Advanced Typography Task 1
31/8/2022-25/9/2022 (week1-week4)
Ng Jia Xien / 0355062
Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Advanced Typography
Task 1
LECTURES
Week 1
Introduction to the module information booklet, briefing of task 1. A brief introduction to typographic systems.
.png)
- Axial
- Radial
- Dilatational
- Random
- Grid
- Modular
- Transitional
- Bilateral
- Axial System
.png)
.png)
All elements are organized to the left or right of a single axis. Information
is divided into groups and is placed at different angles on different sides of
the axial, and the axial is not necessary to be straight.
- Radial System
.png)
.png)
All elements are extended from a point of focus, and it's spread out according
to the particular point of focus.
- Dilatational System
.png)
.png)
All elements expand from a central point in a circular fashion, you can have
multiple rings of circles with information on either side or in line with
those circles, and you can place it in a hierarchical manner where the most
important probably takes precedence or in the outer rings.
- Random System
.png)
.png)
Elements appear to have no specific pattern or relationship, even though it's
random, there is a method in the chaos that is created within the page.
- Grid System
.png)
.png)
A system of vertical and horizontal divisions, it's commonly used by people,
different sizes and weights can create emphasis and hierarchy.
- Transitional System
.png)
.png)
In an informal system of layered banding, banding would mean basically
segregating information within certain bands.
- Modular System
.png)
.png)
A series of non-objective elements that are constructed as a standardized
unit, the units have to be standardized, as modular allows you to move the
individual units to different portions of the page.
- Bilateral System
.png)
.png)
All text is arranged symmetrically on a single axis, this is a system that
tends to be used a lot of times in invitation cards or other types of formal
invites.
Week 2
Advanced Typography: Typographic Composition
When we consider composition, we think of the dominant principles that
underpin design composition, which include emphasis, isolation,
repetition, symmetry and asymmetry, alignment and perspective, and so on.
The rule of thirds is generally never used in typography competition,
but it is still a element of composition that is used to make decisions
on placement of important information within a given space.
These 8 systems have been discussed in detail in theory and practice.
Among these 8 systems, the most practical and commonly used system is
the Grid System (or Raster System), which is derived from the grid
composition structure of Letter Press printing.
Ease of reading and readability take second place, yet the best
examples seem to combine the two seamlessly. There is a method to
their madness. Order is replaced by apparent chaos, but this chaos
is exciting and "new" to a generation that is being exposed to
Punk's anti-establishment ideas and music.
As a result, systems of asymmetry, random, repetition, dilatational,
and radial system began to take root in the designer's lexicon.
Environment Grid
This system is based on the exploration of an existing structure or a
combination of many structures. An extraction of crucial lines,
including curves and straight lines, is developed. The designer then
organizes his information around this superstructure, which includes
non-objective elements to create a unique and exciting mixture of
textures and visual stimuli.
Because the system/structure is developed around the key features of the
environment associated with the communicator of the information.
Form and Movement
This system is based on an exploration of existing Grid Systems.
Exploration; the multiple options offered by the grid; the elimination
of the seriousness surrounding the application of the grid system; the
view of the page turn in a book as a slowed-down animation within the
forms that make up the placement of images, text, and color.
The placement of a form (whatever it is) on a page creates movement
across many pages. Whether the page is paper or screen is irrelevant.
Week 3
The first mechanically produced letterforms were designed to directly
imitate handwriting. Handwriting would become the basis or standard for
form, spacing, and conventions mechanical type would try and mimic.
The shape and line of hand-drawn letterforms are influenced by the tools
and materials used to make them. Additional factors included the
material upon which the forms were written.
BCE is before common error and CE is common error after zero year.
When you look at the oriental part or the Chinese script, you notice
that for them the documentation has always been supremely important, and
hence Chinese history is really well documented because it has many
scrolls and scripts and historical documents that we can refer to.
What we often tend to ignore is that there is much more cross-cultural
exchange during this period, exchanges were happening.
We study handwriting because the first mechanically produced
letterforms were designed to directly imitate handwriting.
