Typography // Task 3A - Type Design & Communication
16.05.2022 - 01.06.2022 (Week 8 - Week 10 )
Emelyne How Sok Hing (0352938)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) Creative Media
Typography // Task 3A - Type Design & Communication
LECTURES
Week 8:
This week's lecture consisted of a demo video where Mr. Vinod explained to us through a tutorial on how to proceed with the Task 3A.
First thing first we need to do some visual research in order to understand the process behind the creation of a typeface. After that, we are to sketch our own typeface and most preferably do 5 different sketches with different ideas. Then, we need to choose one typeface among the 10 typefaces given to us in order to illustrate our typefaces into Adobe Illustrator. Next, we also need to deconstruct 3 letters so as to analyse and understand the anatomy of the latter. Finally, we need to start illustrating our typefaces using Adobe Illustrator and then also use FontLab.
Things that I noted down so that I could remember and also check in case I forgot something:
Adobe Illustrator
1. Artboard -1000 x 1000 pt
2. X-height - 500 x 500 pt
3. Take measurements of ascender line, cap line, median line, baseline, descender line.
4. When illustrating typeface remember to use ruler lines to create ascending line, ascender, descender, x-height, median line, descending line.
5. Pathfinder then unite.
6. Try to remove some anchor points so that they are not to close together.
7. Can use shape tool or pen tool to create typeface.
FontLab
1. File, new, font info.
2. Fill in name & copyright.
3. Metric & Dimensions.
4. Key dimensions (put in measurements).
5. Underline should be below descender.
INSTRUCTIONS
Week 8:
Task 3A - Type Design & Communication
We were tasked to design a limited number of western alphabets. Letters that we were asked to design : a e t k g r i y m p n ! # , . (15 in all)
Visual Research
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| Figure 1.0 Visual Research, 21st May 2022 Source: https://www.emilyjschan.com/ascentis |
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| Figure 1.1 Visual Research, 21st May 2022 Source: https://victorbartis.com/kaftan-serif |
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| Figure 1.2 Visual Research, 21st May 2022 Source: https://www.behance.net/gallery/97132045/ALEKJA-SERIF-Typeface-1997?tracking_source=for_you_feed_activity |
For my visual research, I wanted to look for fonts which looked thin, elegant, light but also had some character to them. I also looked for some which had serifs as for me letters containing serifs give off a more refined style.
I also made some other research concerning the anatomy of a letter so as to refresh my mind about the terms used for the anatomy of a letter. Source of images: https://www.canva.com/learn/typography-terms/
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| Figure 1.3 Stroke, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 1.4 Stem, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 1.5 Arc of Stem, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 1.6 Foot, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 1.7 Joint, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 1.8 Apex, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 1.9 Shoulder, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 2.0 Bowl, 21st May 2022 |
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| Figure 2.1 Counter, 21st May 2022 |
Sketches
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| Figure 2.2 Visual reference, 22nd May 2022 |
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| Figure 2.3 Sketches, 22nd May 2022 |
The main idea for most of my fonts was to create letters which are thin, curved, refined but still readable. I inspired myself from the musical notes found in a music sheet such as the crotchet, the quaver and semiquavers. I tried to reproduce the same curve found in a semiquaver for my letter 'A' for my sketch 1, 6 & 7 and also the letter 'N' found in my sketch 6 & 7. The letter 'P' was also inspired from the crotchet mostly for the shape of the bowl.
Week 9:
Deconstruction
As reference, I chose the font 'ITC New Baskerville STD' to deconstruct as I thought that it looked alike to what I am planning to digitalize.
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| Figure 2.4 Deconstruction of the letter 'N', 25th May 2022 |
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| Figure 2.5 Deconstruction of the letter 'A', 25th May 2022 |
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| Figure 2.6 Deconstruction of the letter 'K', 25th May 2022 |
I found out that the foot of all the letters in ITC New Baskerville STD' are all a bit indented in the middle. It looks like two diagonal lines were used to produce this form and at the same time a circle was used in the middle so as to create a slight smooth curve. Both the apex and the joint are all blunt even though I think that from afar you would think that they are sharp. For the letter 'K' I realised that the stroke is curved and non uniform as compared to the letter 'N' and 'A' where honestly at first sight I did not see this. I also realised that after deconstructing the letters, I was mistaken on how I thought the letters were created. I saw how much the letters were asymmetrical when in my head they looked more symmetric.
Week 10:
Digitization process
I started the digitization of my own font with the letter 'N' as I felt in the mood to start with this. I based myself from the letter 'N' of the font 'ITC New Baskerville STD' and tried to produce my own letter.
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| Figure 2.7 Process of digitizing my letter 'N', 1st June 2022 |
Honestly, it was a bit tricky to get the stroke of my letter right. It took me multiple trials to get this result and I also struggled a bit at first to get how I could do the foot of my letter. But after some trials and errors, I was able to get a result where I was satisfied enough to continue.
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| Figure 2.8 Different trials for the letter 'M', 1st June 2022 |
These are my different trials that I tried with the letter 'M'. As I was a bit indecisive on how I wanted this letter to look like, I made multiple ones so as to see which one looked more promising. Personally, I like the last one as I think that this one is the more balanced.
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| Figure 2.9 Different trials for the letter 'K', 1st June 2022 |
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| Figure 3.0 Different trials for the letter 'A', 1st June 2022 |
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| Figure 3.1 Different trials for the letter 'T', 1st June 2022 |
The images above are a compilation of what I tried to experiment with when doing this exercise.
After receiving Mr. Vinod's feedback he said that I should change my #, correct the direction of my foot for the letter 'A' and also try to use a thinner stroke for my letter 'M' on one side.
