Typography Task 1 / Exercises
22/4/2024 - 24/5/2024 / Week 1 - Week 5
Tay Yue Chern / 0373215
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 1: Exercise 1 & 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. LECTURES
2. INSTRUCTIONS
- EXERCISE 1 / TYPE EXPRESSION
- EXERCISE 2 / TEXT FORMATTING
3. FEEDBACK
4. REFLECTIONS
1. LECTURES
Lecture 1 / Introduction
Typography: The act of creating letters.
Typography has evolved over 500 years
Calligraphy (writing styles) > Lettering (draw the letters out) > Typography
Font - individual font or weight within a typeface (e.g. Georgia Regular, Georgia Italic)
Typeface - the entire family of fonts or weights that share similar characteristics or styles (e.g. Georgia, Arial, Times New Roman, Courier)
Lecture 2 / Development
(a) Early letterform development: Phoenician to Roman
Initially uppercase forms are just simple combination of straight lines and pieces of circles.
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| Fig 1.2.a.1 Phoenician → Greek → Roman |
Phoenician - write from right to left (like other Semitic people)
Greek - read the lines of text alternately from right to left and left to right, which is called 'boustrophedon' (how the ox ploughs), other than the direction of reading, they also changed the orientation of the letterforms
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| Fig 1.2.a.2 Evolution from Phoenician letter |
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| Fig 1.2.a.3 Greek fragment, stone engraving (date unknown) |
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| Fig 1.2.a.4 Augustan inscription in the Roman Forum, Rome (late 1st century B.C.E.) |
(b) Hand script from 3rd - 10th century C.E
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| Fig 1.2.b.1 Square Capitals (4th/5th century) |
Square capitals, seen in Roman monuments, featured serifs at the ends of the main strokes. Stroke width variation was achieved using a reed pen held at an approximately 60° angle from the perpendicular.
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| Fig 1.2.b.2 Rustic Capitals (late 3rd - mid 4th century) |
Rustic capitals, a compressed version of square capitals, allowed for twice as many words on a sheet of parchment and were quicker to write. The pen or brush was held at an approximately 30° angle off the perpendicular. However, they were slightly harder to read due to their compressed style.
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| Fig 1.2.b.3 Roman cursive (4th century) |
Square and rustic capitals were reserved for formal documents, while everyday transactions used a simplified cursive style for speed, marking the early development of what we now recognise as lowercase letterforms.
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| Fig 1.2.b.4 Uncials (4th - 5th century) |
Uncials incorporated features from Roman cursive, especially in the shapes of A, D, E, H, M, U. The term "uncial" possibly comes from "uncia", meaning one-twelfth, potentially referred to letters that are one inch (one twelfth of foot) high. However, it's more accurate to consider uncials as small letters. Their broad forms are more readable at small sized compared to rustic capitals.
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| Fig 1.2.b.5 Half-uncials (C.500) |
Half-uncials represent a formalisation of cursive handwriting, marking the beginning of lowercase letterforms with ascenders and descenders. They emerged around 2000 years after the Phoenician alphabet's origin.
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| Fig 1.2.b.6 Caloline minuscule (C.925) |
Charlemagne, credited as Europe's first unifier since the Romans, issued an edict in 789 to standardise ecclesiastical texts. Alcuin of York, Abbot of St Martin of Tours, was entrusted with this task. The monks revised the texts, introducing both uppercase (majuscules) and lowercase (minuscule) letters, as well as capitalisation and punctuation, setting a calligraphic standard for a century.
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| Fig 1.2.b.7 Blackletter / Textura (C.1300) |
After the fall of Charlemagne's empire, regional variations of Alcuin's script emerged. In Northern Europe, a condemned and vertically oriented letterform called Blackletter or Textura became popular, while in the south, a rounder and more open hand known as "rotunda" gained favour. Meanwhile, Italy adopted a humanistic script based on Alcuin's minuscule.
