Typography / Task 3 Type Design & Communication

15.05.23 - 09.06.23 / Week 7 - Week 13
Name: ALYSSA AISYAH BINTI 'ARIEF NASRAN (0364017)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 3: Type Design & Communication

CONTENT

• Research

• Exploration

• Digitalization

• Fontlab Development

• Poster Design

• Final Outcome

• Feedback

• Reflections

• Further Reading

LECTURES

Refer to Task 1

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 3: Type Design & Communication

Task 3: Type Design & Communication requires us to create our very own typeface with the objective that it embodies the qualities of a superior font which includes:

subtlety or character
presence
legibility
readability

The following letters to design are a e t k g r i y m p n ! # , .

Research

It was instructed to pick a font that aligns with the design direction we are pursuing and examine it closely, carefully analyzing its anatomical components. The font I have chosen to study is Bohemian Soul Regular as it has a similar thickness and curvature to my written letters, and I have broken down the letters capital A, T, and R.

Fig 1.0 (Deconstruction of Bohemian Soul Regular Capital A, 05.06.23)

Fig 1.1 (Deconstruction of Bohemian Soul Regular Capital T, 05.06.23)

Fig 1.2 (Deconstruction of Bohemian Soul Regular Capital R, 05.06.23)

After deconstructing these letters and analyzing them more carefully, it becomes evident that despite the fact that they may look symmetrical at first glance, they are actually not, and even possess vast differences in certain areas. This can be observed in the right serif of the letter A where the curve is bigger, while the beak of the letter T is more slanted instead of straight like its stem, asymmetry is especially apparent in the letter R where the ear extends downwards to the descender and in its counter as well.

Exploration

The first phase of the assignment began with a writing exercise using 5 different tools, one of them being an experimental tool, our task was as follows:

Writing diagonal, horizontal, vertical and circular lines for all 5 tools in 5 different ways for each tool.
Writing 'AOTMX' for all 5 tools in 5 different ways for each tool.
Select 1 option from the 5 different options from each tool and write "a e t k g r i y m p n" in the selected style. Choose either UPPERCASE or lowercase to write in.

The tools I have chosen are:

STAEDTLER Standard-Fine Pigment Liner 1.0mm
STAEDTLER Super-Fine Pigment Liner 0.5mm
STAEDTLER Semi-Broad Pigment Liner 0.3-2.0mm
Pilot Calligraphy Lettering Pen 3.0mm
Q-tip (+ Black Ink)

This is followed by practicing each tool on graph paper by writing the instructed strokes and letters. Depending on the angle it is held at or how much pressure is exerted onto the paper, each tool presents a different outcome, the more pressure, the thicker the stroke, while holding a tool at a certain angle can produce a different kind of writing entirely. When writing, it was advised to hold our tool at a constant angle making sure the amount of pressure applied is the same as well to maintain consistency in strokes.

I first started with writing the diagonal, horizontal, vertical and circular lines. To create 5 different ways of writing, I held each tool at a different angle. Some tools such as the Semi-Broad Pigment Liner and Calligraphy Lettering Pen demonstrated the different kinds strokes that can be achieved when a tool is held a certain way, while some tools, like the Q-tip and Both Fine Pigment Liners are more stagnant in their strokes no matter what angle the tool is held at due to the nature of the tool.

Fig 1.3 (Practice with 5 Different Tools of Diagonal, Horizontal, Vertical & Circular Lines, 19.05.23)

Moving on, I then went on to write the letters A O T M X and practiced a few different ways of writing them with each tool making sure that each way of writing was not too similar to the last and had its own uniquely identifiable characteristics.

The first tool I worked with was the Standard-Fine Pigment Liner, this tool was pleasant to work with as the nib glides smoothly across the paper and feels comfortable to write with, the weight of the strokes are also fairly even across the board not being too thick or thin which makes it easy on the eyes and very legible, due to this, the tool seems best suited to more simple and regular sans-serif type fonts especially as body text.

The second tool was the Super-Fine Pigment Liner, the nib of this tool is very small, making the outcome of the writing appear very thin and neat. This tool is good for more precise writing as the smaller nib allows for more control over the pressure and stroke.

The third tool was the Semi-Broad Pigment Liner, this tool in particular varies in the weight of its stroke as the nib is slanted giving the writing a naturally angled look making it great for eye catching text of a title and suitable for writing in medium, broad, fine, or a mixture of them in many different and interesting ways

The fourth tool is the Calligraphy Lettering Pen. This tool was the most interesting to work with as the nib is completely flat which is ideal for creating broad strokes throughout but this can be adjusted to become thinner based on the angle it is held at and the pressure exerted. It is quite a tricky tool to master as it needs to be written very slowly for precision with the pen being lifted at the right intervals, thus getting the strokes to be consistent was challenging.

