Advanced Typography - Task 3: Type Exploration and Application

 11.10.2023 - 2023 / Week 7 - Week 14

Nie Weiqiu / 0360239 / BA of Design (HONS) in Creative Media
Typography 
Task 3

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INSTRUCTIONS 

    

Task 3: Type Exploration and Application

1. Ideation

I first tried three font sketches

Fig.1.1 Sketch 1 (11.10.2023 - Week 7)

Fig.1.2 Sketch 2 (11.10.2023 - Week 7)

Fig.1.3 Sketch 3 (11.10.2023 - Week 7)

In the end, I wanted to choose the second one. Mr. Vinod later agreed to this idea, but he could not design the font according to the second task LOGO as a reference.  Need to redesign a new font.

References

Later I started to inquire about maze type fonts

Fig.1.4 References 1(11.10.2023 - Week 7)

Fig.1.5 References 2 (11.10.2023 - Week 7)

I found that my maze text is relatively complicated. Each letter is like a corner of the maze, and their shapes are like squares.  But I feel that some of the pictures in Reference 1 are too simple and some of the pictures in Reference 2 are too complicated.

2. Sketches

I did some sketches in week eight where I combined reference one with reference two. 

I used a grid to create the letters

Fig.2.1 Sketch 1 - Grid (Uppercase) (18.10.2023 - Week 8)

But I felt that some of the letters looked disharmonious as a whole, so I made some adjustments.

Digitization-Adjustment (Uppercase) 

Fig.2.2  Adjustment 1 'A','B','C' (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

I added more maze elements to the letters and combined the reference one pattern with the reference two pattern.  Make it neither that simple nor that complicated.

Fig.2.3  Adjustment 2 'D','E','F','H','I' (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

Fig.2.4  Adjustment 3 'J','L','O','P','Q' (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

Fig.2.5  Adjustment 3 'S','T','U','X' (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

Fig.2.6 Digitization (Uppercase)  (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

Fig.2.7 Digitization (Uppercase)  (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

Digitization Lowercase

I think lower case letters should be more minimalistic

Fig.2.8 Digitisation 1 (Lowercase) (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

Fig.2.9 Digitisation 2 (Lowercase) (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

I thought it was okay, so I continued to do it.

Fig.2.10 Digitisation 3 (Lowercase) (25.10.2023 - Week 9)

In the 10th week, Mr. Vinod said that we create uppercase letters and lowercase letters side by side so that we can keep the consistency of the strokes, so I put the uppercase and lowercase letters together and see if they can.

Fig.2.11 Capital Letters and Small Letters (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

Later, I saw that the letters 'A' and 'R' looked a bit similar, so I adjusted the letter 'A'.

Fig.2.12 adjusted 'A' (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

The letter 'X' was a little too complicated, so I changed it again.

Fig.2.13 adjusted 'X' (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

When I looked at all the letters together, I felt that the overall style of the lowercase letters 'i' and 'l' didn't quite match. It felt like the letters were too simple, so I made further adjustments.

Fig.2.14 adjusted 'i' 'l (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

Final Capital Letters and Small Letters

Fig.2.15  Alphanumeric (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

Fig.2.16  Alphanumeric (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

Fig.2.17 Alphanumeric - Outline (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

Fig.2.18 Final Capital Letters and Small Letters  (1.11.2023 - Week 10)

Numbers

When creating the figures, I added some maze elements to the figures.  This way the whole thing will look harmonious

Fig.2.19 Digitisation  (Numbers) (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

Fig.2.20 Digitisation  (Numbers)  (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

It looks relatively simple, and some of the numbers don't seem to fit in well with the lettering style.

Fig.2.21 Digitisation  (Numbers) - Grids (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

Fig.2.22 Digitisation (Numbers) - Outline (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

Fig.2.23 Digitisation (Numbers) (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

Final Numbers

Fig.2.24 Final Digitisation of Numbers (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

Punctuations

We need to create punctuation for this task. I use the basic shapes of uppercase letters to create punctuation marks. I did some research on FontShare to look at punctuation.

Fig.2.25 Research on Punctuations (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

After doing some research I started using a capital letter style to create punctuation

Fig.2.26 Process (Outline) (3.11.2023 - Week 10)

Final symbol

Fig.2.27 Final Punctuations 1 (4.11.2023 - Week 10)

 I also modified some letters. But since the small letters were not standard, I readjusted them again and made some modifications.

Fig.2.29 Final Capital Letters and Small Letters  (11.11.2023 - Week 11)

 FontForge

After completing the letters and numbers, I imported the resources into FontLab and scaled the font case.

Fig.2.30 Importing Letterforms from Illustrator to FontForge (11.11.2023 - Week 11)

Finally, I imported all the fonts from Illustrator into FontForge.

