ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY / Task 2A & 2B

25.04.2022 - 23.05.2022 (Week 5 - Week 9)
Esther Vanessa/0350751/Bachelors of Design (Hon.) in Creative Media
Advanced Typography
Task 2A & 2B

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LECTURES

Lecture 3 - Context and Creativity

In the beginning, they copied handwriting to create letterforms, it is the standard and what people would try and mimic. 

Figure 1.1 Latin Alphabet Then and Now 

Cuneiform (circa 3000 BCE), earliest writing system. Written on wet clay talets with blunt end of a reed stylus.

Figure 1.2 Cuneiform

Hieroglyphics developed in 2613-2160 BCE as an egyptian writing systems, they are developed as ideograms and phonograms.

Figure 1.3 Hieroglyphics

Early Greek (5 BCE) built on egyptian logo as phonetics alphabet that ahas 22 letters. They were freehandn with no rule and no serif. But as time passes, the strokes get ticker, and started to develop serifs.

Figure 1.4 Early Greek Letterforms

But as time passes, the strokes get thicker, and started to develop serifs. Roman Uncials were influenced from that, and the letters became more rounded for less strokes and written faster.

Figure 1.5 Roman Uncials (4th Century)

English Half Uncials were evolved to be more slanted and condensed. 

Figure 1.6 English Half Uncials (8th C)

The fall of Roman Empire decreased literacy and was only kept alive by religious groups, but Emperor Charlemagne started book producing and language was standardized, as well as writing conventions (rules like capitals, spaces between words). A new scriptcalled Carolingian was also developed.

Figure 1.7 Charlemagne and the letterforms during his time

Figure 1.8 Carolingian Script

Gothic was then introduced, evolving into Black Letter. Gothic itself originates from Italians who used it to refer to rude or barbaric cultures north of the Italian Alps.

Figure 1.9 Black Letter

Moveable Type developed for printing on woodblock in East Asia (China, Korea and Japan). Earliest recorded book was Diamond Sutra in Korea. 

Figure 1.10 Moveable Type Hangul

Handwriting was digitized as a respect for history and type foundries would create market and sell them. With colonization, western influenced the eastern heritage to be stunted, despite that they still evolve.

Middle Eastern Alphabets - they use sound to represent the letters. 

Figure 1.11 Middle Eastern Alphabets

Chinese script - from mural to clerical, traditional and simplified script

Figure 1.12 Chinese Script Evolution

Indian Valley Civilaization (IVC) script - logo-syllabic in nature. They are still trying to decypher it.

Figure 1.13 IVC Script

Brahmi Script - earliest writing system in India after Indus script. Origin is still debated.

Figure 1.14 Brahmi Script

The oldest writing script in South East Asia was actually Indian. Most important is Pallava, originially used for writing Sanskrit and Tamil. Pra-nagari is also used, early form of Nagari.

Figure 1.15 Inscription from Sumatra written in Old Malay

Figure 1.16 Pra-nagari in Bali

Kawi - is indigenous to Java, ased on Nagari. Kingdoms used this script to contact each other, even in Indonesia and Philippines. Old kingdoms used Indian and Kawi script to write old Malay language.

Figure 1.17 Inscription in Kawi

Indonesia has a lot of writing systems. One of them is Incung from Kerinci, this is the original writing system, not Jawi in Kampung Kerinci. Other is Bugis script called Lontara. There's also Javanese script. 

Figure 1.18 Incung from South Sumatra

Figure 1.19 Bugis Script

Figure 1.20 Javanese Script

Jawi is an arabic0-based alphabet introduced alongsite Islam. Islam actually lowkey influenced the lower classes and increase the literacy in that group when trying to spread the religion. In some areas never did so completely.

Figure 1.21 Jawi script of a record of sale from female Batak Slave to a British

In modern Malaysia, Jawi is important as it is the script used for the famous works of literature.

A mild renaissance in the East, we are starting to see the proliferation of indigenous scrips on digital platforms. Young designers nowadays need to look inward and examine histories and culture to not blindly approriate cultures that have no context, relatability or relevance.

