Advanced Typography - Exercises
26.8.19 - 23.9.19 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Abigail Bea Chong Ka Yee (0333966)
Advanced Typography
Exercises
LECTURE NOTES
Lecture 1: Introduction to Advanced Typography and Group Presentations - Typographic Systems
26.8.19 (Week 1)
We began our second semester with a brief introduction module and what we would be doing throughout the course. We were then placed into groups to present about typographic systems, we were also given an hour and a half to prepare. My group presented about Grid and Modular. After the presentations, Mr Vinod showed us some of our senior's final work results. Here is a compilation of the 8 typographic systems (Axial, Radial, Dilatational, Random, Grid, Modular, Transitional and Bilateral:
2.9.19 (Week 2)
This week we didn't have lectures because we were focusing on finalising our 16 typography system layouts. Mr Vinod also told us about our next exercise which is called type and play - part 1 where I explained more in my exercises.
Lecture 3: No lecture
9.9.19 (Week 3)
Today we got our feedbacks for our dissected letterforms and Mr Vinod introduced our next exercise which is type and play - part 2
Lecture 4: No lecture
16.9.19 (Week 4)
Today we didn't have class because it was a public holiday.
Lecture 5: Typographic Perception & Organization
23.9.19 (Week 5)
My group had a lecture today about Typographic Perception & Organization it consisted of three sub-topics which were Form and Contrast, Gestalt Psychology and Layout, and Creating Visual Hierarchy.
INSTRUCTIONS
EXERCISE
Typographic Systems (Week 1 - Week 2)
For our first exercise, we had to create 2 layouts using the 8 typographic systems (Axial, Radial, Dilatational, Random, Grid, Modular, Transitional, and Bilateral) so in total, we had to create 16 layouts. We were also told to use the information stated in the MIB and to use the 9 typefaces given to us from the last semester; use 200 x 200 mm size for the layouts in Adobe Indesign; only use very minimal non-objective elements as long as it fits with the design and only one colour excluding black, white or gray. These are the details.
The Design School,
Taylor’s University
All ripped up: Punk Influences on Design
or
The ABCs of: The Bauhaus and Design Theory
Open Public Lectures:
November 24, 2019
Lew Pik Svonn, 9AM-10AM
Ezrena Mohd., 10AM-11AM
Suzy Sulaiman, 11AM-12PM
November 25, 2019
Muthu Neduraman, 9AM-10AM
Fahmi Reza, 10AM-11AM
Fahmi Fadzil, 11AM-12PM
Lecture Theatre 12
Here are my sketches:
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| Fig 2.1 Axial Sketches |
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| Fig 2.2 Radial, Dilatational, Random and Grid Sketches |
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| Fig 2.3 Modular, Transitional and Bilateral |
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| Fig 2.4 Axial System |
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| Fig 2.5 Radial System |
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| Fig 2.6 Dilatational System |
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| Fig 2.7 Random System |
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| Fig 2.8 Grid System |
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| Fig 2.9 Modular System |
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| Fig 2.10 Transitional System |
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| Fig 2.11 Bilateral System |
I got some feedback from Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul and revised my works which were almost all the systems except for radial and dilatational. The revised work is shown below.
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| Fig 2.12 Axial System (Revised) |
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| Fig 2.13 Random System (Revised) |
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| Fig 2.14 Grid System (Revised) |
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| Fig 2.15 Modular System (Revised) |
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| Fig 2.16 Transitional System (Revised) |
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| Fig 2.17 Bilateral System (Resived) |
I got feedback from Mr Shamsul and he suggested that I should make changes to the Axial system and the Transitional system.
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| Fig 2.18 Axial System (Resived #2) |
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| Fig 2.19 Transitional System (Revised #2) |
The PDF version of my typographic layouts.
The final PDF version of my typographic system.
Type and Play - Part 1 (Week 2 - Week 4 )
For this exercise, we had to find an image where we could dissect and analyse the potential letterforms. Once we have found the 5 letterforms we would have to refine it with an existing font without changing its origin. My idea came from a store with a unique pattern.
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| Fig 3.1 The original image |
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| Fig 3.2 The pattern I was going for (cropped image) |
Instead of editing the picture into black and white to help me see better I dimed it to 50% and started tracing. Here is the outline version of the image.
