Advanced Typography — Task 1

30/8/2023-13/9/2023
Lim Jun Teng/0362890
GCD61004/Advanced Typography/Bachelor of Design (Hon) in Creative Media
Task 1:Exercise 1 & 2

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LECTURES

WEEK 1

Introduction & Typographic systems

There are eight main variations. Each with an infinite number of permutations. The eight major variations are as follow :

• Axial
• Radial
• Dilatational
• Random
• Grid
• Modular
• Transitional
• Bilateral

Fig 1.1 eight main variations

• Axial System : all elements are organised to the left or right of a single axis.

Fig 1.2 Axial system

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

Fig 1.3 Radial system

• Dilatational System : all elements expand from a central point in a circular fashion.

Fig 1.4 Dilatational system

• Random System : elements appear to have no specific pattern or relationship.

Fig 1.5 Random system

• Grid System : a system of vertical and horizontal divisions.

Fig 1.6 Grid system

• Transitional System : an informal system of layered banding

Fig 1.7 Transitional system

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

Fig 1.8 Modular system

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

Fig 1.9 Bilateral system

WEEK 2

Typographic Composition

Fig 2.1 

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

Fig 2.2 Principles of Design Composition

• The Rule of Thirds :The Rule of Thirds is a photographic guide to composition, it basically suggest that a frame (space) can be divided into 3 columns and 3 rows. The intersecting lines are are used as guide to place the points of interest, within the given space.

Fig 2.3 The rules of  thirds

• Environmental Grid: Based on the exploration of an existing structure or numerous structures combined.

Fig 2.4 Environment system

• Form and Dynamics: Inspired by the investigation of established Grid Systems, the positioning of a shape across a single page or multiple pages generates a sense of motion. These shapes may symbolize images, text, or color.

WEEK 3

Context & Creativity

Handwriting is importance of studying emphasizing that early mechanically produced letterforms were created to replicate handwriting. Handwriting served as the foundation for form, spacing, and conventions that mechanical type sought to imitate. Additionally, the passage mentions how the tools and materials used to create handwritten letterforms, such as bones, charcoal, and pens, influenced their unique shapes and lines.

Fig 3.1 cuneiform

The earliest system of actual writing , was used in a number of language between the 34C. B..C.E, through the 1st century C.E.

Fig3.2 Hieroglyphics

• As ideograms, to represent the things they actually depict.
• As determinatives to show that the signs preceding are meant as phonograms and to indicate the general idea of the word.
• As phonograms to represent sound that "spell out" individual words.

Fig 3.3

• Early Greek / 5thC. B.C.E. : Built on the Egyptian logo-consonantal system, the Phoenicians developed a phonetic alphabet consisting of 22 letters.

• Roman Uncials : By the 4th century Roman letters were becoming more rounded, the curved form allowed for less strokes and could be written faster.

• English Half Uncials,8th C : In England the uncial evolved into a more slanted and condensed form.

• Carolingian Minuscule : The style that set the precedent for Humanistic writing in the fifteenth century involved beginning sentences with capital letters, maintaining spaces between words, and employing punctuation. This Humanistic style, in turn, served as the foundation for our modern lowercase Roman type.

• Black Letter (12-15 C. CE): Distinguished by its close letter spacing and compact letterforms, this style prominently featured uniformly spaced vertical elements. The practice of compressing line spacing and letter spacing served to decrease the consumption of expensive materials during book production.

• The Italian Renaissance :The recently rediscovered Antica letterforms underwent a Renaissance-era analysis of form, similar to the scrutiny applied to art and architecture. This led to the refinement and rationalization of letterforms, aiming for greater perfection.

Fig 3.4

• Evolution of Middle Eastern Alphabets : It is also important to note that while the Phoenician letter marks a turning point in written language- use of sound represented in letters the script itself has been possibly influenced by the Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Hieratic Scripts.

Fig 3.5

• The Evolution of the Chinese script: From the Oracle bone to Seal Script to Clerical Script, Traditional and Simplified scripts.

Fig 3.6

• The Italian Renaissance: Newly rediscovered letterforms Antica. The renaissance analysis of form that was being applied to art and architecture was directed toward letterform — resulting in a more perfect or rationalised letter.

Fig 3.7

• The oldest writing found in the ‘Indian’ subcontinent the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) script (3500-2000 BCE), is as yet undeciphered and seems to have been somewhat logo-syllabic in nature. 

Fig 3.8

• The earliest writing system developed in India after the Indus script. It is one of the most influential writing systems; all modern Indian scripts and several hundred scripts found in Southeast and East Asia are derived from Brahmi.

Handwriting

Fig 3.9

• Jawi, the Arabic-based alphabet. We all know Jawi was introduced along with Islam. But how this happened is more interesting than we converted and adopted the Arabic alphabet". 

