Advance Typography - Task 1- Typographic system and Type and Play

8/30/23 - 9/6/23 (Week 1)
Jessica Tjoe / 0361482
Typography/ BDCM/ Institute of Innovation and Technology
Task 1: Typographic system and Type and Play

Contents

Instructions

lectures

Excersize 1: Typographic systems

Excersize 2: Type and Play

INSTRUCTIONS

LECTURES

Week 1- Lecture 1

Typographic systems

All design is based on a structural system and according to Elam. 2007. There are eight major variations of permutations. These eight major variations are as follows.

The 8 typographic system;

1. Axial
2. Radial
3. Dilational
4. Random
5. Grid
6. Modular
7. Transitional
8. Bilateral

Axial

All elements are organized to the left or right of a single axis.

Radial

All elements are extended from a point of focus.

Example of radial with multiple points of focus

Dilational

All elements expand from the central point in a circular manner.

example of dilational system slightly more complex

Random

Elements appear to have no specific pattern or relationship.

Grid

A system of Vertical and Horizontal divisions.

example of a grid system varying in sizes and weights to

create emphasis and heirachy

Transitional

An Informal system of layered banding

Modular

A series of non-objective elements that are constructed in as a standardized unit. The thing with modular system is that you can move it around as long as it fits within the unit.

Example of Modular systems

Bilateral

All text is arranged symmetrically on a single axis.

example of bilateral system

Week 2- Lecture 2

Typographic composition

The practical application of letters, numbers, and other writing symbols to a graphic design composition.

Emphasis

example of emphasis

You can show Emphasis in 2D and layout as well, easily translatable but when it comes to repetition it becomes a but more difficult. Notions such as repetition, perspective are not as inducive when it comes to typographical composition.

The rule of thirds

A photographic guide to composition, basically suggesting that a frame (space) can be divided onto 3 columns and 3 rows. The intersecting lines are used as guides to place points of interest within given space.

example and definition of the rule of thirds

Realistically no one would ever use the rule of thirds when there are more favorable options. Anyone of the intersecting points become the focal point of the layout.

Grid system

while the grid system may be old and rigid, it's versatility of the system and it's modular natures allow an infinite number of adaptations, and its why the grid system has remained so popular.

A guide to the grid system

Punk

after the post modernist movement the world of graphic design took a detour and the systems turned to chaos, randomness and asymmetry, inspired by the punk music of that era.

examples of punk design

Environmental grid

A system based on the exploration of an existing structure or numerous structures combined.

Example of environmental grid design

Form and Movement

A system based on the exploration of grid systems.

example of grid movement

Week 3 - Lecture 3

Letter forms were once influenced by Handwriting and the tools used to make them

In 1750 BCE The origin of these letterforms came in the form of the early latin alphabet. They started off more as pictographs and eventually evolved into the alphabet used around the world today. Now days the letters are created based on sound rather than images. However the latin alphabet would then evolve into how the roman alphabet looks today.

Cuneiform

Around 3000 BCE The cuneiform was one of the earliest writing forms to have ever existed. Used in multiple languages throughout 34 BCE, It was distinct by how it was made by pressing the blunt end of reed stylus into wet clay tablets. They were mainly pictograms and were written left to right.

Hieroglyphs have the potential to be used 3 different ways as Ideograms, Determinatives and as Phonograms.

Early greek

Early Greek only had capital letters in the beginning, and it didn't have a specific reading pattern. So you could read it left to right or right to left, and each character could be read two different ways. So if you were to be truly fluent in ancient Greek, you'd have to know each letter by heart.

By the fourth century roman letters were becoming more rounded, this new curved form had less strokes and could be written faster.

King Charlamagne

King Charlamagne was in important figure as he dictated the standard of reading and writing in the dark ages. During this time he established schools to teach children how to read and write as well as developed a new script called the carolingan miniscule.

Movable Type

Printing started off in China, Korea and japan in 750 AD with the Dharani Sutra known as the world's first book. During this time the Buddhists have made the first ever printed illustration.

China had attempted printing but was un successful due to the amount of characters the Chinese language. On the other hand with the newly developed Han'gul, Korea succeeded where China failed.

The introduction of movement type in the 1000-1100 CE, was pioneered in China but achieved in Korea. Which lead to the creation of the Guttenberg printing press in Europe in the 1430s.

Eastern Development in hand writing

Documentation was always very important thus why we have so much historical data.

There is a certain region where handwriting and scripts were greatly developed.

The oldest writing found to date is in the Indian subcontinent of what was once the Indus valley civilization

The Bhrami script is one of the earliest scripts to have existed. It was developed in India in 450-350 BCE. All Modern Indian scripts and several hundred scripts were found in southeast asia and east asia derived from Brahmi.

Incung from Kerinci is a script from Sumatra, Indonesia known as the origin script.

Week 4 - Lecture 4

Designing Type

Why design type?

1. Type design carries a social responsibility so one must continue to improve its legibility

2. Type design is a form of artistic expression.

Adrian Fruitiger

A renowned graphic designer from the 20th century, He is responsible for the advancement of typography into digital typography. His well known contributions also include typefaces; Univers and Frutiger.

