Typography / Task 1 : Exercises

August 31, 2021

Typography / Task 1 : Exercises

27.8.2021-24.9.2021(Week 1- Week 5)
Chang Jia Yee / 0350402
Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's Design School
Typography
Task 1 : Exercise 1 / Exercise 2

Quick Links

Typography - Task 1

Typography - Task 2

Typography - Task 3A

Typography - Task 3B

Typography - Final Compilation and Reflection

LECTURES

Week 1

We had our first lesson with Mr Vinod and Mr Charles.In this lesson, Mr Vinod briefly explained the module to us and introduced the Facebook Group and the usage of it. Mr Vinod and Mr Charles also have a check to our blog and gave some feedback to make the blog looks more tidy and completed. We also voted for the words which used in exercise 1-type expression. Mr Vinod also suggested us finish watching those videos he posted on youtube between these few weeks.

Fig 1. The words use for Type expression, Week 1（27/8/2021）

Fig 2. First lesson of Typography✌, Week 1（27/8/2021）

Week 2

This week Mr Vinod and Mr Charles went through our sketches of Task 1 exercise - type expression and gave us their suggestion and how they feel of the word we designed. We are also separated into breakout room to get feedback and suggestion from our peers. We also voice out what the good design of others and which part can be strengthened.

These were some questions Mr Vinod gave us when evaluate peer's works :

1. Are the explorations sufficient?
2. Does the expression match the meaning of the word?
3. On a scale of 1–5, how strong is the idea?
4. How can the work be improved?

Fig 3. This our situation in the breackout room.(Cathy was sharing her design and Mr Charles was just there~), Week 2（3/9/2021）

Week 3
At the beginning, Mr Vinod & Mr Charles go through our digitalised work and it was a great honour they gave their suggestion on my work! I'm so appreciated that. Mr Vinod also let us to view his video tutorial of animating. After that, we was separated to breakroom and had our first attempt of animating our typography.

Fig 4. Mr Vinod & Mr Charles were evaluating my work~, Week 3 (10/9/2021)

Week 4

This week, Mr Vinod and Mr Charles go through our GIF and gave some feedback to us. Mr Vinod also let peers to give some comments and way to improve our GIF. It was a really good chance to let us develop our critical thinking as Mr Vinod said if we can criticise our peers work, we can also have the ability to comment on our own work.

Lecture Video

To view the recap of video tutorials 5-6,please click here.

Typo_1_Development

Early letterform developments :

Phoenician to Roman & text type classification(Dates of origin approximated to the nearest quarter century)

Fig . Lecture note & screenshot from the video of Mr Vinod, Week 1（29/8/2021）

If you don’t know history then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. ------ Michael Crichton

Typo_2_Basic

Basic / Describing letterforms

Fig . The principle line term in typography, Week 1（29/8/2021)

Baseline : The imaginary line the visual base of the letter forms.
Median : The imaginary line defining the x-height of letterforms.
X-height : The height in any typeface of the lowercase "x".

Fig . Ascender, Week 1（29/8/2021）

Ascender : The portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that projects above the median.

Fig . Descender, Week 1（29/8/2021)

Descender : The portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that projects below the baseline.

Fig . Ear, Week 1（29/8/2021)

Ear : The stroke extending out from the main stem or body of the letterform.

Fig . Spur, Week 1（29/8/2021)

Spur : The extension the articulates the junction of the curved and rectilinear stroke.

Fig . Ligature, Week 1（29/8/2021)

Ligature : The character formed by the combination of two or more letterforms.

Basic / The font
- The fill font of a typeface contains much more than 26 letters, to numerals, and a few punctuation marks.
- To work successfully with type, should make sure that you are working with full font(refer to type family) and you should know how to use it.
- Type family means family have different typefaces for example bold and regular.
- Typeface means individual weight of that stroke.
- Always good to select type family that has a god range of typefaces.

