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Typography / Task 3

26/05/2023 -  23/06/2023 / Week 8 - Week 12
Iman binti Kamarudin / 0364014
Typography / Bachelors of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 3: Type Design and Communication
LECTURE


Week 9: On week 9, we posted our final exercise sheet of our letterforms. Afterwards, we had to look closer at the letterforms to decide which ones were the best and we wanted to digitise. Once we decided which letters we liked best, we had to take clearer photos of them up close. Mr. Vinod demonstrated how to digitise the letterforms and how to refine them further.

Week 10: During class on week 10, we began refining our letterforms even further, to make it more cohesive yet still maintaining the spirit of the original letterforms. We then had to work on the punctuations on our own afterwards.

Week 11: We presented our further refined letterforms and punctuation symbols and proceeded to adjust the bearing and kerning in Fontlab 8. 

Week 12: In this week's class, we showed our posters using the typeface we made and then adjusted it according to the feedback we were given.


INSTRUCTIONS


Below are my deconstructions of two letters from two different typefaces; 'M and T' in Bodoni STD and ITC New Bakersville.

Figure 1.1 - Deconstruction Letter 'M' Bodoni STD 1 (30/05/2023)

Figure 1.2 - Deconstruction Letter 'M' Bodoni STD 2 (30/05/2023)

Figure 1.3 - Deconstruction Letter 'T' ITC New Bakersville 1 (30/05/2023)

Figure 1.4 - Deconstruction Letter 'T' ITC New Bakersville 2 (30/05/2023)

In class on week 7, we began on our task 3 by experimenting with five different mediums. I was sick during class so I did it independently. During Independent Learning Week, we wrote out the letters 'A E T K G R I Y M P N' with those five different mediums and had to choose one to continue practicing. 

Figure 1.5 - Practice w/ Different Tools (24/05/2023)

Figure 1.6 - 5 Different Handwriting First Attempt (24/05/2023)

Figure 1.7 - 5 Different Handwriting Second Attempt (27/05/2023)

When I did my first attempt, Mr. Vinod said that it was more like I was designing the letters rather than writing them, so I had to redo it. After my second attempt, I chose the second handwriting (brush sign) and wrote out more attempts.

Figure 1.8 - Practice Letterforms

After we practiced writing out each of the letters in our chosen tool, we had to look through and see which variation of each letter we felt were the best and take an up close picture of them to begin digitising. I began digitising my first letter during class on week 9.

Figure 1.9 - Close-up Chosen Letterforms

Figure 1.10 - Letterform Guides (02/06/2023)

Figure 1.11 - Initial Stroke 'A' (02/06/2023)

Figure 1.12 - 'A' Digitisation Process (02/06/2023)

Figure 1.13 - Digitised Letterforms (08/06/2023)

After presenting our 'refined' letterforms, we moved on to further refine them and make them more cohesive and look more like they belong to a typeface. We also started to work on the punctuation symbols. I looked at different fonts in Google Fonts for reference.

Figure 1.14 - Condiment by Sudtipos

Figure 1.15 - Dekko by Sorkin Type

Figure 1.16 - Period & Comma (14/06/2023)

Figure 1.17 - Punctuation Symbols (14/06/2023)

Figure 1.18 - Further Refined Letterforms & Punctuation Symbols (14/06/2023)

Figure 1.19 - Initial Strokes vs Further Refined Letterforms (09/06/2023)

For digitising and refining, I used the brush tool, selection tool, smoothing pencil and direct selection tool. 

Figure 1.20 - Brush Settings 1

Figure 1.21 Brush Settings 2

After further refining our letterforms, we presented it to Mr. Vinod. After feedback, I reworked my punctuation symbols and moved on to adjusting the bearings and kerning the letters in Fontlab 8.