Frutiger

a sans serif typeface designed in 1968 specifically for the newly built Charles de Gaulle Inetrnational airport in France. The purpose of the typeface was to be Clean, Distinctive and legible, easy to see from up close and far away. To be "Extremely Functional".

Frutiger_example

Matthew Carter

The son of Harry Carter, royal designer for industry. Carter trained as a punchcutter at Enschede by Paul Radisch, responsible for Crosfield's typographic program in the early 1960's. Mergenthaler Linotype's house designer 1965- 1981.

Verdana

A Type face that Matthew Carter was known for. It caused quite a controversy when the furniture store IKEA decided to change it's typeface from Futura to Verdana.

Example of Verdana

Bell Centennial

Known for being a font used in Phone books.

Edward Johnson

The creator of the hugely influential London "underground" Typeface, which would later be known as "Johnson Sans" in 1916. Being asked to create a typeface with bold simplicity, a truly modern type that was still rooted in tradition. The type combines classical roman proportions with humanist warmth.

The purpose of this typeface was ordered by the London's underground railway for it's posters and signage.

Example_Johnston Sans

Gill sans

Eric Gill was a former student of Edward Johnston. When Gill was commissioned to do a sign board, he used Johnston's typeface style, with some slight differences. He was later contacted by monotype to design a type face for them. And eventually Gill sans came to be and it became famous. Nobody really knew it was based of Johnston's type and so all the glory went to gill.

Gill sans and Johnston sans_example

General process of type design:

1. Research

2. Sketching

3. Digitization

4. Testing

5. Deploy

Research

When creating type, we ought to understand type history, anatomy and conventions. We should also have a fair understanding of terminologies, side-bearing, metrics, and hinting.

It is crucial to understand the type's purpose and what it should be used for. What different applications it will be used in such as whether the typeface is used for school, airport signages, etc.

We should also examine existing fonts to use as inspiration/ ideas/ references/ context/ usage pattern/- etc.

Sketching

Some designers sketch their typeface using the traditional tool set (eg. pencils, brushes, ink and paper) then scan them for the purpose of digitization. They are more confident with they're hands and have better control using it.

Some sketch their typeface on digital tool sets, such as Wacom directly into a font design software. (This process is much quicker, persistent, and consistent) but this can sometimes impede the natural movement of hand strokes.

In conclusion both methods have their pros and cons.

Digitization

There are professional software used in the digitization of typefaces, amongst the leading software are: Fontlab and Glyphs App.

There are designers that also use adobe illustrator to design or craft the letterforms and then introduce it into the specialized font apps. This however is frowned upon by the purists.

Attention should not only be given to the whole form at this stage but also to the counter form. The readability of the typeface is heavily dependent on it.

Testing

Testing is an important component of the design thinking process. The results of the testing is part of the process of refining and correcting aspects of the typeface. Prototyping is also part of the testing process and leads to important feedback.

Depending on the typeface category (display type/ text type) the readability and legibility of the typeface becomes an important consideration. However it is not as crucial if the typeface is a display type, where the expression of the form takes a little more precedence.

Deploy

Even after deploying a completed typeface there are always teething problems that did not come to the fore during the prototyping and testing phases. Thus the task of revision doesn't end on deployment.

The rigour of the testing is important in so that the teething issue remain minor.

Typeface construction

roman capital: The grid consists of a square and circle inside that just touches the square in 4 places.

Using the grids you can facilitate the construction of your letter forms

Construction and considerations

Depending on their form and construction, the 26 letters of the alphabet can be arranges into groups. Where a distinction is made between a group for capitals and lower cases.

The considerations cannot be explained in a single lecture. it would take too dam long.

TASK 1 - Excersize 1 : TYPOGRAPHIC SYSTEM

A typographic system is a structural system in which designs are based from. This time round our assignment is to create 8 typographic systems based on the lecture above.

Chosen Headline:

All Ripped Up: Punk Influences on Design

size:
200 x 200 mm

Fonts used:
Bodoni, Futura

Figure 0.0: Axial System Class excersize

Punk

Punk started out in the 70's as a way for youth's of that era to rebel. Punk Rock is aggressive and expressive, something most parents would like to disagree with. Punk is a movement out of the mainstream. Collages made from ripped up paper and letters that do not line up with the typical type you would see in a professional setting make up what is the essence of punk.

The reason why I chose Bodoni and Futura is because it looks unique enough to stand out.

When starting off the process, we needed to make the art boards which included the columns and guides. Each page had 3 columns each and 4, 5mm guides that ran horizontally on the page. Since this task was due in a week I couldn't find the time to plan with all the other assignments that I had going on unlike previously in the last semester.

Figure 0.1: layout 4 during work in progress (9/5/23)

Following the provided lectured I made sure to bold out the most important information that visitors and students alike would want to search for when they receive the brochure for the first time. Of course this was done in advance.

Figure 0.2: layout 1 (8/5/23)

For the Dilational and transitional systems I had used the Type on path tool to write on the shapes and paths that were used.

