August 22, 2021

ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY - TASK 1 EXERCISES

ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY - TASK 1 EXERCISES, FINDING TYPE, TYPE&PLAY

23RD AUGUST (WEEK 1)

NG VEYHAN (0349223) / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY

TASK 1 EXERCISES, FINDING TYPE

Lecture Notes:

AdTyp_0 // Turning The Tables

For this lecture tutorial, Mr. Vinod briefed us on the upcoming learning style that we are going to adopt for the coming semester. In contrast to the past semester where most of the practical knowledge required is given by the lecture tutorials, we are now required to search the internet for such information, similarly to the Design Principles module from the first semester.

AdTyp_1 // Typographic Systems

The topic covered in this lecture tutorial are the different systems that can be used to help express the text to convey.

Axial designs are defined by the organization of all the elements in the composition around one axis.

(Fig 01, Axial Poster Example, 23/8/2021)

Radial designs have elements that "spread outwards" from a point of focus in the composition.

(Fig 02, Radial Poster Example, 23/8/2021)

Dilatational designs have elements that form a circular shape as it expands from a point of focus.

(Fig 03, Dilatational Poster Example, 23/8/2021)

Random designs, as the name implies, have elements with no evident visual correlation whatsoever.

(Fig 04, Random Poster Design Example, 23/8/2021)

Grid designs, make use of a rigid grid structure to produce a composition. While less visually striking than other systems, proper utilization can create very well balanced compositions.

(Fig 05, Grid Poster Example, 23/8/2021)

Modular designs have elements that when having their positions shuffled, can still produce a coherent arrangement due to its standardized design.

(Fig 06, Modular Poster Example, 23/8/2021)

Transitional designs have a layered quality where elements can move on a horizontal axis freely and still maintain a good composition.

(Fig 07, Transitional Poster Example, 23/8/2021)

Bilateral designs feature elements that are centered around a central axis, and the information is presented in a symmetrical manner extending from both sides of the center axis.

(Fig 08, Bilateral Poster Example, 23/8/2021)

These systems help serve as the base to help further develop the final design of the text. Imagination is the only limit when it comes to developing a visually appealing piece of text.

AdTyp_2 // Typographic Composition

The aim of learning typographic composition is the help facilitate the placement of text on a "canvas", in order to create a balanced design.

2D Grids are very commonly used in this process as it is versatile and easy to visualize when considering the placement of text.

(Fig 09, Example of Grid Usage, 23/8/2021)

Grids that simulate a 3D environment such as environment grids can also help create a more dynamic looking composition as it helps create a sense of depth through techniques such as foreshortening.

(Fig 10 ,Example of Perspective Grid in Use, 23/8/2021)

Movement also helps create a more visually appealing composition as it creates a dynamic quality in the text. Distortion effects are one such method creating the illusion of movement, which makes the design look less still.

(Fig 11, Use of Distortion to Create Movement, 23/8/2021)

AdTyp_3 // Context & Creativity

In this video lecture, Mr. Vinod talked about the history of type and design and how it has developed over the course of history. He encouraged us to take inspiration from experiences that we have in order to create something fresh and innovative, rather than something that is time tested and set in stone by existing conventions.

AdTyp_4 // Designing Type

The first half of this lecture video was something akin to a history lesson. Mr. Vinod covered the history of how various typefaces came to be and why people continue to invent new typefaces. Hopefully this would serve as an inspiration to see how examples can be taken from historical events.

After that, he covered the general process of designing type. The steps of the process can be boiled down to:

- Research

- Sketching

- Testing

- Deploying

AdTyp_5 // Perception & Organization

The most important part of designing type, or any other design application, is the perception of said work. Any unconventional or odd designs can be justified as long as it is perceivable as a good work.

Contrast is one such method to alter the perception of any given type. By changing the size, orientation, direction, or even colour, attention can be drawn to a subject to create contrast and attract the viewers attention.

Something that has been covered in the Design Principles module in the first semester, gestalt principle should be considered to create a composition that is legible with minimal ambiguity.

Instruction:

Practical

Task 1A:

In the first week of the semester, Mr. Vinod instructed us to work on the axial typographic system to see how much knowledge we still had retained from the previous semester. This also gave us students a chance to work on the first composition of this exercise to ensure we had a proper idea of what was expected of this exercise.

Opting for the punk-themed text All Ripped Up, I did a little research into its culture.

(Fig 12, Example Poster, 25/8/2021)

Punk culture has a large emphasis on non-conformity, with members of the subculture sporting brightly colored, gaudy and flashy clothing and defined by their loud taste in songs in the form of punk rock. There is also a "DIY" culture within the group with many home modified articles in clothing, which also results in the patchwork-esque aesthetic that is commonly seen in associated media.