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| Figure 3.2 Font before feedback, 1st June 2022 |
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| Figure 3.3 Font after feedback, 1st June 2022 |
FontLab
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| Figure 3.4 FontLab, 1st June 2022 |
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| Figure 3.5 FontLab, 1st June 2022 |
I used fontlab so as to adjust the letter spacing and kern the letters.
Poster
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| Figure 3.6 Poster 1 version 1.0, 1st June 2022 |
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| Figure 3.7 Poster 1 version 2.0, 1st June 2022 |
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| Figure 3.8 Poster 1 version 3.0, 1st June 2022 |
Final Task 3A-Type Design & Communication (Before feedback)
Font dowload- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aVwIg8aItxSIueTCz0jA9Xo0HgT8xF_c/view?usp=sharing
Final Font
My inspiration for this font came from the musical notes. I chose the latter as when I was younger I used to play the violin so I thought that it would be nice to include something that was part of my life. Firstly, I tried to inspire myself from notes like the crotchet for the letter P and R. At first, I wanted to use a shape like the crotchet's bowl to do my P and R but thought that it would be too direct and unrefined if I used the exact same shape directly. So, I tried to modify it until I was satisfied of the outcome. The stroke of the letter 'A' is also inspired from the semiquaver. I chose the name 'Pain Regular' for my font as frankly this exercise was painful. I did not enjoy doing this exercise much so I would say that this font was the reason to my 'suffering'.
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| Figure 3.9 Final Font 'Pain', 1st June 2022 |
Ascender line: 545 pt
Cap line: 545 pt
Median line: 500 pt
Descender line: -41pt
Final Poster
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| Figure 4.0 Final Poster JPG, 1st June 2022 |
Figure 4.1 Final Poster PDF, 1st June 2022
Week 12:
Final Task 3A - Type Design & Communication (After feedback)
After taking into consideration the feedback that I got, I made some modification to the bowl of my letter P and R and also the hashtag.
Font download -https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FICQz_TSF2B9tQYRSX21RQdHn4Rz8Vfa/view?usp=sharing
Final Font
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| Figure 4.2 Final Font 'Pain' (after feedback), 18th June 2022 |
Ascender line: 545 pt
Cap line: 545 pt
Median line: 500 pt
Descender line: -41pt
Final Poster
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| Figure 4.3 Final Poster JPG (after feedback), 18th June 2022 |
Figure 4.4 Final Poster PDF (after feedback),18th June 2022
FEEDBACKS
Week 9:
I was asked by Mr. Vinod which one of my sketches was my favorite. I liked my sketch 1 and 6 but he said that I should go with sketch 6. He also said that it will be a challenge but it's worth the try. Additionally, he said that if we have typefaces where there are sharp points at the end, we need to make them look blunt or else they will look never ending which is a mistake.
Week 10:
After hearing Mr. Vinod's feedback, I needed to make some change concerning my letters that is change my '#' as it was not really working. After that I also needed to make one line thinner for my letter M and also reposition the direction of my foot for the letter A.
Week 12:
Overall feedback on work: Interesting typeface. Has shades of art deco type in it. Has room for improvement in P,R (bowl) and hashtag.
Overall feedback on blog: t3a Complete. Good progression.
REFLECTIONS
FURTHER READINGS
REFLECTIONS
Week 8:
Sketching out my ideas for my fonts went pretty well at least at first. Sometimes, I could feel the lack of inspiration as I think that there's so many fonts nowadays that it is quite hard to make one of our own that does not look like something that we had never seen before. But I would say that I'm a little bit excited to start digitizing my fonts.
Week 9:
Deconstructing the different letters was something that I never did before. I found it quite interesting as normally in our everyday life, people would not really pay attention to how someone created a specific font or a letter. The anatomy of a letter is made up of so many things that I felt like when I realized something, some minutes later I would see another detail that I did not see before and so on. It somehow felt like a continuous flow of information that came in as if the more you scrutinize the more you learn. Digitizing my letters were pretty hard. It felt frustrating sometimes as I could see something wrong with my curves but did not know how to correct it. It took me quite a lot of time in order to come up with the correct angle and so on. Honestly, at one point I felt discouraged as I had no inspiration for some of my letters or I felt like I could not do what I imagined in my mind using Illustrator. I would say that for this exercise I learned how to remain persistent and not give up even when you encounter a lot of challenges.
Week 10:
After doing all my letters, I did not feel very elated by the result. I think that at one point when I was trying to create my own letters, the task became so frustrating and tiring that I lost some excitement and just wanted to finish with the task. Compared to task 1 & 2, initially I thought that this task would be more fun since we got to do 'whatever we wanted to' but I realised that this was the task that I enjoyed the less. It felt more like a burden. However, on a more positive note I liked learning the process behind creating a type font. All of this was new to me so it was interesting at the same time to assimilate all of these information. I'm also a bit proud of the outcome of my letters mostly the letter 'N' due to the curve which took me so long to get right. I found out that creating one own's typeface requires a lot of patience and skills in order to master this.
FURTHER READINGS
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| Figure 4.2 'Typographic Design: Form & Communication', 1st June 2022 |
Author: Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip B. Meggs
Publication information: 2012
Summary of the book: Since this exercise is about letterforms and anatomy, I looked for a book related to this. In this book, we learn about the anatomy of typography. In this book, they said something where typography is like a magic way of writing also known as 'thoughts-made-visible' and 'frozen sounds'. I found this description very accurate and could not have said it in a better way. Typography is a way to communicate without having to talk or do something except for reading which I think is also suitable for introvert people like me. Aside from this, I learned about the different parts of a letter which I found interesting but also overwhelming as there is so much to assimilate at first.
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