Typography- Task 3: Type Design and Communication

5/11/24 - 17/12/24 ( Week 7- Week13 )

Kek Kai Wei, 0363513

Typography / Bachelor of Patisserie Arts ( Hons)

Task 3: Type Design and Communication

Table of Content

1. LECTURES

2. INSTRUCTION

3. FEEDBACK

4. REFLECTION

5. FURTHER READING

LECTURES

REFER TO TASK 1

INSTRUCTION

TYPE DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

This week's task is to choose one of the 10 provided fonts that you like, then use the letters H, o, g, and b. Import them into Adobe Illustrator for a detailed dissection. Next, use three different pens to hand-draw uppercase letters H, O, G, B and lowercase letters h, o, g, b on graph paper.

I selected three pens, each with a nib width of over 3.0:

Permanent Marker
Brush Pen (Water-Based Pigment Ink)
Calligraphy Pen.

The sketch :

Fig 1 Practice and final outcome with 3 pen ( 20/11/2024)

Deconstruction:

Figure 1.1 Letterform construction of Gill Sans Std. (20/11/2024)

My font bears some resemblance to Gill Sans Std. During the analysis process, I noticed that certain parts of Gill Sans Std have relatively straight lines, while the internal curves appear smoother and more rounded.

Task 3 Continuous:

1. Visual references / Research

Fig 1.2 Orbitron

Fig 1.3 Eagle Lake

Fig 1.4 Amarante

Overshoot

Fig 1.5 overshoot

If the circular area of a bowl-shaped form extends beyond the x-height in the vertical direction, this phenomenon is called "overshoot." This is because circular shapes have less surface area compared to forms with flat edges, making them appear smaller.

2. Writing Calligraphy / Letters

For the upcoming task, I experimented with various writing styles using three different pens. Initially, I wasn’t certain about the style I preferred, so I kept exploring through trial and error. After conducting some research on Pinterest and the 10 fonts that given , I decided to sketch on graph paper to better visualize which style would look best when digitized.

Markers that i use:

Permanent Marker
Brush Pen (Water-Based Pigment Ink)
Calligraphy Pen.

Here are my design explorations for the letters o, l, e, d, s, n, c, h, t, i, g, as well as the symbols , . ! #. I incorporated insights from my own research and drew inspiration from the 10 fonts provided by the team to further refine my font design.

Figure 1.6 Practice and final outcome with the 3 pen( 20/11/24)

Figure 1.7 Final outcome ( 20/11/24)

3. Digitizing the written letters

After receiving feedback from Ms. Vitiyaa, I imported my final sketch into Adobe Illustrator for digitization. I used Illustrator's Stroke Tool and Shape Tool to transform the fonts in my sketch into a digital format.

Figure 1.8 Initial digitization (21/11/24)

Ms. Vitiyaa pointed out in her feedback that my “#” symbol was not entirely consistent with the original sketch. Therefore, I adjusted the edges of the “#” symbol from rounded to sharper to better match the flatter design in the sketch.

Figure 1.9 The modified design for the "#" symbol. （25/11/24）

Figure 1.10 Outlines of shapes. (25/11/24)

Figure 1.11 Process (25/11/24)

Final Outcome:

Figure 1.12 Final Outcome (1/12/24)

4. Directly importing the fonts into Fontlab.

After downloading Fontlab, I imported my digitized letters into it. As a first-time user of Fontlab, this experience felt incredibly novel to me. Following the instructions in the tutorial video, I created a new font file named "Stereotype" and adjusted the baseline parameters

Ascender line: 657pt
Cap height: 624pt,
X-height: 451pt
Baseline :0
Descender line: -184.

Once the settings were complete, I imported the letters one by one.

During testing, I noticed that the letter "t" was too short and slightly narrow. As a result, I went back to AI to redesign the "t" and successfully optimized it. After completing the font input, I noticed that setting the kerning to -50 made the letters appear overly compact and less visually appealing, so I adjusted it to -20.

Fig 1.14 Fontlab Process (7/12/24)

After receiving feedback from Ms. Vitiyaa, I made adjustments to several letters and then imported the revised versions into FontLab.