Handwriting would become the basis or standard that for form,
spacing, and conventions mechanical type would try and mimic.
For decades, Asia/East has neglected much of its written heritage,
and by adapting western printing technologies (letterpress,
linotype, Unicode), it was difficult to create many of the old text
in printed form, because it would take know-how, much time, effort
and money.
However with a mild renaissance in the East, with the advent of
computer programmers in large numbers, we are starting to see the
proliferation of indigenous scripts on phones, tablets, and
computers.
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,
reliability, or relevance.
Creativity and inspiration should begin by observing our surroundings
and exploration of our collective histories.
Week 4
Two reasons for designing a typeface are type design carries social
responsibility as one must continue to improve its legibility, and
type design is a form of artistic expression.
There's no methodology to test the legibility of a typeface, so the
use of a blurred typeface to test legibility was an interesting
method. But today if you look from research, perspective, they
required more stringent methodologies for scientific reasoning.
Matthew Carter designed a type called Bell Centennial where you had ink
traps, when you see the letter B you can the protrusions of the bowl.
What happens basically is that the extra ink that flows due to the paper
and the fast printing covers the ink traps and then it eventually looks
normal.
The general process of type design:
- Research
- Sketching
- Digitization
- Testing
- Deploy
1. Research
Type history gives you perspective, type anatomy helps you understand
the different parts of a letter, and type conventions help you
understand the unwritten rules of typography, all these are important
when you begin the process of designing a typeface.
2. Sketching
When you look at some designers now, the designers who use their hands
allowed there to be more deliberation with every stroke, as opposed to
doing it fast where the deliberation is less, but on the flip side, it
takes a lot of time.
3. Digitization
The form of a letter on the counter form is an important aspect of
legibility and readability.
4. Testing
Seeing whether the typefaces work requires testing and the more
rigorous the testing, the fewer problems you have later down the
line.
5. Deploy
Testing is always important, prototyping is important so that you
understand the pros and cons of that particular letter, and how it
behaves in its environment. Getting feedback from the stakeholders is
important and those people who probably end up using it are important
or viewing it reading it is important.
Week 5
Oftentimes in design, graphic design, and also at advertising, a lot
of what people see and understand is us manipulating them into seeing
and understanding, this is even more so when it comes to advertising.
Whenever designers work with information it can come in any of these
types of forms, however, our focus today is on typography.
7 kinds of contrast:
- Size
- Weight
- Contrast of form
- Contrast of structure
- Contrast of texture
- Contrast of color
- Contrast of direction
A good example of using the typographical form is when you have two
different styles of typefaces but in the same sentence.
Oftentimes if the texture is used appropriately you can create some
interesting effects even standard typefaces within the body text
that are created on a page also create texture.
Take note that form is really important because it creates the most
visual impact. When you're looking at contact, people's eyes are often
attracted to form, it's like music as well, when you listen to music
oftentimes you remember the tune but don't remember the words.
Similarly, in design, form plays an important role because it draws
you in first.
Organisation / Gestalt
A designer should understand visual perception, this would apply to
every aspect of design including typography. In design you have to
look at the unified whole, you have to see how it relates to each
other, and how one flows from the other to another.
Organization / Gestalt: Perceptual Organisation / Groupings
- Law of Similarity
- Law of Proximity
- Law of Closure
- Law of Continuation
- Law of Symmetry
- Law of Simplicity (Praganz)
- ...
INSTRUCTIONS
<iframe
src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hzh6QJtPGbC5GTgz3qgnD1sPKboIBREQ/preview"
width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
Task 1: Exercise 1 - Typographic Systems
Throughout the beginning of this semester, various exercises will be
prescribed in this module. These exercises will aid and benefit us in our
quest to gain theoretical and practical knowledge in Advanced Typography
that will inform us and provide us with the necessary experience to take
on the module’s tasks.