• n modern Malaysia, Jawi is of greater importance because it's the script used for all our famous works of literature. Every hikayat and Malay charm book is written in Jawi. Unlike Indonesia, we don't have a huge wealth of pre-Jawi inscriptions and writings this part of the reason why some tend to ignorantly claim that Jawi is "tulisan asal Melayu", which is of course untrue.

Programmers and Type Design

Fig 3.10

More vernacular scripts are being produced by software giants (Google): in their employment a great many Asian programmers and designers. More and more vernacular and "multi-script" typefaces - a term coined by Muthu Nedumaran are being produced to cater to situations where the written matter is communicated in the vernacular script or vernacular and Latin scripts.

WEEK 4

Designing Type

Why design another typeface?

• Type design carries a social responsibility so one must continue to improve its legibility
• Type design is a form of artistic expression

General Process of  Type Design :

• Research : In type design, it's crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of type history, type anatomy, and type conventions. Familiarity with terminologies, side-bearing, metrics, and hinting is also essential. Additionally, it's important to identify the intended purpose of the typeface and its various applications, such as whether it's for school buses or airport signage. Furthermore, designers should analyze existing fonts for inspiration, ideas, references, and to understand their context and usage patterns

• Sketching : Designers use different methods for creating typefaces. Some prefer the traditional approach with pens and paper, later scanning for digitization, offering better hand control. Others opt for digital tools like Wacom tablets for quicker and consistent results but might lose some natural hand movement. The choice between these methods depends on personal preference and project needs.

• Digitization : Professional software like FontLab and Glyphs App are commonly used for digitizing typefaces. Some designers, however, choose Adobe Illustrator for crafting letterforms and then transfer them to specialized font apps, a practice frowned upon by purists. At this stage, attention to both the overall form and counter form is crucial, as the readability of the typeface relies heavily on these elements.

• Testing : Testing plays a vital role in the design thinking process for typefaces. The outcomes of testing are integral to refining and rectifying various aspects of the typeface. Prototyping is a significant aspect of this testing phase, yielding valuable feedback. The importance of readability and legibility varies based on the typeface category, with display types prioritizing form expression over strict readability, unlike text types where readability is paramount.

• Deploy : Deploying a finished typeface doesn't mark the end of the design process, as unforeseen issues often arise post-deployment. Continuous revision is necessary to address these challenges. Rigorous testing is crucial to minimize such problems and ensure they remain minor in nature, maintaining the typeface's quality and functionality.

Type Construction : 

Fig 4.1 Type constuction

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

Construction and considerations:

Fig 4.2 Construction and considerations

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

Fitting the type: 

• A visual correction is also needed for the distance between letters. The letters must be altered to a uniform visual white space - the white space between the letters should appear the same.

WEEK 5

Perception and Organisation

• Perception is "the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted". So, is perception what you see and therefore understand--or what you are manipulated into seeing and understanding? 
• Perception in typography deals with the visual navigation and interpretation of the reader via contrast, form and organisation of the content. Content can be textual, visual, graphical or in the form of colour. However our focus today is in typography.

Contrast

Fig 5.1 Contrast

• Size: A contrast of size provides a point to which the reader's attention is drawn. For example if you have a big letter and a small letter you will obviously see the big letter first before the small. The most common use of size is in making a title or heading noticeably bigger than the body text.

Fig 5.2 Size

• Weight :Weight describes how bold type can stand out in the middle of lighter type of the same style. Other than then using bold, using rules, spot, squares is also provide a "heavy area" for a powerful point of visual attraction or emphasis, therefore not only types of varying weight.

Fig 5.3 Weight

• Form: Contrast of form is the distinction between a capital letter and its lowercase equivalent, or a roman letter and its italic variant, condensed and expanded versions of typeface are also included under the contrast of form.

Fig 5.4 Form

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

Fig 5.5 Structure

• Texture: By putting together 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 type look as a whole up close and from a distance. This depends partly on the letterforms themselves and partly on how they're arranged.
  

Fig 5.6 Texture

• Direction: Contrast of direction 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.
  

Fig 5.7 Direction

• Color: The use of color is suggested that a second color is often less emphatic in values than plain black on white. Therefore it is important to give thought to which element needs to be emphasized and to pay attention to the tonal values of the colors that are used.

Form

For 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.

• Originating from the Greek word "typos"(forms) and "graphics"(wrting),typography means to write in accordance with form.
• Typography can be seen as having two functions:   

                           1.to represent a concept

                           2.to do so in a visual form

Organisation

• Gestalt: Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts this is based on the idea that we experience things as unified whole: Instead of breaking down thoughts and behavior to their smallest elements, the gestalt psychologists believed that you must look at the whole of experience.