Fig.2.31 Imported Letterforms and Numbers in FontForge (11.11.2023 - Week 11)

Fig.2.31 Kerning (11.11.2023 - Week 11)

3. Font Presentation

I looked at the documents provided by Mr. Vinod which gave us an idea about the presentation of the font.

 

Fig.3.1 Font Presentation Research (12.11.2023 - Week 11)

Fig.3.2 Font Presentation Research (12.11.2023 - Week 11)

Font Presentation

                             Fig.3.3 Font Presentation (15.11.2023 - Week 12)

                             Fig.3.4 Font Presentation (15.11.2023 - Week 12)

                             Fig.3.5 Font Presentation (15.11.2023 - Week 12)

Later I want to add some maze elements to the font. Because this font was created with a maze in mind, I want to add some maze elements to the font display.

      Fig.3.6 After adding elementsFont Presentation (16.11. 2023 - Week 12)

      Fig.3.7 After adding elementsFont Presentation (16.11.2023 - Week 12)

      Fig.3.8 After adding elementsFont Presentation (16.11.2023 - Week 12)

Final Font Presentation

                           Fig.3.9 Final Font Presentation 1 (22.11.2023 - Week 13)

                           Fig.3.10 Final Font Presentation 1 (22.11.2023 - Week 13)

                           Fig.3.11 Final Font Presentation 1 (22.11.2023 - Week 13)

                           Fig.3.12 Final Font Presentation 1 (22.11.2023 - Week 13)

4. Font Application

Figure 4.1 Font Application-Necklace (23.11.2023 - Week 12)

Figure 4.2 Font Application-Sweatshirt (23.11.2023 - Week 12)

Figure 4.3 Font Application-Glasses (23.11.2023 - Week 12)

                      Figure 4.4 Font Application-Poster (24.11.2023 - Week 12)

                      Figure 4.5 Font Application-Poster (24.11.2023 - Week 12)

                      Figure 4.6 Font Application-Poster (24.11.2023 - Week 12)

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Final Font Application

Downloadable font

 link:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yoFJUtwMgD9QHvLFXCEkhy2RS1GwA1od/view?usp=sharing

                           Fig.5.2 Final Font Presentation 1 (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

                           Fig.5.3 Final Font Presentation 2 (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

                           Fig.5.4 Final Font Presentation 3 (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

                           Fig.5.5 Final Font Presentation 4 (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

Figure 5.6 Font Application-Necklace (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

Figure 5.7 Font Application-Sweatshirt (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

                      Figure 5.8 Font Application-Poster (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

                      Figure 5.9 Font Application-Poster (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

                      Figure 5.10 Font Application-Poster (29.11.2023 - Week 14)

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FEEDBACKS

Week 8

Independent Learning Week

Week 9

General Feedback: Start making fonts

Concrete feedback: You cannot continue using the original LOGO. You need to create a new font using the maze element.

Week 10

General Feedback: Make the small leterring next to the capital lettering.

Specific Feedback: The widths must all be the same.

Week 11

General feedback:Place uppercase and lowercase letters together, next to each other for consistency when creating letter forms.

Specific feedback:The lowercase letters are not done according to the standard. Re-make the lowercase letters.

Week 12

Specific feedback:The text display we are doing now is more like a poster, so we have to redo it. You can refer to the provided file.

Week 13

Continue to change the application

Week 14

General Feedbacks: Complete the submission for task 3 and final compilation & reflection in class.

Specific Feedbacks: Can add font preview into the blog.

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REFLECTION

Experiences

This was by far the most difficult task as we needed to complete designing, building and finalizing our own brand new typeface. I had a very difficult time at the beginning as designing letterforms was one of my weaknesses in this module , trying to find a suitable way to communicate my design without being too confusing and complicated. After some trial and error, I finally completed my design. Admittedly, its structure still has some flaws, but I'm glad that despite the difficulties I encountered during the refinement process and application formatting, I was able to complete the assignment on time.

Observations

Consistency in letterforms doesn't necessarily mean repeating a single element across all letters, but rather finding a way to make it a feature that stands out among a handful of letters. I noticed that creating fonts requires a lot of knowledge and time. The most challenging aspect for me was keeping all the letters and punctuation consistent. Additionally, kerning took more time in the process than I expected.

Findings

Through this assignment I was able to further appreciate the structure and design of each building and their relevance to history. Each design is well thought out in its application, which is why we should pay careful attention to how we want to present the letter forms to further enhance their use and versatility in other form applications.Typography is a craft that requires aesthetic awareness and technical proficiency.

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FUTHER READING

Fig  Book Cover : Typographic Design: Form and Communication

Capital & Lowercase Letters: 

Text is set entirely in capital letters, it loses legibility, placing the reader at a significant disadvantage. In this chapter, the text demonstrates that a word set in all capital letters is characterised by a straight horizontal alignment, creating an even word outline with letters of similar shape and size. Moreover, typing set in this manner severely retards reading - more so than any other legibility factor. A reader that is not been provided with visual cues that make words recognizable.