Typograpghy Task 1/ Exercises
24.09.2024 - 29.10.2024 ( Week 1- Week 5 )
Shubashini a/p Subramaniam / 0367697 / Bachelor of Creative Media
Typography (GCD60104)
Task ( Typography Exercise )
Lectures :
Week 1 : Typography has changed a lot over the past 500 years, influenced by the tools we use and shifts in culture. Understanding this history is important for anyone involved in design. Key figures like Gutenberg made a huge impact by inventing the printing press, which transformed how we share information. The way letter forms have developed shows how changes in writing tools have influenced design. Different types of fonts help designers choose styles that fit their projects. It's also essential to recognize contributions from non-Western cultures to create a more inclusive design perspective. The tools used in typography shape how letters look, highlighting the role of technology in design. Designers should promote local talent to ensure diverse voices are heard. Overall, learning about typography's history helps us understand modern design better and inspires us to innovate by building on what has come before.
Week 2 : This weeks lecture's emphasizes the importance of understanding letterforms and their anatomy for effective design. Key elements like the baseline, median line, x-height, ascenders, and descenders help designers choose the right typefaces, which impacts readability and visual appeal. Designers also need to consider optical adjustments, as perception can affect how we see letters, influencing design consistency. Small capitals enhance text uniformity and readability, especially for acronyms, creating a balanced look in longer texts. Using a limited selection of type families maintains focus and coherence, allowing for thoughtful pairing without overwhelming the audience. Continuous reading about typography is essential for developing design skills and staying updated on trends. By applying these principles in projects, designers can improve work quality and reinforce their knowledge. Leading to better execution in future designs and creating effective compositions that resonate with viewers.
Week 3 : The lecture covers typography principles, focusing on text formatting techniques such as kerning, letter spacing, and tracking to enhance readability. Kerning involves adjusting space between individual letters for visual harmony, while letter spacing improves clarity, especially for uppercase text. InDesign is highlighted as a valuable tool for efficiently managing large text bodies, offering features to streamline formatting. Understanding tracking, or overall spacing adjustments within words or sentences, is crucial for clarity. The lecture also emphasizes the importance of text alignment, such as flush left or centered—and balancing type size with leading to avoid overcrowding and improve legibility. By maintaining a balance between readability and design aesthetics, designers can enhance the reader's experience and comprehension.
Week 4 : It covers essential typography techniques, including text formatting, paragraph spacing, and strategies to avoid design issues like widows and orphans. It emphasizes understanding foundational concepts like leading (the space between lines) and line spacing, which affect readability and visual consistency. Various methods for indicating paragraphs are discussed, alongside the importance of avoiding widows (single lines at the end of a paragraph) and orphans (lines starting a new column), as these disrupt the design flow. The lecturer also highlights effective ways to emphasize text, like bolding and italics, and underscores the role of typographic hierarchy in guiding readers through content. Finally, practical application in software like InDesign is demonstrated, allowing for precise adjustments to achieve professional-quality layouts
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Task 1: Exercise - Typography Exercise
Week 2 :
We showed our sketches of the four words , spicy / fancy / smoke / bloom , to our lecturers and slowly crated new ones while improving its quality.
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| Figure 1, Initial Sketches ( 01/10/2024 ) |
Week 3 :
Finalizing , the official sketches that are going to be illustrated in the Illustrator App.
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| Figure 2, Refined Sketches ( 08/10/2024 ) |
After receiving feedback from my lecturer, she said my design for fancy was a bit childish and she wanted something more sexy. I was able to capture how I designed my final fancy exspression.
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| Figure 3, New Idea sketch ( 10/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 4, Final Four Sketches ( 11/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 5, Official Type Expression ( 15/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 7, Final Animated Word Expression ( 15/10/2024 ) |
Task 1: Exercise 2 - Text Formatting
In this exercise, we learned some text formatting skills like paragraph spacing, line breaking, alignments, kerning ,widows and orphans, and cross-alignment. We learned through video that was cut into 4 parts.
The first being on how to kern words in Indesign using all the fonts provided to us by our lecturers. We used our names to adjust the kerning to our liking.
