Typography - Exercises

Thaqif Syarafuddin(0331337)

Typography

Exercises

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Lecture Notes

Lecture 1 : Briefing
5/4/2019 (Week 1)
[Absent]
The first week was an introduction week, where the lecturer gave the students briefing about what the subject is about and what we will do for the whole semester. Then we were asked to create E-portfolio and a new gmail account to document all our exercise and processes.
the students were also told to join a Facebook group and paste their E-portfolio link there.

After all the briefing was over, the lecturers gave the students a task which is to create 10 different styles of our names according to a single personality of ours. By next week we were suppose to digitalize the sketches using the following softwares ; Adobe Photoshop , Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the class because my timetable was showing incorrect information.


Lecture 2 : Introduction to Typography
12/4/2019 (Week 2)
This week we were lectured about the introduction to typography. The lecturer asked students "What is typography?". A lot of interesting answers came up, but I think that typography is like a picture that is made up of words to express ones feelings. Sir Vinod then tells us about ethical consideration when designing things that displays critical information for example textbooks which has horrible designs that would affect studying. Sir then continues with the history of typography which has evolved over 500 years from calligraphy to lettering to typography. Sir also quotes Paul Rand saying " Typography is an art and good typography is art". Terminologies were also taught, font is the making of fonts, typeface refers to the individual weight within the typeface and type family which is the name of the font such as Times New Roman and Arial.

Today we were tasked to digitalize our design of the font that we have created and print it.


Lecture 3 : Typography/Basics
19/4/2019 (Week 3)
On the 3rd week, we were taught about the basics of typography and all the terms of typography. We learnt about ascender height, median, x- height, baseline and descender height. There are more terminologies such as apex, arm, stems, etc. Fonts also have, small capitals which are capital letters but are the same height as the x-height. Numerals do also have lowercases which is used whenever the upper and lowercase letterforms are applied. The lecturer also discussed about the difference between italic and romans. In typefaces, there are also ornaments which are used to decorate or used as flourishes in invitations or certificates. There are 9 typefaces that we are going to use throughout this semester which is :
- Garamond
- Janson
- Caslon
- Baskerville
- Bodoni
- Serifa
- Futura
- Gill Sans
- Univers

After the lecture, we were tasked to animate our typefaces using Adobe Photoshop to express more of the chosen personalities.

"You can't be a good typographer, if you aren't a good reader.
- Stephen Cole


Lecture 4 : Development/Timeline
26/4/2019 (Week 4)
In this lecture we were thought about the development of typography. Early letterforms were initially meant scratching into wet clay with sharpened stick or carving into stones with a chisel. The forms of uppercase letterforms can be seen to have evolved out of these tools and materials. Greeks have also changed the direction of writing which is writing from right to left. The Greeks also developed a style of writing called "boustrophedon". This means that the lines of text are read alternately from right to left and from left to right. Hand script are squre capitals whihc are written versions that can be found in Roman monuments. These letter forms have serifs added to the finish of the main strokes. The variety of stroke width was achieved by the reed pen held at an angle of approximately 60 degrees off the perpendicular. Then there are compressed versions of the square capitals which are rustic capitals which allows twice as many words to be written on the sheet of parchment and took far less time to write. Blackletters are a condensed and strongly vertical letterform which is also known as textura. After the lecture we were to show our last weeks work and to be given a knew task which involves animation.

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Instructions

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Exercise

Personality Expression (Week 1 - Week 3)
We were tasked to create 10 types of our names based on a personality of ourselves that we have chosen. I chose cynical, however these sketches didn't really capture the doubtful part of me.

Fig. 1.0 : Sketch for "Doubtful"

I wasn't able to attend the first lecture so I did not know about this task. I was only able to sketch 5 types on the 2nd lecture. 


On week 2 of the semester, we were suppose to show our sketches of the types that we have done and get feedback from the lectures. I chose cynical, however the sketches didn't really capture the doubtful part of me. Mr Vinod asked me to add dashes or disconnected lines to my types and so I did 3 more sketches.

Fig. 1.1 : Sketch redo of "Doubtful"

After we were happy with our type family, we are suppose to digitalize the types that we want to into our laptops using Adobe Illustrator.

