TYPOGRAPHY - PRACTICAL TASKS: EXERCISES

20/04/2026 / Week 1 - Week 6

Samantha Jizan Amrullah / 0375606

Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Task 1: Exercise 1 & 2

INSTRUCTIONS

WEEK 1 - LECTURE 1

On the lecture, mr Vinod explained to us the basics of typography regarding its basic meaning and how it could assist us as a designer. It was explained how typography module would help us visualise and express how words look, as it normally is not something that one would describe to be visually appealing. As said by Paul Rand, “Typography is an art, and good typography is art. Therein lies the problem for both teacher and student” (Kane, 2002). Re: Rules, norms, right and wrong - no hard and fast rules.

It is also discussed the difference between fonts and typeface. Font refers to the individual fonts within a typeface (e.g Georgia Bold). While a typeface refers to the entire family of fonts (e.g Georgia, Arial). 

We were then also briefed on how we should be formatting our e-portfolio. Within the briefing there were a couple of keys to note, such as various coding method that we need to implement into the making of our e-portfolio. 

The book A Type Primer by Kane, J. (2002) was mentioned and suggested to be helpful during the course of our study and will be reference a couple of times.

Figure 1.1 Timeline of Typography Development

As we are highly affected by western media, all of the information being presented are written from the prespective of the western media, which is why we were reminded to keep an open mind in regards to the study and research of typography such as local contents to develop a better perspective. With that being said, we then proceed to learn on the history of typography and how it has existed for thousands of years, starting with carvings of lines and circles. It has been continuously developing from Phoenician to Roman. Typography kept on developing throughout the years and impacted with different region as different people have different method of writings, which then creates different writing styles across the world.

WEEK 2 - LECTURE 2

In the lecture, we are starting to learn about tracking such as kerning and letterspacing. Kerning is the automatic adjustment of space between letters, and is different from letter spacing. While adjusting the spacing between all of the letters, essentially kerning the entire sentence in one go, is called tracking. It is important to only kern when necessary to adjust the spacing for better breathing space when a word is too crowded in for example in a header word.

Figure 1.2 Example of Kerning

Using the kerning method will make the presentation of a media easier to digest and more pleasing to the eye of the reader. 

It was then demoonstrated how it would look like on InDesign. It is also important to have proper margins and coloumns as a base for the text. During the demonstration, we are taught how to do the kerning method. Sometimes words have awkward spacing between them and with kerning, it is aimed to fix those odd and uncomfortable spaces by either adding more spaces or reducing the spaces. This is why when text titles are written in all capital words, more often than not theres a large gap between the letters as it looks more visually pleasing. While for lower cases, it is often more difficult to comprehend when it is more further apart. 

We then move on to text formatting, which is how the texts are alligned. It is the most natural to read texts that are alligned left. For example if it is a large text, doing it in a center alligned text will make it confusing to read as the start of the sentences are different on each line, so it is only good for smaller texts. It is also affected by text letting, which is the space between each line of text. While on the case of justified text, it is orderly however it creates too much gaps in between the words and sentences.

Different fonts will also affect the readability of texts as it creates a sense of different “textures”. Other things to consider include type size which needs to be large enough to be easily read, leading which affect the focus of the readers as too tightly set text can create strain, and finally line length which would affect the focus of the reader (55-65 characters is usually the perfect line length). 

Therefore, with this course we will develop a better sense of balance as different typefaces suits different messages. 

TASKS & EXERCISES

TASK 1 EXERCISE 1: TYPE EXPRESSION

4 words are given to compose and express. Begins by sketching out ideas, with 20 sketches per word and 80 sketches in total to be later reviewed and approved. Once the ideas are selected, 10 set of typefaces are given to work with in the digitization phase. Through iteration, use the appropriate typeface and compose the letters in a manner that allows the meaning of the word to become visible, still and in motion. 

Software: Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. 

Figure 2.1 Relax Sketches

Figure 2.2 Joy Sketches

Figure 2.3 Balance Sketches

Figure 2.4 Miscellaneous Sketches

Figure 2.5 Free Sketches

The sketches above are done digitally on the ipad in Procreate. From the above ideas, 3 has been approved, and 1 got selected by choice. The next step would be the digitization of the chosen sketches on Adobe Illustrator.

TYPE EXPRESSION STATIC DIGITIZATION

 

TYPE EXPRESSION ANIMATION

The next step is to choose one word and animate it accordingly to the expression of the word. I am doing it in photoshop and have chosen the word “Balance” to animate.

TASK 1 EXERCISE 2: TEXT FORMATTING