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| Fig 1.2.b.8 42 line bible, Johann Gutenberg, Mainz |
Gutenberg, who skilled in engineering, metalsmithing, and chemistry, applied his diverse skills to construct pages that accurately mimicked the work of the scribe's hand - Blackletter of Northern Europe. He developed type moles that faithfully replicated the scribe's hand, with each letterform requiring a unique brass matrix or negative impression.
(c) Text type classification
Typeforms have evolved in response to technological, commercial, and aesthetic changes, with some enduring beyond their original cultures. This classification is based on Alexander Lawson's system, which specifically focuses on the main forms of text type.
(a) Tracking: Kerning and Letterspacing
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| Fig 1.3.a.1 Kerning and Letterspacing |
Kerning - automatic adjustment of space between letters
Letterspacing - add space between the letters
Tracking - addition or removal of space in a word or sentence
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Designers often letterspace uppercase letters, but there is strong resistance to letterspacing lowercase letters because uppercase letters are designed to stand alone, while lowercase letters need space between them to maintain readability.
(b) Formatting text
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| Fig 1.3.b.1 Flush left |
Flush left format mirrors the asymmetry of handwriting, with lines starting at the same point but ending at wherever the last word on the line ends. Consistent word spacing throughout the text creates an even gray value.
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| Fig 1.3.b.2 Flush right |
Flush right format emphasises the end of a line and it is useful in situations (such as captions) where a strong right alignment clarifies the text-image relationship.
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| Fig 1.3.b.3 Justified |
Justified text creates a symmetrical shape on the text by adjusting spaces between words and sometimes letters. This can lead to vertical "rivers" of white space running through the text, therefore careful attention to line breaks and hyphenation is necessary to avoid this issue.
Designers tend to set type based on personal preference, culture and expression, but the primary goal of a designer is to present the author's message clearly and appropriately. Type should not distract readers' attention from the words and content; if it does, it should be changed.
(c) Texture
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| Fig 1.3.c Different typefaces and different gray values |
Understanding each typeface's unique characteristics and history is crucial. Different typefaces suit different messages, and a good typographer must be able to select the appropriate one which best suits the message. Additionally, the texture and visual weight of typefaces, which affected by the factors like x-height and stroke width, are crucial for creating effective layouts.
(d) Leading and Line Length
The goal of setting text type is to ensure easy, prolonged reading and to make the text occupy the page as effectively as a photograph.
Type size - Text type should be readable at arm's length, like holding a book.
Leading - Proper leading is crucial: text that is set too tightly can cause readers to lose their place as it encourages vertical eye movement; text that is set too loosely creates distracting patterns.
Line Length - A factor which affects the appropriate leading: shorter lines need less leading, and longer lines need more.
Line length and leading should be balanced, the ideal line length is 55-65 characters, as extremely long or short lines impair reading.
Lecture 4 / Text (Part 2)
(a) Indicating Paragraphs
Pilcrow (¶) - a symbol from medieval manuscripts that is rarely used today
Line space (leading*) - between the paragraphs, matching the line space (e.g. 12pt) with the paragraph space (12pt) to ensure cross-alighment across text columns.
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| Fig 1.4.a.1 Line spacing vs Leading |
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| Fig 1.4.a.2 Standard indentation |
The indent size matches either the line spacing or the point size of the text, typically.
(b) Widows and Orphans
In traditional typesetting, widows and orphans are considered unacceptable errors. Designers dealing with large amounts of text in various mediums must be careful to avoid them.
Widow - a short line of type left alone at the end of a column of text
Orphan - a short line of type left alone at the start of a new column
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| Fig 1.4.b Widows and Orphans |
In justified text, widows and orphans are serious errors, while flush right and ragged left text are somewhat more forgiving towards widows, but only a bit. Orphans are considered unacceptable in any layout. The only solution to widows is to adjust line endings throughout paragraphs to avoid noticeable short last lines. Orphans require even more attention, with careful typographers ensuring that no column of text starts with the last line of the preceding paragraph.
