Advanced Typography- Task 1: Exercise 1 & 2

30/8/2023 - 24/9/2023, Week 1 - Week 5
Ng Zheng Kai / 0359424
Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media (Hons)
Task 1: Exercise 1 & 2

LECTURES

WEEK 1 - LECTURE 1

Advanced Typography: Typographic Systems

Typographic systems are akin to a set of rules that provide a sense of purpose that focuses and directs the decision making.

Axial System: All elements are organized to he left or right of a single axis

Fig 1.1 Axial System

Fig 1.2 Axial System Example

Radial System: All elements are extended from a point of focus.

Fig 1.3 Radial System

Fig 1.4 Radial System Example

Dilatational System: All elements expanded from a central point in a circular fashion

Fig 1.5 Dilatational System

Fig 1.6 Dilatational System Example

Random System: Elements that have no specific pattern or relationship.

Fig 1.7 Random System

Fig 1.8 Random System Examples

Grid System: A system of horizontal and vertical divisions

Fig 1.9 Grid System Examples

Fig 1.10 Grid System Examples

Transitional System: An informal system of layered banding.

Fig 1.11 Transitional System

Fig 1.12 Transitional System Example

Modular System: A series of non-objective elements that are constructed in as a standardized units.

Fig 1.13 Modular System

Fig 1.14 Modular System Examples

Bilateral System: All text is arranged symmetrically on a single axis.

Fig 1.15 Bilateral System

Fig 1.16 Bilateral System Examples

WEEK 2 - LECTURE 2

Advanced Typography: Typographic composition

Principles of Design Composition: Emphasis, isolation, repetition, balance (symmetry/asymmetry), alignment, perspective, rhythm, contrast.

Emphasis:

Fig 1.17 Emphasis

Rule of Thirds:

Fig 1.18 Rule of Thirds

Environmental Grid:

Fig 1.19 Environmental Grid

Form and Movement: The placement of form creates a sort of movement. The forms could represent images, text or colour.

Fig 1.20 Form and Movement

WEEK 3 - LECTURE 3

Advanced typography: Context and Creativity

The earliest forms of writing were designed to imitate handwriting, handwriting would become the basis or standard forms for mechanical type to mimic.

Fig 1.21 Letterforms evolving through the ages

Early Greek (5th century B.C.E.): Originally drawn by hand without compasses or rulers and without serifs. Over time, the letters became thicker, with smaller gaps, and gained serifs.

Roman Uncials (4th century C.E.): Roman letters started to become more rounded, which made them quicker to write with fewer strokes.

English Half Uncials (8th century): In England, the uncial script became slanted and condensed.

Carolingian Minuscule: This style introduced capitals at the start of sentences, spaces between words, and punctuation. It served as a model for 15th-century Humanistic writing, which later influenced our lowercase Roman type.

Black Letter (12-15th century C.E.): Known for tight spacing and condensed lettering, with evenly spaced verticals to save materials in book production.

The Italian Renaissance: During this period, ancient letterforms (Antica) were rediscovered. The Renaissance's focus on form, previously applied to art and architecture, extended to letterforms, resulting in more refined and logical lettering.

Fig 1.22 Oldest writing found in the Indus Valley Civilization

Fig 1.23 Brahmi Script

The Brahmi Script was one of the earliest Indian writing system after the Indus script, it greatly influenced modern Indian scripts and hundreds of scripts in Southeast and East Asia.

WEEK 4 - LECTURE 4

Advanced typography: Designing type

The process of type design:

1. Research

-Learn about type history, anatomy, conventions, and terms.

-Figure out what the font will be used for and where it can be applied.

-Look at existing fonts for inspiration, ideas, and context.

2. Sketching

-Using either traditional tools or via digital.

3. Digitisation

-Most professional designers use Fontlab or Glyphs.

4. Testing

-Testing helps improve the font, and prototyping gets valuable feedback.

-Readability matters more for reading fonts, but display fonts prioritize style over readability.

5. Deploy

-Even after launching a finished font, there can be unexpected issues that weren't noticed during testing and prototyping. So, the need for revisions continues even after deployment. Thorough testing is essential to ensure these problems are minor.

Typeface constructions

Fig 1.24 Construction grid for Roman capitals

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

Constructions and considerations

Fig 1.25 Classifications according to form and construction

Depending on their form and construction, the 26 letters of the alphabet can be arranged into groups, whereby a distinction is made by between a group for the capitals and the group for lowercase letters.

