Advanced Typography: Task 02
WEEK 05 - WEEK 10 (01/05/2022 - 31/05/2022)
Adena Tan Sue Lynn (0345769) / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Advanced Typography
Task 02: Key Artwork & Collateral
DIRECTORY
- Lectures
-
Instructions
i) Task 02(A): Key Artwork
ii) Task 02(B): Collateral
iii) Final Submission - Feedback
- Reflection
- Further Reading
- References
LECTURES
Lectures 01 & 02 can be found in Task 01: Exercises.
Lecture 03: Context & Creativity
Handwriting
Handwriting is important to study because the first mechanically produced letterforms were designed to directly imitate handwriting. It would become the standard for the form, spacing & conventions mechanical type would try and mimic.
Hand drawn letterforms' shapes & lines are influenced by the tools & materials used to make them. Examples of objects which contributed to the unique characteristics of the letterform are sharpened bones, charcoal sticks, plant stems, brushes, feather & steel pens. Additional factors included the material which the forms were created on: clay, papyrus, palm leaves, animal skins (vellum & parchment) and paper.
It is important to understand the difference between B.C.E. & C.E.. B.C.E. is before common era. C.E. is common era.
Phoenician's era (1000 B.C.E.) is when letterforms stopped being just pictorials and started having sounds. It would then influence the later alphabets.
Cuneiform is the earliest system of actual writing. It was used in a number of languages between the 34C. B.C.E. through the 1st century C.E.. Its distinctive wedge form was the result of pressing the blunt end of a reed stylus into wed clay tablets. The characters evolved from pictograms and they are written from let to right.
The Egyptian writing system is fused with art of relief carving. The system was a mixture of rebus * phonetic characters – the first link to a future alphabetic system. Hieroglyphic images have potential to be used in three ways:
- Ideograms - to represent the things they actually depict
- Determinatives - shows that the signs preceding are meant as phonograms & to indicate the general idea of the word.
- Phonograms - represent sounds that 'spell' individual words.
Built on the Egyptian logo-consonantal system, the Phoenicians developed a phonetic alphabet consisting of 22 letters. It was then adopted by the Greeks who added the necessary vowels. Early Greek were only capital letters, written between two guidelines to organise them into horizontal rows.
The words were in rows, but the direction of reading were not fixed at the time. Greek was often read in a format called boustrophedon or "as the ox plows". A row would be read from left to right and then switched in the next line.
The early Greek letters were drawn freehand. They were not constructed with compasses, rules and serifs. However, in time, the strokes of the letters grew stickers, the aperture lessened & serifs appeared. These new forms served as models for formal lettering in imperial Rome.
Roman inscriptional letters were written with a flat brush, held at an angle and the carved into stone with mallet & chisels.
By the 4th century, Roman letters became more rounded. The curved forms allowed for less strokes & were able to be written faster.
In England, the uncial evolved into a more slanted & condensed form. While the English & Irish uncials evolved, writing on the European devolved considerably and needed a reformer. It came in the Carolingian Handwriting Reform.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the end of a central advanced culture resulted in general illiteracy and a breakdown of handwriting into diverse regional styles. For 300 years, the knowledge of writing was kept alive mainly in the remote outposts of religious cloisters and retreats.
A court school was established under the direction of Alcuin of York. Charlemagne's patronage book production increased & language was standardised. Pronunciation, spelling, writing conventions, capitals beginning of a sentence, spaces between words & punctuation. A new script emerged called the Carolingian miniscule.
It was used for all legal & literary works to unify communication between various regions of the European Empire.
It was an important development as the standard Roman capital for it was the style that became the pattern for Humanistic writing of the fifteenth century.
Gothic was the culminating artistic expression of the middle ages. The term originated with Italians who used it to refer to rude or barbaric cultures north of the Italian Alps.
The Gothic spirit took hold in France, Germany & England, where it was manifested through unhindered upward striving:
Condensing line spacing and letter spacing reduced the amount of costly materials in book production.