(c) Highlighting Text
Different kinds of emphasis require different kinds of contrast:
- using italics
- making the text bold
- change the colour of the text (black, cyan, magenta, yellow)
- change the type family (be aware of the need to ensure the visual cohesion of the text)
- place a field of colour at the back of the text (need to maintain the left reading axis to ensure readability)
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| Fig 1.4.c.1 Highlighting text by placing a field of colour behind |
- "quotation marks" (can create a clear indent, breaking the left reading axis)
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| Fig 1.4.c.2 Intended quote (at the top) and Extended quote (at the bottom) |
(d) Headline within Text
Text subdivisions within chapters are categorised as A, B, and C, based on their importance levels. A typographer's task is to ensure these headings effectively convey to the reader their relative importance within the text and their relationship to each other.
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| Fig 1.4.d.1 A head |
A head indicates a clear break between the topics within a section, it can be set larger, in small caps, in bold, or even 'extend' to the left of the text.
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| Fig 1.4.d.2 B head |
The B head, subordinate to the A head, introduces a new supporting argument or examples of the topic. Unlike A head, B head should not significantly disrupt the flow of the text. It can be presented in small caps, italic, bold serif, and bold sans serif fonts, as shown in Fig 1.4.d.2.
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| Fig 1.4.d.3 C head |
The C heads, although uncommon, highlight specific aspects within the content of B head without interrupting the reading flow. Like B heads, C heads are presented in small caps, italics, bold, and Bold sans serif fonts. Additionally, C heads in this style are followed by at least an em space (two spaces to spacebar) to visually separate them.
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| Fig 1.4.d.4 Hierarchy |
(e) Cross Alignment
Cross-aligning headlines and captions with text type enhances the page's architectural structure and vertical rhythm.
In Fig 1.4.e.1, four lines of caption type (leaded at 9 pts) cross-align with three lines of text type (leaded at 13.5 pts).
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| Fig 1.4.e.1 Cross Alignment |
In Fig 1.4.e.2, one line of headline types cross-align with two lines of text type, while four lines of headline type cross-align with five lines of text type.
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| Fig 1.4.e.2 Cross Alignment |
Lecture 5 / Basic
(a) Describing letterforms
Fig 1.5.a Describing letterforms (pdf)
(b) The font
A full font includes more than just 26 letters, numerals, and a few punctuation marks. To work successfully with type, ensure you have a complete font and understand how to use all its characters.
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| Fig 1.5.b.1 Small Capitals |
Small capitals are uppercase letterforms drawn to the x-height and are mainly found in serif fonts as part of the expert set. Type software often includes a command to generate small caps based on uppercase forms, but these should not be confused with the true small caps.
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| Fig 1.5.b.2 Uppercase Numerals |
Uppercase numerals (also called lining figures) have the same height as uppercase letters and are all set to the same kerning width (most successfully used with tabular material or in any situation that calls for uppercase letters)
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| Fig 1.5.b.3 Lowercase Numerals |
Lowercase numerals (also known as old style figures / text figures) are set to x-height with ascenders and descenders (best used whenever you would use uppercase and lowercase letterforms, far less common in sans serif typefaces than in serif)
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| Fig 1.5.b.4 Italic |
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| Fig 1.5.b.5 Italic vs Roman |
Nowadays most fonts include a matching italics. However, small caps are almost always only in the roman style. Italic forms are based on 15th-century Italian cursive handwriting, while oblique styles are usually based on the roman form of the typeface.
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| Fig 1.5.b.6 Punctuation, miscellaneous characters |
All fonts include standard punctuation marks, but miscellaneous characters can vary between typefaces. It is important to know all available characters in a typeface before selecting it for a job.
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| Fig 1.5.b.7 Ornaments |
Ornaments are decorative flourishes commonly used in invitations or certificates, and are usually provided as a font within a larger typeface family. However, only a few traditional or classical typefaces, like Adobe Caslon Pro, include ornamental fonts as part of the entire family.