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| Fig 3.3 Outlined image |
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| Fig 3.4 Dissected Area I chose |
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| Fig 3.5 Found a letterform 'S' in the dissected area |
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| Fig 3.6 The letterform 'S' by itself |
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| Fig 3.7 Found a letterform 'L' in the dissected area |
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| Fig 3.8 The letterform 'L' by itself |
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| Fig 3.9 Found a letterform 'M' in the dissected area |
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| Fig 3.10 The letterform 'M' by itself |
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| Fig 3.11 Found a letterform 'U' in the dissected area |
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| Fig 3.12 The letterform 'U' by itself |
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| Fig 3.13 Found a letterform 'N' in the dissected area |
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| Fig 3.14 The letterform 'N' by itself |
The typeface that I choose to compare my letterforms was Serifa 65 bold. I started with making the baseline and guidelines from the existing typeface and making my letterforms the same thickness and width with Serifa.
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| Fig 3.15 Making guidelines |
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| Fig 3.16 Letter 'S' - 1st attempt |
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| Fig 3.17 Letter 'L' - 1st attempt |
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| Fig 3.18 Letter 'M' - 1st attempt |
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| Fig 3.19 Letter 'U' - 1st attempt |
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| Fig 3.20 Letter 'N' - 1st attempt |
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| Fig 3.21 Before and after |
After the feedback, I got from Mr Vinod he said that for my first attempt at refining the letters I should make all the width of the strokes the same first instead of making some strokes thinner or thicker.
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| Fig 3.22 Letter 'S' - 2nd attempt |
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| Fig 3.23 Letter 'L' - 2nd attempt |
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| Fig 3.24 Letter 'M' - 2nd attempt |
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| Fig 3.25 Letter 'U' - 2nd attempt |
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| Fig 3.26 Letter 'N' - 2nd attempt |
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| Fig 3.27 Before and after |
I then proceeded to make the strokes thicker asymmetrically.
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| Fig 3.28 Letter 'S' - 3rd attempt |
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| Fig 3.29 Letter 'L' - 3rd attempt |
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| Fig 3.30 Letter 'M' - 3rd attempt |
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| Fig 3.31 Letter 'U' - 3rd attempt |
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| Fig 3.32 Letter 'N' - 3rd attempt |
I showed Mr Vinod the comparison between the letterforms with strokes that had the same widths and the letterforms that were asymmetrically thicker. And he told me that the strokes that are thicker wouldn't work for this style. Thus he also indicated the parts where I should make it thinner which were the horizontal lines instead of the vertical ones.
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| Fig 3.33 Comparison and an indication of where I should make the strokes thinner |
I made the strokes thinner on the indicated parts and asked Mr Vinod and he said to try to increase the contrast of weight and it might work for my style of letterforms.
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| Fig 4.1 After feedback on making the strokes thinner |
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| Fig 4.2 Letter 'S' - 4th attempt |
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| Fig 4.3 Letter 'L' - 4th attempt |
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| Fig 4.4 Letter 'M' - 4th attempt |
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| Fig 4.5 Letter 'U' - 4th attempt |
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| Fig 4.6 Letter 'N' - 4th attempt |
I made three attempts to increase the contrast of the letterforms and asked Mr Vinod again and he said the last one looks interesting and to increase the serifs on the letter 'S'.
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| Fig 4.7 The three attempts made to increase the contrast of the strokes |
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| Fig 4.8 Letter 'S' - 5th attempt |
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| Fig 4.9 Letter 'L' - 5th attempt |
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| Fig 4.10 Letter 'M' - 5th attempt |
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| Fig 4.11 Letter 'U' - 5th attempt |
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| Fig 4.12 Letter 'N' - 5th attempt |
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| Fig 4.13 Letter 'S' - 6th attempt |
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| Fig 4.14 Letter 'L' - 6th attempt |
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| Fig 4.15 Letter 'M' - 6th attempt |
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| Fig 4.16 Letter 'U' - 6th attempt |
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| Fig 4.17 Letter 'N' - 6th attempt |
This is my final outcome.
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| Fig 4.18 Letter 'S' - Final attempt |
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| Fig 4.19 Letter 'L' - Final attempt |
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| Fig 4.20 Letter 'M' - Final attempt |
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| Fig 4.21 Letter 'U' - Final attempt |
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| Fig 4.22 Letter 'N' - Final attempt |
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| Fig 4.23 Before and After |
Here is the PDF version of the letterforms.
