ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY - TASK 2A & 2B
ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY - TASK 2A & 2B
20TH SEPTEMBER - 18TH OCTOBER(WEEK 6 - WEEK 8)
NG VEYHAN (0349223) / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY
TASK 2A & B
Instruction
Practical
Task 2A
I had to consider the work that I would be doing for Task 2B before deciding on how to create the key artwork for Task 2A. I am personally an avid fan of the Japanese rock and rap scene, therefore I wanted to create a poster related to that later on. One of the more prolific events in this music scene would be the Fuji Rock Festival taking place annually.
(Fig 01, Fuji Rock Festival '21 poster, Bandwagon Asia, 2021)
The theme of the event would revolve largely around the Japanese rock scene, which takes many influences from 80s rock bands and adds an indie twist to the genre, creating a subgenre that caters more to the current youth, all while maintaining the "hard" aspects of rock.
According to the requirements of the task, I should use either my initials or my entire name in the key artwork. I felt that using the entire name was too long relative to its height, and would be difficult to create an appealing composition. To start off the designing process, I just created some sketches with not much clear direction, just to get an idea of the general shape of the artwork.
(Fig 02, Basic sketches, 21/9/2021)
In order to further refine the sketch, I decided to move on to Illustrator as it had grids, that would help me measure out lengths and widths accurately instead of refining a sketch freehand. Drawing out some baselines, I mapped out the area for each stroke of the artwork that would be shared across the designs that I had planned out.
(Fig 03, Grids and Layout, 21/9/2021)
To help maintain consistency with the curves in one of the designs that featured rounded corners, I had used some tricks for drawing tangents that I learned previously in math class during high school, which I had not expected to come in useful in such a time. It helped create a uniform stroke width across the diagonal stroke which I otherwise would have found difficult to achieve.
(Fig 04, Using Circles as Guidelines , 21/9/2021)
I duplicated the grids onto any new artboards to save some time and also to make sure that the designs were all aligned properly to the center of the artboard. The designs with largely angular shapes was much easier to create than those with more round elements.
(Fig 05, Completed Artboards, 21/9/2021)
With the completed design of the base artwork, I needed to select one to be used further on in Task 2B, to create a poster with.
(Fig 06-08, Key Artwork Examples, 21/9/2021)
After an review session with Mr. Vinod, he noted that the first design could be altered to have slimmer strokes and it would look better. Therefore after a quick correction, I was settled on the artwork that I would then be using in the upcoming task.
JPEG submission:
PDF submission:
Task 2B
Following the work that was done in the previous task, we were now instructed to create a poster involving the key artwork we had made. I had already planned the theme that the artwork would be based on in the previous task. As I had focused on work from other modules for the week, I had to whip together a poster quickly.
(Fig 09, Reference Event Table, 29/9/2021)
(Fig 10, Initial Design Reference, 29/9/2021)
Following the list of performers in the event above, I was planning on how to arrange the all the information into the single poster, which in hindsight was not the best idea. At first I created
a series of lines that was somewhat reminiscent of the graphics of subway route diagrams.
(Fig 11, Title and Logo, 29/9/2021)
I would then proceed to add all of the relevant information with smaller text in the negative space left by the lines. As the text didn't fit in a grid style arrangement, I had to shift the elements in the middle column a little lower to compensate.
(Fig 12, Adding information, 29/9/2021)
(Fig 13, Uncoloured Poster, 29/9/2021)
(Fig 14, Coloured First Attempt, 29/9/2021)
The design of this poster was very disappointing, for lack of a better term. Looking at its completed state, I felt that it was just a hodgepodge of random colours thrown together on a drab background. Mr. Vinod had commented on how the poster had no arrangement to it and that the colours didn't match.
I also made a quick second attempt at another poster, but there was no feedback for it.
(Fig 15, Poster Second Attempt, 29/9/2021)
(Fig 09, Poster for The Police, Greg Eckler, date n.a.)
(Fig 10, ACDC Lock Up Your Daughters Tour, 1972)
I ended up choosing these two posters to be my two references. I like the arrangement of the elements of the first poster, as the "direction" of the elements pointed in a diagonally, with the title slanted at an angle, and the subjects arranged diagonally as well, which I felt made an interesting flow in the composition. I chose the second poster for its framing, and its sharp contrast between the colours of the poster, an largely completely black subject with a strong red background.
As the event that the poster is based on is a Japanese rock concert, it isn't a complete replica of the 80s rock scene. It does incorporate some modern elements as well as an affinity with the Japanese rap scene and also electronica subgenre. Therefore I also had to consider adding some fresh new elements.
(Fig 11, 3x3 Grid, 6/10/2021)
First off, I added a plain black background along with a thin white frame similar to the fashion of the ACDC poster. I had also decided that the text would go underneath said border of the poster, instead of over, to give the poster a little sense of depth.
(Fig 12, Inserting Title, 6/10/2021)
Adding the title was pretty standard fare, by creating a diagonal line and using the text on path tool to type following the angle of the line. Duplicating it for another row of text also ensured consistency of the angle that the text was pointing in.
I wanted to add an image texture of an iridescent foil to serve as the fill for the text. Since Illustrator did not support layer based raster masks like Photoshop does, I had to play around with clipping masks by converting the texts into a series of outlines and then using them to mask the texture to create a letter with the foil texture.