The final tool was instructed to be an experimental tool- one that is not used for writing, and for this, I have chosen the Q-tip as the structure mimics that of a pen which can be held easily for writing, and more importantly, tip of the swab is absorbent which allows the ink to be held and dispensed properly. As the tip of the swab is very rounded, so are the strokes, the tool is much better at creating curved forms with a blunt finish rather than sharp or straighter ones.

Fig 1.4 (Practice with 5 Different Tools of A O T M X, 19.05.23)

This is then followed by selecting one of the 5 options of writing from each tool in a single graph paper for evaluation.

Fig 1.5 Selected Options of 5 Different Tools of A E T K G R I Y M P N, 19.05.23)

From the 5 selected options, we were then instructed to choose one and practice writing in that style for later digitalization. I have chosen the Calligraphy writing as I liked it the best due to the the unique start of the strokes creating a small "handle" to its sleek more curved finish at the end of letterforms. I then practiced the style of writing in order to familiarize myself with the letterforms structure and gauge consistency in its characteristics.

Fig 1.6 (Practice of A E T K G R I Y M P N with Calligraphy Lettering Pen, 30.05.23)

Digitalization

Before Digitalization, I have identified the best written letters from my practice of A E T K G R I Y M P N to base my digitalized letters on as a point of reference.

Fig 1.7 (Selected Letters for Digitalization, 02.06.23)

To start off, I created guidelines for my letters such as the median, capital height, baseline, ascender, and descender.

Fig 1.7 (First Attempt at Guidelines, 02.06.23)

Then, I went on to create the letters using the pen tool to trace over the image of the selected letters using a different colour with the opacity turned down.

Fig 1.8 (Construction Progress of Digitalized Letterforms, Prototype 1, 02.06.23)

Fig 1.9 (Digitalized Letterforms, Prototype 1, 02.06.23)

On week 10 we received feedback for our first attempt at digitalizing the letterforms, and it was mentioned that when digitalizing the letters, we must ensure that it is not simply our translated writing, but created like an actual typeface that looks like it came from a single family, the horizontal and vertical strokes be consistent throughout, and for each stroke to have a clear starting and ending point. After reflecting on this feedback, I realised the errors above were all errors I had made in creating the letterforms, and decided to start from scratch, furthermore I was not using the guideline of the capital height properly, and I had made my guidelines all wrong in the first place, I also wanted to achieve a more cleaner and neater looking typeface, thus I went back to the drawing board.

I first created the correct guidelines and duplicated them to multiple artboards for each letter, then, I placed the image of my selected letters onto them to act as a reference and guide when creating the actual letterforms.

Fig 2.0 (Second Attempt at Guidelines, 08.06.23)

Fig 2.1 (Placement of Selected Letterforms as Reference, 08.06.23)

Once I had set everything up, I went on to first create the letters E, T, and K as they consisted of strokes that could be reused later for the construction of other letters and made sure the measurements such as the width of the strokes were even with the strokes of other letters to maintain consistency throughout. I have used the pen tool to create the basic structure of letterforms and manipulated the Bezier points accordingly and broke them down to their strokes, making them in separate parts, this way, I could easily fix parts that may need further adjustments later on, I have also turned down the opacity to better observe the letterforms with its separate parts in seeing how it all fit together, and once I was satisfied with the construction, I then used the shape-builder tool to join the separate parts (strokes) together to form one shape, and turned the opacity back up.

Fig 2.2 (Construction Progress of E T K, 08.06.23)

This was then followed by the construction of the rest of the letters and the recycling of some strokes for certain letters such as R, I, P, N, and M. I have also made sure the measurements stayed the same throughout even with the letters that did not contain reusable strokes to maintain consistency.

Fig 2.3 (Construction Progress of A E T K G R I Y M P N, 08.06.23)

Once I had finished the letterforms, I went on to creating the punctuation marks ! # , . following the post provided by Mr Vinod, it states:

The shape of the period should be related to the size of the dot on the 'i', but should be slightly larger. Heavier fonts require heavier punctuation.
The round period has slightly less overshoot than the 'o'. Rectangular periods should sit on the baseline.
The comma is roughly the height of two stacked periods. The comma's head should be slightly smaller than the period.

Additionally, in the creation of the punctuation, I have also reused some strokes to maintain consistency with the rest of the letters.

Fig 2.4 (Construction Progress of Punctuation Marks, 08.06.23)

I then compiled all the digitalized letters and punctuation onto their own artboard for presentation.