Lecture 4 - Designing Typeface

Why design typeface? First is to carry social responsibility so one must continue to improve its legibility, and also as a form of artistic expression. 

The font Frutiger by Frutiger is a sans serif typeface in 1968. There are several limitations as letterforms has to be recognized in poor light conditions or when the reader was moving quickly past the sign. Frutiger was also developed in Arabic, and was used all over the world. Frutiger then developed UNIVERS by Adobe Illustrator, InDesign (2015). Adrian Frutiger also developed Indian script with a goal to not compromise too much of their ancient calligraphic expression. 

Figure 1.22 UNIVERS and Frutiger

Matthew Carter developed Georgia and Verdana. They were hated in the beginning. They were created to address specific technical challenges like early computers. The limitaitons are that Verdana exhibit charactersics derived from the pixel rather than the pen, the brush or the chisel. i j l were often confused. 

Figure 1.23 Georgia and Verdana

Verdana has hintings (not by Matthew Carter) because developed for pixel on screen. 

Figure 1.24 Hinting in Verdana as grey pixels

Matthew also created Bell Centinnial for a specific printing to remove blurriness.

Figure 1.25 Blurry on print 

Figure 1.26 Bell Centinnial's B to mitigate blurry printing issue

Edward Johnston created the London 'Underground' typeface now known as 'Johnston Sans'. It is with bold simplicity that is modern yet rooted in tradition. The limitation was trying to standardize the London Underground Group, he tried to applied proportion of Roman capital letters into the typeface (which was more open), but with elegancce and simplicity that fits into the modern age.

Figure 1.27 Letterforms in Trajan's Column

Figure 1.28 Underground font he developed

His student, Eric Gill, developed Gill Sans, which was based on Johnston Sans and it became more famous than his teacher's font. 

Figure 1.29 Eric Gill 

Process ot Type Design:

1. Research - understand type history, anatomy and conventions. it is important to determine the purpose. Also examine the existing fonts for ideas and reference.

2. Sketching - some use their hand and some use digital. using hand is slower but more careful, digital is faster and easier.

3. Digitization - people usually use FontLab and Glyphs app, some use AI but purist hate it. Attention should also given to form and counterform. Readability of the typeface is heavily dependent on it.

4. Testing - important consideration to readability and legibility. Not as crucial as a display type, and can afford to be more expressive.

5. Deploy - there are always problems even after testing stage, so revision doesnt end upon deployment. 

Typeface Construction:

Roman Capital uses grids with circular forms to construct them. this can be applied in our typeface. 

Figure 1.30 Roman Capital on a Grid

Consideration - grouping of the 26 letters. Some are similar in size. Visual correction like extrusion of curved and protruding forms past the baseline is also needed (overshoot). 

Figure 1.31 Overshooting (below) 

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INSTRUCTIONS

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TASK

TASK 2A:

On our first part of the task, we were to create a key artwork. Key artwork behaves as a logo and it can be an identifier or as our own brand, but we could also use it as an artwork piece to put in a poster. We were to use initials/letters from our own name. I came up with a few trials and errors on this one.

Figure 2.1 Trial and Errors (08.05.2022)

After feedback session, sir Vinod liked and was quite amused with the Masseuse occupation, so I went ahead with that. I chose masseuse as the occupation as I merged the font as they touched each other in the artwork, I personally think it reflects how masseuse line of work could be. I like that it looks both rigid with all the straight blocky lines but also pliant with the curves.

Afterwords, I refined it and added colors to it. I want it to keep it simple and classy so I utilized gradient tool for it. This took a lot of trials too.

Figure 2.2 Coloring (20.05.2022)

I finally went ahead with this one as it potrays a spa really well. However, I do realize that it is a bit plain so I went by added a circular border as an element.

Figure 2.3 Chosen Color of  Key Artwork (20.05.2022)

Figure 2.4 Final Key Artwork (23.05.2022)

TASK 2B:

We continue with the second part of the second task and were assigned to create a poster, an animated invite and a collateral relevant to the event/occupation. Since my theme is a spa, I would be making a soft opening event for a spa place and would create a discount voucher relating to it. 