Figure 1.22 - Punctuation Evolution (16/06/2023)

Figure 1.23 - Letterform Evolution (16/06/2023)

Figure 1.24 - Letterform Evolution Wireframe (16/06/2023)

Figure 1.25 - Character Map (16/06/2023)

Figure 1.26 - Before Kerning (16/06/2023)

Figure 1.27 - After Kerning (19/06/2023)
 
After finishing the typeface, I moved onto creating the poster. 

Figure 2.1 - Poster Design 1 (21/06/2023)

Figure 2.2 - Poster Design 2 (21/06/2023)

Figure 2.3 - Poster Design 3 (21/06/2023)

After some feedback, I adjusted my poster so that it evened out the focus between both sides of the page. I then increased the size to fill up more space and adjusted the leading.

Figure 2.4 - Refined Poster Design 1 (23/06/2023)

Figure 2.5 - Refined Poster Design 2 (23/06/2023)

After refining our poster, we had to apply a wall texture over our poster however when I did so, my black background ended up lighter than I wanted it to, so I darkened the black a bit more.

Figure 2.6 - Texture Applied (23/06/2023)

Figure 2.7 - Background Darkness Adjusted (23/06/2023)


FINAL


Figure 3.1 - Final "Namicore IK" Typeface, JPEG

Figure 3.2 - Fontlab Metrics Window (23/06/2023)

Figure 3.3 - Final A4 Poster, JPEG (23/06/2023)

Figure 3.4 - Final "Namicore IK" Typeface, PDF (23/06/2023)

Figure 3.5 - Final A4 Poster, PDF (23/06/2023)


FEEDBACK

Week 8:
General Feedback - Make sure letters are on the baseline, with ascenders and descenders above and below the baseline. Practice writing in the chosen style.

Specific Feedback - Designing the letters more than writing them. Write the letterforms without changing the angle of the nib.


Week 9:
General Feedback - After creating all the letters, make sure everything is consistent. Do refinements in a different artboard. Experiment and play around with the strokes.


Week 10:
General Feedback - The letterforms should have the spirit of the original handwritten ones.

Specific Feedback - Maintain the width differences of letter 'G'. Create one side straight and opposite curved in vertical stroke.


Week 11
General Feedback - Be careful not to lose the width contrast in letterforms. Exclamation point goes from thick to thin, it cannot be the same width throughout.

Specific Feedback - Good job. Rework period, comma & exclamation point.


Week 12:
Specific Feedback - Good size, has impact. Use closure to imply square shape. Align smaller size text at the edge.
REFLECTION

Experience
I enjoyed working on this task a lot, it was really fun writing in different mediums and picking one to digitise. Refining the letterforms in Adobe Illustrator was really enjoyable I was really satisfied with what I came up with. When typing in my letters for the first time in Fontlab 8, my mind was blown on how far it had come from just writing it with pen and paper.
Observation
Even though I always talk about how much work I've realised goes into typography, I really have to reiterate it each time as it still baffles me. Especially now that I've designed part of my own typeface, it hits harder. Ensuring that each letterform looks cohesive but also not too boring(?) while also designing more than 26 characters is a huge task and also working at such a close up scale.

Findings
I've found that I honestly really would love to create my own typeface one day, a full one. While it is a big task, it's very enjoyable and you learn so much not only about yourself and what you like but from others and their own typefaces. Analysing the details in each letterform from different people has made me wonder what their thought process was (aside from wishing the agony would end probably haha). Is the final work what they initially imagined? How many times did they rework it? How did they hope their typeface would be used?
FURTHER READING

Week 9 - 12

Figure 4.1 - The Ultimate Guide on How to Create a Font, Jake Rocheleau, 2021

I referenced this article for some additional tips to create my typeface. It mentioned a lot of good points, including terms of different aspects/characters in different letters (that were already taught in the letcures, but were helpful to be remined of again).

There was this one quote that really stuck with me while I made my typeface.
"Don’t be afraid to revise or make drastic changes to the point of starting over from scratch. Your goal is to eventually create a final set of characters that can be scanned into the computer for digitization."

There was also more helpful advice on different softwares to use when digitising your typeface, kerning and leading, file types and design advice in general.
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