The exercises are as follows:
1) Typographic Systems (1 Week)
• Axial, Radial, Dilatational, Random, Grid, Modular, Transitional and
Bilateral
2) Type & Play Part 1 & 2 (2 Week)
1) Typographic Systems:
“An understanding of systems of visual organization gives the designer and
in-depth knowledge of the design process. The traditional ties that bind
design education and the visual process to the rigid horizontal and
vertical grid systems of letterpress are no longer the sole means of
order. It is possible for the designer to use a more fluid means to create
typographic messages through the eight systems of typographic
organization. These systems expand the visual language of typographic
communication and invite the reader into the text.” (Elam, 2007)
The 8 systems mentioned above are to be explored using the following
content:
The Design School,
Taylor’s University
All Ripped Up: Punk Influences on Design
or
The ABC s of Bauhaus Design Theory
or
Russian Constructivism and Graphic Design
Open Public Lectures:
June 24, 2021
Lew Pik Svonn, 9AM-10AM
Ezrena Mohd., 10AM-11AM
Suzy Sulaiman, 11AM-12PM
June 25, 2021
Lim Whay Yin, 9AM-10AM
Fahmi Reza, 10AM-11AM
Manish Acharia, 11AM-12PM
Lecture Theatre 12
We were asked to complete the exercise task using Adobe InDesign only, the
size is 200 x 200mm. In addition to black, we are allowed to use one other
color, graphical elements like line, dot, etc, can be used but
limitedly.
Before we started, we were told to watch a pre-recorded lecture on YouTube
about the process and methods of using Adobe InDesign.
Process
According to the YouTube pre-recorded lecture is easy to create our own
design, but there are also some points that we might take attention to
it.
.png)
|
|
Fig 1.1 Lowercase |
When there is a date, we'd better put it in lowercase. We should change it
to lowercase in the type, and then select the small caps icon in character
formatting controls.
.png)
|
| Fig 1.2 Text Frame Option |
Press Ctrl + B to open the text frame option and we are then able to adjust
the position of text in the textbox.
Below is my initial design before the feedback. Of all the 8 design systems,
I think the random system was the most difficult of all. I found it hard to
read if it was laid out too messy, but if I tried to make it readable, it
was laid out too neatly.
|
| Fig 1.3 Axial system 1, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.4 Axial system 2, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.5 Radial system 1, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.6 Radial system 2, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.7 Dilatational system, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.8 Random system, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.9 Grid system 1, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.10 Grid system 2, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.11 Transitional system 1, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.12 Transitional system 2, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 1.13 Modular system, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022 |
|
|
Fig 1.14 Bilateral system, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022
|
Final Submission
Final submission of typographic systems
|
|
Fig 1.15 Final submission of Axial system 1, by Ng Jia Xien,
10/9/2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fig 1.16 Final submission of Random system 1, by Ng Jia Xien,
10/9/2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PDF final submission
Task 1: Exercise 1 - Type & Play
The exercise of type & play, it's separated into two parts, in part
one, we will be asked to make a selection of images between man-made
objects (chair, glass, etc.) or structures (buildings), and nature (Human,
landscape, leaf, plant, bush, clouds, hill, river, etc). We will analyze,
dissect and identify potential letterforms within the dissected
image.
|
| Fig 2.1 Photo of a stone wall, by Ng Jia Xien, 11/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 2.2 Process of exercise type & play, by Ng Jia Xien, 16/9/2022 |
|
| Fig 2.3 Improvement on exercise type & play, by Ng Jia Xien, 21/9/2022 |
Then, we need to place the letters we created on the photo we chose at the beginning.
 | |
|
 |
| Fig 2.6 Photo with letters, version 2, by Ng Jia Xien, 27/9/2022 |
Final Submission
Final submission of type & play
|
||
Fig 2.7 Final submission of type & play, part 1, by Ng Jia Xien,
22/9/2022
|
PDF final submission
Task 1: Exercise 2 - Type & Play
In this exercise, we will combine a
visual with a letter/word/sentence of our choosing. The
objective is to enhance/support the interplay between the
letter/word/sentence and the selected visual. The text must be
woven into a symbiotic relationship with the image.