Poster

After downloading my font, I moved on to designing a poster in Illustrator. I felt a strong sense of accomplishment at this stage because creating a poster using my own font felt incredibly cool. I ended up designing two drafts.

Figure 1.15 Poster design process (10/12/24)

Figure 1.16 Initial design (10/12/24)

Ms. Vitiyaa reviewed my drafts and suggested that I slightly revise my introduction to "Lines in design, sets tone" to make it flow more smoothly.

Figure 1.17 Second Design (10/12/24)

After presenting it to Ms. Vitiyaa, I finalized the poster.

Final Task 3: Type Design & Communication

Download font here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Koq84jUuI53bkHTEUXSWW0w1Qtz22fxT?usp=sharing

Screen Grab of FontLab process:

Figure 1.18 FontLab Screen Grab, (11/12/24)

Figure 1.19 Final Task 3A: Type Design and Communication "Stereotype" (jpg), (11/12/24)

Figure 2 Final Task 3A: Type Design and Communication " Stereotype" (PDF), (11/12/24)

Figure 2.1 Final Poster (jpg), (17/12/24)

Figure 2.2 Final Poster (PDF), (17/12/24)

FEEDBACK

WEEK 8

Independent learning week

WEEK 9

Specific Feedback:

Ms. Vitiyaa mentioned that my overall sketch is well done, and she particularly likes the typeface related to Gill Sans. She suggested I digitize it in Adobe for further refinement.

General Feedback:

After Ms. Vitiyaa reviews and approves our hand-drawn sketches, we need to transfer them to Adobe for digitalization. Additionally, we need to update our Week 3 ePortfolio and upload our process.

WEEK 10

Specific Feedback：

Ms. Vitiyaa mentioned that my "#" symbol still needs minor adjustments, while the design of the other letters is fine.

General Feedback:

For our Task 1 and Task 2, Ms. Vitiyaa instructed us to correct the errors she marked in the Google Sheet and update the status to "Updated" once done. She then went through the common mistakes with us one by one, such as misaligned images or inconsistent fonts, to help us avoid making the same errors in the future.

Week 11

Specific Feedback:

Ms. Vitiyaa asked me to revise the final poster of Task 1, "I'm Helvetica." She pointed out that the first two lines of the third paragraph were missing words, and the last paragraph was also missing one line. For Task 2, she mentioned that the design of my poster title lacked fluency, making it difficult for readers to understand, and suggested reworking it. As for Task 3, when I showed her my typography design, she noted that the letters were fine but recommended optimizing the design of the # symbol.

General Feedback：

Ms. Vitiyaa reminded us to download Font Lab 7 for testing and transfer our designed letters into the software. She emphasized following the instructions provided by the team and, most importantly, updating our ePortfolio.

Week 12

Specific Feedback:

Ms. Vitiyaa mentioned that there were no issues with the final font. After reviewing the poster, she suggested changing the original quote 'design lines, set tones' to 'line in design, sets tone' for better flow.

General Feedback:

Ms. Vitiyaa instructed us to complete the poster by today, as we need to submit Task 3 next week. She also mentioned that we should upload the final font and poster to the ePortfolio according to the team's instructions

REFLECTION

Experience：

During this task, my experience was very positive as I learned a lot of new things. Unlike previous tasks, this one focused more on "creating fonts" rather than layout design. I found the most interesting part of the process was importing my designed font into FontLab and turning it into my own font. Although FontLab was a software I had never used before, after some research and practice, I gradually learned how to use it. As for the font I designed, I feel there is still room for improvement; the current result merely meets the task's basic requirements.

Observations:

From this task, I observed that designing fonts using the pencil and brush tools, while appearing more like hand-drawn work, was relatively simpler compared to designing with geometric shapes. Although my font design is relatively structured, maintaining consistency was still quite challenging. Of course, I understand that this is just the foundational stage of font design, and further practice is needed to improve my skills.

Finding:

Overall, this task was highly rewarding for me. I truly enjoyed the process of continually refining my font until I achieved a satisfying result. It was especially fulfilling to see my own font used in a poster design, which brought a sense of accomplishment and highlighted the fun of design. Although I encountered some challenges along the way, these difficulties deepened my understanding of design and helped me grow in this field, providing valuable inspiration for future projects.

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Kek Kai Wei (0363513)