Typography / Task 3 : Type Design and Communication

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 13.11.2023 - 18.12.2023 (Week 8 - Week 13)
Gloria Khaw Ping Sim / 0359142 / Bachelor in Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Typography / Taylor's Lakeside University
Task 3

LECTURES

Please refer to Task 1 E-portfolio

INSTRUCTIONS

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Font Dissection
Fig 1.1. Font dissection, Week 8 (13/11/2023)

For the dissection, we had to dissect the letters H, o, g, b. I used Univers LT Std Bold. Through this dissection, I have observed :
  • H - the vertical lines are thicker than the horizontal one.
  • o - the o is not a perfect circle. The strokes near the middle are thinner than the strokes at the side.
  • g - the strokes of the bowl leading to the line on the right becomes thinner.
  • b - similar to g, the strokes of the bowl leading to the straight line on the left becomes thinner.
Sketches

Fig 1.2. Sketches, Week 8 (13/11/2023)

I did not have a specific creative direction while creating these sketches, I just went with how I felt. My preferred sketches were 2 and 3. However, I went ahead with 5 as per Mr. Vinod's feedback.

Digitalization

Fig 2.1. Progress #1, Week 9 (25/11/2023)

For this, I used the pen tool to make the basic strokes such as a circle, horizontal line, vertical line and a diagonal line. I then used those strokes to create a basic shape of the letters :

Fig 2.2. Progress #2, Week 9 (25/11/2023)

I created a brush to control the width of the strokes at certain angles. My settings were : calligraphic brush at a 3 degree angle with 31% roundness and 7pt width.

Fig 2.3. Progress #3, Week 10 (27/11/2023)

I finished creating the punctuation and converted all of them into shapes.

Fig 2.4.- 2.5. Progress #4 and #5, Week 10 (27/11/2023)

Fig 2.4. had a lot of anchor points. Based on what Mr. Vinod said, too many anchor points are a headache to work with, so I managed to decrease it by uniting it and using the smooth tool.

Fig 2.6. Progress #6, Week 11 (4/12/2023)

Here I had to change the punctuations and I smoothened out all the letters. 

Fig 2.7. Skeleton of progress #6, Week 11 (4/12/2023)

Fontlab

Fig 2.8. Progress #7, Week 12 (11/12/2023)

At this point, I was checking the kerning between the letters. I had to make some minor changes to some letters in Illustrator too. I mostly had problems trying to figure out how FontLab worked, so I watched a bunch of videos of it.

Fig 2.9. Progress #8, Week 12 (11/12/2023)

This was after I altered the letters.

Poster
Fig 2.10. Progress #9, Week 12 (11/12/2023)

This was my first poster. I could not think of any other sentence containing all the letters, so I just made it '#the design school.' After that, I figured it was too simple and thought of a new sentence using a scrabble website.

Fig 2.11. - 2.12. Two versions of the poster, Week 13 (18/12/2023)

I changed the sentence to '#the golden lights, shine!' . I felt it was pretty fitting for how my font looks

Fig 2.13. Poster versions, Week 13 (18/12/2023)

After Mr. Vinod's feedback, I decided to make the font size 200pt instead of 150pt so I could fill the negative space. I also had to make the gray part lighter to make it more visible

Final Output



Fig 3.1. Screengrab of side-bearings, Week 12 (15/12/2023)

Fig 3.2. Final Type construction in Ai, 'hearth' -JPEG, Week 12 (15/12/2023)

Fig 3.3. Final Type construction in Ai, 'hearth' - PDF, Week 12 (15/12/2023)

Fig 3.4. Final Poster - JPEG, Week 13 (18/12/2023)


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Fig 3.5. Final Poster - PDF, Week 13 (18/12/2023)


FEEDBACK
Week 9
General Feedback :
  • Make sure the pen is placed in one angle throughout
Specific Feedback :
  • Go with 1, 5 or 2
  • Make sure the descender is smaller than the main part.
Week 10
General Feedback :
  • The bowl of d, h, etc. has to touch the lines
  • Weight of the strokes need to be consistent
  • Do not overly rely on the brush tool
Specific Feedback :
  • Observe how other existing fonts design their punctuation
Week 11
Specific Feedback :
  • Exclamation mark must just be straight
Week 13
General Feedback : 
  • Poster needs to have an impact, make the font size as big as possible
  • Have less negative space
REFLECTION

Experience
Out of the 3 tasks I have done for this module, I would say this was the most fun to do. My favourite part would be writing the letters on paper with different kinds of pens. It was satisfying to see the consistency in each one. I also learnt how to use a flat tip pen.

Observations
I observed that I overly relied on the brush tool most of the time while creating. Even though I used the pen tool to create the basic shapes, the direction of the strokes were done with the brush settings. I also noticed that all my letters had a bunch of un-needed anchor points. The smooth tool was a life saver.

Findings
I found that making fonts is actually way harder than I thought it would. The amount of precision needed to make one was shocking. Honestly, I felt like I could have done better, but it is kind of too late. However, I might try creating a new one in my free time. It is pretty calming (when its not graded).
FURTHER READING

Fig 4.1. GT Academy - Punctuation, Week 11 (3/12/2023)

Mr. Vinod recommended us to look at this instagram post about how to properly design punctuation. It contained things I have never noticed before, like how the comma's dot is slightly smaller than a full stop.


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