Advanced Typography / Task 3

21.06.2024 - 23.07.2024 (Week 9 - Week 14)

Tan Sin Mi (0368821)

Advanced Typography

Task 3

CONTENT

INSTRUCTIONS

TASK 3 - TYPE EXPLORATION & APPLICATION

In this task, we are required to create or improve a font that addresses a problem or adds value in graphic design, animation, new media, or entertainment design. In last, we need to use the font we created to applying and presenting.

This task can take one of three forms:

Creating a new font
Improving an existing font
Experimenting

Proposal:

Figure 1.1 Proposal PPT

Sketches:

Figure 2.1 Letterforms Sketches

First Version Digitized Letterforms:

Figure 3.1 First version digitized letterforms (uppercase)

Figure 3.2 First version digitized letterforms (lowercase)

Figure 3.3 First version digitized letterforms.pdf

Second Version Digitized Letterforms:

After getting feedback, I changed the size of the lowercase letterforms. The uppercase was fine.

Figure 4.1 Second version digitized letterforms (lowercase)

Number & Punctuation:

Figure 5.1 Digitized Number & Punctuation

Final Digitized Letterforms Outcome:

Figure 6.1 Final digitized letterforms Outcome

FontLab:

After done digitizing all letterforms, we need to import them into FontLab and generating the final font files.

Figure 7.1 FontLab Process

Adjust all setting before importing the fonts. (including paste & duplicate setting, font name setting, dimensions setting)

Figure 7.2 FontLab Setting

Kerning:

After imported all letterforms, I adjusted every font's kerning. Below are the images of before and after.

Before:

Figure 7.3 Kerning Process (before)

After:

Figure 7.4 Kerning Process (after)

Final Outcome:

Figure 7.5 Final Font Outcome (FontLab)

Figure 7.6 Final Font Outcome.pdf (FontLab)

Download my font <PS MII> here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DnKlWg-d-x9mnnnucdr6YrBblW9Ti3Ia?usp=drive_link

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Font Presentation:

After done generate all my font to FontLab, I start using my fonts to work on my font presentation. Before that, I have first search some visual references for my inspiration for this task.

Figure 8.1 Visual References

After having an initial idea, I decided to use NEON effect as the tone of my font presentation design. To made a neon effect, I have to use Blur tool to done it.

Neon Effect Process:

Select layer.
Duplicate selected layer for three times.
After duplicate 4 layers, select one layer, select Effect → Blur → Gaussian Blur. (Repeat the same step to other layers)
Adjust each layer radius to 5px, 20px, 70px and 140px.
After adjusted the radius, select all layers, select Effect → Document Raster Effects Settings... → adjust color model to CMYK, resolution to 300ppi and add around object to 700px-720px.
After adjusted DRES, select all layers, select Object → Expand Appearance.
Done!

Figure 8.2 Neon Effect Process

Color Palette:

Figure 8.3 Presentation Color Palette

Final Font Presentation Outcome:

Figure 8.4 Final Font Presentation Outcome 1

Figure 8.5 Final Font Presentation Outcome 2

Figure 8.6 Final Font Presentation Outcome 3

Figure 8.7 Final Font Presentation Outcome 4

Figure 8.8 Final Font Presentation Outcome 5

Figure 8.9 Final Font Presentation Outcome.pdf

Font Application:

After done my font presentation, I start to work on my font application. I searched some mockups template from Mockups Design before I start my work.

Figure 9.1 Mockup template

Then, I used Adobe Illustrator to design all the mockups design image .

Figure 9.2 Mockup design image process

Figure 9.3 Mockup design image outcome

Font Application Process:

After done all the design, I export it all out and use Adobe Photoshop to done the mockups process. After done all mockups, I crop all the outcome to 1024px*1024px.

Figure 9.4 Font application process

Final Font Presentation Outcome:

Figure 9.5 Final Font Presentation Outcome 1

Figure 9.6 Final Font Presentation Outcome 2

Figure 9.7 Final Font Presentation Outcome 3

Figure 9.8 Final Font Presentation Outcome 4

Figure 9.9 Final Font Presentation Outcome 5

Figure 9.10 Final Font Presentation Outcome.pdf

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FEEDBACK

Week 9:

Prepare the Task 3 proposal and presenting it in class to Mr. Vinod. At least three ideas need to be ready in proposal, each idea need to support by detailed research and a clear purpose statement. Need to get Mr. Vinod approval before proceeding

to the next step.

Week 10:

The topic that I prepared are approved by Mr. Vinod, can proceed to the next step. Continue refining the letterforms and complete the remaining letters, show the rest letterforms in the next class.

Week 11:

Overall, it looks good, the uppercase letter is fine, lowercase letter should be designed more boldly, the size of the 'g' could be bigger. Apply it to other lowercase letter.

Week 12:

Need to be more careful on the size of every font.

Week 13:

Absent.

Week 14:

Updated all the eportfolio completely.

