Typography : Task 3A - Type Design and Communication

June 08, 2022

Typography : Task 3A - Type Design and Communication

18.05.2022 - 08.06.2022 ( week 8 - week 10 )
Len Hoi Yee / 0353430
Typography / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Task 2: Type Design and Communication

Instruction

Week 8 (18.05.2022 - 25.05.2022)

For this task, we were to design a limited number of western alphabets. The letters are: a, e, t, g, k, r, i, y, m, p, n, !, #, . .

In this task, there are a number of things to take note with:

canvas 1000 pt
x-height 500 pt
overshoot of rounded parts
start designing o, a, t, h
make sure to keep a master copy of the designed letters
delete the unneeded anchor points

Visual research

Fig 1.1 First font inspiration, Week 8 (20.05.2022)

First, before I start diving into looking for inspiration, I wanted to create a typeface that is completely different from the 10 Typefaces that we were tied to use since we have been using those typefaces for Tasks 1 and 2. So for this task, I planned to go with a cool and aesthetic kind of design. While I was going through Google Fonts, I realised the typefaces there were either similar or designs that I don't like, so I moved on and continue looking for inspiration. While exploring, I found this font interesting but I still couldn't find a way to design something based on this as a reference, nothing was on my mind.

Fig 1.2 Font inspiration, Week 8 (20.05.2022)

All of a sudden, I thought of an old anime that I used to watch and because of its unique font used in its title made me remember it up until now. It is called Black Butler, Kuroshitsuji.

Fig 1.3 Specific parts of the font inspiration, Week 8 (20.05.2022)

Then I looked up on the internet about the font, which is Gothique Font. I found it cool due to its slanted ends of the strokes, the serifs and the thickness.

Fig 1.4 Gothique font inspiration, Week 8 (20.05.2022)

I personally love calligraphy font a lot, and Gothique font has caught my attention since young, I really love the combination of the thick and thin stroke. Honestly, to me, I feel Gothique font has always given me the royalty kind of vibe, because back in the calligraphic era, calligraphy became widely used, especially in royalty. I have always wanted to write calligraphy sophistically and gracefully but I had no guide.

Fig 1.5 Gothique font inspiration, Week 8 (20.05.2022)

While I was brainstorming about how I am going to design my typeface using Gothique as reference. So I thought about the first inspiration. From the a(right), I was thinking about making it more solid and pointy and then combining Gothique style, I thought of creating the strokes with sharp ends.

Sketch

Fig 1.6 First sketch, Week 8 (20.05.2022)

#1,2,3: The strokes are like the pawns in chess, and the rounded part would be a more solid shape, a diamond I'd say. These 3 sketches are the same but they differ in the sizes of the rounded parts, #2 is more intermediate and #3 is larger than the other 2.

#4: This sketch is very pointy in terms of their rounded parts and the strokes are designed towards the right.

#6,7,8(left): These 2 sketches are the same. The differences are just the sides that are darkened and not darkened and the strokes. For #8(left), the stokes are slightly different which is the top end is a flat surface but the bottom end is sharpened towards the right.

I guess these sketches are not workable as a typeface because it looks too decorative, but maybe more like a design, If I had designed those as a typeface, I guess people wouldn't use it :( . Sketches from #8(right) to #12 are new sketches after receiving Mr Vinod's feedback.

Fig 1.7 Example given by Mr Vinod, Week 8 (25.05.2022)

Fig 1.8 New design sketch, Week 8 (25.05.2022)

So after receiving feedback from Mr Vinod, I immediately drew the idea that pops up in my mind. I drew out the new sketches and let Mr Vinod have a look so that I could proceed to digitalisation. In the end, I chose to go with sketch #11.

Fig 1.9 New design sketch, Week 8 (27.05.2022)

Sketch #11 is a thick font with slanted stroke at the top end and a serif at the bottom end. I have toned the steepness of the slanted end and made it less decorative so it becomes a font that is doable. I really like the idea of the slanted top end and the pointy downward stroke, it really gives out the gothic vibe.

Week 9 (25.05.2022 - 01.06.2022)

Deconstruction

Fig 2.1 Deconstruction " g, t ,m " - Univers LT Std 65 Bold, Week 9 (27.05.2022)

The ascender length and descender length are different
The length of the horizontal stroke in "t" is imbalanced for both sides.
The downward strokes for both "t" and "m" are the same but different for "g"
The widths for each letter are not the same

Digitalisation

Fig 2.2 Guidelines, Week 9 (27.05.2022)

This is a guideline for us to start digitalising our font. We have to follow the guidelines in order to create a font with consistent height and width.