The Italian Renaissance
As the Gothic spirit reached its apex in the other areas of western Europe, Humanist scholars in Italy were slowly reviving the culture of antiquity. The renaissance embrace of ancient Greek and Roman culture spurred a creative wave through Italian art, architecture, literature and letter form design.
The Humanist admired the Carolingian script , which had clear open handwriting.
Humanist named the newly rediscovered letterforms Antica. The renaissance analysis of form that was being applied to art and architecture was directed toward letterform — resulting in a more perfect or rationalized letter.
Printing (wood block) had already been practiced in China, Korea and Japan (Dharani Sutra, AD 750). Earliest known printed book (AD 868) is the Diamond Sutra: 16’ scroll with the world’s first printed illustration.
China had attempted use movable type for printing but was unsuccessful due in part to the number of characters and the material used (clay).
In late 14 C. several decades before the earliest printing in Europe, the Koreans establish a foundry to cast movable type in bronze—allowed the dismantling and resetting of text.
With the creation of their new script Hangul (한글), the Koreans would succeed where the Chinese failed.
To conclude, the introduction of moveable type was introduced in the 1000-1100 CE. This innovation was pioneered in China but achieved in Korea (Diamond Sutra). In the late 1300-1399 CE, several decades before the earliest printing in Europe (Guttenberg’s bible 1439), the Koreans establish a foundry to cast movable type in bronze.
Why do we talk about the Greek's influence on Rome, but never the Egyptian or Near Eastern influences on Greece?
In the 19th Century & the rise of the modern British empire, it became out of style to credit Africans with any value. Therefore, Greece & Rome were elevated over much older, influential civilisations like Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, China. etc.
An example of this insidiousness is how the European academic process worked to create the discipline of “Indology”. Max Mueller who was central to this, never actually visited India. By viewing historical evidence through colonial lenses they ignorantly postulated ideas that were self serving, i.e. Aryan theory.
Handwriting
It is important to note is that later day typographers, through research, curiosity and a respect for history would pay homage to these developments. This would result in books being written and published, recreation of the hand written styles into mechanical forms for printing. With the digital revolution, the west would begin to digitise many of its historical creations and type foundries would create, market and sell or license them. The recognition of the importance of these historical letterforms is something to be admired and learned from. With the colonisation of the east by the west, much of the heritage and cultural practices in literature, arts and crafts, languages and scripts would be halted or stunted.
With that, below is a look into eastern developments in handwriting:
Programmers & Type Design
More vernacular scripts are produced by software giants. More and more vernacular & 'multi-script typefaces are being produced to cater to situations where the written matter is communicated in the vernacular script or vernacular & Latin scripts.
Local Movements & Individuals
In Malaysia, murasu.com, spear-headed by programmer and typographer, Muthu Nedumaran. The programming language needed to encode the different types of vernacular writing systems was cracked by Muthu. The system is now used in mobile phones & desktops.
Huruf, a local group of graphic designers interested in the localised lettering of latin and vernacular letters painted or inscribed on walls and signages are amongst the more prominent organisations, digitising and revitalising typefaces in Malaysia.
Ek Type and Indian Type Foundry are organisations that have done ground breaking work with the development of vernacular typefaces in India.
In South East Asia, the movement has not organised and coordinated itself well enough. However, with increasing awareness and examples from larger neighbours like India with their large talent pool and resource, the knowledge behind methods used and approaches taken are more accessible geographically speaking.
Creativity and originality are properties that are most often intertwined. It is important for young designers to look inward and examine their histories, civilization, culture and communities to bring these past developments into the future and develop on them instead of blindly appropriating cultures and developments that have no context, relatability or relevance.
Creativity and inspiration should begin by observing our surroundings and exploration of our collective histories.
Lecture 04: Designing Type
There are two reasons according to Xavier Dupré (2007):
- Type design has a social responsibility. One must continue to improve the legibility of type.
- Type design is a form of artistic expression.
Adrian Frutiger
Frutiger is a sans-serif typeface which was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1968.
Purpose: The goal was to create a clean & distinctive typeface that is
easy to read near & far.