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| Figure 8, Text without Kerning ( 22/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 9 Text with Kerning ( 22/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 10, Process of Learning ( 22/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 11, 6 Compositions ( 22/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 11.1, 6 Compositions after Consultation ( 22/10/2024 ) |
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Figure 14.2 Final Text Formatting Layout With Grid ( PNG )
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Week 1
Specific: Absent
General: Absent
Week 2
General Feedback: Since I was not able to attend the first week, Ms.Vitiyaa
refreshed what had occured the week before. She explained our
first task being to create word exspression from four chosen
words/
Specific Feedback: At first I sketched out my first initial design but had to redo it because I got the briefing wrongly and was corrected. Ms. showed us examples and showed what she was looking for. I also explained to her that I did not know how to use Illustrator well.
Week 3
General: After sketching some ideas for the four words, I started to try creating it in the Illustrator App to see if it was possible to replicate it. Some ideas were really just impossible to create because it would be distorting the font too much till the font is not recognizable.
Specific: I realised what style , Ms. Vitiyaa was going for and tried my best to adjust to it. She also taught me some shortcuts so my capability using Illustrator went more smoothly. I explored various types of fancy fonts to create a more ideal exspression. I also started to animate one of my chosen words using the instructions given in the Microsoft Teams.
Week 4
General: Everything got rejected including the animation I did for the
word spicy.
Specific: I was put in a blackhole after rejection but after consulting my lecturers, I think my main flaw was visualising the words too much. Thing like stretching, curving and distorting ruins the font. New idea plan, make everything more simple. !!!!!
Week 5
General : We got our Exercise 2 reviewed by our lecturers and briefing on our final submission on Task 1
Specific : At first I was cared that my work was not going to get any feedback as I used my mother's laptop to open Indesign as my laptop had no enough ram to back it up and only had my final work. Thankfully I could open it through my friend's laptop and get feedback. She said that my paragraphs were too big and even had me take a step back and squint. Thus, I fixed that and got her approval. She also asked me to reference using the golden ratio as a guide for the layout of my design, which tremendously made my work seem more professional and pleasing to the eye. After miss gave my 6 composition a look she gave me some feedback on how I could improve my designs by following the golden ratio.
Reflections
Experience : From doing my task 1, I feel like I have accomplished things that I would have never tried to attempt out of fear such as experiencing InDesign, Illustrastor and Photoshop. I was able to make my very own gif from scratch in Photoshop that I did not think was possible. I was also able to create 4 original designs using four words without distorting the fonts that somewhat satisfied me. Besides accomplishments, I think I have truly developed my skills in InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop by a huge margin as I now only feel a slight discomfort using the Adobe applications compared to before. I also have been able to accept when my work has been rejected more which I believe will help me in my working days as facing failures is a thing all artists have to face constantly until they ave reached their magnum opus.
Observation : From my observation while doing this task I have noticed the changes that I underwent without my thought. Firstly, being I have become more open into seeking knowledge from others as I have been more interested to see my classmates work to get inspiration and develop new ideas. This also comes from watching the lectures and gaining new knowledge on typography that I never knew I needed. Next , from this task I increased my attention to detail as I couldn't distort the words , I found that Slight changing an angle of a word could change its overall visual. Lastly I find myslef being able to increase my communication skill as during task 1 I worked up the courage to ask questions and communicate with my peers and lecturers to erase any doubts I had on the module.
Findings : From task 1 , I was able to grow more confident in using the Adobe Applications and widen my knowledge in designing in a more simple style without using and extra effect. This task has taught me to be patient and accept failure and to keep on going until I see success.
Further Reading :
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| Figure 14, Cover of " The Elements of Typographic Style " ( 26/10/2024 ) |
The first being on
Clarity & Communication in
which he emphasizes that the primary purpose of typography is to
help convey it's meaning and as designers we should be able to grasp
and fully understand the material we are wielding.
Next being,
Rhythm & Harmony in where he
writes that typographic design should contain qualities of rhythm
and proportion , remsembling music or poetry. These qualities are
only possible due to the help of letterform design , kerning and
leading.
I found this book very useful in understanding the lectures that we
watched. I particularly found myself bewitched in his perception of
typography :
While serving the reader in this way, typography, like a musical performance or a theatrical production, should serve two other ends. It should honor the text for its own sake - always assuming that the text is worth a typographer's trouble - and it should honor and contribute to its own tradition: that of typography itself.
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| Figure 15, " The Brightt Side " Website's Front Page ( 26/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 15.1, Animation Frames ( 26/10/2024 ) |
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| Figure 15.2, Goldilocks Solution ( 26/10/2024 ) |
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