Advanced Typography/ Task 3: Type Exploration and Application
31.5.2023 - 9.7.2023 / Week 9 - Week 14
Sylvia Lau / 0356130
Bachelor
of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 3: Type Exploration and
Application
LECTURES
Done in Task 1.
INSTRUCTION
Task 3: Type Exploration & Application
Week 9
Before heading into the task, we needed to propose a few options for the font we wanted to create in this final project to Mr.Vinod and get his approval.
Proposal:
Figure 1.1 First Ideation (31/5/2023)
The first option that I proposed, was to continue creating the fonts with the
key letters that I created in the previous task. I also think of making them
into 3D shapes like the child play wooden blocks, but just only with the
geometric shapes, not the strokes.
Figure 1.2 Second Ideation (31/5/2023)
The second option that I chose to do is to create a font with cream. The image
on the left was found on Pinterest while I was searching for ideas, so I
thought of creating a cream font with a different style of squeezing ways like
the image provided on the right.
Mr. Vinod suggested me to go with the second option and did it physically.
Although I planned to do it digitally, but since my aunt who is a baker, had
the tools and ingredients at her house, so I think I could do it at her
house.
Week 10
Experiment:
Figure 2.1 Sketch of Letters A and B (6/6/2023)
I sketched out the letters on graph paper and put them under the baking paper
so that I could follow the guideline while squeezing the cream.
My aunt provided me some leftover cream for me to do this experiment.
Figure 2.2 Letter A attempts (6/6/2023)
As I had not been doing baking stuff for quite a long time, so when I tried to
write letters with it, I couldn't control the strength of squeezing it and I
failed many times. The strokes that I squeezed every time were not consistent,
and some of them were wavy due to my trembling hand. The letter in the above
picture is a slightly better version after many failures.
Figure 2.3 Second Attempt (6/6/2023)
Other than using the same pipe, I changed it to a thinner pipe, which actually
easier for me to control the strength when I was writing. But the stroke is
very thin which I needed to watch it clearly to see the cream texture.
Figure 2.4 Sketches (7/6/2023)
After going through the exploration, I thought of using a thicker pipe to do
my letters. I also sketched the letters that I wished to achieve, which the
letters will have a curvy pattern at the end of the stroke.
From the feedback given by Mr. Vinod, he suggested making the letters in a
more decorative way like the cream on cakes, not just writing it out.
Week 11
From my proposal, I did insert an image of different patterns of piping the
cream. I decided to use the seashell pattern for each horizontal and vertical
stroke, for rounded parts of the letters, which I still figuring out.
Figure 3.1 Sketch on Graph paper (11/6/2023)
I sketched the letters on graph paper again because the previous sketch was
too big. I decreased the size and the cream used would be lesser.
Based on previous experience, the cream needed to be cooled in the fridge
every once in a while because it would become liquid and soft, the texture of
the pattern couldn't be seen. My aunt suggested putting flour in cream, so it
wouldn't easily melt.
Figure 3.2 Practices (11/6/2023)
I practiced on the seashell piping technique and tried different ways to
present the round part. I tried using the seashell technique but it was hard
to make it curved, so I changed using a star pattern.
Figure 3.3 First Attempt (11/6/2023)
After practicing for a while, I started to write out the letters, and the
outcome was quite well, but the curve stroke of letters c and g were not the
same weight as others.
Figure 3.4 Progress (13/6/2023)
Figure 3.5 Lowercase Letters (13/6/2023)
Figure 3.6 Uppercase Letters (13/6/2023)
Figure 3.7 Numbers (13/6/2023)
I took pictures of all letters that I wrote. Among these photos, I chose the
letters that I was most satisfied with and exported to Illustrator. While
listing the letters out, there were some of them had different colors because
of the lighting and photoshoot skill issue. Besides, there was also a problem
with the consistency of stroke weight.
Mr.Vinod asked about the problem that I faced and suggested a Plan B for me,
which was to digitalize the cream font. He also taught me how to do the
texture of the cream in Illustrator.
Week 12
Figure 4.1 Stroke (19/6/2023)
I used my pen tablet to draw strokes with the brush tool and set the brush
definition to basic, variable width profile to width profile 1, which could
make the tail of the line to be pointy.