Fig 2.5 (Digitalized Letterforms & Punctuations, Prototype 2, 08.06.23)

On week 11, Mr Vinod had further evaluated our updated letterforms, overall most of the letters were fine, however, it was pointed out that there were still some adjustments to be made to the letters K, R, and M. He mentioned that The letter K should have a bit more of an indent become slightly thinner as the curved strokes go in, other than this the handle of the letter R should also have more of a prominent gap and that the letter M should be wider along with the spaces inside as well. Thus, I went back into Illustrator to make further refinements to those letters. Additionally, because the strokes of the letter R contain the same ones used in the letter P, I have also made some adjustments to it to maintain consistency.

Fig 2.6 (Refinement Progress of M K R P, 14.06.23)

Below are the final digitalized letterforms and punctuation with the applied refinements/adjustments along with the measurements.

Measurements (from baseline):

Ascender: 718 pt
Capital Height: 671 pt
Median: 500 pt
Baseline: 0 pt
Descender: -226 pt

Fig 2.7 (Digitalized Letterforms & Punctuations, 14.06.23)

Fig 2.8 (Final Digitalized Letterforms & Punctuations Outline Grid, 14.06.23)

Fontlab Development

Once the digitalization process was completed, to start, I specified the font dimensions of my letterforms and punctuations, then, I deposited all the letterforms and punctuation into FontLab according to the tutorial provided by Mr Vinod.

Fig 2.9 (Font Dimensions 1, 17.06.23)

Fig 3.0 (Font Dimensions 2, 17.06.23)

Fig 3.1 (Character Map 17.06.23)

This is then followed by the kerning between each letter to ensure that the spaces between them are even and pleasing optically as some letters appear more closer or further from each other due to their anatomical structure, thus, I have made adjustments between certain letters that need more or less spacing between each other to ensure that the spacing is consistent in the typeface.

Fig 3.1 (Kerning of Letterforms, 17.06.23)

Furthermore, I have typed out random words in order to test the kerning and further adjust if any errors and awkward gaps in spacing were spotted.

Fig 3.1 (Further Kerning of Letterforms, 17.06.23)

Then, after finishing kerning the letterforms, it was exported as its own typeface. I have decided to name the typeface "Claw" as a defining characteristic of the typeface includes a stroke that has a sharp and curved finish similar to that of a claw.

Poster Design

For the next phase of the task, we are to create a poster utilizing the typeface created to display it with the following requirements:

The poster dimensions must be A4 size
The words must involved all the letterforms created
The words must all be the same point size
The poster must express impact to promote the typeface

To start, I first typed out a few random word combinations to get inspiration in developing my sentence. I have specifically chosen to include the word 'TIGER' as I believe it represents the name of my typeface 'Claw' well since the words can be closely related to each other as one distinctive feature of the tiger are its big, sharp claws.

Fig 3.2 (Drafting of Phrases, 17.06.23)

Once I had drafted a few ideas for sentences including the word 'TIGER', I then came up with the sentence 'I KEPT AN ANGRY TIGER IN MY TRAP!' and double checked it to ensure that it included all the letterforms created. I then went on to compose the poster highlighting the words 'ANGRY TIGER' by making the point size bigger and centering it in the middle of the page to give a sense of rise in intonation wen the sentence is read as if a dire situation was happening with the tiger.

Fig 3.3 (Poster Composition Prototype 1, 17.06.23)

During evaluation on week 12, Mr Vinod reminded us that the point size of all the words in the sentence must be the same, and the composition should be impactful, dynamic, and interesting while still having some tension and balance. Furthermore, in my specific feedback, it was mentioned that although my sentence was good, the composition could be better and use some improvement as well. With this feedback in mind, I then tried a few different explorations in composition.

Fig 3.4 (Poster Composition Exploration 20.06.23)

After receiving further feedback from Mr Vinod, it was advised I could proceed with the 3rd one as it had a good sense of tension and flow in the composition, however, it was advised I switch the word 'AN' and 'I' with each other in their placements for better readability as the flow of reading of my poster was from top to bottom and would make better sense that way, I have also made a few adjustments with help from Mr Vinod for the caption to fill in the white space in the poster, placing them strategically to achieve balance.

Fig 3.5 (Poster Composition Prototype 2, 20.06.23)

Once I had set the composition in place, I then added a rough paper texture to the poster with the blending mode screen and by lowering the opacity, this is so the texture could appear more subtly and not overpower the sentence while still giving more of an interesting look and feel to the poster.

