Advanced Typography / Task 2

13/09/2023 - 18/10/2023 / Week 3 - Week 8

Iman binti Kamarudin / 0364014

Advanced Typography / Bachelors in Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Task 2: Key Artwork

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LECTURE

Lecture Notes AdTypo_1 - AdTypo_3

AdTypo_4_Designing Type

Type Design:

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

- is a form of artistic expression.

Frutiger: sans serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger.

- The goal of the typeface was to create a clean, distinctive and legible typeface that is easy to see from both close up and far away.

- Letterforms needed to be easily read in poor light conditions or when the reader was moving quickly. He tested with unfocused letters to see which letterforms could still be identified.

Fig 1.1 - Frutiger Typeface

Verdana: sans serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter.

Many of Carter's fonts were created to address specific technical challenges, for example those posed by early computers [Verdana]

- Verdana was tuned to be extremely legible even at very small sizes on the screen due in part to the popularity of the internet and electronic devices.

- The Verdana fonts exhibit characteristics derived from the pixel rather than the pen, the brush or the chisel. It has commonly confused characters, such as the lowercase i j l.

Fig 1.2 - Verdana Typeface

Johnstan Sans: a bold, simple typeface that was modern yet rooted in tradition

- It was created for London's Underground railway posters and signage from the calligrapher Edward Johnston.

- The London Underground Group had completely different signage and it was a huge mix of letters. Johnston applied the proportions of Roman capital letters to his typeface, so it was rooted in history but it also has an elegance and a simplicity that absolutely fitted the modern age.

Fig 1.3 - Johnstan Sans Typeface

General Process of Type Design:

1. Research

- understand type history, anatomy, terminologies and conventions.

- determine the type’s purpose or what it would be used for, such as school busses or airport signages etc.

- examine existing fonts for inspiration/reference

2. Sketching

- you can sketch your typeface using brushes, pens etc. and then scan them for the purpose of digitization.

- you can also sketch your typeface directly into a font design software (much quicker, persistent, and consistent) but this can sometimes impede the natural movement of hand strokes.

3. Digitization

- FontLab and Glyphs App are used for typeface digitisation.

- you can use Adobe Illustrator to design or craft the letterforms and then introduce it into the specialized font apps. This however is frowned upon by the purist.

- attention should not only be given to the whole form at this stage but also to the counter form. The readability of the typeface is heavily dependent on it.

4. Testing

- Testing is an important component in the design thinking process. It is 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.

- Depending on the typeface category, the readability and legibility of the the typeface becomes an important consideration. It's not as important if the typeface is a display type, where expression of the form is a priority

5. Deploy

- There are always teething problems that can come up after deploying a typeface and during the development phase. Therefore, revision is important.

Using grids (with circular forms) can facilitate the construction of a letterforms and is a possible method to design your letterform.

Fig 1.4 -  Grid Letterforms

Construction & Considerations:

Many different forms and constructions must be taken into account when designing a new type. An important visual correction is the extrusion of curved forms past the baseline and cap line. This also applies to vertical alignment between curved and straight forms.

A correction is also needed for the distance between letters. It is not possible to simply place letters next to each other with equal spacing between them. The letters must be altered to a uniform ‘visual’ white space. This means that the white space between the letters should appear the same. This is called ‘fitting’ the type.

AdTypo_5_Perception And Organisation

Perception in typography deals with the visual navigation and interpretation of the reader via contrast, form and organisation of the content. 

Fig 2.1 -  Contrast Letterforms

Size

If you have a big element and a smaller element, you'll see the big letter first before the small

Fig 2.2 - Contrast in Size

Weight

Using rules, spot, squares also can bring visual attraction or emphasis

Fig 2.3 - Contrast in Weight

Form

The difference between a capital letter and its lowercase equivalent, or a roman letter and its italic, condensed and expanded versions of typeface

Fig 2.4 - Contrast in Form

Structure

The different letterforms of different kinds of typefaces

Fig 2.5 - Contrast in Structure

Texture

Putting together the contrasts of size, weight, form, and structure, and applying them to text on a page

Fig 2.6 - Contrast [Texture]

Direction

Different angles can create contrast when placed together

Fig 2.7 - Contrast in Direction

Colour

Fig 2.8 - Contrast in Colour

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INSTRUCTIONS

Task 2A: Key Artwork

In week 3, we went over the briefing for the task and were then told to start brainstorming our workmark. I looked for references of what I wanted my wordmark to look like on Pinterest.

I wanted my wordmark to represent how there are so many people that I find myself wanting to be like and how I am just a mishmash of all the things I love and enjoy and how they are all different compared to eachother. Sometimes I find myself wanting to be really bright and cheery and positive and other times I want to be perceived like I don't care about a lot of things. The use of the pixels also factors into how I would like to be a game designer in the future.

Fig 3.1 - References

After I defined and decided what direction I wanted to go in, I started sketching out ideas of my wordmark on my iPad.

Fig 3.2 - Wordmark Sketches #1

I also tried experimenting with different layouts of the letters in a square shape or diagonally and vertically.

Fig 3.3 - Wordmark Sketches #2

I had a few sketches that I liked however I felt like it was still missing something, perhaps something that could tie everything together and so I asked myself what kind of occupations or interests that I wanted people to think about when they saw my wordmark. I tried to sketch out a few more ideas, and I made sure to just allow myself to get the bad ideas out even if I really, really didn't like them however in the end I ended up going with my first few iterations.