Fig 1.26 The letters "c" and "e"

WEEK 5- LECTURE 5

Advanced Typography: Perception and Organisation

Fig 1.27 Contrast

There are several methods in typography to create contrast.

Size

Fig 1.28 Contrast of size

A contrast of size provides a point to which the reader's attention is drawn. For example, if there's a big letter and a small letter, the reader would see the big letter first. The most common use of size is in making a title or heading noticeably bigger than the body text.

Weight

Fig 1.29 Contrast of weight

Weight describes how bold type can stand out in the middle of lighter type of the same style, other than bold, there's using rules, spots, or squares.

Structure

Fig 1.30 Contrast of structure

Structure means the different letterforms of different kinds of typeface. For example, a monoline sans serif and a traditional serif, or an italic and a blackletter.

Texture

Fig 1.31 Contrast of texture

By combining the contrasts of size, weight, form, and structure, and applying them to a block of text on a page, you come to the contrast of texture. Texture refers to the way the lines of the type would as a whole up close and from a distance. This depends partly on the letterforms themselves and partly on how they're arranged.

Direction

Fig 1.32 Contrast of direction

By contrast of direction, it is the opposition between vertical and horizontal, and the angles in between. Turning one word on its side can have a dramatic effect on a layout. Text blocks also have their vertical or horizontal aspects of direction. Mixing wide blocks of long lines with tall columns of short line can also create a contrast.

Colour

Fig 1.33 Contrast of colour

The use of colour is often suggested that a second colour is often less emphatic in values than a plain black on white. Therefore, it is important to give thought to which element needs to be emphasized to the tonal values of the colours that are used.

Form

Fig 1.34 Form

Form refers to the overall look and feel of the elements that make up the typographic composition. It is the part that plays a role in visual impact and first impressions. A good form in typography tends to be visually intriguing to the eye; it leads the eye from point to point, it entertains the mind and is most often memorable.

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 1: Exercise 1 - Typographic Systems

For this exercise, we are to explore 8 typographic systems, which are axial, radial, dilatational, random, grid, modular, transitional, and bilateral. It must be done in Adobe InDesign using contents from the MIB.

-Size: 200 x 200 mm

-Colours: Black and one additional colour

-Limited graphical elements

Week 1 Attempts

Fig 2.1 Axial first attempts

During our week 1 class, Mr Vinod Instructed us to watch the lecture videos AdTypo_1_Typographic Systems and InDesign Formatting to get a better understanding on typographic systems and a refresher on using the InDesign Software. After finished watching the video, I made a few attempts on using the axial system, Fig 2.1 was the result of my attempt.

Axial System

Fig 2.2 Axial Attempt #2

I wanted to emphasize the title so I made it big and slanted. Then I added a big red circle on the bottom left to fill out some empty space.

Fonts used:

Title: ITC New Baskerville Std (Bold)

Body Text: ITC New Baskerville Std (Roman)

Radial System

Fig 2.3 Radial Attempt

This is quite hard for me to do as I have problems finding the right angle to make it appear radial.

Fonts used:

Title: ITC New Baskerville Std (Bold)

Body Text: ITC New Baskerville Std (Roman and Bold)

Dilatational System

Fig 2.4 Dilatational attempt

For Dilatational System, I wanted to create a design similar to a CD. It was initially quite hard for me to create as I am unfamiliar with the method to create such an effect, and I had to create multiple layers of circles for me to create this work.

Fonts used:

Title: Futura Std (Bold)

Body Text: Futura Std ( Book, Heavy, Bold)

Random System

Fig 2.5 Random Attempt #1

Fig 2.6 Random Attempt #2

For the Random System, I initially just used any of the 10 fonts I like, then place each letter in a random place, but then it is not visually appealing, so I drew a line across the artboard and split some of the words in half, with the right side of the words looking like its sliding down a ramp. Then, I used a black background to fill up the negative space.

Fonts used:

Most of the 10 fonts

Grid System

Fig 2.7 Grid Attempt

For the grid system, there is nothing much to say, as I just created a custom guideline and added a black background to fill out the empty space.

