Advanced Typography Task 1 / Exercises

30 Aug 2023 - 24 Aug 2023 / Week 1 - Week 4
Leem Sejin / 0362419
Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honour) in Creative Media

Task 1 - Exercises

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LECTURES

Week 1
Typographic System

8 Major variations

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

1. Axial

Fig 1.1 Axial system

Element to the right or left, we can use multiple axis.

2. Radial

Fig 1.2 Radial system

Spread out from the focus point

3. Dilatational

Fig 1.3 Dilatational System

Spread out in circular manner, information on either side/in line

4. Random

Fig 1.4 Random System

No specific pattern/relationship

5. Grid system ( commonly used in book etc)

Fig 1.5 Grid System

6. Transitional system

Fig 1.6 Transitional System

Layered banding, segregating information within certain bands

7. Modular system

Fig 1.7 Modular system

Units ( square) has to be standardised ( same size). Modular allows to move the individual units to different portions of the page. ( easy to shift the order because it occupied the specific unit)

8. Bilateral system (eg. invitation card/formal card)

Fig 1.8 Bilateral system

All text is arranged symmetrically in a single axis

Week 2

Typographic Composition

Difference between in typography ; Typography pertains to the creation of letters / arrangement of large amount of text within the space

Principles of Design Composition: Emphasis

Rule of thirds : photographic guide to composition, divided 3 columns and 3 rows. Place the important information in Intersecting line

Fig 1.9

balance the excitement aspect ( gesture)

Environmental grid : exploration of an existing structure or numerous structures combined together (eg architectural structure/painting/etc… * anything that creates structure)
It is more the element of structure and context

Fig 1.10

Form and movement ( based on the exploration of an existing grid systems)

Require variation to keep engagement, avoid predictable and make boring
*Reduce how decorative the elements, if the elements are too decorative, it become too much complexity in the form and the movement

Fig 1.11

 

Week 3 Context & Creativity (historical)

Handwriting is important because the first mechanically produced letterforms were designed to directly imitate handwriting. Shape and line are influenced by the tools. 

Early Greek (5th C. B.C.E)

-Words in rows but reading directional was not fixed

-Freehand drawing without constructing with compasses and rules and they had no serifs.

-In time the strokes of letters grew thicker, aperture lessened and serifs appeared

Roman Unicials

-Roman letters become more rounded, the curved form allowed for less strokes and allowed to write faster.

English Half Uncials (8th C)

-In England, the uncial evolved into a more slanted and condensed form.

Carolingian Minuscule

- During Charlemagne's patronage book production increased and language was standardised ; Capitals at the start of a sentence, spaces between words and punctuation. 

- It used for all legal and literary works to unify communication between the various regions of the expanding European empire.

- It was important development.

Gothic; culminating artistic expression of the middle ages, happening between 1200-1500. It originated from the Italians who used it to refer to rude or barbaric cultures north of the Italian Alps.

Black Letter (12-15 C. CE)

-Characterised by tight spacing and condensed lettering. Evenly spaced verticals dominated the letterform.

- It helps to reduce the amount of costly materials in writing

The Italian Renaissance

-Humanist named the 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.

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

Week 4

Designing type

Why designing another typefaces 

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

Adrian Frutiger
Frutiger is a sans-serif typeface which was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1968.

• Purpose: The goal was to create a clean, distinctive and legible typeface that is easy to read regardless of the distance.
• Considerations: Letterforms needed to be recognised in poor light or when reader was moving quickly past the sign. He tested the unfocused letters to see which letterforms could still be identified.

Matthew Carter
Many of Carter's fonts were created to address specific technical challenges (eg, early computers)

• Purpose: Typeface was tuned to be extremely legible even at very small sizes on the screen.
• Considerations: The Verdana font exhibit characteristics derived from pixels rather than pens, brushes or the chisel. Some of the characters were commonly confused, such as, lowercase i j l.

Edward Johnson
Edward Johnson was asked to create a typeface with bold simplicity that was modern but had tradition.

• Purpose: London's Underground railway ordered a new typeface for posters and signages from Johnson.
• Limitation: Johnson applied the proportions of Roman capital letters to his typeface so it was rooted in history and traditional calligraphy, but it has an elegance and a simplicity that is absolutely fitted the modern age.