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REFLECTION

Experience:

This task was a creative challenge and made me grow a lot on designing and typography. I experimented with various wordmark designs for my name, "Sammi", then extending the final wordmark design across different item, such as hoodie, phone cover, beanie, animation and some logo design, it required meticulous adaptation to ensure visual consistency and impact across each format. And also, not only on items, a good post layout is also important on social platforms. So, I learned quite lot new things in this task and I was enjoy with it.

Observation:

Through this task, I learned that typography is an indispensable art in today's society. No matter what product, online platform or the big or small objects you can see in daily life, they are more or less related to typography. A perfect key artwork must perfectly integrate design and typography, so when designing, we should pay attention to various details and optimisation to improve the overall effect of the design.

Findings:

This experience deepened my knowledge of the nuances of designing for various presentation. It was both challenging and rewarding, offering valuable insights into visual communication and a deeper understanding on typographic systems and design principles.

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FURTHER READING

Figure 10.1 "The Vignelli Canon" by Massimo Vignelli

PART 1: THE INTANGIBLES

Intellectual Elegance
Massimo Vignelli's perspective on intellectual elegance underscores the importance of clarity, precision, and simplicity in conveying complex messages.

It is the elegance of Architecture of any period, the Music of all times, the clarity of Science through the ages.
Intellectual elegance is also our civic consciousness, our social responsibility, our sense of decency, our way of conceiving Design, our moral imperative.
It is not a design style, but the deepest meaning and the essence of Design.

Timelessness
Massimo Vignelli emphasizes the importance of creating designs that don't succumb to short-lived fads but instead possess a timeless quality that remains relevant and visually appealing over the years.

We like a typography that transcends subjectivity and searches for objective values, a typography that is beyond times - that doesn’t follow trends, that reflects its content in an appropriate manner.
Strive for a Design that is centered on the message rather than visual titillation, prefer design that is clear, simple and enduring.

Responsibility
Massimo Vignelli stresses that designers have a responsibility to society, clients, and users to create designs that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also socially and environmentally conscious.

In graphic design the issue of responsibility assumes particular importance as a form of economic awareness toward the most appropriate solution to a given problem.
As designers, we have three levels of responsibility:

To Ourselves, the integrity of the project and all its components.
To the Client, to solve the problem in a way that is economically sound and efficient.
To the Public at large, the Consumer, the User of the final design.

On each one of these levels, we should be ready to commit ourselves to reach the most appropriate solution, the one that solves the problem without compromises for the benefit of everyone.
A design should stand by itself, without excuses, explanations, apologies.

Equity
Massimo Vignelli underline the importance of maintaining harmony and equality among different components to create a cohesive and visually pleasing composition.

A logo gradually becomes part of our collective culture; in its modest way it becomes part of all of us.
When a logo has been in the public domain for more than fifty years it becomes a classic, a landmark, a respectable entity and there is no reason to throw it away and substitute it with a new concoction, regardless of how well it has been designed.
What is new is NOT a graphic form but a way of thinking, a way of showing respect for history in a context that usually has zero understanding for these values.

PART 2: THE TANGIBLES

In part 2, Massimo Vignelli talked about various details that should be paid attention to when designing, and even listed 16 key points that should be paid attention to when designing. From the size of paper to the white space, Massimo Vignelli wrote down his explanation in every detail.

In this part, he conducted a detailed analysis and discussion of:

Paper Sizes
Grids, Margins, Columns and Modules A Company Letterhead
Grids for Books
Typefaces, The Basic Ones
Flush left, centered, justified
Type Size Relationships
Rulers
Contrasting Type Sizes
Scale
Texture
Color
Layouts
Sequence
Binding
Identity and Diversity
White Space

After Massimo Vignelli talked all the 16 main points, he also makes a collection of experiences, this provides new designers with some of his experience. I have listed some points from this collection of experience.

The use of standard and modular sizes of paper in the printing industry can achieve considerable savings.
Standardization related to the size of construction materials can bring significant savings in any three-dimensional project.
It is imperative that a designer becomes familiar with all these aspects of design and the realization process. It is part of our ethics as well as our design vocabulary.
Economy doesn’t mean cheap design. Economy in design is the most appropriate and lean solution to every problem.
Quality is not necessarily more expensive than cheap solutions. Good design doesn’t cost more than bad design.
A personal canon - which becomes a recurrent element of our creative vocabulary.
process of sifting and selecting extends to everything around us - colors, textures, materials. It involves every detail, thickness, width, and height.
Every sense of our body gets involved but it must be processed, analyzed, evaluated, and finally filed in our memory according to our personal canon, not in an arbitrary way.

CONCLUSION

At the end, Massimo Vignelli have done a short conclusion before he ends his book. He reflects on the creative process and the importance of carefully curating a personal vocabulary of design elements. He stresses the need to sift through various materials, colors, textures, and experiences to build a unique language for expressing solutions to design challenges. Besides, Massimo Vignelli values objectivity in this process, acknowledging that even objectivity is inherently subjective. Despite a love for fluidity, he emphasizes the importance of a consistent frame of reference, providing a sense of responsibility for every detail in the creative endeavor.

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Tan Sin Mi (0368821)