(Fig 13, Masking Textures with text, 6/10/2021)
I had to then add the key artwork to the poster. The design of the key artwork had a line extending from the slides of the text to create a sort of continuous line from outside the poster to the letters. This proved to be quite a tricky part as it required the deletion of some anchor points which made a mess of the preexisting shapes.
(Fig 14, Extending line from text, 6/10/2021)
I also wanted to add some photographic elements in the poster. As such, I found some pictures of my favourite band in the lineup of the concert to be added into the poster. I liked the "ripped paper" aesthetic that some posters used for photos, therefore I used a rough paint brush in Photoshop to erase and add jagged edges to the photo, emulating the edge of ripped paper. A little white was also added along the borders to create an illusion of paper as well.
(Fig 15, Creating the ripped paper look, 6/10/2021)
(Fig 16, Black and White Image, 6/10/2021)
Once I added the photos into the poster in Illustrator, I realized that I also needed a graphic with the names of the artists to add "something interesting" to the poster. I then exported the entire file into a PSD and continued my work there.
(Fig 17, Tape Brush, 6/10/2021)
Using a custom Photoshop brush in the shape of a length of tape, I added two pieces of tape with the name of the artists written on in with a typewriter-esque font. After that, I also used a soft airbrush to add some soft shadows behind the photographs to make the black background look a little less flat. Some colour correction on the foil texture in the title, then the poster was then complete.
(Fig 18, Completed Poster, 6/10/2021)
Using the same assets that I had used for the poster, I wanted to create text that would pan in from the side, due to the long extension lines in the poster title lending itself well to this style. I first added the white border of the poster, which would transition in with a circular wipe. I didn't want the fill of the text to be static in the text, instead I wanted to make the fill of the text move along a texture. To achieve that, in created a solid colour version of the text to be used as a mask over a unmoving texture.
(Fig 19, Creating Image to Mask, 6/10/2021)
The masking process was absolutely atrocious, as adding over one mask of text to the texture image completely altered the work that was done for another mask. I finally found a solution which involved creating duplicates of the texture and binding them to a separate layer mask each.
(Fig 20, Masking Texture with Text in Premiere, 6/10/2021)
Adding movement to the little information text in the invite was also easy enough. A subtle downwards movement along with a sharp increase in opacity helped create a smooth entry for the text that I felt wasn't too distracting. The two images used in the poster was also included in this invite, and they are set to move in rapidly from opposite sides of the screen and settle on the corners opposite to their entry.
(Fig 21, Adding Movement to Text, 6/10/2021)
The final part of this task was the creation of 2 collateral items using the key artwork developed in Task 2A. Initially I was quite clueless on what software to use for this part of the project, but after some quick browsing, I've come to know that such mockups was created with Adobe Dimension.
Installing the application, which was surprisingly lightweight, I watched up some tutorials on YouTube to get the basics on how to operate it.
(Fig 22, Experimenting with Adobe Dimension, 6/10/2021)
In essence, it was a 3D model posing software with some preset lightings and scenes. All that was required of the user was only to add the graphic to be used, adjust the lighting and angle to get the correct perspective relative to the background image.
Poster:
JPEG submission:
PDF submission:
Animated Invite
GIF submission:
Collateral:
JPEG submission:
PDF submission:
Feedback
WEEK 6: The key artwork was a little too complicated and could be simplified further. Generally, most of our artworks also fell into the overly complicated category, a good design should be easily memorable due to a simple design.
WEEK 7: While the form of the key artwork was fine as it was fairly representative of the 80s rock aesthetic that I was going for, the poster was very underwhelming as it had no set form and didn't reflect the theme of the poster that I was going for. I was advised to exploit the use of forms to create the poster.
WEEK 8: No feedback for this week as it was the Independent Learning Week of the semester.
Reflections
WEEK 6: The execution the key artwork itself wasn't difficult, however the conceptual aspect was rather confusing to me. I wondered whether a simple design could convey the theme that I wanted, despite a good amount of time was spent thinking of a solution to this question, I still hadn't really found an absolute answer.
WEEK 7: I had to spend quite some more time in trying to develop another poster, however given that the first poster was just a weak attempt, I think I could create something that is substantially better. Although the coming week might be the Independent Learning Week, there's no opportunity to relax yet as there's still work to be done.
WEEK 8: There was no class this week, but I still had the animated invite and collateral to work on this week. The two collaterals was simple enough to create, but the animated invite took some time and skill to work around properly. It did give me some time to catch up with work in other modules, though.
Further Reading
Thinking With Type, by Ellen Lupton
(Fig 23, Thinking With Type)
Certain typefaces, such as Didot and Bodoni, both have roots from a calligraphic style of writing. The bold, thick letters of these typefaces have found their way to advertising and gained popularity. On a personal note, I also feel that this could be the case, considering the extensive use of typefaces such as Helvetica in modern advertising.
Examples were given on how arrangement of text could influence how it could be perceived, such as using a large type when printed on paper with a small form factor could be used to create a dramatic effect. A skilled designer could also use a classical typeface such as Garamond in a contemporary layout to create a chaotic, but still appealing composition.
//END OF SUBMISSION//
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