Chung Jia Xuan / 0346630 / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media Typography Exercises and Flip class
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 1 : Exercise 1 - Type Expression
First of all, Mr Vinod let us brainstorm various words with different meaning and then he created a pole in the Facebook group for us to vote ourselves. The final 7 words that got the highest votes are Space, Water, Glitch, Broken, Abyss and bark. We are told to at least choose 3 words and try to visualise the meaning of each words.
I started the exercise with 4 ideas for each words and sketch them down. While sketching my ideas, I found out that it was not easy to convey my ideas through sketches especially my first idea for Space. I wanted to make my design look more 3D like the universe with negative space but I was bounded from my sick drawing skill and so I decided to try forming the type expression digitally later.
Sketches
Figure 1.1 First sketches
Figure 1.2 Sketches of "space", Week 2 (02.09.2021)
Figure 1.3 Sketches of "broken", Week 2 (02.09.2021)
Figure 1.4 Sketches of "terror", Week 2 (02.09.2021)
Figure 1.5 Sketches of "abyss", Week 2 (02.09.2021)
Mr Vinod then asked us to give feedbacks on each other's work. He told us while giving feedbacks to our classmates, our feedbacks should include several important points:
Are the explorations sufficient?
Does the designs match the meaning of the word?
Is the idea strong enough to express the word?
How can it be improved?
I received some feedbacks regarding my sketches. I was encouraged to do some slight corrections to each of the typefaces to form a better result. For Terror, I was advised to add more visual sense such as the demon horn to my 3rd design and some bloody feel to my 4th designate strengthen the feeling of terror. As for Space, I was advised to make the 1st design neater. For Broken, there were not much comments for the 1st, 2nd and 4th designs, while I was advised to modify the 3rd design as it is a little bit too simple.
We were then to digitise the final choice of each words in Adobe Illustrator. Before that, Mr Vinod told us to watch the video tutorials he provided so that we can get more familiar with the tools in Adobe Illustrator.
Figure 1.6 First digitise tryouts, Week 3 (08.09.2021)
For “space”, I got some new ideas afterwards so I made some changes regarding the initial sketches. I created a whirl pattern so that the audiences will immidiately think of the Milky Way when they see the pattern. Also, I added some rotation so that it looks more 3D to strengthen the “space” feel. I also made a time lapse for my design process.
Time lapse for 'space' Design
For "terror", I added the melting and liquid structures to make it look bloody.
For “broken”, I split it horizontally into two parts and slightly adjusted the conjunction to make it look irregular as if it was really broken.
For “abyss”, I made it 3D by adding some height and blurred the lower part to add a sense of depth. Also, I use a dark background to make it look more oppressive.
During practical session, I got some feedbacks from Mr Vinod and Dr Charles. They said my design for "space" and "broken" are good. As for "terror", I was advised to make some changes because it was too simple. For "abyss", Mr Vinod said it might be better if I removed the black outline of the word.
After thinking over about all the feedbacks from the lecturers and my classmates, I made some adjustments to my final work.
Final Digitalised Type Expressions
Figure 1.7 Final digitalised type expressions, Week 3 (10.09.2021)
Final Outcome in PDF, Week 3 (10.09.2021)
Then, we were told to pick one of the type expressions and animate it. Mr Vinod demonstrated the methods for animating by using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I thought learning how to animate was fun so I did three animations before I made decision to choose one of them.
GIF Animation
I created my first tryout animation - space during the tutorial session. I've used 8 artboards for "space" Animation to create a rotating animation, approaching effect.
1. SPACE
Figure 1.8 Frames of "space" Animation, Week 3 (10.09.2021)
Figure 1.9 "space" Animation, Week 3 (10.09.2021)
Figure 2.0 Frames of "terror" Animation, Week 3 (10.09.2021)
Figure 2.2 Frames of "broken" Animation, Week 3 (11.09.2021)
Final Outcome - Animated Type Expression
Figure 2.3 Final Animated Type Expression "broken" GIF, Week 3 (10.09.2021)
Task 1: Exercise 2 - Text Formatting
The main purpose of exercise 2 is to practice and develop our skills in spatial arrangement and information hierarchy such as kerning, leading, paragraph spacing, alignment, etc. We were told to create one final layout addressing different areas of text formatting. We are instructed to use Adobe InDesign for the exercise.
Figure 2.4 Text formatting with kerning, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
Figure 2.5 Text formatting without kerning, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
Figure 2.6 Comparison before and after kerning, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
Figure 2.6 Before and after kerning, font change from book to Light Narrow Italic, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
Figure 2.7 After kerning and before kerning,
font type changed to Condensed from Roman, Week 4 (17.09.2021)
Final Outcome - Text Formatting with Kerning
Figure 2.4 Final Text formatting with kerning, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
Figure 2.9 Cross alignment throughout paragraphs, week 5 (20.09.2021)
To align to the baseline grid, the leading value and paragraph spacing have to be the same. Also, I realised there are some spacing mistakes between texts so I removed the excess spacings.