Fig. 1.2 : Digitalized type (doubtful)

This is the final type that I have digitalized using Adobe Illustrator and we are suppose to animate this on Lecture 3/ week 3.

This week (week 3), we were given the opportunity to animate our typefaces that we did to further express our chosen personalities.

Fig. 1.3 : 1st attempt (doubtful)

The above GIF was my first attempt which took me very long to do because I didn't have any idea and was still getting used to animating in Photoshop.

Fig. 1.4 : 2nd attempt (doubtful)

This GIF was my 2nd attempt on the animation which Mr Vinod said it was more expressive of my chosen personality. 

Fig. 1.5 : 3rd attempt (doubtful)

This is my final piece for this assessment and I know my animation still needs more work and refining.


Type Expression (Week 4)
In the past lecture, we were tasked to sketch and digitize 6 words and express the meanings of the particular words with the given fonts. There are 7 words to choose from (levitate, bounce, angry, hungry, freeze, faint, loop).

Fig. 1.6 : 1st attempt (expressive words)

I showed these designs to Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul and they liked the ideas of my designs but the typeface choice is not suitable. I was asked to find suitable fonts and change the "angry" to make it look more expressive.

Fig. 1.7 : 2nd attempt after feedback (expressive words)

This was my final piece after feedback was given and I made some changes. After this we are suppose to animate 1 out of the 6 words that were designed.

Fig. 1.8 : 1st attempt (bounce)

This was my first attempt on the animation for "bounce". I didn't really like how slow it was and it was not smooth. So I deleted a few frames from the animation to make it faster and "bouncier".

Fig. 1.9 : 2nd attempt (bounce)

Here is the 2nd attempt with it before showing it to Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul. They really liked this animation and I was truly happy that it was accepted.

PDF file of expressive words

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Feedback

Week 1 :

[Absent]

Week 2 :
Mr Vinod said my types are not really expressing doubtful and he asked me to try adding dashes and disconnected lines to show "not trusting".

Week 3 :
I did a few animations with my previous weeks work. However, my craft was not up to par with Mr Vinod's expectation. So I needed to refine my work and animation.

Week 4 :
Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul said that my designs were fine however small changes need to be made such as choosing the suitable typefaces. Other than that, the design for "angry" didn't really express the feeling of angry. Overall, they liked where I was going with the design and told me to make some minor changes.

Animation
Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul really liked my animation!

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Reflection

Experience:
In week 1, I was absent for the first class because I was suppose to take another module but that module clashed times with my other subjects. So I had to resolve the problem which was by dropping that particular module and registering for this module. What I know from my friend was that the first week was only introduction and we were asked to download Photoshop, Illustrator and also InDesign. Week 2; I had to sketch 10 typefaces of my name and show it to the lecturer but since I was absent for the first class, I wasn't informed of the task so I had to sketch it within a short period of time. Week 3; I was introduced to animating using Illustrator and Photoshop and it was quite the headache as I wasn't used to the software yet. So I had to slowly get use to it when I get home from class. Week 4; I was quite familiar with the controls of Illustrator and Photoshop. I animated an expressive word which is "bounce". I felt like the animation was too simple but Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul actually liked it. I guess complexity isn't always good and the perfection of craft is more important.

Observation:
Week 1; [Absent]. Week 2; I realized that my sketches was horrible where my lines were not straight. I also struggled to show my ideas on paper. Week 3; Using new software is very hard since I wasn't used to it yet. Week 4; A lot of other people's ideas are the same but some are really nice.  

Findings:
Week 1;[Absent]. Week 2; I need to start sketching more in order to be able to showcase my ideas properly. My lines and curves needs more practice. Week 3; Keep tinkering with the software and explore more about it to maximize the use of it. Using new software might be hard but I must try to use it more often. Week 4; Developing the same idea might not be hard but crafting it perfectly is where the difference is. 

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Further Reading

Just My Type by Simon Garfield
5/4/2019 (Week 1) 

Fig. 2.0 : Just My Type by Simon Garfield

This books tells about the influence that typography or typefaces can affect everything and anything in our daily lives . "twenty-six purely abstract symbols that in and of themselves mean absolutely nothing, but when put together in the right combinations can introduce into the heads of readers an infinite variety of sounds, smells, taste, feelings, places, people, characters, situations, feelings, ideas." - Chip Kidd. These seemingly harmless glyphs can change how a reader feels upon reading it and this books tells how important it is.