Fig 3.4 - Wordmark Sketches #3

Fig 3.5 - Wordmark Sketches #4

After sketching, I moved onto Adobe Illustrator to digitise the best two that I liked.

Fig 3.6 - Digitised Wordmark #1

Fig 3.7 - Digitised Wordmark #2

After digitising, I ended up liking the second wordmark better and so that is what I went with. During week 5's class, we had a feedback session and I adjusted my wordmark according to the feedback I received however I still felt a bit off with my key artwork. I ended up changing the 'N' and 'I' to a different version that I sketched out before. 

Fig 4.1 - Wordmark Refinement 

Fig 4.2 - Digitised Wordmark and Refinement

Fig 4.3 - Final Wordmark

After I finalised my wordmark and my palette, I started working on my animation. I used Procreate for the pixel animation, then I imported it into Photoshop and After Effects.

Fig 4.4 - After Effects Animation

 I honestly really struggled with this since I wasn't sure what to animate or what I wanted to express in my animation. I'm not a big fan of the outcome but I kind of like how simple it is at the same time.

Fig 4.5 - Final Animated Wordmark GIF

Task 2B: Collateral

Once I made all the adjustments necessary and finalised my key artwork, I moved onto the collateral for task 2B. I went onto Colour Hunt to look for a palette.

Fig 5.1 - Colour Palette #1

Fig 5.2 - Colour Palette #2

Fig 5.3 - Colour Palette #3

I liked a few colour palettes but while trying to create my business card I felt like it was lacking and I wanted something with more contrast. Therefore, I explored with a few variations of color palettes and decided from there.

Fig 5.4 - Namecard Exploration #1

Fig 5.5 - Namecard Exploration #2

Fig 5.6 - Namecard Exploration #3

Fig 5.7 - Namecard Exploration #4

After figuring out my colour palette and creating my business card, I moved on to creating my other collateral designs. I decided to go with a t-shirt, art book and lanyard.

Fig 5.8 - T-shirt Design Exploration #1

Fig 5.9 - T-shirt Design Exploration #2

Fig 5.10 - Art Book Cover Exploration #1

Fig 5.11 - Art Book Cover Exploration #2

Fig 5.12 - Lanyard Design Exploration

After creating the designs I placed them on simulated mockups. However, when I started working on my instagram layout, I scrapped the namecards and replaced them with a tote bag as I felt it was just better.

Fig 6.1 - Simulated Business Cards

Fig 6.2 - Simulated White T-shirts

Fig 6.3 - Simulated Black T-shirts

Fig 6.4 - Simulated Art Book

Fig 6.5 - Simulated Lanyard

Fig 6.6 - Simulated Tote Bag

Once I finished all the collaterals, I then started on my instagram layout. I struggled quite a bit with this since I wanted everything to be visible and cohesive but after some feedback I moved towards something I liked better.

Fig 7.1 - IG Layout #1

Fig 7.2 - IG Layout #2

Fig 7.3 - IG Layout #3

Fig 7.4 - Final IG Layout

FINAL TASK 2A & 2B

Fig 8.1 - B&W Wordmark

Fig 8.2 - Colour Wordmark

Fig 8.3 - Colour Wordmark Variation #1

Fig 8.4 - Colour Wordmark Variation #2

Fig 8.5 - Animated Wordmark GIF

Fig 8.6 - Colour Palette

Fig 8.7 - Collateral #1 (Art Book)

Fig 8.8 - Collateral #2 (Tote Bag)

Fig 8.9 - Collateral #3 (White Shirt)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/namisspace/

Fig 8.10 - Instagram Layout

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FEEDBACK

Week 4:

General Feedback - What idea are you trying to represent? You need to have reasons, meanings behind your choices. Not just say 'I like how it looks'. When you come up with forms, it has to have something about it that you are trying to express (the idea behind it)

Week 5:

Specific Feedback - Remove Exclamation mark and reduce the swash of 'N'. 'N' and 'I' from other sketch is way better, widen the 'I' to fill up the space better. Keep the period.

Week 6:

Specific Feedback - You can use more than 4 colours for the palette. Most of the time, it's hard to make coloured type look good on dark backgrounds.

Week 7:

General Feedback - Don't plaster the wordmark everywhere. You can enlarge the collateral to intrigue the viewers

Specific Feedback - The T-shirt sleeves encroaching onto the neighboring posts are nice. The words connecting the posts are also good. The collateral in the display could be better

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REFLECTION

My experience with this task was pretty positive. I really enjoyed designing a wordmark and I'm quite satisfied with what I created. I feel as though this task went by pretty fast since I loved working on it (minus the animation). Although I did observe that it was tricky trying to decipher a design direction that was consistent and aesthetic when my main idea was how eclectic I am as a person. A small part of me feels like my work is less...out there? than I wanted it to be.

I've found that the hardest part of this task for me was the animation and instagram layout. I second guess myself a lot and it got a bit worse during this assignment since I wanted to create something so good that I may have ended up restricting myself to what others thought was better. 

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FURTHER READING

Week 3 - Week 8

Fig 9.1 - 'Creating a Lasting Impression', Rikard Rodin (2015)

Art and design aren't the same; art can be done for art’s sake. Design cannot. Art is meant to resonate with the viewer on some level. Design is to create interest and then deliver a message. It uses various methods and compositions in a way that can be understood. Design varies based on what you're making it for and for who.