Fig 3.6 (Addition of Texture, 20.06.23)

Final Outcome

Font Download Link (type with caps):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q8NLXItAieu4pYrwbTkVr6xiZhUXqpHd/view?usp=sharing

Font Preview:

Fig 3.7 (Final Type Design and Communication 'Claw' jpg, 23.06.23)

Fig 3.8 (Metrics Window with Sentence, 23.06.23)

Fig 3.9 (Final Type Design and Communication A4 Poster - 'Claw' jpg, 23.06.23)

Fig 4.0 (Final Type Design and Communication 'Claw', 23.06.23)

Fig 4.1 (Final Type Design and Communication A4 Poster - 'Claw' pdf, 23.06.23)

FEEDBACK

Week 12

General Feedback: The point size of all the words in the sentence must be the same size, and the composition should be impactful, dynamic, and interesting as well as still maintaining some tension and balance.

Specific Feedback: The sentence is great, however point size of all the words in the sentence must be the same throughout, and the composition could be better.

Week 11

General Feedback: When it comes to creating the letterforms there are two things to keep in mind in terms of proportionality which is mechanical proportionality, where the width and height of the letters match in numerical measurements, and optical proportionality, where the measurement may not be exact but visually appears balanced to the eye. Other than this, The punctuations should match the design direction of our letterforms, and rounded strokes should always have an overshoot.

Specific Feedback: The letter K should have a bit more of an indent become slightly thinner as the curved strokes go in, other than this the handle of the letter R should also have more of a prominent gap. Lastly, the letter M should be wider along with the spaces inside as well.

Week 10

General Feedback: When digitalizing the letters, ensure that it is not simply translated writing but created like an actual typeface. Its also important that horizontal and vertical strokes are consistent throughout the typeface and for each stroke to have a clear starting and ending point. Other than this we were encouraged to do research on typefaces similar to ours to deconstruct them and understand how the forms come together anatomically.

Week 9

General Feedback: It is important to identify which letters will work well together as it must look like it came from a single typeface family, we can do this by looking at the certain characteristics in a letterform and carefully examining them, its also important to ensure the amount of "character" in a letterform is just right. During the digitalization process it is alright for some of the original design to be lost via minor adjustments being made as long as it improves the design of the overall outcome.

Specific Feedback: Make sure to identify the ascender height, cap height, median, x height, baseline, and descender height even when working with capital letters. Additionally, the more Bezier points there are, the more there is to adjust and make sure all is aligned properly, thus it is advised to use less of them.

Week 8

General Feedback: All letters written should sit on the baseline and be neatly written.

Specific Feedback: It was advised to go with option 1 from my 5 final options and practice writing in that style and later identify the best letters I can use for digitization

REFLECTIONS

Experience

This by far has been the most challenging assignment in the entire module by far as it spanned the longest and required more steps to it than others. Translating my writing into a digital format required lots of patience and precision as I noted one of the most important things in digitalizing a font was consistency, thus I meticulously digitized each letter, ensuring consistent strokes, curves, angles, and spacing while ensuring that each letter was also harmonious with each other. As I progressed, I encountered numerous challenges where some letters required extra attention to achieve the desired balance, legibility, and visual appeal, and this was the same case for the kerning as well, many letters needed adjustments in spacing to avoid any awkward gaps or collisions. There were many details to take into consideration when creating a font which I had never thought about before, the process is very laborious and even the most minute details are considered as it affects the entire letter which I found interesting. Although in the end, it was very rewarding as I got to see my writing become digitalized into a font that can be typed out which was exciting, and overall this whole assignment gave me lots of valuable insight and was a great journey of artistic exploration, and technical mastery in the art of typography.

Observation

The key details I have observed when going through this assignment was that though some letterforms present themselves as symmetrical and even, in reality, when zoomed in, they are not, and only display an illusion of so by the designer making adjustments to the letterforms in order for better optical proportionality- even in areas where it may seem insignificant. When the letterforms are truly measured with guidelines, the actual proportionality can be observed as uneven, for example, certain letter heights may be different due to an overshoot, this is especially the case for more rounded letters such as 'o' and 'c' as to not appear too small or awkward looking.

Findings

Creating a typeface has lead me to have a heightened understanding of typography as a whole as the process provided me with a deep appreciation for the intricate details of letterforms and punctuations as each of them provide their own set of rules that need to be manipulated cleverly in order for the font to be successful in the end, through my countless adjustments of the letterforms and kerning, I also gained more of an acute eye for harmonious strokes, balanced proportions, and optimal spacing. In creating letterforms, one must adhere to the general basic principles such as the x-height, ascender, descender, baseline, etc, before manipulating them, and kerning must be done carefully to ensure that gaps and spacing between the letterforms are consistent not just geometrically, but also optically.