Figure 2.9 Mistakes with text spacing, before and after, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
I arranged the paragraph with Justify with last line aligned left mode to make it look neater. Then, I turn on the hyphenation since there are not too many of them and made some tracking adjustments.
Figure 3.0 Paragraph arranged with left justify and hyphenate turned on, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
I also found some widows and orphans in the paragraphs then removed them.
Figure 3.0 Removing widow in paragraphs, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
Final Outcome - Text Formatting
Figure 3.1 Final Text Formatting, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
Final Text Formatting in PDF, Week 5 (20.09.2021)
FEEDBACK
Week 1
General Feedback
We were told to set up our personal blog based on the requirements, no extra decorations or the changing of fonts and themes.
Specific Feedback
-
Week 2
General Feedback
We were advised to design the type expressions creatively and really reflects the meaning of the word but not to include too much graphics elements.
Specific Feedback
1. Space: I was advised to make the 1st design neater
2. Terror: I was advised to add more visual sense such as the demon horn(3rd design) or the bloody feel(4th design) to strengthen the feeling of terror.
3. Broken: The 1st, 2nd and 4th designs of Broken are good, the 3rd design is a little bit simple
4. Abyss: -
Week 3
General Feedback
Mr Vinod reminded us that it is required to use the 10 typefaces he provided but not just simply choose any other typefaces on our own.
Specific Feedback
Space broken is good, has to be more careful with terror by not adding too much graphics and cause distortion. I was suggested to try removing the outline of abyss.
Week 4
General Feedback
Mr Vinod advised us to practice the habit of giving good feedbacks and learn how to construct our feedbacks, opinions and express our own thinking. We were told that we should kept giving a try when giving feedbacks as the more we struggle, the better we will improve ourselves.
Specific Feedback
Mr Vinod did not advice anything to be changed and approved my final animation.
Week 5
General Feedback
Need to be careful with the amount of distortion.
Specific Feedback
I located my final submission for the Text formatting exercise at the above so Mr Vinod said he did not see my submission, I've made changes and Mr Vinod approved the final submission.
REFLECTIONS
Based on my experiences, Observations and Findings respectively.
Before taking this module, I have never learn anything about Typography. I had to say that learning by doing is immensely helpful for me to understand more about it. Throughout the process of designing Type Expression and Text Formatting, I have developed more knowledges and thoughts for Typography. After all the studies and researches, I've realised the importance of the history of typography and why did Mr Vinod only allowed us to use the 10 typefaces he provided. I’ve gotten more familiar with Adobe Illustrator after completed the digitalising tast in exercise 1. I also get to learn how to use Adobe InDesign when given Text Formatting task. Surprisingly, the most challenging port for me was managing my blog as it does reflect the learning outcomes of typography. Above all, although there are many limitations and rules throughout our tasks, I think it is a very good experience for me to learn how to format the texts correctly.
One of a few observations I’ve gotten along the way is no doubt the formality of type. In my opinion, knowing how a letter is formed and acknowleging its component parts defenitely helps a lot in especially when I am trying to achieve balance of the letterforms’ weights.
The largest finding after completing the tasks given was definitely the new knowledge of type history and how they are being passed down for thousands of years. To me, it is really interesting to find that there is a reason behind every details of typography.
FURTHER READINGS
The Vignelli Canon by Massimo Vignelli
Figure 4.1 Book cover of The Vignelli Canon
"Good design is never boring, only bad design is." I was recalled by this quote after reading this book. As the author said in this book, he believes that design should never be boring, yet it should not be a form of entertainment either.
The author separated the book into two parts: The Intangibles and The Trangibles. First of all, the author stated the 3 important aspects in design which are the Semantic, Syntactic and Pragmatic.
Semantic - The search of the meaning of whatever we have to design
A design without semantics is shallow and meaningless. The first thing to do before starting any form of design, graphic, exhibition or interior is to search the meaning of it. Starting with the research on the history of the subject is a good idea to better understand the nature of the project and to find the most appropriate direction for the development of a new design. Semantics are what will provide the real bases for a correct inception of projects and indicate the most appropriate form for the particular subject that one can interpret or transform according to their intentions. It is important to distill the essence of semantic search through a complex process.
Figure 4.2 Design exploration, source: The Vignelli Canon
Syntactic consistency - The discipline that controls the proper use of grammar in the construction of phrases and the articulation of a language
The syntax of design is provided by components in the nature. In graphic design, the components include the grid, the typefaces, the text and headlines, the illustrations, etc. The consistency of a design is provided by the appropriate relationship of the various syntactical elements of the project Grids are one of the several tools helping designers to achieve syntactical consistency in graphic design.
Pragmatic design - To interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences
The pragmatic part states that we design things which we think are semantically correct and syntactically consistent but if at the point of fruition, the efforts formed no meaning of it then the entire work is useless.
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