Fig 2.3 Base structure of the letters, Week 9 (27.05.2022)

This is the base structure of the letterforms. I made this base structure for parts that are rounded such as "a", "g", "p", and "e".

Fig 2.4 Construction of downward stroke, Week 9 (27.05.2022)

First, I used Pen tool to construct the pointed downward stroke by drawing a triangle, then I used the curvature tool to curve the right part to create a sharp serif. Then I created a nice downward stroke. Also, I did not forget to adjust the top end that is slight slanted down to the right. (and here is a little sneak peek of the letter "a". heheee. )

Fig 2.5 Alternative way of downward stroke construction , Week 9 (27.05.2022)

Honestly, I really like that sharp bottom end of the downward stroke, so I tried an alternative way to beautify it, I created a triangular shape so it's easy to adjust the curve by using the Curvature tool.

Fig 2.6 Construction of the letter "k", Week 9 (27.05.2022)

So after I am done with creating the base structures, I began to combine the parts together. So, here is letter "k", At first, I designed the letter "k" in the first picture, in the second picture, I created multiple variants to try which one best suits my font style.

Fig 2.7 Construction of the letter "r", Week 9 (27.05.2022)

For "r", I have tried out a few widths of the "r" and according to the width of my font that time, I went for the first "r".

Fig 2.8 Construction of the letter "y", Week 9 (27.05.2022)

For "y", I was just struggling with descender and I couldn't figure out the best stroke, it applies the same for letter "e" and "g".

Fig 2.9 Construction of the letter "e", Week 9 (27.05.2022)

If you can tell, it was chaotic when designing letter "e", because I had to give it the serif stroke as its tail without interfering the base structure on top. It was really hard for me to adjust until I have ran out of ideas and I just wanted to consult Mr Vinod to see if he could help me.

Fig 2.10 First attempt , Week 9 (30.05.2022)

First attempt of font digitalisation.

Week 10 (01.06.2022 - 08.06.2022)

After consulting MrVinod, there were a lot of things I had to work on especially, the "y","g", "e", "r", and the punctuations. So, I have made a lot of amendments here and there, especially for the weird ones.

Second attempt

Changing the strokes according to the base structure

Fig 3.1 First attempt vs second attempt , Week 10 (03.06.2022)

After the feedback session, I cleared my mind to think things straight and be able to make wise judgement, I studied the base structure again and made some changes. For my base structure, it's a diamond shape where the bottom left and top right strokes are thin lines whereas the bottom right and top left are thick lines, so I have to follow that for other letters as well.

The ones on the left are first attempt and the ones on the right are after amendments. For "k", I have decided to change the bottom right stroke to the same as the downward stroke because they both are downward strokes so I figured I have to follow it, and I find it appealing too.

Fig 3.2 second attempt , Week 10 (03.06.2022)

In second attempt, I have corrected the downward strokes, the tails and the punctuation. However, still notice there are problems with the thin line being weird and I would like the tail to have serif, so I planned to add serif to the tail for the letters "g", "y", "e" and "r". Another thing is the width consistency, from here, we can see the letter "e" is slightly smaller when put together with the other letters, and other letters with the base structure such as "a", "p", "g" are too wide.

Third attempt

Fig 3.3 Attempt 1,2, and 3 , Week 10 (03.06.2022)

In my third attempt, I have given a small serif for the letters with thin tail and I feel it's weird too.

Fourth attempt

Fig 3.4 Attempt 1,2, 3 and 4 , Week 10 (03.06.2022)

So in my fourth attempt, I have made the serif into a triangle, this has made the tail looks like the base structure except that the other rectangle is cut into a triangle shape, it still has the same angle at the tail with the base structure.

Fig 3.5 Fourth attempt , Week 10 (03.06.2022)

Fifth attempt

Fig 3.6 Fifth attempt , Week 10 (03.06.2022)

In my fifth try, I have changed the size of the "a" to a smaller one since most of the letters are better in smaller width.

Fig 3.7 All attempts for letter "e" , Week 10 (03.06.2022)

Ugh. Letter "e" is the pain the ass. I spent a lot of time trying to adjust this letter so it doesn't look like a midget when put next to the other letters. I struggled with the angle and the stroke. I wanted to keep tail with the serif and to adjust it at a perfect angle, I had to fix the basic structure without interfering with the thickness. So, this letter legit cost so much of my time.

Font Lab

Fig 3.8 Importing fonts into Font Lab, Week 10 (05.06.2022)

Fig 3.9 Imported fonts into Font Lab, Week 10 (05.06.2022)

After importing the fonts into Font Lab, I typed "make type great again!" to play around with the fonts and also to make sure kerning is on point.