Typo_3_Text_Part 1

Recap of Video Tutorial

-Clear, appropriate presentation of the author's message

-Don't use script typeface to the work which all in capital letter

-Leading space larger 2 - 2.5/3 to the point size is great

-Pay attention to type size , leading, line length when formatting

-Not more that 55 to 65 characters occupy one sentence / line length

-Control the density of text. dark (too dense) / light (too loose)

-Ragging must be smooth

-Larger X-height would mean a more readable & legible typeface

-Kerning: adjusting the space between individual letter form

-Tracking (letter spacing) : adjust spacing uniformly over the range of characters

Fig . Screenshot of my note, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

Typo_4_Text_Part 2
Recap of Video Tutorial

- If leading is 12, the paragraph spacing value should be also 12.Purpose is to maintain the cross-alignment

- Avoid orphans & widows

Fig . Example of Orphan and Widow, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

- Highlighting important text :

    1. use Italic
    2. make it bold or medium
    3. change typeface / type family & make it bold
       for serif typeface: reduce the point size because generally sans-serif typeface tend to look larger
    4. change colour of the text (only can use black, cyan, magenta & yellow{not readable})

- A head using paragraph space

Fig . Example of A head, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

- B head using a force line break and not follow the leading space

Fig . Example of B head, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

- C head : two depressions of the spacebar between the head and the beginning of the text

Fig . Example of C head, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

- Articulating the complementary vertical rhythms

- To achieve cross alignment we can doubling the leading space of the text(subtext)

Fig . Example of cross alignment, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

Typo_Ex_ExpressionWords & ExpressionWords II

The picture show below is my note of the simple short-cut key to be used in Adobe Illustrator(AI)

Fig . The note I took in OneNote while watching Mr Vinod's video（29/8/2021）

INSTRUCTION

html link :

Task 1 : exercise 1 - Type Expressions

In the first week , we were asked to sketch out the ideas of the words we chosen. Through the vote in Facebook group, we would like to choose four word from the top seven words and my final choice were the word "Terror","glitch","space","broken".

Fig 1. My sketches of the words "Broken" & "Space", Week 2（2/9/2021）

Fig 2. My sketches of the words "Terror" & "Glitch", Week 2（2/9/2021）

Task 1 : exercise 1 - Digitalisation of Typography Work

After the first week sketching on paper,I picked up some workable sketch to digitalise them in Adobe Illustrator(AI). Below are some processes through my works in AI.When operating in AI, I done some enhancement after according my sketch on paper to make my Typography looked more workable.

#1 Word "Terror" :

Fig 3.0 First attempt from paper sketch to digital, Week 3 (9/9/2021)

I think the idea above of the word "terror" are very common and the meaning expression is too intuitive. So I decided to change my mind to gain new idea of the word.

My new idea is to put an evil face and smile between the letter.Below is the new idea and exploration of the word.

Another idea of the word "Terror":

Fig 3.1 progression of the word "Terror", Week 3 (9/9/2021)

              
                After week 3 lecture ,Mr Vinod said that the idea was there but
                the effect didn't come out. I try to transfer the evil's face to
                the letter "O" to and make it work out. Below is my
                outcome.

Fig 3.2 Changes after lecture, Week 3 (12/9/2021)

              #2 Word "Broken" :
            

              
                For this word I had picked two of the sketch and executed it in
                AI.

              
                Below is one of the sketch I picked and some enhancement after
                the first attempt of the word.

Fig 4.0 Attempt from paper sketch to digital, Week 3 (9/9/2021)

            I reckon the edge crack was not good enough, it was too dull.So I
              tried it second time and it worked better.
          

Another sketch of "Broken" attempt in AI :

Fig 4.1 Attempt from paper sketch to digital, Week 3 (9/9/2021)

After digitalise the word above, I think I was broke all of the word and it wasn't what I want. I gave some change to the word and change the letter "O" to an egg and make it more vivid. After digitalise the broken egg, I realised it was too graphical. I have an new idea which was broken the letter "O" only like the.figure below .

How I process and my idea extension :

Fig 4.2 Progression of the word "Broken", Week 3 (9/9/2021)

After the class, Mr Vinod and Mr Charles said that the lines of the movement was not necessary. So I decided to thinner the line.

Fig 4.3 Minor Change after lecture, Week 3 (12/9/2021)

#3 Word "Space" :
I pick this design(below) into digital because it is simple but expressional. At the beginning, the word are too closed from another so I widen the space between each word and make it feel like more broad.

Fig 5. Attempt from paper sketch to digital, Week 3 (9/9/2021)

#4 Word "Glitch" :

Digitalise of the word "Glitch" :
I had take off all initial design of the sketch except the ladder（Fig 6.0）, because it's look very complicated in this design.