Visual research
 |
| Fig 3.1 Poster of text with image 1 |
 | |
|
 | |
|
Process
I did face a lot of problems in this exercise. First of all, we had to use only our own photos and not search on the internet. Second, we had to find a suitable way to combine text and images, what effects we could use, or what techniques we should have, all of which bothered me and prevented me from completing this test very well.
 |
| Fig 3.4 Type & play, exercise 2, version 1, by Ng Jia Xien, 28/9/2022 |
 |
| Fig 3.5 Type & play, exercise 2, version 2, by Ng Jia Xien, 28/9/2022 |
 |
| Fig 3.6 Type & play, exercise 2, version 3, by Ng Jia Xien, 5/10/2022 |
PDF final submission
FEEDBACK
Week 2
Specific Feedback:
The design for the random system (Fig 1.8 Random system, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022
) is arranged too neatly, try to make it messier. Also, the whole artboard
for the dilatational system (Fig 1.7 Dilatational system, by Ng Jia Xien, 4/9/2022) is too empty, add more elements to make it visually richer.
General Feedback:
Roughly all are acceptable and can choose wherever I want for the final
submission.
Week 3
Specific Feedback:
Inconsistency (y and a's strokes), consistency is achieved when strokes are consistent in thickness, and when features in one stroke can be replicated in other strokes. Create elements that can be replicated for use.
General Feedback:
Not finished yet, still need a lot of work.
Week 4
Specific Feedback:
Actually, it still needs some work on it, but I am now running out of time,
so just use whatever I have.
General Feedback:
It's not represented clearly.
Week 5
Specific Feedback:
No need to do the whole text, use less text and concentrate on it.
General Feedback:
Try to understand the text well and find photos that can convey the meaning of the text.
Week 6
Specific Feedback:
N/A
General Feedback:
N/A
REFLECTION
Experience:
In advanced typography exercise 1, typographic systems and type & play,
it's a bit boring for creating the 8 different typographic systems designs,
but it does let me learn a lot of things. In addition, exercise type &
play is fun and involves more creative elements.
Observation:
I observed that those technics that we learned in semester 1 typography do
let us be more familiar with the use of software and let us do our designs
work in a more faster and efficient way.
Findings:
I found that the exercise "type & play" is fun and the power of
observation power is quite important in this exercise, and there are a lot
of ideals and inspiration that come from daily life. So, do pay more
attention to the surroundings and learn from them.
Further Reading:
Allan Haley, Richard Poulin, Jason Tselentis, Tony Seddon, Gerry
Leonidas, Ina Saltz, Kathryn Henderson with Tyler Alterman, (2020):
Typography referenced
Until recently, there was a wide gulf between display fonts and text
fonts. Text fonts were often designed with explicit reference to
historical forms and were completely separate from display fonts. They
also have a long shelf life. The few exceptions, usually sans serif
families such as Univers or Futura, are aimed at specific markets. Font
history tends to focus only on text fonts used for books, often
downplaying the contribution of sans serifs to typography and ignoring
display fonts and non-Latin characters. Today, there is a richer type
story told, focusing on the development of styles in response to
document types, the influence of technology, market forces, and the
interplay between cultural movements and type design.
Traditional systems categorize typefaces by features such as angle of
contrast, rate of modulation, and
the shape of serifs. The darkness of a block of text, the visual
reinforcement of horizontal and vertical axes, the distribution of
space within and between letters, the length of ascenders and
descenders, and the line spacing become the dominant features. The
overall texture of the typeface becomes less
important than individual features. The presence or absence of
complementary styles and weights in the paragraphs, and the editorial
structure of the paragraphs. The presence or absence of complementary
styles and weights in paragraphs, and the editorial structure of the
text
The editorial structure of the text determines our reading
strategy.
The designer acknowledges the wider historical and cultural
environments in which a typeface
sits and must respect the users’ expectations. This does not mean
that a designer should not push the
envelope and surprise users, but to do this well it’s important to
know what is considered conventional and acceptable—conventions that
change over time and across geography, demographics, document types,
and according to the specifics of document use.
.png)
Comments
Post a Comment