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| Fig 1.5.c Typefaces |
Roman: Uppercase forms are derived from inscriptions of Roman monuments. A slightly lighter stroke is known as 'Book'.
Italic: The forms are based on 15th-century Italian handwriting. Oblique conversely are based on roman form of typeface.
Boldface: A thicker stroke than the roman form, can also be called 'semibold', 'medium', 'black', 'extra bold', or super. The boldest rendition of the typeface is referred to as 'Poster' in some typefaces (notably Bodoni).
Light: A lighter stroke than the roman form, even lighter strokes are called 'thin'.
Condense: A version of the roman form, extremely condense styles are called 'compressed'.
Extended: An extended variation of a roman font.
(d) Comparing typefaces
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| Fig 1.5.d Comparing typefaces |
The focus is on the differences rather than the similarities among typefaces, highlighting the unique choices that make each one of them distinct. Beyond variations in x-height, differences in line weight, stroke widths, and overall feeling convey specific use and expression to typographers.
As a designer, you have to choose an appropriate type family that respects the message. The message should be first, typeface later. Examination of typefaces helps us understand our personal feelings towards type and specific typefaces, shaping our understanding of their appropriateness as well.
2. INSTRUCTIONS
PROCESS WORK
Task 1: Exercise 1 - Type Expression
Select four(4) of these words - smile, jump, break, sleep, fly, and dive, to compose and express.
- No graphic elements
- No colour may be used
- Use only the 10 typefaces provided
1. Sketches
Here are the words I have chosen: Jump, Sleep, Dive, Fly.
Creativity builds upon existing foundations, so before beginning the design, I did some research using the keywords to gather ideas on how to convey their meanings and motions through text. I have provided the reference photos together with the sketches shown below.
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| Fig 2.1.1.1a Type expression sketches 'Jump', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.1b Reference for the word 'Jump', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.2a Type expression sketches 'Sleep', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.2b Reference for the word 'Sleep', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.3a Type expression sketches 'Dive', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.3b Reference for the word 'Dive', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.4a Type expression sketches 'Fly', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.4b Reference for the word 'Fly', Week 1 (26/4/2024) |
My personal favourite would be JUMP #2 - #4, SLEEP #2 - #4, DIVE #1 - #3, FLY #1 - #3. In my opinion, these are more powerful and impactful, better able to express the meanings of the words.
After the feedback session in week 2, I made some adjustments based on the Mr Max's suggestions and also created some new designs.
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| Fig 2.1.1.6 Type expression 'SLEEP' using the font Futura Bold, Week 2 (3/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.7 Type expression 'JUMP', Week 2 (3/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.1.8 Type expression 'DIVE', Week 2 (3/5/2024) |
2. Digitisation
I decided to digitise some of the words that were approved in Week 2 and also some of the words that I newly sketched, to see which ones appeared better in the end.
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| Fig 2.1.2.1 Digitisation process, Week 3 (10/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.2.2 'JUMP' Digitisation, Week 3 (10/5/2024) |
For the word 'JUMP', I digitised #1 (left) and #6 (right) as suggested by Mr Max. For #6, I planned to have the ball (from the alphabet 'j') bounce from one letter to another, to represent the motion instead of simply having the letter jump up. However, in the end, #1 was chosen as the final digitised version because #6 wasn't able to effectively convey the motion and the meaning of the word while remaining still.
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| Fig 2.1.2.3 'FLY' Digitisation, Week 3 (10/5/2024) |
For the word 'FLY', I experimented with different fonts for each letter to determine which ones could best convey the motion of a bird flying (as seen in 'FLY' design #1 and #3). In the design on the left, I used the best fonts available to represent the motion without any distortion. As for the design on the right, my initial plan was to animate it by starting with normal letters in the initial scene, and then slightly distort the fonts to resemble birds flying. However, the results of digitising 'FLY' did not achieve the desired outcome, so it was not included in the final digitisation work.