Fig 6.0 Attempt from paper sketch to digital, Week 3 (9/9/2021)

Another idea of the word "Glitch":

Fig 6.1 Progression of the word " Glitch", Week 3 (9/9/2021)

            Type Family and Typeface of these Typography :
          

Fig 7. Type Family & Typeface of Typography, Week 3 (12/9/2021)

Final Submission :

Fig 8. Final Submission Type Expression -JPEG, Week 3 (12/9/2021)

html link :

Task 1 : exercise 1 - Animating Typography Work

Attempt 1 :

Fig 9.0 First Attempt in Photoshop, Week 4 (17/9/2021)

I used 15 frames to completed the first attempt of the word "broken" in Week 3 class. Basically, every frame are played 0 second expect frame 13, 14, 15. At the last three frames I put respectively 0.1 second for frame 13 & 14 and 2 second for the last frame.

Fig 9.1 Timeline 1, Week 4 (17/9/2021)

Outcome :

Fig 9.2 Attempt in creating GIF, Week 4（10/9/2021）

Attempt 2 :

I used 11 frames to finish the "space" gif below and I think the first outcome of "space" was a bit simple and lack of impact and memory point.

Fig 10.0 First Outcome of "space.gif", Week 4 (17/9/2021)

I continued my process of the word "space" and I decided to add a cursor to it.

Fig 10.1 Progression Photoshop, Week 4 (17/9/2021)

I used 35 frames to complete my final gif and I make the fonts bold so it can catch your eyes when looking on it. I also added a cursor and make it switch between the words to make it more vivid.After that, the cursor click the letter "p" to make the effect of pushing away other letters.

Generally, the whole gif I play it in 0.1 second for every frame except the frame 21-24last and the last frame.

Timeline 2.1(Fig)/Frame 21-24 shown the click of cursor. I put 0 second(no delay) to make looked like a quick click. I also deepened the colour of the selected frame when the cursor click on it.

Fig 10.2 Timeline 2.1, Week 4 (17/9/2021)

At the end of the animating word I put 2 second to make it stay the same and people see it will know that is the end of the gif as the progress you can see in Timeline 2.2(Fig).

Fig 10.3 Timeline 2.2, Week 4 (17/9/2021)

Final Submission :

Fig 11. Final Submission of Animating, Week 4 (16/9/2021)

Task 1 : exercise 2 - Text Formatting

Typo_Ex_Type Formatting 1:4

Below is the note I took for the Indesign while watching the tutorial video.

Fig 12.0 Indesign shortcut keys & basic operation

, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

Fig 12.1 Type Formatting without Kerning & Tracking, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

Fig 12.2 Type Formatting with Kerning & Tracking, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

Fig 12.3 The different between have kerning & Tracking and without it, Week 4 (18/9/2021)

Typo_Ex_Type Formatting 2:4 / 3：4 / 4：4

Notes :
- Force line break can avoid widow or orphan
- Reducing the line length of column to avoid orphan

- Adjust single line of letter spacing or kerning not more / less than three click(option + left / right arrow )

- Reduce the point size of number by 0.5 therefore not making it stick out (for short text forming).If designing a lot of text like designing a book, better to use lowercase numerals

- Different of prime and quotation

Prime is an abbreviation for inches and feet(single prime : feet, double prime : inch)

Fig 14.1 Adjustment of widow

Fig 14.2 Adjustment of the number's height & width

Fig 14.3 wrong spacing

Below are four layout for my Task 1-Exercise 2 : Text formatting

Fig 15. Layout 1, Week 4 (19/9/2021)

Typefaces & fonts : Univers LT Std 93(Headline), Janson Text LT Std Bold Italic (Sub-headline), Gill Sans Regular(Text)
Point size : 19 pt(Headline-"Bauhaus"), 12pt(Sub-headline),11 pt(Text)
Leading : 26pt(Headline), 13pt(Sub-headline & Text)
Line length : 50-60 characters
Alignment : left alignment

Fig 16. Layout 2, Week 5 (23/9/2021)

Typefaces & fonts : Bodoni 72 Oldstyle Bold(Headline-"Bauhaus"), Gill Sans Regular(Headline & Text), ITC Garamond Std Bold Condensed Italic(Sub-headline)
Point size : 61pt(Headline-"Bauhaus"), 32pt(Headline),17pt(Sub-headline), 11pt(Text)
Leading : 65pt(Headline), 13pt(Sub-headline & Text)
Line length : 50-60 characters
Alignment : left alignment

Fig 17. Layout 3, Week 5 (23/9/2021)