(Fig 13, Layout Planning, 28/8/2021)

Before I began deciding what typeface to use in each composition, I wanted to ensure that I had a basic layout that would suit the design that I envisioned. Instead of using any placeholder text, I used large blocks of solid grey to prevent too much focus being shifted to typeface and colour.

(Fig 14, Basic Design, 30/8/2021)

Deciding on what typeface to use was a also a bit of a challenge for me. As the theme of the design that I was creating was based off a punk aesthetic, the typeface that would suit it the most would be a very informal looking typeface. In the end, I did settle on using Garamond and its fonts.

After the basic plotting of a design (the axial design in the case above), I used the pen tool to create the basic shapes that would compose the graphical portion of the elements. Some designs I felt were a bit too difficult to create as they were non-geometric and I am frankly still a bit unskilled with Illustrator to create an appealing recreation of the sketch.

(Fig 15, Dilatational Sketch, 30/8/2021)

(Fig 16, Designing Dilatational Composition, 30/8/2021)

Per a trick that was taught to us by Mr. Vinod, I used the number of columns and rows to create a grid to act as a base for the grid system of design. Conveniently, any added elements would also snap to the grids, which makes alignment easier as well.

(Fig 17, Setting Up Grid, 30/8/2021)

(Fig 18, Adding Text to Grid, 30/8/2021)

When designing the modular themed portion of the exercise, I had quite a lot of trouble finding a unique shape that could be rearranged and still maintain its "look". Instead of thinking of geometric shapes such as squares and circles, I thought of the isometric illustrations that I see quite often on the web. Since these illustrations are based of cubes, it could be stacked around in a modular fashion, therefore I took inspiration from there.

(Fig 19, "Isometric Illustration of a Room" by CorArt, 12/4/2020)

(Fig 20, Creating a sheared square, 30/8/2021)

Arranging the layout for this design was also slightly confusing as I didn't know what dimensions I wanted to make the grid. As the nature of the distorted square was also taller than it was wide, the uneven ratio made design look rather awkward at certain placements.

(Fig 21, Testing its arrangement, 30/8/2021)

After completing this process for each of the 8 designs required, all that was left was to export them into a jpg file and then compile them together for the pdf submission.

JPEG submissions:

(Axial) (Modular)

(Grid) (Dilatational)

(Radial) (Transitional)

(Random) (Bilateral)

PDF submission:

Task 1B: Part One - Finding Type

This weeks exercise required us to extract letterforms from a source image. I believed that it would be easier to visualize and extract potential letters from images with images with more random elements. When searching for a source image to be used for this exercise, I found this picture I had taken a few years ago at a botanical garden. I felt that it would serve the purpose of this exercise well enough and therefore settled on using this image.

(Fig 22, Roses at Cameron Highlands, July 2017)

The first thing I did was to just try and identify any letters that can be created by the contours of the feathers. I made some quick scribbles on the image just to denote the basic shape of the letter as well as indicate its position for easier reference in Illustrator later.

(Fig 23, Scribbles, 2/9/2021)

When I had to import the image to Illustrator for tracing the letterform, I realized that the rather dark background made it hard to distinguish between the lines I had drawn and the image itself, as such I had to tone down the opacity to make it slightly more visible. Afterwards, I had taken the original unedited image and traced over the areas of the letterform.

(Fig 24, Raw Extraction, 2/9/2021)

After extracting the raw letterforms, it was still very rough and required refinement. I laid down some baselines to create a standardized size for all the letters and scaled them accordingly. For the letters with stems, I tried to straighten the stems more and standardize the stroke width of the letters.

(Fig 25, Letter Refining, 2/9/2021)

After refining the letters, all that was left was to export each letter individually as well as compile them together into a pdf for submission.

JPEG submission:

PDF submission:

Type & Play Exercise

This weeks exercise was more akin to what we have learned in the Digital Photography and Imaging module that I had the previous semester. The goal of this exercise was to seamlessly incorporate type elements into an image.

Since I had various photos from my days in my high schools' photography club, I decided to create an image based off the term "photography" and using an image from then.

(Fig 26, Deluge, August 2017)

I felt that the image looked like an something I'd see out of a magazine cover or two page spread, and wanted to design the text with this in mind. When considering the text that I would use for the type, I wanted to use a term that would fit with the theme of photography.

When brainstorming for the text ideas, the main subject of the image have me an idea. The focus was an eye which is the most important part of photography. Since the part of camera that involves the eye is the "viewfinder" I decided to name it as such. In relation to the main title text, I wanted to incorporate some text in the background, and went with "taking the shot".