Type & Play - Part 2 (Week 4 - Week 5 )
For this exercise, we had to combine an image of a man-made structure or object with a letter, word or a sentence. The objective is to form a relationship between image and type and make it one together. We were allowed to choose our own image and type but it must be in A4 and using the 9 typefaces and only 1 colour. This was the photo I chose.
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| Fig 5.1 Photo #1 |
I then edited the photo in Photoshop because it's easier for me to put the words behind him and made the artboard into portrait A4. I picked the quote from Martha Graham which was 'Dance is the hidden language of the soul."
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| Fig 5.2 Process #1 |
I showed Mr Vinod this image on Facebook and he said it will take a long time before this will look good and that I was going about this correctly but the colour scheme and background are disturbing. I then proceeded to make the background transparent using the opacity so that it will only bring focus to the guy.
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| Fig 5.3 Process #2 |
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| Fig 5.4 Process #3 |
I felt like this picture wasn't working well so I change it to another picture with movement. I also improvised the word 'born to dance' and 'A NYC PRODUCTION FILM'.
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| Fig 5.5 Process #4 |
Mr Vinod told me that this image was better than the previous one but it could be better if I had contrasted the letters with her instead of using her for the placing of the word DANCE.
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| Fig 5.6 Trying to make the letters contrast against her |
It did not work so I tried to make the born to smaller and make it look like the D is going through the hand.
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| Fig 5.7 Final attempt |
The PDF version of the final attempt.
FEEDBACK
Week 1
There were no feedbacks for this week.
Week 2
General Feedback:
Mr Vinod told us that we should make a 0.5 point size box around out layouts so it wouldn't look like it is floating, for the body text it should be 9-12 points, the kerning and letter spacing of the texts are important.
Specific Feedback:
For my radial and dilatation, Mr Vinod approved my designs and one of the dilatational spread I did looks like Mickey Mouse. Moreover, for axial I had to decrease the body text to about 9 - 12 points so it did not look like it was competing with each other thus the title should be kerned a little bit. For random he told me to look at David Carson's work because the style I did was kind of similar, it also felt like it was missing a kick.
Week 3
General Feedback:
Mr Vinod told us that some of the key features will not be visible if we do a rough sketch of the dissection if we want to do a simple sketch make sure to keep the main characteristics of the letterform.
Specific Feedback:
Mr Vinod told me that my letter 'S' is too thin but he likes my letter 'U'. He suggested that for my first step I have to maintain the width of the strokes the same; for my second step, I should then only decide if the strokes should be thinner or thicker.
Week 4
Online Feedback:
Middle looks good. 3rd looks interesting but having thinner strokes (asymmetrical) won’t work for this style. However, you could try thinner strokes in the areas I indicated and see if you think it’s better. If not, focus on the middle.
I think, if you increase the contrast more it might, Be better... maybe... maybe not... try one letter and see. If you like it better, than do the rest. Contrast... it might look better.
Aww No... long way to go before this looks good, You are going about it correctly... but colour scheme and background is disturbing.
Week 5
General Feedback:
Once you start to refine your letterforms from the ones you have extracted, you need to keep a core characteristics of the letterforms and only add and subtract certain elements you want to in your own creativity with maintaining the characteristics of the letterforms.
Specific Feedback:
my letterforms are fine. But I need to make the 'born to' smaller and make the word DANCE contrast with the girl instead of around her.
REFLECTION
Experiences
Week 1; I feel like I could be better in advanced typography even though I am a little nervous about how I can put my skills into good use. Furthermore, since we had to present the topics for the first time I was unsure how much information I needed to put in the slides. It was also very interesting to find out how similar modular and grid were. Week 2; While showing the layouts to Mr Vinod I was a little nervous about how I would do but after the feedback I got. On the other hand, I noticed that I did a pretty decent job whilst having to adjust certain elements such as line spacing between the texts and some of the body texts I used were too huge. Moreover, all the systems were fine with me but the one I struggle with the most was the random system, which sounds funny to me because since it's random it is supposed to be simple and easy for me to figure out but that wasn't the case. Week 3; When I was trying to make the strokes the same width for the letters (S, L, M, U, N) all of them looked the same except for the letter 'S'. Then I got a brilliant idea to make the letterforms using the line tool and using the width of the strokes by adjusting the points. The only problem that took so much time was making the strokes line up to one another. Moreover, the letter 'S' took most of my time to refine. Week 4; This week was hectic for me even though it was a public holiday. I was working on both exercises at once and I'm glad I received the feedback I needed through Facebook from Mr Vinod. When I was refining the letterforms I felt like I still needed to do more to get the style I wanted. For the type and play exercise, I knew what I wanted the letters to look like but it's tricky to make the image and letters be one together. Week 5; I was glad that my type and play exercise part 1 was finally approved so I could focus more on my part 2 with the type and image. Part 2 exercise was quite tricky for me at first I really wanted to work on the guy skipping but it didn't turn out the way I imaged so I chose another picture which was a girl thus I was quite happy with how it turned out but I felt like I could do more.