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| Fig 2.1.2.4 'BREAK' Digitisation, Week 3 (10/5/2024) |
For the word 'BREAK', I experimented with two different fonts. Personally, I prefer the design on the right, as I think the effect of glass breaking was better expressed by the more regular font on the right compared to the slightly curved font on the left.
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| Fig 2.1.2.5 'DIVE' Digitisation, Week 3 (10/5/2024) |
Throughout the digitisation process, I developed several different ideas for the word 'DIVE'. Based on Mr Max's suggestion during the Week 2 feedback session, I retained the concept of diving into water and experimented with new ways to depict a person diving (as seen in 'DIVE' design #2). The design on the left (#9) and the one in the middle (#10) were created based on the same concept. However, my personal favourite was the third design on the right (#6), where I distorted the bottom part of the letters to create the illusion of slowly diving into the water. This design was also approved by Mr Max to proceed to animation.
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| Fig 2.1.2.6 'SLEEP' Digitisation, Week 3 (10/5/2024) |
I only made one attempt while digitising the word 'SLEEP'. My plan was to make the first three letters land down one by one during the animation, and for the last two letters, I wanted to try making them rotate and land on the edge of the letter beside, to give the impression that they fall asleep one after another.
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| Fig 2.1.2.7 Final Type Expressions - JPEG, Week 3 (10/5/2024) |
Fig 2.1.2.8 Final Type Expressions - PDF, Week 3 (10/5/2024)
3. Animation
(1) 'BREAK'
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| Fig 2.1.3.1.1 'BREAK' animation process in AI, Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.3.1.2 First attempt on animating 'BREAK', Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
My basic concept for this animation is to achieve the effect of the letters colliding and breaking apart like glass. During the Week 4 Feedback session, Mr Max suggested increasing the spacing between letters at the beginning to make the collision faster and more impactful.
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| Fig 2.1.3.1.3 Second attempt on animating 'BREAK', Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
After adjusting the animation, Mr Max recommended speeding up the splitting part and having the pieces of the letters spilt further apart at the end, to make it feel more like 'breaking'.
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| Fig 2.1.3.1.4 Final Animation Timeline 'BREAK' (15 frames), Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
(2) 'DIVE'
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| Fig 2.1.3.2.1 'DIVE' animation process in AI, Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.1.3.2.2 First attempt on animating 'DIVE', Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
I was personally not very satisfied with the first animation attempt, as I think the part where the word dives into the water was distorted too much. This might be due to I focused too much on the details of the effect instead of the overall effect, causing it looks like screen flickering instead of a waveripple. Thus, I made some adjustments on the diving part.
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| Fig 2.1.3.2.3 Second attempt on animating 'DIVE', Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
In the revised version (second attempt), I paid more attention to the overall effect and the movement of the wave ripple, aiming to create a more natural animation of diving into the water. However, during the Week 4 feedback session, Mr Max suggested letting the letters dive in completely and disappear at the end of the animation to reach a better visual effect, as this version ends too abruptly.
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| Fig 2.1.3.2.4 Third attempt on animating 'DIVE', Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
After making adjustments based on Mr Max's suggestions, this version is getting closer to what I envisioned initially. Mr Max recommended simplifying the letters and having them disappear at the same position where the word is fully immersed in the water, and also try to make the word emerge from the side at the beginning, leaving a blank space at the start and the end of the animation to make a smooth loop for GIF.
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| Fig 2.1.3.2.5 Final Animation Timeline 'DIVE' (20 frames), Week 4 (17/5/2024) |
4. Final Outcome - Animation
Fig 2.1.4.1 Final Animated Type Expression 'BREAK' - GIF, Week 5 (24/5/2024)
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| Fig 2.1.4.2 Final Animated Type Expression 'DIVE' - GIF, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
Task 1: Exercise 2 - Text Formatting
In Exercise 2, we need to design a layout that demonstrates various text formatting techniques, including adjusting kerning (spacing between letters), leading (space between lines of text), paragraph spacing, and text alignment. This exercise will help us practice organising text and enhancing the visual structure of information. We will be using Adobe InDesign for this exercise.