Fonts used:

Title: Univers LT Std (65 Bold)

Body Text: Univers LT Std (55 Roman, 65 Bold)

Transitional System

Fig 2.8 Transitional Attempt

For the transitional system, I drew some lines across the title and added text on the lines

Fonts used:

Title: Futura Std (Bold)

Body text: Futura Std ( Bold, Heavy, Book)

Modular System

Fig 2.9 Modular Attempt #1

Fig 2.10 Modular Attempt #2

For the modular system, I created a guideline based on Mr Vinod's video, I added black strokes to each text boxes, and added a few rectangles on the middle, but I can't decide what colour to use, so I made variations of it.

Fonts used:

Title: Gill Sans Std (Bold)

Body Text: Gill Sans Std (Regular)

Bilateral System

Fig 2.11 Bilateral Attempt

For the bilateral system, I created a "t" guideline on the artboard and just added a column in the middle.

Fonts used:

Title: Futura Std (Extra Bold)

Body Text: Futura Std ( Bold, Book)

ITC New Baskerville Std (Bold, Roman)

Final Designs

Fig 2.12 Axial Final Design

Fig 2.13 Arial Final Design

Fig 2.14 Dilatational Final Design

Fig 2.15 Random Final Design

Fig 2.16 Grid Final Design

Fig 2.17 Transitional Final Design

Fig 2.18 Modular Final Design

Fig 2.19 Bilateral Final Design

Fig 2.20 Task 1: Exercise 1 Final Designs (PDF)

Fig 2.21 Task 1: Exercise 1 Final Designs (PDF with guides visible)

Task 1: Exercise 2 - Type and Play

For Task 1: Exercise 2, we are to analyse, dissect and identify 5 potential letterforms within the selected image. The forms would be explored and ultimately digitized.

Finding the image

Fig 3.1 Chosen Image - Ceiling

I took this image while I was on a vacation in Taiwan, It is a ceiling in a train station. I like the curves of it, and I think it has potential to form many potential letters. The letters that I found and going to use are E, Y, V, J, K. Possible arrangements: KEJVY.

Letterform Extraction

Fig 3.2 Traced letters - E, K, Y, V, J

After extracting the letters from the image, I laid out the extracted letterforms in an artboard.

Fig 3.3 Extracted Letterforms - KEJVY

I started to play around with the letterform to get a feel of what I wanted my letters to look like.

Fig 3.4 Slightly modified letterforms

I based my design on Gill Sans Std (Bold).

Fig 3.5 Reference

After Mr Vinod's feedback, I decided to maintain the consistency of my letterform and deleted some anchor points of the letterforms.

Fig 3.6 Slight modifications in my letterforms

Final Design

Fig 3.8 Final letterforms sitting on a baseline

Fig 3.7 Original extraction and final letterforms next to each other

Fig 3.8 Final poster design

Fig 3.9 Final Poster Design PDF

HONOR Competiton

Fig 3.10 Wallpaper Phone

Fig 3.11 Overall Design

Fig 3.12 Design Elaboration

FEEDBACK

Week 1:

General Feedback: In the first lesson, Mr Vinod did a briefing on the module and everything else we needed to know.

Week 2
General Feedback: Grid, Modular (Black and White), Bilateral, and Random are good.

Specific Feedback: Axial needs some rework; Radial, the circle needs to be smaller, and the middle text needs to be consistent; Transitional, the lines are a bit distracting; Dilatational, the circle needs to be consistent.

Week 3

General Feedback: The extraction of the letter looks better than the final design.

Specific Feedback: Maintain the consistency of the extraction.

REFLECTION

Experience

For exercise 1, the deadlines took me by surprise as we needed to make 8 different designs in the first week of the semester, I was initially worried I might make bad designs or might not make it in time at all. Turns out, most of my designs are actually decent and found it quite satisfying when complimented by friends and Mr Vinod. For exercise 2, it is quite unique and challenging for me to do, as we needed to maintain the consistency of the letters based on the images we chose, although this exercise does benefit for my creativity.

Observation

In exercise 1, we have to pay close attention to the arrangement of texts by using grids and guidelines, as sometimes it is important to ensure the work is symmetrical. For exercise 2, I learned to see and create letters through everyday mundane objects.

Findings

I found out that I really liked doing exercise 1 even thought I was afraid of it initially, it helped understand more in creating designs using the 8 typographic systems, and also increases my familiarity with Adobe InDesign. For exercise 2, I found out that maintaining consistency is key when creating letterforms out of specific pattern/shapes.

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Ng Zheng Kai (0359424)