Figure 4.2 First Attempt of Lowercase Letters (19/6/2023)
I did lowercase letters draft to see the outcome before applying the white
strokes in the middle, so that I could have a clearer direction of my design
among these different attempts. I struggled a little with some of the
letters like w, v, s, u, because the strokes were different from others
which I needed to redraw quite a lot of time to achieve the outcome.
Figure 4.3 First Attempt of Few Uppercase Letters (19/6/2023)
I only did some of the uppercase letters and didn't continue doing all the
other letters because most of the letters used repeated strokes and time was
very limited.
Figure 4.4 Stroke with cream texture (20/6/2023)
I drew two other lines on the thick stroke, then made them to outline stroke
(Object > Path > Outline Stroke), so that I could apply minus front
shape mode to create the cream texture.
Figure 4.5 Second Attempt of Lowercase Letters (20/6/2023)
Referring back to the first attempt, the stroke of the letters was 55pt and
looked too thick for me. I reduced it to 45pt, then applied the cream
texture to the letters. There were still some refinements for me to do, like
the width, the size, or the height of each letter, but I decided to proceed
to uppercase letters first.
Figure 4.6 Progression of Uppercase Letters (20/6/2023)
Since I had done the first attempt, I had a direction of creating them and
just changing the strokes. Although some of the strokes still needed to be
redrawn, as it won't look too curvy compared to others.
Figure 4.7 Progression of Uppercase Letters (20/6/2023)
Figure 4.8 Refine with the stroke, Recreate of Letters a and i (20/6/2023)
During the class, Mr. Vinod pointed out that the white stroke shouldn't be too
middle, so I redo the stroke and replaced it to all letters. Also, I decided
to do another "a" because I was not satisfied with the first one. Other than
putting a circle in the "i", I thought of adding the cream texture to the dot.
Figure 4.9 Third Attempt of Lowercase Letters (20/6/2023)
Figure 4.1.1 Third Attempt of Uppercase Letters (20/6/2023)
I had mostly done all the letters but there were still some details that I
needed to work on.
Week 13
Figure 5.1 Refined the letters (24/6/2023)
Figure 5.2 Refined the letters (24/6/2023)
I did some refinements of the horizontal strokes as in the previous attempt, they seemed to be thick, so I reduced the thickness of them. I also recreated a few letters because I was not satisfied with them.
Figure 5.3 Punctuations (27/6/2023)
I reused the dots of letter i but increased a little of the size while creating some of the punctuation. I typed out the letters using other fonts as a guide while creating them by examining the height or design.
Figure 5.4 Numbers (28/6/2023)
Figure 5.5 Final Attempt (28/6/2023)
Week 14
After completing the font, I needed to generate the font in Font Forge. I
followed the tutorial from Youtube and imported the letters, numbers, and
punctuations into it.
Font Forge Tutorial: https://youtu.be/FZyfcgmBZHQ
Figure 6.1 Exporting to SVG Files (3/7/2023)
Figure 6.2 Font Info (3/7/2023)
Figure 6.3 Imported Font (3/7/2023)
Figure 6.4 Auto Width Kerning (3/7/2023)
From the video tutorial, he mentioned auto kerning which saved some time, but
when typing out some phrases, there were still some spaces that needed to be
kern. I only did the kerning of the words that I typed out for application and
presentation.
Figure 6.5 Typed Out in Illustrator (3/7/2023)
Presentation of the font:
From the shared folder provided by Mr. Vinod, I picked some examples to design
my font presentation.
Figure 7.1 References (5/7/2023)
Figure 7.2 Color Scheme (4/7/2023)
Figure 7.3 Poster References from Pinterest (4/7/2023)
As my font was cream, so I chose a color scheme that had the cream color for
this presentation in the color hunt. Besides, I also searched for some poster
design ideas that were about dessert, so that I had ideas to design it.
Figure 7.4 Final Outcome of Font Presentation (5/7/2023)
The first image was a showcase of uppercase letters and lowercase letters. I
only put the letters left and right for the first attempt, but it seemed a
little empty. Then, I added that liquid drip design above the letters.
Font size: 136pt (Creme)
The second image would be the menu of desserts with the name of the cake and a
small description under it. At first, I typed all the words just using my
font, and Mr. Vinod suggested using another font that had a lighter stroke for
description, as my font was more suitable for titles.