General Process of Type Design

1. Research : understand the type history, type anatomy and type conventions. Also, determine the type's purpose or what it would used for (eg, school buses/ airport signages etc)
   
   
2. Sketching : use either traditional or digital, but for the digital, although the process is quick and consistent, but sometimes impede the natural movement of hand strokes.
   
   
3. Digitalisation : Font lab / Glyphs App. Some designers use Adobe Illustrator to design the letterforms but is frowned upon by the purist
   
   
4. Testing : important stage in design thinking process. It consist of refining and correcting aspects of the typeface. 
   
   
5. Deploy

Typeface Construction

Roman Capital: The grid consists of a square, and inside it a circle that just touches the lines of the square in four places. Within the square, there is also a rectangle. This rectangle is three quarters the size of the square and is positioned in the centre of the square.

Many 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.

Week 5

Perception & Organization

Perception : the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted;
what you see , therefore what you understand in graphic design or motion

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 - differentiate in information

1. Size

Fig 1.12

A contrast of size provides a point to which the reader’s attention is drawn. (eg.see the big letter first before the small letter)

The most common use of size is in making a title or heading noticeably bigger than the body text.

2. Weight 

Fig 1.13

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.

3. Form

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.

4.Structure

Different letterforms of different kinds of typefaces. eg, a monoline sans serif and a traditional serif/

an italic and a black letter

5. 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.

6.Contrast of 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.

7. Contrast of Colour

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

Form

Overall look and feel of the elements that make up the typographic composition, plays a role in visual impact and first impressions.

Good typography ; visually intriguing to the eye/ memorable

Typography can be seen as having two functions :

1. to represent a concept

2. to do so in visual form

Gestalt : the way a thing has been "placed" or "put together".

Gestalt Psychology is an attempt to understand the laws behind the ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions. 

Gestalt theory emphasises that the whole of anything is greater than its parts ( experience as whole).

 

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INSTRUCTION

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Task 1 Exercise 1

Week 1

In week 1, we are tasked on the exercise about 8 typographic system using Adobe Indesign.
Before I start, I watched the lecture on typography system and briefly read through the recommendation book. I started by research different typography system poster, followed by drawing the rough sketch for the layout.

Fig 2.1 Research on typography system (3/9/2023)

Fig 2.2 Research on typography system (3/9/2023)

In Adobe InDesign I placed the words based on the understanding of the system. I did not use any 10 fonts and touch the size because I want to see whether the layout is readable. For the title, I choose ' Russian Constructivism and Graphic Design'. 

Fig 2.3 Axial Draft (3/9/2023)

For Axial system, I created the line to identify the alignment. I tried in 2 ways, straight and slightly slanted. I found that when I slant the main title, the text is too cramped and readability is poor.

Font used : ITC Garamond Std

Fig 2.4 Radial Draft (3/9/2023)

I explore different radial system. I was confused to set the focal point and rotate the text according to the focal point. I find it challenging to place the text, for better readability.

Fig 2.5 Dilatational Draft (3/9/2023)

Fig 2.6 Random Draft (3/9/2023)

For Random system, I separated all the words and randomly placed the text. I focused on the word 'constructive' and placed the words like building up the wooden blocks.

Fig 2.7 Modular draft (3/9/2023)

It was challenging  with modular system and grid system. Whenever I placed the text, both of them seems similar and give confusion of the system. 

Fig 2.8 Transitional draft (3/9/2023)

Fig 2.9 Bilateral draft (3/9/2023)

Week 1 Draft typographic system

Fig 2.10 Week 1 Draft (4/9/2023)

Week 2

After the feedback session, I decided to add some colours and minimal graphical elements to look my layout interesting and attract the attention. I decided to use orange as the main colour because when I research on Russian constructive design, most the of the colours are red or orange.

Fig 2.11 Axial system exploration (14/9/2023)

I was unsure with the axial system, hence, I did further more exploration and decided to choose fourth layout because I can see the axial line clearly and the overall outlook is neat and clean.

Fig 2.12 Axial Draft 1 (14/9/2023)

Fig 2.13 Axial Draft 2 ( Colours) (14/9/2023)

Fig 2.14 Axial Draft 3 ( Colours) (14/9/2023)

I added the rectangular box on the title, but I find that white font is hard to read and and distract the attention, hence I decided to stick with left layout. Instead, I rearrange the layout and use the square box to highlight the 'And' symbol ; &.

 

Fig 2.15 Radial Draft 2 (14/9/2023)

For the Radial, I created the circle as the focal point. I find that the size of the circle is big, so I decrease the the size. Also, I added the word "Russian" into white for the highlight.