Fig 3.10 Playing around with the fonts , Week 10 (05.06.2022)

While playing around with the letters, I did kerning as well to ensure the letters are in right place.

Fig 3.11 Before kerning(left) vs after kerning(right) , Week 10 (05.06.2022)

Poster Design

After everything is done in Font Lab, it's time to export the fonts into Adobe Illustrator and create my poster.

Text: make type great again!

Fig 3.12 Poster design layout, Week 10 (05.06.2022)

Fig 3.13 Poster design layout, Week 10 (05.06.2022)

I personally love the last design the most but unfortunately, the restriction of creating this poster is that we have to maintain the font size the same.

Fig 3.14 New poster design layout #1, Week 10 (08.06.2022)

Fig 3.15 New poster design layout #2, Week 10 (08.06.2022)

After receiving Mr Vinod's feedback, I have made a new layout as the old ones are pretty small as in the fonts are too small. We created the fonts to emphasise it so I have to utilise the space wisely to make my font stand out.

Fig 3.16 Problem faced in Font Lab, Week 10 (08.06.2022)

Just when I thought I could finally export my fonts, Font Lab decided to fail me. This problem may look tiny but the consequences of it is indescribable. I noticed some weird strokes in my fonts when I was doing my poster. This has nothing to do with Adobe Illustrator because I went to check it was nicely done but when I imported it in Font Lab it changed. Thankfully, I was able to remove it and the stroke is the same as before.

Final Outcome

Download link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YD4PpwwoX1SdFag8eoVhSjNl5UDq-nAN/view?usp=sharing

Fig 3.17 'razed' Final Outcome, Week 10 (05.06.2022)

Fig 3.18 Final Poster Outcome in white - JPEG, Week 10 (08.06.2022)

Fig 3.19 Final Poster Outcome in black - JPEG, Week 10 (08.06.2022)

Fig 3.20 Final Poster Outcome in white - PDF, Week 10 (08.06.2022)

Fig 3.21 Final Poster Outcome in black - PDF, Week 10 (08.06.2022)

Feedback

Week 10 (01.06.2022)

Specific feedback:
For the letter "i" try avoid using the base structure as the head of the "i", there is inconsistency in thickness in the tail for y and g. the tail is not following the base structure. The e is thinner than others. punctuations are not working out.

Mr Vinod suggested that I should follow the base structure for the "e" as I was struggling with designing "e", I can add a tail for it if I want, just have to maintain the thickness, the same goes for "y" and "g". Also, make the punctuations more bigger. he told me I can use Black letter as reference.

Week 9 (25.05.2022)

General feedback: We tend to choose the loudest font, try to create something more moderate.

Specific feedback:
Sketch #1-#3 are overly dramatic and decorative, have to tone it down and sketch #4-#7 seem to be toning down a bit but still have to reduce the intensity.

Mr Vinod said that my attempt to make it more original has damaged the look and feel of the letterform I m trying to create, He suggested I study Gothique font more and don't have to add or design something completely different.

Mr Vinod likes the stroke but the angle for the stroke is a disaster, angle is too steep, I have to control the steepness, so the stroke doesn't have an aggressive slant.

For sketch #8-#10, #8 is too weird and no convention, #10 is better and realistic for a font.
Mr Vinod supported my old design and all i have to do is just tone down the steepness of the stroke.

Reflection

Experience

I would say I am very exhausted from this project because of time-consuming, multiple times of failures and technical problems happened. At one point, I wanted to give up and just ignore the small problems, but some minor errors can cause huge consequences. I can't stand leaving the problems there and not solving it with my very best. There were many times when I thought I was finally done, there's always another issue popping out. I have to say I was very stressed with all the technical issues and apps crashing, on top of that deadline was around the corner. Ugh. Thankfully, I managed to resolve it on time.

Well, on the bright side, I was able to create my own Typeface in this project, which I am very excited about because I love calligraphy fonts and to be able to design a Typeface is something that I can never imagine myself doing it. I wouldn't say that 'razed' is an excellent work confidently because this is my first time designing it and I am sure that there is more room for improvement and that I hope to improve in the future so I am able to design sophisticated Typefaces.

Observation

Also, some letterforms are easy to design but some are not, it also depends on the typeface. There are a lot of things I had to consider before designing a new letterform or maybe I had to spend a lot of time to make that letter work out. For example, from my design, I had to consider the angle and the thickness or the font, which side should be thin or thick line. Like, for some letters, this method may work on it but it doesn't apply on other letters as well.

Finding

I feel I have to do more and more research on the work that I am assigned to before starting it. Studying and analysing work is important because if I am exposed to more creative artworks or Type design, I am sure it will inspire me and help me in improving in the future.