Organisation / Gestalt: Perceptual Organisation / Groupings

• The Law of Similarity is the gestalt grouping law that states that elements that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as a unified group. Similarity can refer to any number of features, including color, orientation, size, or indeed motion. 

• The Law of Proximity is the gestalt grouping law that states elements that are close together tend to be perceived as a unified group. This straightforward law states that items close to each other tend to be grouped together, whereas items further apart are less likely to be grouped together.

• The Law of Closure refers to the mind's tendency to see complete figures or forms even if a picture is incomplete, partially hidden by other objects, or if part of the information needed to make a complete picture in our minds is missing.

• Law of (Good) Continuation holds that humans tend to perceive each of two or more objects as different, singular, and uninterrupted object even when they intersect. The alignment of the objects or forms plays a major role for this principle to take effect.

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INSTRUCTION

TASK 1 

Exercises 1 : Typographic systems

For this exercise , we need to explore 8 system there are : 

Axial , Radial , Dilatational , Random , Grid , Modular , Transitional , and Bilateral. 

We were also instructed to watch the InDesign demonstration videos in the lecture playlist.

-Size: 200 x 200mm

-Graphical elements (line, dot, etc.) can be used but limitedly.

We are required to follow this content:

The Design School,

Taylor’s University

All Ripped Up: Punk Influences on Design

or

The ABCs of Bauhaus Design Theory

or

Russian Constructivism and Graphic Design

Open Public Lectures:

June 24, 2021

Lew Pik Svonn, 9AM-10AM

Ezrena Mohd., 10AM-11AM

Suzy Sulaiman, 11AM-12PM

June 25, 2021

Lim Whay Yin, 9AM-10AM

Fahmi Reza, 10AM-11AM

Manish Acharia, 11AM-12PM

Lecture Theatre 12

I chose 'The ABCs of Bauhaus Design Theory' among the three options

RESEARCH

Before I started this exercise I do some research from Pinterest and there are the design I found :

Fig 6.1 Research

INDESIGN PROGRESS

After watched the lecture video and finish the research I started my design journey.

Fig 6.2

Fig 6.3

Fig 6.4

Fig 6.5

Week 1 attempt progress

Fig 6.6 Axial system

Fig 6.7 Bilateral system

Fig 6.8 Dilatational system

Fig 6.9 Radial system

Fig 6.10 Modular system

Fig 6.11 Grid system

Fig 6.12 Random system

Fig 6.13 Transitional system

After initially drafting designs for each system, I further refine them, incorporating feedback provided by Mr. Vinod during our class sessions. This iterative process helps me identify and implement the most effective composition. Additionally, Mr. Vinod kindly pointed out that I had omitted the words 'Lecture Theatre 12,' which I will include in my final task.

WEEK2

After feedback that are given by Mr Vinod I do some adjusted then this is the final version of each system:

Fig 6.14 Final Transitional system

Fig 6.15 Final Random system

Fig 6.16 Final Grid system

Fig 6.17 Final Modular system

Fig 6.18 Final Radial system

Fig 6.19 Final Dilatational system

Fig 6.20 Final Bilateral system

Fig 6.21 Final Axial system

Fig 6.22 Final work

Task 1: Exercises 2 - Type and Play

We've been assigned the responsibility of selecting an image depicting either a man-made object (such as a chair or glass), a structure (like buildings), or something from the natural world (such as a human, landscape, leaf, plant, bush, clouds, hill, river, etc.). Subsequently, we are required to thoroughly analyze, dissect, and identify potential letterforms within the chosen image.

Progress of work

1. Picture selection

This is the I have chosen :

Fig 7.1 Picture chosen

2. Letterform extraction:

Fig 7.2 Letterform extract

3. References:

We were required to have a reference to help us refine our typeface. I chose Adobe Caslon Pro from the 10 typefaces because it has a similar appearance.

Fig 7.3 references

4. Digitization

After I decided on the alphabet that I thought would be more fun to work with for typos (C, S, F, n, V), I used Adobe Illustrator to create extraction letterforms.

Fig 7.4 Progress of digization

Fig 7.5 Digization

5.Final

Fig 7.6 Final Outcome

Fig 7.7 Final letterform

Fig 7.8 Final "C"

Fig 7.9 Final "S"

F9g 7.10 Final "F"

Fig 7.11 Final "n"

Fig 7.12 Final "V"

PART 2: TYPE SHOWCASE

We must choose an image and seamlessly merge it with the polished final letters from Part 1 creating a harmonious symbiosis between the text and the image.

Progress:

I have selected this particular image because it shares a common characteristic with my letter.