Considerations: Letterforms needed to
be recognised in poor light or when reader was moving quickly past the sign.
He tested the unfocused letters to see which letterforms could still be
identified.
Matthew Carter
Many of Carter's fonts were designed to address technical challenges.
Purpose: Typeface was tuned to be extremely legible even at small sizes
Considerations:
The Verdana font exhibit characteristics derived from pixels rather than pens,
brushes or the chisel. Some of the characters were commonly confused, such as,
lowercase i j l.
Edward Johnson
Edward Johnson was asked to create a typeface with bold simplicity that was modern but had tradition.
Purpose: London's Underground railway ordered a new typeface for posters and
signages from Johnson.
Limitation: Johnson applied the proportions
of Roman capital letters to his typeface so it was rooted in history and
traditional calligraphy, but it has an elegance and a simplicity that is
absolutely fitted the modern age
General Process of Type Design:
- Research
- Sketching
- Digitisation
- Testing
- Deploy
To create type, we should understand and learn type history, type anatomy & type conventions. We should also know the terminologies, side-bearings, metrics, hinting...
Then, it is important to determine the type's purpose or what it should be used for. We should also examine existing fonts that are presently being used for inspirations/ideas/reference/context/usage patterns/etc.
2. Sketching
Some designers sketch their typeface using traditional tools and scan them for the purpose of digitisation. They are more confident with their hands and have better controls using them.
Whereas some designers sketch their typeface using digital tool sets which is much quicker, persistent and consistent. However, this can sometimes impede the natural movement of hand strokes.
3. Digitisation
There are professional softwares that are used for digitising typefaces. Amongst the leading are FontLab and Glyphs Lab.
Designers who use Adobe Illustrator to design or craft the letterforms and then introduce to specialised font apps are often frowned upon by purists.
Attention should be given to both the whole form and counter form at this stage as the readability of type is heavily dependant on it.
4. Testing
Testing is an important component in the design thinking process. The results of the testing is part of the refining and correcting aspects of the typeface. Prototyping is also part of the process and leads to important feedback.
5. Deploy
Even after deploying the completed typeface, there are always teething problems which did not appear during prototyping and testing phases. Thus, revision doesn't end upon deployment.
Typeface Construction
Roman Capital: The grid consists of a square and inside it is a circle that just touches the lines of the square in four places. Within the square is also a rectangle which is three quarters the size of a square and is positioned in the centre of the square. Thus, using grids with circular forms can facilitate the construction of letterforms and is a possible method to build/create/design letterforms.
Construction & Considerations
Depending of the form and construction, the 26 characters of the alphabet can be arranged into groups, whereby a distinction is made between a group for the capitals and a group for lowercase letters.
Various forms and constructions must be taken into account when designing a new type. An important visual correction is the extrusion of curved and protruding forms past the baseline and cap line. This also applies to vertical alignment between curved and straight forms.
A visual correction is also needed for the distance between letters. It is not possible to simply place letters next to each other with equal spacing between them. The letters must be altered to a uniform ‘visual’ white space. This means that the white space between the letters should appear the same. This is called ‘fitting’ the type.
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 02(A): Key Artwork
At first, I was quite lost on how to start with my key artwork. Thus, I went onto Procreate and started trying out different ways of putting my initials [ATSL] together. This led me to come up with the below:
Looking at the 13 sketches I did, I decided I wanted to refine the ones I liked. I did this in order to obtain some sense of perspective in how the final outcome might look.
After obtaining feedback from Mr Vinod, I chose the one on the top left. Below is some of the occupations I thought of when looking at them:
- Illustrator
- Song Writer
- Author
Looking at the three, I decided my chosen 'occupation' would be an author, specifically a poet. This could be considered an acknowledgement to my younger self who was so convinced she would end up writing as a full time job.
After this, I started working in Illustrator.
As a standard, I decided to use Futura Std, despite the serif tendencies in my chosen sketch. I decided to do so as I found that using it provided an even look which I wanted to achieve. First, I changed the position of the crossbar on the letter A.