Font size: 70pt (cream), 25pt (Bahnschrift)
The third image was also similar to the menu but in a different layout with
cost numbers and the lower part would be all letters, numbers and punctuations
listed. My first attempt was using dots to separate the word and numbers, so
the numbers were not staying in one line. Mr. Vinod showed me the way to make
them align and he also suggested applying color to the numbers.
Font Size: 94pt, 84pt, 64pt (numbers), 250pt, 46pt (Creme)
The last image was applying different colors to the words.
Font Size: 250pt (Creme)
Application:
I decided to do collateral for the application. The materials that I would be
designing were all related to a cafe, for example, paper bags, stickers, a
sandwich stand with a designed poster and a sign board. The design would be
the same as the font presentation.
Figure 7.5 Sign Board (4/7/2023)
Figure 7.6 Sandwich Board Poster (4/7/2023)
Figure 7.7 Paper bag (4/7/2023)
Based on the feedback, Mr. Vinod said that the word of the poster should be
bigger and could be placed at the bottom, the upper part would be the shop
name. The font size of the paper bag at the front should be bigger to show the
font.
Figure 7.8 Attempts on the poster (6/7/2023)
I still applied the images and patterns on the second attempt but I found it
very messy. So, I decided to remove all of it and tried other layouts, which
was more simple.
Figure 7.9 Changes made (6/7/2023)
Figure 7.1.1 Changes Made (6/7/2023)
I increased the size of the font and also added some words.
Figure 7.1.2 Stickers (6/7/2023)
I also did three stickers with different words, which were common to see on
the packaging after purchasing food from a cafe.
Final Submission:
Font Download:
Figure 8.1 Final Submission, Font Presentation #1, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.2 Final Submission, Font Presentation #2, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.3 Final Submission, Font Presentation #3, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.4 Final Submission, Font Presentation #4, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.5 Final Submission, Application #1, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.6 Final Submission, Application #2, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.7 Final Submission, Application #3, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.8 Final Submission, Application #4, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.9 Final Submission, Application #5, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.1.1 Final Submission, Application #6, JPEG (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.1.2 Final Submission, Font Presentation, PDF (7/7/2023)
Figure 8.1.3 Final Submission, Font Presentation, PDF (7/7/2023)
FEEDBACKS
Week 9
Proposal idea 2: It would be interesting to experiment it, placing a guideline paper at the back, plain white paper in front of it and write the letters on it, then take a photo with clear white and black space.
Week 10
No problem on the photo taken, but the pattern of squeezing the cream can be more different, not only straight line.
Week 11
Need another plan, try digitalize the font with the texture of the toothpaste, since it's very hard to control using the cream.
Week 12
The white lines stroke need to be more at the side, not too much in middle.
Week 13
No class
Week 14
Use the shared folder as guide for font presentation, the letters for application should be bigger and more.
Experience
It was quite a stressful task for me because during the first two weeks, I spent my time doing experiments by writing letters with the cream, and with a sudden change of plan during the third week, I only had a few weeks to catch up on all the work. But with the feedback and help of Mr. Vinod, I managed to get it done on time.
Observation
It was hard to maintain the consistency of the curve strokes and width while digitalizing it. I need to manage my time better to keep my work in progress.
Finding
There are still some improvements that need to be done like the angle of some of the horizontal strokes and other details, but the submission is near and I need to move on.
Figure 9.1 Book Cover
Book Title: Typographic Design: Form and Communication
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Case study: Ludd: a typographic expedition
Ned Drew's self-initiated project began as a simple response to his dissatisfaction with the current design of U.S. currency. He invokes an attempt to balance the tension between the digital and letterpress technology that influenced the typeface's creation.
Figure 9.2 Inspiration
The inspiration for his project was a paper clip, with its curves, efficient proportions, and minimal form. Besides, he also collected objects and images of other significant items like the organic curves of human anatomy, the Japanese national flag, the Volkswagen Bug and font families like Univers, Futura and Bodoni.
Figure 9.3
Drew established a modular grid, which provided a structural system to organize the eclectic references and establish Ludd's visual vocabulary. The typeface has a substantial geometric look and feel due to the grid, but it also incorporates unique interpretations of typographic forms, resulting in unconventional and progressive letterforms. The project presented a challenge of balancing established typographic design models, patterns, and conventions while also introducing new discoveries and eclectic combinations.
As he proceeded to explore, he forged an unusual path, adding weight asymmetrically to the existing frames and creating unusual and seemingly incomplete versions. At the end, he designed a serif version with three different weights.
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