Fig 2.16 Dilatational Draft 2 (14/9/2023)

For the Radial System, I referred to the reference board, and use the coloured text for the date and venue to highlight the important notes.

Fig 2.17 Random Draft 2 (14/9/2023)

For Random system, I added the background colour and highlight the title and the dates in white colour, to emphasise the content of the poster. However, I find that white colour is too outstanding and kill the rest of the information, thus, I decided to change the colour of the dates into orange. To look more random look, I add "open" letters.

Fig 2.18 Grid Draft 2 (14/9/2023)

This took various exploration. I was experimenting the placement of the dates and the names, and decided to place at the bottom, to look more tidy and easier readability.

Fig 2.19 Modular Draft 1 (14/9/2023)

Fig 2.20 Modular Draft 2 (14/9/2023)

Fig 2.21 Transitional Draft 2 (14/9/2023)

I added the triangle at the bottom of the layout, to show the transitional lines. I find that placing the letters in straight line seems boring, so I added the shadow behind the constructive, and change the 'And' to symbol.

Fig 2.22 Bilateral Draft 1 (14/9/2023)

Fig 2.23 Bilateral Draft 2 (14/9/2023)

Task 1 Ex 1 Final Submission

Fig 2.24 Final Axial System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.25 Final Radial System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.26 Final Dilatational System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.27 Final Random System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.28 Final Grid System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.29 Final Modular System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.30 Final Transitional System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.31 Final Bilateral System jpeg (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.32 Final Task 1 Exercise 1, Typographic System pdf (15/9/2023)

Fig 2.33 Final Task 1 Exercise 1, Typographic System with grid pdf (15/9/2023)

Task 1 Exercise 2

Finding Type

Week 2

We are tasked to choose the pictures and extract the image into the letterform.
After looking through the pinterest, I found the lettuce and I found that it will be interesting if I managed to transform the wavy lines.

I used brush tool in photoshop to draw out the letters

Fig 3.1 Exploring different letterforms (9/9/2023)

After the rough sketch, I imported the image into the adobe illustrator for the clear extraction using the pen tool. The extracted words are ; PUWBA

Fig 3.2 Cleaning up the letterforms (9/9/2023)

Fig 3.3 Extracted letters (9/9/2023)

For the reference font, I chose Futura Std because I want to maintain the thickness and focus on the wavy lines of the lettuce.

Fig 3.4 First attempt (9/9/2023)

For the Second Attempt, I tried to fit the extracted letterforms according to the reference font.

Fig 3.5 Second and third attempt (9/9/2023)

As I trying the several attempts, I aimed to refine the wavy lines and experimenting to show the characteristics of the lettuce. However, it was challenging to dissolve the characteristics of the lettuce in the letterforms.

Week 3 First Draft :

Fig 3.6 First draft of Task 1 Ex 2 (10/9/2023)

Week 3

After the feedback session, I understand that we had to add in the characteristics of the items that we choose into the letterform. Personally, I found that it is challenging to modify the characteristics of the lectucces, so i start with new object which is rope.

Fig 3.7 Extracting the letterforms (14/9/2023)

Fig 3.8 Cleaning up the extracted letters (14/9/2023)

The process of the extraction is faster because the rope was easier to identify different letterforms than lecttuce.

The extracted words are ; R O P E S

Fig 3.9 Extracted letterforms (14/9/2023)

I chose Univers LT Std Light as a reference font. Before I start, I used the guide line to settle the baseline and the thickness of the each font. Consistency was important to look the letters in same family.

Fig 3.10 Alignment of the reference font (15/9/2023)

In First attempt, I aimed to make the extracted letterforms straight and aligned to the base line.

Fig 3.11 Comparing between the reference font (15/9/2023)

In second attempt and third attempt, I reformed the extracted letters based on the reference font while refining the knotted area.

Fig 3.12 Second Attempt (15/9/2023)

Fig 3.13 Third Attempt (15/9/2023)

When I reach to fourth attempt, I was confused with the knotted area. I used pen tool to identify how does a single line rope knotted.

Fig 3.12 Knotted rope reference (16/9/2023)

Based on the understand from fig 3.12, I refined the knotted areas to make the letters look like rope.

Fig 3.13 Fourth Attempt (16/9/2023)

In Fifth Attempt, I decided to make changes in "R" and "S". 