After this, I tried to curve some parts of the A, such as the apex to mimic one of a serif typeface.
After a while, I got somewhat lazy to keep thinking of the curves. So, I laid out more of the letters to create my base.
For the above, I placed the T first. Then, I placed the S, followed by the L. Adjusting the S & L was the part I found the trickiest as I didn't want their combined halves to look goofy. I achieved the above by extending the stroke of the S and decreasing the length of the L's stem.
Next, I added curves to achieve more of that vibe that I wanted.
After I was happy with it, I joined the different lines to create one form.
In my next attempt, I decided to look add a serif to the tail of the S. For reference, I used ITC Garamond Light Italic as I liked how it looked.
Then, I tried to make things smoother and even.
My fourth attempt was me again, trying to smooth more things out to make it look better.
Overall, I really liked how my key artwork turned out! Thus, I decided to make it my final piece.
Task 02(B): Collateral
Firstly, I decided to play around with Illustrator. Mainly, I looked at 3D & Materials after being inspired by one of my friends, Adeline.
Creating the Poster
Before creating my poster, I decided to create some info about my 'event'.
For my title, I initially had a hard time deciding what to call it. However, the 3D & Materials playtime made me realise how powerful I felt with my key artwork, especially when it had a bit of 3D flare going on. Thus, I decided on the word 'ascendance' which comes from the word 'ascendancy'. That word, according to Merriam Webster, is defined as dominance which suited my feelings at the time.
I also had zero idea where to put my exhibition. Thus, I just went and faked a hall, calling it Soya's Art Hall. For the date and time, I just put whatever I thought sounded right at the time....
Additionally, I decided to use the typefaces, Monea Alegante Regular and Park Lane Light as I thought they fit the aesthetic I was aiming for.
Here is my first attempt, with many different colour palettes!
As you can see, I utilised the 3D & Materials heavily. I also changed the dates and time. Honestly, I did this because I thought it fit better and made more sense. Before applying the filter, I used the Gradient Colour function to add more depth to the form.
Overall, I liked the colour palette with the pink the most. It felt welcoming and fun, while maintaining a mature vibe, unlike the ones with the brown and blue which felt colder. I considered the purplish-blue version, but I didn't like it as much.
Next, I decided to use a similar colour palette to create the below attempt:
For the above, I was inspired by the Gradient background trend which I've been seeing all over my Pinterest. For the background, I just used blobs of pink with the Gaussian Blur function. I also added a texture on top to make it more 'blended'.
With the texture filter, I discovered one called, "Glowing Edges". Thus, I applied it to my key artwork 3D form. I felt like it provided a chrome look to it. Below is my third attempt of a poster.
I found this poster to be the most challenging so far, as I had zero idea of where to place the details...
The next day, I tried again.
I would say this is similar to the first attempt, just with slightly different approach to the layout. I added the title twice as I thought it created a nice balance, while providing some sense of ascending.
However, with this attempt, I realised I missed out some more details I wanted to include. Thus,
For the above, I added a fuller fake address, each part of it relating to me somehow. [Soya and Moonlight are two of my aliases online]. I also added my details [my Instagram, my e-mail and a fake number]. Adding these extra details made me have to re-edit some parts. So, I decided to add the year of event to the date section, and place the time there. For me, this felt right.
However, in attempt to better this poster, I followed Mr Vinod's suggestions.
For the above, I tried aligning more than ever. Firstly, I based some of my alignments from the 3D key artwork as I felt the design should follow the form as a standard. For the 'Ascendance' on the left, I aligned the last letter to the bottom of the 3D Key Artwork, whereas the one on the right, I aligned to the top of the 3D Key Artwork. For my pink title, I followed the previous alignment I had for the left ascendance. Then, for my logo, I aligned it to the right ascendance, following the right. Initially, I put it left of the grid, but I didn't think it looked as balanced as it does now, especially since it almost intertwines with the letter A's space. Finally for my information, I aligned the address to the right, before creating a grid line on it's left. Thus, I made my other information follow that grid line. For the spacing, I used the x-height of my title to make the spaces evenly.