1. Minor exercise on kerning and tracking
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| Fig 2.2.1.1 Text Formatting with kerning, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.1.2 Text Formatting without kerning, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.1.3 Overlayed version of kerning and without kerning to show the difference, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
2. Exercise on Text Formatting
Things to be aware:
- Leading: +2 points of the point size (can be 2.5/3 depending on the typeface)
- Paragraph spacing follow leading
- Kerning and tracking: do not exceed 3 (+3/-3)
- Number of characters in a column: 55-65 / 50-60
- Make sure positive and negative space within the body text is equal
- Avoid widows and orphans
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| Fig 2.2.2.1 Layout progress, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.2 Without kerning & tracking (left aligned) vs With kerning & tracking (left justified), Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.3 Layout #1, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.4 Layout #2, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.5 Layout #3, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.6 Layout #4, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.7 Layout #5, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.8 Layout #6, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
In the Week 5 Feedback session, Mr Max chose Layout #5 to continue working on as the final work for this exercise.
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| Fig 2.2.2.9 Tracking and Adjustments, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
Initially, I planned to have the both columns of text end at the same length to achieve visual balance. However, considering that each line should contain 50-60 / 55-65 characters, I adjusted the text several times. The outcome is shown in Fig 2.2.2.9 (Layout #5-2).
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| Fig 2.2.2.10 Layout #5-1, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
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| Fig 2.2.2.11 Layout #5-2, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
Head Line
Font: Bembo Std
Type Sizes: 36 pt, 48 pt, 72 pt
Leading: 36 pt
Paragraph spacing: 0
Body
Font: Bembo Std
Type Size: 9 pt
Leading: 11 pt
Paragraph spacing: 11 pt
Characters per-line: 50-60
Alignment: left justified
Margins: 123 mm top, 26 mm left + right + bottom
Columns: 2
Gutter: 10 mm
3. Final Outcome - Text Formatting
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| Fig 2.2.3.1 Final Text Formatting Layout - JPEG, Week 5 (24/5/2024) |
Fig 2.2.3.2 Final Text Formatting Layout - PDF, Week 5 (24/5/2024)
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Fig 2.2.3.4 Final Text Formatting Layout with grids - PDF, Week 5 (24/5/2024)
3. FEEDBACK
Week 2
General Feedback
Some of the designs may prove challenging to present using the 10 fonts provided, and it may be difficult to recognise the words at first glance due to the out-of-sequence letters.
Specific Feedback
JUMP: only #1 is suitable for digitisation because the others are too complicated and difficult to read.
SLEEP: only #2 is acceptable as the others are not very readable.
DIVE: Mr Max prefers #2, but it’s somewhat hard to read, so he suggested re-sketching #2 and #4 to enhance readability.
FLY: #1 and #3 were chosen, and Mr Max recommended slightly distorting the fonts to resemble birds flying during digitalisation.
Week 3
Specific Feedback
After updating the new sketches:
BREAK: #2 was chosen.
SLEEP: #5 and #6 were chosen.
JUMP: #6 was chosen.
DIVE: Mr Max prefers #5 and #6, in the end #6 was chosen as it is easier to be animated.
After finalising the digitisation work, Mr Max suggested proceeding to animate either the 'DIVE' or 'BREAK' design.
Week 4
Specific Feedback
For the animation:
BREAK: the part where the word breaks into pieces could be faster, and the pieces could split further apart to achieve a better visual effect.
DIVE: overall it's good, but try to make the word disappear in the same position as before instead of diving to the bottom.
Week 5
Specific Feedback
For Text Formatting:
Layout #5 was chosen, Mr Max advised making the spacing between headlines, picture, and the body text equal to create a visually balanced layout.