Observations
Week 1; The environment today didn't feel as intense as the beginning of the first typography class in semester 1. My classmates were also quite laid back since we had 'experience' typography before. Week 2; Since today was a public holiday the university felt really empty and quiet. Our advanced typography class went really fast too instead of ending at 2 pm it ended at around 10 am. Besides that, the class overall felt productive even though I was tired. Week 3; Today felt slow-paced even though we ended earlier, I felt like I could have done more but was just confused about how I should refine my letterforms but I'm glad Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul gave me the feedback that I needed to be on the right path. On the other hand, I was also sick which isn't good. Week 4; This week felt like a lot of pressure for me to handle and we didn't even start our projects yet (': but I'm willing to pull myself through and make it. Week 5; Today's class felt informative for both us and our lecturers as it had been a few weeks since we had our last presentation. After the presentation, we had Q&A that was pretty interesting to discuss and talk about what we knew and what we didn't know.
Findings
Week 1; While going through the MIB I found that the exercises weren't as heavy as typography but it will definitely challenge me in areas I have not been before. Week 2; I learned that I am actually pretty good at dilatational and radial systems. I struggled with random because I tend to overthink it and although it is random I still have to have a structure when I do plan the layout. Week 3; I found that when Mr Vinod commented on how I had a very detailed refinement for the image I chose I tend to focus on the big picture first and move on to the tiny little details and made sure I didn't miss any square boxes. Week 4; It was a public holiday today but I still struggled with both my letterforms and type and play exercise since it was harder without asking for feedback face to face. Week 5; I noticed that refining letterforms are tricky to do if the letterforms extracted do not have the core characteristics of the image and that if you don't have a clear idea on how you want the letterforms to be it will be harder to refine it further. Other than that, picking an image for type and play part 2 is crucial to make sure the background isn't too distracting.
FURTHER READING
SEVEN ESSENTIAL TYPOGRAPHIC LAYOUT SYSTEMS by Lucas Czarnecki
26.8.19 - 2.9.19 (Week 1 - Week 2)
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| Fig 1.1 SEVEN ESSENTIAL TYPOGRAPHIC LAYOUT SYSTEMS |
This article really helped me understand the basics of how to use the typographic systems correctly. Not only that but also taught me how to use different types of elements to make the composition pop up more. The author commented that it is important to sketch out the ideas you have because it is quicker and doesn't distract you with the colour or font; he mentions that designing by hand lets us test out a bunch of different ideas. Furthermore, I learned that the major difference about axial and bilateral was that to use the axial system we had to put everything on either side of a line while bilateral was in the center of a line.
3D TYPOGRAPHY by Jeanette Abbink and Emily CM Anderson
9.9.19 - 16.9.19 (Week 3 - Week 4)
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| Fig 1.2 3D TYPOGRAPHY |
This book helped me find ideas about what I wanted to dissect from an image. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do rocks because I've seen quite a few of my classmates using rocks to create the letterforms. I had one main idea in my mind which was to refine the letterforms into blocky ones. I got my inspiration from these two pictures but also thank you to Tory Burch store for having such nice patterns.
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| Fig 1.3 Lewis Carroll by Amandine Alessandra |
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| Fig 1.4 Paper Alphabet by Sonya Dyakova |
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| Fig 1.5 Paper Alphabet by Sonya Dyakova |
Sonya Dyakova, Phaidon Press, London's Associate Art Director, crafted Paper Alphabet for Sculpture Today, a detailed review of contemporary sculpture. By slicing and folding a flat sheet of paper, Dyakova set out to develop a set of sculptural letterforms. Significant effort was made to design and organize the letterforms, each of which differed playfully in shape and size, though their departure remained constant. Legibility depends largely on the side from which the form is perceived.
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