After this, I used a mockup to put my poster in.
Creating the Animated Invite
First, I sorted out the layers in Illustrator as I found this easier for my workflow.
After this, I transferred everything into After Effects and got to working.
For my animated invite, I did the following:
- First segment: I used the Mask tool and tried to make everything build up and flow smoothly. (A part of this, I had to prepare in Illustrator as the mask tool really kicked me in the buttocks).
- Second segment: I made use of the opacity and positions function. The positions function allowed me to make my key artwork look as if it was floating.
- Third segment: Somewhat similar to the second segment, but with me playing with the shape tools.
However, I thought this was too long. Thus, I managed to cut it down to ten seconds for a more manageable gif size.
After I kept looking at this, I thought I should try another attempt. Thus,
For this, I was inspired by my collateral, where I used grains to make stars. Then, I was inspired by the word 'Ascendance', and made my key artwork ascend to the top.
*in case the gif is being laggy, here you go!
Creating Collateral
For my collateral, I thought of making a book to fit my poem exhibition. I went back to Illustrator to create two items, a book cover and a book case.
Below are they:
For my book case, I wanted a simple look to it. I made use of the transform and inner glow functions in Illustrator.
For my book cover, it is similar to my posters, except for the gradient used for the background and the noise effect to mimic outer space. (for an ascending feeling)
Then, I went to Photoshop to make them come to life. [Credit to this template]
Here, I present to you-
FINAL SUBMISSION:
FEEDBACK
General Feedback: Use occupations when creating the form. the idea is "if i'm not a designer, what would i be?". Asked to do so for creating a poster with this particular form later on. Concentrate on the form of the letters that you created. If it sits well, it will look good. The ways to go about it is to see if there is good balance, movement, space, crafting, flow of strokes.
Week 9 [23/05/2022 - Monday]
General Feedback: Posters must be expanding from the identity of the key artwork, not adding to it. Instead of using elements from other sources, it would be better to utilise the key artwork. A way to do this is utilising key artwork to create a form in the background.
REFLECTION
Experience
Overall, I found this exercise very fun! I never thought I would have this much enjoyment looking at letterforms. Personally, I really enjoyed the Key Artwork process despite procrastinating to even start... I was able to see the different possibilities that letterforms can build. As for the second part of this task, it was very interesting to see how the first task made me think about different placements.
Observations
This task allowed me to observe the different ways of creating forms, posters and more. I was very shocked by the amount of things I was able to see and observe. I was able to observe the ways other people did things, for example, like I mentioned how my classmate, Adeline, inspired me to try out new methods to my pieces.
Findings
This task made me find out more about myself, I feel. I found out things that I enjoy, and how they make me feel. Personally, I found this task to be more than just a Typography task... It made me look at my soul, as cliche as that may sound. As everything was catered to make myself as the 'client', it was interesting to see how small details affected my mood.
FURTHER READING
For my further reading, I decided to turn to Typographic Design: Form and Communication which was provided by Mr Vinod.
To start, I decided to look at Chapter 10, Case Studies in Typographic Design. I chose this as I saw the subtopic discussing integrating type and image in poster design.
In the pages, Carter et al. (2015) provide observations of posters. They explain the designs of them and provide a clear sense of guidance to the reader in learning how to combine them. It is really eye opening to see how type and imagery live together, and how little elements can change the overall look drastically.
Next, I looked at another part of this chapter, 'A typographic program for the 17th Street Farmers' Market'. I chose to read it due to the images presented, looking like event posters, which fit this task perfectly.
The authors note that the success was attributable to when they started to use forward thinking graphic design & typography. It is interesting to see how John Malinoski's work provided generally 'flat' forms, but were able to utilise them in such ways to create affective compositions. It'll definitely be of use for when I subconsciously worry about the simplicity of my work.
REFERENCES
Carter, R., Phillip, B. M., Day, B., Maxa, S., Sanders, M. (2015). Typographic Design: Form and Communication. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
IMAGE CREDITS