Fig 7.13 Poster picture

FINAL TYPE SHOWCASE

Fig 7.14 Final Type Showcase

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FEEDBACK:

Week 2

General Feedback :  This week Mr Vinod give us feedback of Task 1. 

Specific Feedback: Random system does not seems random.For the words is too small to read,need to change the size. Less shape design if not necessary.All of the layout can be more intresting.

Week 3

General Feedback :Locate an image and select specific letters to symbolize the entire picture. Aim to keep the number of graphical elements minimal and prioritize the use of letters.

Specific Feedback : The photo I selected is a piece of fabric, and there's no issue with the image itself. However, when it comes to finding and depicting those letters, one should follow the folds of the fabric. I've chosen five letters, namely C, S, F, N, and V. Among them, the letter "S" stands out as the best, while the letter "N" that I've drawn is too sharp and could benefit from learning from the letter "S" in terms of its shape.

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REFLECTIONS

Experience : In the first week, I felt some pressure because Mr. Vinod asked us to design 8 different typographic systems, and I wasn't very familiar with these 8 systems, especially coming back from a holiday and not fully adjusting yet. When I started working on my designs, I found myself a bit confused about a few of these typographic systems, so I decided to turn to Pinterest to find more examples for reference to help me better understand and apply these systems.

As for the second exercise, I aimed to create a font style that was cute and fun, so I chose a soft fabric image as my creative inspiration. After completing this font design, Mr. Vinod provided valuable feedback, suggesting that I delve deeper into studying fabric folds to ensure that my font design didn't appear too sharp or rigid. These guidance proved to be very helpful in my design process, allowing me to continuously improve and enhance the quality of my design.

Observation: I've come to realize that typography is, in fact, a rather intriguing subject. However, it's also laden with numerous rules and guidelines that require careful consideration. I've noticed that I might not have a complete grasp of these rules, and as a result, I believe it's essential for me to invest additional time and energy into conducting thorough research. This will enable me to make significant advancements in my understanding and application of these principles. This extended research will encompass exploring the historical aspects and core principles of typography, as well as gaining a deeper insight into various typographic styles. By immersing myself further in study and practical application, I'm confident I can not only comprehend these rules better but also excel in the field of typography

Findings : I initially underestimated the complexity of typographic systems when I started Exercise 1. However, as I worked on it, I quickly realized that achieving the desired results required more effort and understanding than I initially thought. Exercises 1 and 2 have provided me with insights into various layout techniques and the importance of achieving balance in design.

Through this learning experience, I have gained a deeper understanding of each typographic system and how to effectively apply them. The process of adjusting the size and placement of each element during design requires patience and dedication, but the sense of accomplishment upon completion is truly rewarding. Additionally, Exercise 2 has equipped me with the skills to maintain consistent font features, ensuring uniformity across the entire character set

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FURTHER READING

FONT SIZE

This passage discusses fonts and their sizes. It mentions that fonts are measured in points, with computers using 72 points per inch, while traditional typography used 72.27 points per inch, though that measurement is rarely used nowadays. Font size depends on usage, font type, audience, and column width. Generally, body copy should be around 9-12 points, but readability considerations may require larger sizes, especially for older audiences or wider columns. Type size should avoid being too small, as it can make the text hard to read and less likely to be read at all.

Character and Word Spacing

Kerning:

This passage discusses kerning, which is the adjustment of inter-character spacing in text. While most word processors and page-layout programs automatically handle kerning, some letter combinations, such as lowercase letters and specific uppercase combinations, may require manual adjustments for a more visually pleasing text. Additionally, kerning is important when using all uppercase combinations like "VA" and "WA."

Tracking:

This passage discusses tracking, which is the adjustment of word spacing in text. It is similar to kerning but focuses on altering the spacing between characters, words, and spaces. Tracking can be either negative (closer together) or positive (farther apart) and is used to ensure text fits a required space without changing the font size or line spacing. One important use of tracking is to address issues like single words at the end of a paragraph, often referred to as "orphans" or "danglers." It's a solution that should be applied after all editing is complete.

Special Glyphs:

Many computers offer the ability to utilize foreign characters and special symbols, which can sometimes be challenging for beginners to access. However, users can find guidance in a manual or utilize an on-screen character locator to simplify the process.

Line Spacing:

This passage discusses leading, which is the spacing between lines of type. There are no strict rules, but several factors should be considered, including the font used, line length, and type size. Some fonts need more leading to prevent ascenders and descenders from touching. Longer lines and larger type sizes generally require more leading. Leading is a term derived from using lead strips to separate rows of letters in hand-set type. It can be a character or paragraph format in different programs. Type size and line spacing are often expressed together, such as "10/12," indicating a 10-point type size with 12 points of line spacing.