The book discusses readability and legibility which uses easyJet's use of the font Cooper Black. This font was more legible than readable and it looks great from afar with a large size. This shows that some types are meant to be seen rather than to be read. It is even compare to attributes of a dress that looks great on a catwalk but would provide no protection against the elements in our daily lives. An anology for this pops up, "Font-as-couture". As with fashion, the design of type is an alarmingly vibrant art form. Just like contemporary art it upsets traditionalist. Some traditionalist would argue that no one buys typeface to hang on the wall while some argues that if a typeface is beautiful enough to be displayed in a gallery may it only be considered suitable for printing. These comparisons and arguments has open up my perspective on typography and the many influencing factors of it.

"Whether you'r a graphic designer or a layperson with no background in this area, reading what Garfield has to say will change the way you perceive the written word forever" - Los Angeles Times.

Type Style Finder by Timothy Samara
12/4/2019 (Week 2)

Fig. 2.1 : Type Style Finder by Timothy Samara

This books teaches how one can find the perfect typeface for a particular project. One of the important starting points is classifying types into groups which then can help highlight the differences among styles by organizing them in a general way and further helping to select an appropriate typeface. Sometimes the historical background or cultural context of the typefaces adds a little bit more relevancy in the typographic design. The type styles that were listed are:

- Oldstyle

- Transitional

- Modern

-Sans Serif

- Slab Serif

- Graphic

Choosing the right typefaces for its feeling or mood is a difficult endeavor that often comes down to the designer's gut reaction to the rhythm or shapes of the inherent in a particular style. Combining typefaces is also a tricky task as it should be the solution for expressing complexity of information that is being presented. Moreover,  adding colors to typefaces adds dimension, expression and information clarity. A single color is defined by four essential qualities :

- hue

- saturation

- value

- temperature

Hue is the identity of a color.

Saturation describes its intensity.

Value is the aspect of darkness and lightness.

Temperature is a subjective experimential quality.

Colors are important as it affects the emotional component of human experience at an instinctual and biological level. Colors of varying wavelengths have different effects on autonomic nervous system. Warmer colors needs more energy to process them when entering the eye and brain which the rise in energy level translates to arousal. Conversely cooler colors requires far less energy resulting in a soothing and calming effect.

Typographic Design : Form and Communication by Rob Carter, Ben Day, Phillip Meggs
19/4/2019 (Week 3)

Fig. 2.2 : Typographic Design : Form and Communication by Rob Carter, Ben Day, Phillip Meggs 

This book speaks about typography as a multidimensional language. A typographic message is verbal, visual, and vocal. Typography isn't only read and interpreted verbally but also can be viewed and interpreted visually, heard and interpreted audibly. Typography is a dynamic communication medium which in the early twentieth-century typography became a revolutionary form of communication that brings new and expressive power to written words.

As a dynamic representation of verbal language, typography must communicate and get a clear message accurately to the minds of the transmitter. This goals isn't always accomplished with the proliferation of typographic messages littering the environment. Effective typographic messages result from the combination of logic and intuitive judgement.

Language is a self contained system which as interactive signs that expresses ideas. Typographic signs can be manipulated by a designer to achieve more lucid and expressive typographic communication.

The Complete Typographer by Will Hill

26/4/2019 (Week 4)

Fig. 2.3 : The Complete Typographer by Will Hill

This book discusses about working with typefaces and how a designer should use it in an effective way. One of the subjects that were talked about is the page layout. The design of a page involves both the composition of the columns and the margins that form the page grid. Page design involves both practical considerations and also amount of text on the page where factors such as its legibility, aesthetics or expressive factors, differentiation and visual appeal would come to play. The choice of typeface and the composition of the page are very closely linked and interdependent decisions which may influence or determine the other.

The text of a printed page is generally set at between 9 to 12 points with variations to the x-heights of the typefaces means that it is feasible to set it in smaller sizes when using typefaces of exceptionally generous x-height, while typefaces with unusually pronounced ascenders may need to be set larger to achieve the optimal legibility.

The amount of leading necessary for a balanced column of text will depend upon the typefaces and in particular the body clearance and x-height. Type faces with long ascenders and descenders will require less additional leading than those with a greater x-height.