4. REFLECTIONS
Experience
For exercise 1, the sketching stage was a bit challenging because we were limited to using the 10 provided fonts without any distortion allowed. It took some time to actually come out with designs that followed the rules while effectively conveying the messages.
Since I only received my Adobe License on 9/5/2024 (Week 3), I did my digitisation work in Library Mac lab. This was somewhat inconvenient as I preferred using my own laptop to do the work instead, but luckily I still managed to finish the digitisation work before the Week 3 Tutorial & Practical class.
For every tutorial session, Mr Max guided us step-by-step on the tasks we were doing, and was very responsive and approachable during practical and feedback session. This helped me a lot in modifying and improving my work. It was also my first time using Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, so I needed some time to get used to the tools.
One thing worth mentioning is that Exercise 2 was surprisingly quite challenging. That's when I realised my initial knowledge of text formatting was very basic and limited. A good typographer really needs to pay attention to numerous details.
Overall, I would say my experience throughout Task 1 was quite interesting, and I learned a lot from the lecture videos and the practical session. I enjoyed the process especially developing ideas and turning them into a final product.
Observations
For exercise 1, I think I didn't grasp the right concept at first. Initially, I was too focused on transforming the letters themselves into the elements I wanted (e.g. JUMP#2&4, SLEEP#3&4, DIVE#2-4, FLY#2&4), and overlooked the main purpose of this exercise, which was to express ideas using a limited set of fonts and to be as creative as possible within specific constraints. Fortunately, after the feedback session in Week 2, I realised this and made adjustments accordingly. Although I think there is still room for improvement in my later designs, I am quite satisfied with the outcome at this moment.
Actually, I made a careless mistake regarding the size of the images at the beginning of animation stage. I didn't set a specific size for the artboard, and they were automatically set as 200 mm x 200 mm in Illustrator, and then automatically converted to 567 px x 567 px in Photoshop. However, our final GIF needs to be 800-1024 px (width and height).
I attempted to change the size when exporting the GIF in Photoshop, but apparently, this would affect the image quality and the animation speed, ultimately impacting the overall quality. In the end, I adjusted the size of the artboards in Illustrator and proportionally adjusted each frame, which was quite troublesome. This experience has taught me the importance of thoroughly reviewing requirements before beginning tasks and consistently paying attention to details.
Findings
After completing Task 1, I have gained a deeper understanding of typography. This work truly requires a great deal of focus and patience. Throughout the practice, I found myself becoming more adept at noticing and adjusting minute details while also considering the composition and overall appearance, which I find very useful.
I believe I have improved a little in seeing and using text visually rather than relying solely on graphic elements to express ideas. I personally find this approach quite interesting and would like to explore it further. However, I still need to work on developing a better sense of the text itself and also consistently keeping track of the task requirements.
5. FURTHER READING
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| Fig 5.1 The Vignelli Canon |
At the first glance, I was drawn to its book cover, because of its bright colour and the 'less is more' design. As I looked through the contents of the first part titled 'The Intangibles', the seventh title, 'Design Is One', caught my eye.
This passage talks about the author, Massimo Vignelli's experience at Castiglioni Architects, showing how they did many different types of design work, and how design is important in many areas.
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| Fig 5.2 The design works |
I like the concept of him mentioning that 'Design is one - it is not many different ones.'
I agree that people often think of Design as a particular style, but actually, design is a discipline, a creative process with its own rules, controlling the consistency of its output toward its objective in the most direct and expressive way. Design discipline is above and beyond any style, while all styles require discipline in order to be expressed.
The author has also suggested the idea of being a good designer; to be able to design anything, as it is essential and necessary for every project. We don't have to be perfect on every aspect, but we need to understand that the concepts and ideas in each design area are interrelated, and we need to be able to apply them appropriately.
Most importantly: Stay creative, stay curious, be passionate, be design-driven.
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