Typefaces & fonts : ITC Garamond Std(Headline), Gill Sans Bold(Sub-headline) / Regular(Text)
Point size : 50pt(Headline), 30pt(Headline-"On Modern Culture"), 12pt(Sub-headline & Text)
Leading : 14pt(Sub-headline & Text)
Line length : 50-60 characters
Alignment : left alignment

Fig 18. Layout 4, Week 5 (23/9/2021)

Typefaces & fonts : Bodoni 72 Oldstyle (Headline-"Impact"&"Bauhaus"), Gill Sans Semibold (Headline) / Bold (Sub-headline) / Regular(Text)
Point size : 88pt(Headline-"Bauhaus"), 59pt(Headline-"Impact"), 30 pt(Headline), 12 pt(Text)
Leading : 14pt(Sub-headline & Text)
Line length : 50-60 characters
Alignment : left alignment

Final Submission :

Fig 19. Final Submission of Text Formatting-jpeg, week 5(24/9/2021)

html link :
<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gzx26pN3gr7Ui5XymPw7dtMm8SO1uf7A/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

Hours spend for Task 1 : 54 hours

FEEDBACK

Week 1
General feedback : Update the lecture and the title of every part. Press shift & enter to go the next line or it will have a huge space between the column.

Week 2

General feedback : Mr Vinod said Typo Expression less is more. The background try not to cut into half because it will be disturbing and heaviness.Furthermore, make the design of word but not put in too many picture or it will look messy and more like illustration.

Specific feedback : One of the design of the word "Glitch" are not really relevant with the meaning as it have another word(GLOBAL TECH) inside the design. The third design of "broken" was fine but no need to exist so many different word except "broken".Mr Vinod also said he love the one of the design of the word "space".

Week 3

General feedback : Most of us always easily get our typography work graphical and some of the design are not really relevant and not straight to the point.

Specific feedback :The word "space" is in good design whereas the design of "terror" is not coming out. The word "glitch" could be enlarged，so it would be exaggerate and sticking out a bit more.The line of the word"broken" is not necessary, the letter"O" broken is sufficient. Mr Charles said that the word "broken"GIF is quit interesting!

Week 4
General feedback : Stop about 2 seconds at the end of the gif, so as not to let the viewer fail to find the ending point. If there are colour on background, you can pull the frame out of the artboard, so there will be no white edges.

Specific feedback : It is a good design for the "space.gif". The cursor moving between the words and finally click the letter "p" and then the letter "p" extend itself surprisingly.

REFLECTIONS

Experience:

Exercise of Type Expression is really challenging because we need to come out a design there is simple but expressive. So I need to put in a lot of effort to make it didn't look too much on it. I also have to discover the skill of using Photoshop at the moment otherwise it is hard and impossible to finish the work. Furthermore, it is quite fun and satisfied when discover a new skill and able to execute my sketch in Photoshop! For text formatting, it seem that as long as you follow the rules step by step, there will be no mistakes. But if you want to follow the rules at the same time have bright spots and new designs that attract readers, it will be even more difficult.

Observation:

The design of the Typography must be simple but obvious in expression. This is a quite difficult thing but which is able to build up our continuously creative thinking. Through my observation, the first attempt of my work are very similar with other people, so I need to put more effort and energy to create new idea which can distinguish my work from other people's design and have my own unique style. For text formatting, there are many rules and methods to make the whole look neat and clear.

Finding:

I noticed that display type needs to quickly catch reader's attention. So the typeface's size, colour, typeface that we choose become a really important and crucial avenue to emphasise the focal point from heavy contents.

FURTHER READING

Fig 20.0 Typography Referenced

I have read the chapter : Typographic Principle of this book which is started from page 207-225.

-For text type, use typefaces designed for the purpose of uninterrupted reading such as Calson, Bembo, and Garamond.This three work well for lage areas of book text.

Fig 20.1 Reading Direction

-employ a focal point that can avoid reader to scan starting with the top-left corner.

Fig 20.2 Example of focal point

-Focal Point Enhancements :
1. Active/Static
2. Grouping/Separation
3. Sequence/Randomness
4. Flat/Deep
5. Economy/Intricacy

-Repetition is one way to achieve unity through colour, shape, size, placement, arrangement, order, or depth.

Quick Links

Typography - Task 1

Typography - Task 2
Typography - Task 3A

Typography - Task 3B

Typography - Final Compilation and Reflection

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Chang Jia Yee (0350402)