On the poster, I conjured a hefty amount of time as I'm yet again faced with a rather annoying art block. I had created the same layout like the first one but with the color scheme that matches my final key artwork, unfortunately it wasn't really working out so I created the second one with typography more as a focus.

Figure 2.5 Poster WIP (21.05.2022)

This is one of my attempt,

Figure 2.6 Attempt Poster (21.05.2022)

After feedback, Sir Vinod mentioned that I need to use my logo wisely in order for that to be the centre of attention. So I scoured the internet some more and came up with several ideas for the poster.

Figure 2.7 Attempts (23.05.2022)

I chose the 4th attempt to be the final one, as it seems that now the key artwork is the centre of attention, the cut up 'E' following the circled logo seems to look like an oil drip, and how the S is curvy and sleek, I think it displays the "spa and massage" message really well.

Afterwards I worked on my collateral. This one I just worked around what I had in mind. I however did not really like how it ends and should've chosen a better color for the background, but what I had before was too plain.

Figure 2.8 Collateral Voucher Front (22.05.2022)

Figure 2.9 Collateral Voucher Back (22.05.2022)

I put them in a voucher mock-up to showcase them better.

Figure 2.10 Mock-up Voucher (22.05.2022)

However, I did not like it a lot, so I tried to find a different mock up that may suit a spa and masssage place. I came up with an idea of bathbombs/bath products that customers may bring home.

This is what I end up with, 

Figure 2.11 Mock-up Bath Products (23.04.2022)

The most dreaded part. I finally did the invite and it was kind of all over the place, however I quite like some parts of it. I am not too sure if the GIF took too long though.

Figure 2.12 Progress (22.05.2022)

Here is the first attempt.

Figure 2.13 Final Animated Invitation (22.05.2022)

After changing my poster, I had to redo some part of the animation (mainly the beginning).

Figure 2.14 Final Animated Invitation (23.05.2022)

FINAL WORKS

Figure 2.15 Key Artwork B&W Version (23.05.2022)

Figure 2.16 Key Artwork Colored Version (23.05.2022)

Figure 2.17 Final Poster (23.05.2022)

Figure 2.18 Poster Mock-up (23.05.2022)

Figure 2.19 Animated Invitation (23.05.2022)

Figure 2.20 Bath Product Mock up (23.05.2022)

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FEEDBACK

Week 7

General Feedback: Only proceed with color after you're done with black and white. Choose colors that will contrast against white printing. When constructing the key art, mind the balance, the form, and the strokes and the negative space.

Specific Feedback: Magician has a lot of negative space. Can proceed with Masseuse as it's interesting. 

Week 8

No Feedback - ILW

Week 9

General Feedback: You should use the key artwork as the centre piece of the poster, construct the poster around the key artwork

Specific Feedback: Apply the general feedback to the poster, do not let the title as the point of attention

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REFLECTION

Experience

This time even though it is pretty straightforward with clear instructions alongside a deliberate amount of creative freedom, the thing that challenges me the most is the minimal time management and only one feedback session. During this time I had to leave Malay and had to travel for a medical emergency back home, and felt like during this time I couldn't really maximize my work as my time management is all over the place. I had to cram everything in 3 days because I also did not realize nor did I look through facebook posts that submission is on week 9. Albeit all of that, I still managed to work some things out even if it's not my optimal work. I liked the animation a lot though, even if I know it could be better if I had more time. 

Observation

I observed that good designs usually would contain key artworks. They can be utilized as an artwork as whole or you could also divide or cut them up and they would still visualize the same identity. 

Findings

I found out that in order to create good key artwork, you have to jot down or find out ideas that represent the line of work/field of interest. This includes finding the right typeface, minding the balance, the negative space and overall letterforms. 

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FURTHER READING

Figure 3.1 The Vignelli Canon (n.d)

Sir Vinod repeatedly reminded us how important white space is in typography, including in this Key Artwork task. White space is to create balance, release tension between text/word and bring a certain level of serenity. Hence, it is important to mind the relationship between font size and the space around it. This rule, it was in context for graphic design, but also applies into making our key artwork by looking at its counterform, and also when designing posters with other typographic systems other than grid style.

Figure 3.2 Arranging black and white space (n.d)