Figure 0.3: Dilational system while in progress (9/5/23)

Figure 0.4: Transitional system

Once everything was done I exported everything as PDFs and Jpegs. My designs are quite simple, basic even, and Punk is rebellious. And I wish I had more time to go more experimental but the most rebellious thing you will see on my designs are the words Punk coloured in red. As a way for me to be a bit rebellious, to stand out just for a while.

Spreads (Prototype)

These are essentially my testing of how the text would look together using one font. Keep in mind. This is Not the final Product.

Figure 1.1: Axial

Figure 1.2: Radial

Figure 1.3: Random

Figure 1.4: Grid

Figure1.5: Modular

Figure 1.6: Dilational

Figure 1.7: Bilateral

Figure 1.8: Transitional

Final Jpegs

Fig 1.9: Axial_Final

Fig 3.0: Radial_Final

Fig 3.1: Random Final

Fig 3.2: Dilational Final

Fig 3.3: Grid_Final

Fig 3.4: Modular_Final

Fig 3.5: Bilateral_final

Fig 3.6: Transitional Final

PDFs

(With Grid)

(Without Grid)

TYPE &PLAY

Finding an image

The first order of business was to find the image I was going to use for this project. So imagine what you find when the first thing comes to mind. The first thing on my mind were gears. So I went onto pinterest and found the image attached below.

Fig 2.0: Image found on Pinterest (9/8/23)

Deconstructing image

deconstructing the images were the easier part of the process. Since The image I chose had plenty of shapes that looked like letters. I mainly used the pen brush tool to manually deconstruct them after that I had transferred them and blocked them out to get a better sense of what I'm dealing with. I mostly did this on my phone.

Fig: 2.1 Process of Deconstructing all possible letters (9/9/23)

Identifying letter forms

I then started identifying the letter forms by using the brush tool on illustrator. I came up with 6 letter forms in general. those letter forms being; L, W, A, P, J, and O.

Fig 2.3 (identifying letterforms (during process) (9/12/23)

Extracting letter forms

Extracting the letter forms was easy and did not require much time. they all had unique shapes and I wanted to keep that aspect.

Figure 2.4 extracting the letter forms from the image (9/12/23)

Identifying Type face

The refrence I used for this excersize is Bodoni mt. I liked the way the font has thick parts that contrast with the thinner ones. I then lined up the letters I extracted with the Bodoni letters and later refined them.

Figure 2.5: refrence type face identification (9/13/23)

Refining the letter forms

I then proceeded to sketch the refined letter forms and later put them together in illustrator.

Figure 2.6: Process of sketching and refining the type (9/13/23)

It was at this rate I realized that they did not stand out and had no impact at all. So I called up some friends to ask about their opinion since I got sick. They said to find another element from the extraction that I could add. which are the circles. I also took their advice after careful consideration to add gears instead of plain circles so that it looks more like the picture surroundings.

figure 2.7: Refinement process after (9/13/23)

Final Jpeg

Typography Task1 excersize 2_final poster

Typography Task 1 excersize 2_ Final Type

Final PDF

Honor competition

The Honor competition was a particular case because I didn't give myself enough time to think about it. Along with the other assignments I had at the time I kind of rushed this one. I had a lot going on at the time and by the time the deadline was drawing near I gave myself an entire day right before submission.

For my topic I chose out of the three themes was Return. In my artwork I wanted to depict humanity coming back to a world they once left behind only to find it in ruin after what they did to it. What happened to make this a reality? A Meteor? A large scale disaster? Who knows. But one thing is for certain, the world they left behind is recovering and the humans have returned to explore its premises once again.

Figure 3.7: Honor competition submission_Final

Submission

It was stressful. The site was piled with a lot of people and my peers alike submitting their designs. I was one of the people having a hard time submitting, work was too large and it would never attach until someone mentioned to run it through photoshop and save it as a jpeg there that it finally attached, and not only that but I kept spamming the submit button. It wasn't until my little brother pointed out the other boxes that I needed to fill out that I was able to submit the artwork.

Figure 3.8: Honor Competition submission page

Afterward I realized I had no shot of winning this, everyone else had work that was so much better than what I could put out in that time frame. And in that moment I lost my confidence, I do not plan on doing this competition again next year.

FEEDBACK

Week 1 - General... In the axial system need to be aligned among the axis.

Week 2 - General... Don't have too much white space. Balance out the words and make sure to make it readable. Do not make the design too distracting or overwhelming. Bilateral system should be symmetrical

Week 3 - General...Ensure the letterforms interact with the image

Specific...The text has to be in full focus. The background is too distracting, The font doesn't match the gear imagery.

REFLECTION

Experience

I don't have enough sleep...if the industry is like this i'd rather go freelance.

Observation

Since this task was due in a week I couldn't find the time to plan with all the other assignments that I had going on unlike previously in the last semester.

Findings

I found that this excersize requires a lot of planning and I didn't have that much planning.

It was honestly harder than I expected.

FURTHER READING

Typographic systems by Kimberly Elam

I used this book as reference for excersize 1.

Typographic systems page 10

This page helped me a lot when making decisions on how spacing on the type should be.

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Jessica Tjoe (0361482)

Advance Typography - Task 1- Typographic system and Type and Play

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