

FEEDBACKS

Week 1

General Feedback: Choose a color that is not too light. You can also stick with Black & White.

Specific Feedback: -

Week 2

General Feedback: A good typographic system will sit there without needing assistance (graphical elements / colors).

Specific Feedback: Axial, Radial, Grid, Modular, Random, Transitional are all good with no problems. Bilateral is very interesting. Dilatational is also interesting, some text needs some space from the curved line.

Week 3

General Feedback: Look at the form more than the lines in the image.

Specific Feedback: The flower typeface will be harder to do compared to the tiger typeface. Try out the tiger typeface since there isn't any existing ones already but decide on one you like the most.

Week 4

General Feedback: Be consistent in all your letterforms. Make sure each letter has similar elements.

Specific Feedback: Add more stripes to show more of a tiger pattern. Introduce multiple stripes on one stroke. Needs more consistency on the curvature of the U and B, so they look more like a type family.

Week 5

General Feedback: The type should have some sort of relationship with the image.

Specific Feedback: It is done tastefully. A suggestion is to darken the edges and distort the sides as well as burn it so it looks like the letters are painted on the road. For Type & Play Part 1, Mr Vinod mentions that it looks more like a tiger typeface now and his suggestion is to make the small elements consistent as well as that it might look better with a thicker stems.

REFLECTIONS

Experience

For the first time in awhile, I finally was able to attend physical class. Attending a typography class physical was a very nice experience. I got to be inspired by my classmates as well as get direct feedback from Mr Vinod. Other than that, we were always doing work or showcasing work in class so it always felt productive.

Observation

I observed that I was able to work well if I followed my gut and did not skip any steps of the design process. If I went straight to digitalizing without any proper initial sketches, my ideas would not be properly refined and looked rushed or thoughtless. Taking it step by step definitely benefitted me because Mr Vinod complimented my work. I observed that my classmates are very hardworking and looking at their work had given me new perspectives on how one can manipulate the different typographic systems.

Findings

I found that sketching really helps me flesh out my ideas and thoughts. It can also help me generate ideas as well. Other than that, I found that creating fonts has a lot of technicalities that I should consider before finalizing a design. This means that I should look into close detail of each part of my designs so that I can improve and be more sensitive on my designs. The details are what also make a design look good and I should not overlook that aspect.

I also found that listening to not only Mr Vinod's feedback on my work but also my classmates' feedback helped me understand the common mistakes one could make during the design process. I also get to be inspired from their works and see what type of things I need to be careful if I attempt the same style or technique.

Advanced Typography / Task 1

LECTURES

Week 1:

AdTypo_1_Typographic Systems

8 Systems

Axial

Radial

Dilatational

Random

Grid

Modular

Transitional

Bilateral

Conclusion

- allows the designer to break free from the rigid horizontal and vertical grid systems

Week 2:

AdTypo_2_Typographic Compositions

Principles of Design Composition

The Rule of Thirds

Typographic Systems

Other models / Systems

Week 3:

AdTypo_3_Context&Creativity

Handwriting

Week 4:

AdTypo_4_DesigningType

Why design another typeface?

Adrian Frutiger

Matthew Carter

Edward Johnston

General Process of Type Design

Typeface Construction

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 1: Exercises

Typographic System

Visual Research

Idea Exploration

Axial

Grid

Transitional

Bilateral

Final Works

in JPEG

Axial

Grid

Transitional

Bilateral

Radial

Random

Dilatational

Modular

in PDF

Type & Play: Part 1

Finding Type

Visual Research

Idea Exploration

Drafts

FINAL

Type & Play: Part 2

Type & Image

Chosen Image

Draft

FINAL

FEEDBACKS

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

REFLECTIONS

FURTHER READINGS

Axial System

Radial System

Dilatational System

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