Typography - Task 2: Typographic Exploration and Communication

21/10/2024 - 10/11/2024 / Week 5 - Week 7

Samantha Jizan Amrullah / 0375606

Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University

Task 2: Typography Exploration and Communication

LECTURES

Week 5

On this week’s lecture, Mr Vinod explained to us about letter forms. In a letterform, there exist different strokes and even on a seemingly balance letter, even the letter “A” is not completely simetrical. The width of the left stroke is thinner than the right. Even slightly different strokes on a letter, it will really change the mood and emotion of the text. Small difference makes a huge difference as a whole.

Figure 1.0 small difference in stroke between two letters

Having the letters contained below the median line also creates the illusion that the font is smaller. This is done so by using the optical illusion of the outside blank area space. It is important to analyze distinct typeface before deconstructing them. Contrast is also a powerful method on creating different options of typefaces. 

Week 6

This week we were given feedback on our assignments by Ms. Vitiyaa to help guide where our mistakes lies and how to fix them.

Week 7

We were given the final feedback on this assignment and was told to move on to task 3 by starting the designs on the graph paper that we were told to bring with us in preparation for the next task.

INSTRUCTIONS

WORK PROGRESS

WEEK 7

For this task, we were provided with three sets of texts and asked to select one to format. I chose "The Role of Bauhaus Thought on Modern Culture." After reading through the selected text, I began gathering inspiration and sketching out my ideas.

Before beginning the assignment, I reviewed the three texts provided on Microsoft Teams to decide which one to work with. I chose the first text because its headline offers more opportunities for creative elaboration.

Headline of the selected text:
The Role of Bauhaus Thought on Modern Culture

I decided to emphasize and design the word "Bauhaus" as the focal point. To gather inspiration, I conducted research on Bauhaus design principles and aesthetics.

Below are the sketches I made on the Procreate app on ipad before proceeding with the task

Figure 1.1 Sketch 1 of task 2

figure 1.2 Sketch 2 of task 2

After getting a rough idea on what I want to make, I start to digitize three designs. I first create the unique shape of words on Adobe Illustrator. 

Figure 1.3 Digitized design of sketch 1

Figure 1.4 Digitized design of sketch 2

When finished, i transfer the uniquely shaped words, such as the one on the cover, into Adobe InDesign to continue the formatting process.

Figure 1.5 Transferring digitized sketch from Illustrator to InDesign

Figure 1.6 Layouting process

After finishing all 3 designs, we were told to print them out on A3 paper for Ms. Vitiyaa to provide feedback, as well as help us choose which one out of the three would be more satisfactory as the final product. 

Figure 1.7 Final Result of Task 2

HEAD
Font/s: Futura Condensed Medium
Type Size/s: 190 pt
Leading: 58 pt
Paragraph spacing: 0

BODY
Font/s: Bodoni Book
Type Size/s: 13 pt
Leading: 14 pt
Paragraph spacing: 1 pt
Characters per-line: 45
Alignment: left justified

Margins: 123 mm top, 26 mm left + right + bottom
Columns: 2
Gutter: 10 mm

REFLECTION

During the process of this assignment, i experienced  some difficulties with the usage of adobe indesign as i was not very familiar with the program. However, as I go through the tutorial videos I slowly began to comprehend the workings of the program by following the step by step tutorial guide. It is interesting to learn how much detail and work that goes into the making of a book cover such as this, which I would have never noticed before if i did not take this module. The amount of work that goes in behind the simple designs of typography is astounding. 

From what I have observed, I noticed that I made a couple of mistakes that were diligently pointed out by Ms. Vitiyaa during the creation of my design. I had trouble aligning the texts with the guidelines and grids at the beginning, which made the layout look messy and out of place.

My findings during this project is that it is very important to have a couple of different sketches and digitized design result to be able to properly see which one out of all of them actually looks better when compared next to each other after the digitization process, because sometimes designs that looks better in sketch form does not necessarily look better digitized. Which is why digitizing more than two results is important to determine the best possible result.

FURTHER READING

Anitra Nottingham and Jeremy Stout's book "The Graphic Design Process: How to Be Successful in Design School" is a thorough manual that that gives out a comprehensive guide that helps break down the demands and experiences of design school. It provides helpful guidance to assist students in navigating every phase of their education, emphasising important areas such as comprehending academic standards, creating ideas, responding to design briefs, and boosting confidence. 

The "4D design process," which forms the basis of the book, comprises of Discover, Design, Develop, and Deploy. For ‘Discover’, it refers to the understanding of the design problem which then progresses to effectively starting a project. Secondly, the ‘Design’ is about the usage of diverse thinking and various techniques to generate creative ideas. Then, ‘Develop’ is about the utilization of convergent thinking, which means the need to engage in critiques and incorporating feedback in order to refine the concepts that was made. And finally, ‘Deploy’ is the presentation of the work in a professional setting, such as having participate in design juries and comprehending the grading criteria. 

Throughout the book, real student projects are critiqued to show how assignments are assessed, which help show how the evaluation process is done. Moreover, the authors also offer tips on  how to overcome challenges that are often faced by designers, such as art blocks and how to handle critical feedback. These tips had really helped me because even as just a student, I am already experiencing these issues. 

As the authors are experienced instructors, the book is based on their extensive experience in design education which helped provide a realistic explanation of design school. It can be seen after reading the book, the authors goal by writing this is to help provide students with the knowledge and skills that are needed to succeed in their academic years through useful tips on completing their projects. It can be determined that these informations really serves as a valuable starting point for everyone that are new to design, including myself as a student. This is because it offers a clear understanding of the design process and what is needed to be able to thrive within an academic setting of a design journey. It helps students learn how to properly starts a project and comprehend design problems they may face during their academic years.