Now I had to begin the process of creating the image itself. Importing the image into Photoshop, I first added the plain text, just to create a general sense of the composition I'm working with.

(Fig 27, Inserting Text, 18/9/2021)

The first and most important part of altering the text is to incorporate it into its surroundings. I wanted to align the text around the subject of the image. Splitting the words into individual letters, I used the perspective tool to get the basic orientation of the text against the surface of the eyelid, the distort tool to adjust its scale according the curve of the eyebrow above, and the warp tool to curve the top of the letter to make it fit better.

(Fig 28, Warping Text, 18/9/2021)

Even after altering the position and shape of the text, it still looked very flat and out of place. Changing the blending mode of the layer to overlay changed the text based on the layer below it, and made it look like as if it was actually on the skin. Since there was a bokeh effect on the image as well, I used a light blur tool to blur the edges of the text slightly to blend the text into the blurred regions.

(Fig 29, Edge Softening, 18/9/2021)

While I was fairly satisfied with the black and white version of this image, I wondered if the contrast can be enhanced through the use of one colour for the text. Going for yellow, it was slightly reminiscent of the cover of National Geographic magazines. Duplicating the layer, I locked the transparent pixels and just coloured the duplicate layer yellow.

(Fig 30, Yellow Text, 18/9/2021)

After completing all the steps above, it was largely complete. However I felt that the text can still be improved a little more. While the nature of the overlay layer makes the text consistent with the lighting of the original layer, it could be more striking. Adding two separate layers, I used a low opacity brush to create a very slightly stronger shadow for the darker regions, and another for highlights to further accentuate the bright regions.

(Fig 31, Small Adjustments, 18/9/2021)

Due to the strong contrast between different regions of the background, the text in the background had interesting differences in different parts. All I had to do was give it a strong blur and change the blending mode to soft light.

JPEG submission:

B&W version

Coloured version

PDF submission:

Feedback

WEEK 1: Mr. Vinod went through most of our designs that we have made during this lecture. As general feedback, he pointed out that many of us could have done better with the spacing of text from the graphical elements, which was also pointed out as more specific feedback to my work as well. The stroke width of the axis that I had used for the axial line in the design could also have been thinner to draw less attention away from the type itself.

WEEK 2: For specific feedback, Mr. Vinod said that the idea behind the dilatational composition was interesting, however it broke the rules slightly as all the text on the composition has to expand around a center point with no exceptions, nevertheless it was still passable. For more general feedback, he had given us similar advice to last week, with focus on the placement of text, along with spacing between the other non-essential elements in the composition.

WEEK 3: For the final week of Task 1A, Mr. Vinod gave some final advice before concluding this exercise. He commented on the grid design that I had put up, and while it did adhere to the principles of the grid design, the area with dark backdrop was overly prominent and distracting. One of my designs for the bilateral system was also commented on, and it had too much negative space and all the text was clustered together in the center, which created an uneven composition.

WEEK 4: For the exercise in finding type, Mr. Vinod commented that it was unsuitable for the purpose of this exercise, as I had extracted the letterforms from the outlines of the petals. He recommended that I instead look for letterforms in the petals itself. As for more general feedback, he advised us to be more detailed when outlining elements that a have a more "organic" theme.

WEEK 5: For the exercise of image and type, Mr. Vinod commented that the work itself was mostly well executed, and that the composition was sound. There were some technical aspects that could have been done better, particularly the transparency of the text in certain regions could have been changed to blend the text into the image better.

Reflections

WEEK 1: Coming back to studying Typography after a long break resulted in a some trouble getting back up to speed. While thankfully I was able to get back into using InDesign fairly easily, the conceptual stage of designing a composition for the type was very difficult as I couldn't find much inspiration at the time.

WEEK 2: For the 2nd week, Mr. Vinod had given us another week to work on these compositions despite the fact that it would put us a little behind schedule. While the work from other modules have not really piled up yet, I still would like to put more effort into these small assignments before things get hectic.

WEEK 3: At this point we're wrapping up the first exercise, but frankly I feel that I'm still lacking in terms of the quality of the work I put out. Perhaps its the lack of exploration in my work, but I still feel that I need to be doing better before moving onto the larger projects.

WEEK 4: For this new exercise, I rather enjoyed the process of creating the image. Personally I think it was due to the practical process of this exercise falling more into photo editing more than solely on designing type. It was still rather difficult getting a grasp on the designing letterforms for the previous weeks' exercise, however.

WEEK 5: As we are wrapping up all the Task 1 exercises this week, I have focused more attention on the upcoming task 2 exercises, which I thought was an interesting change of pace compared to what we are doing currently.

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NG VEYHAN (349223)