For letter "R", it looks like in between A and R when I add the curved line in the middle of the letter, thus, I decided to add another tie.

Fig 3.14 Refinement of R (17/9/2023)

Letter 'S" doesn't look similar to the extracted font, hence, I make the curved line into straight line. 

Fig 3.15 Refinement of S (17/9/2023)

Also, I added the curved edges to all letters at the knotted areas, to make sure that the lines are tied together.

Fig 3.16 Fifth attempt (17/9/2023)

I also thinking between Style 1 and Style 2, By adding the white line at the knotted area, I thought that it is easier to indicate the lines are tied together, however, the overall looks seems messy and decided to remove the white lines.

Fig 3.17 Tied area exploration (17/9/2023)

This is the overall refinement process of the extracted letterforms.

Fig 3.18 Refinement Process (17/9/2023)

Poster design

Using the extracted letters, we were tasked to design a movie poster.

Fig 3.19 Reference Images (17/9/2023)

For the reference, I took the the horror movie poster because I think the image of rope create the creepy mood.

Fig 3.20 Change the colour tone (17/9/2023)

For the background image, I change the colour into grey scale to create horror atmosphere and make clearer look for the title. I also rescale the image to give space at the bottom, in order to give some credit list in Photoshop.

Fig 3.21 Draft Poster (17/9/2023)

Then, I placed the reference letter to plan my poster design. I decided to create the gradient at the top and faded out the bottom image because based on the reference, there are faded in and out for the background.

Fig 3.22 Fading Background image (17/9/2023)

Task 1 Exercise 2 Final Submission

Fig 3.23 Final outcome of the letters jpeg (17/9/2023)

Fig 3.24 Final letter "R" jpeg (17/9/2023)

Fig 3.25 Final letter "O" jpeg (17/9/2023)

Fig 3.26 Final letter "P" jpeg (17/9/2023)

Fig 3.27 Final letter "E" jpeg(17/9/2023)

Fig 3.28 Final letter "S" jpeg (17/9/2023)

Fig 3.29 Final Finding Type pdf (17/9/2023)

Fig 3.30 Final Poster jpeg (17/9/2023)

Fig 3.31 Final Poster pdf (17/9/2023)

HONOUR Competition

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FEEDBACK

Week 2
General Feedback : Be aware of graphical elements, not over lapping or overwhelming to distract the attention.Do not stretch or compressed the text. For modular system, once we exceed a unit guide line, it become 2 units.

Week 3

General Feedback : Consistency in width/depth. Think whether the word reflect the element. Look at the overall shape not individual, take the characteristic of the object 

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REFLECTION

Experience

Exercise 1 is really challenging for me because it take a long time to digest the 8 typographic system, especially grid and modular system were confused to me. When I showed the grid and modular system layout to my friends, they said that both of them seems similar. The final outcome was not really satisfied as I kept make changes and lead to failure of time management. For Exercise 2, I enjoyed with the task but it took several trials to refine the extracted letterforms. It was challenging to identify the object's characteristics and apply them into the letterforms. 

Observation

As I worked on the typographic system, I realised that readability is important to share the information to the audience. I was puzzled which information is the most important; is it title or the schedule. Also, I also considered how normal people usually read the text as well. 

Finding

Different placement of the text give different impact. Personally, I find that random system gives the most interesting layout. For the exercise 2, l learnt that when I extract the letterforms, I must look at the overall shape, not the individual lines. While searching for the image, I keep make this mistake and did not perform well in the first letterform, which is lettuce. After the feedback session, I practiced myself to look deep in characteristics and explore how to express the characteristics of the object into the letters.

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FURTHER READING

Fig 4.1 Virtual Typography (17/9/2023)

This book is about the different typography design system in virtual or real life. I find that the content is interesting because it showed various examples on the graphic design using the typography.

 
Fig 4.2 visual poetry

Fig 4.3 futurism

The examples of the modern typography ; Visual poetry ( able to visualise the object with the typographic words), Dada (aimed for a quasi-chaotic simultaneity of information fragments.) Futurism, constructivism, Bauhaus, Concrete poetry.

Multimedia Typography : Kinetic Typography, motion typography, temporal and transitional typography, information landscape, Novelty value

Fig 4.4 Example of kinetic typo

Fig 4.4 Example of information landscape

Communicative stage

1. Cognition of data : in order to communicate, information must first be identified.

2. Classification

3. Decoding