Typography - Task 3: Type Design and Communication

December 02, 2024

Typography - Task 3: Type Design and Communication

5 November 2024 - 25 November 2024 // Week 7 - Week 10

Racheal Tan Tze Rou // 0381005

Typography // Bachelor of Design (Hons) // Creative Media

Task 3: Type Design & Communication

LECTURES

REFER TO TASK 1

INSTRUCTIONS

TASK 3

Typeface Design and Communication

Week 7

For the third task, we have to design our own typeface. To start the work, I first did research as usual to see how other people designed their typefaces because I have no experience in designing a typeface before. I also browsed a website called "DaFont" as suggested by Ms. V to have more ideas on creating the letters. I observed the shapes of each of the letters.

Research:

Figure 2.1 ; Research

After I got a rough idea of how it works, I chose 3 out of the 10 fonts to practice on graph paper, then wrote my ideas on graph paper using different marker pens.

Sketch:

Figure 2.2 ; Draft on Graph Paper (11/11/2024)

After that, I watched the video tutorial that Mr. Vinod provided to start with the digitalization process. I deconstructed the letters h, o, b, g from Gill Sans.

Figure 2.3 ; Letters Deconstruction (11/11/2024)

I then tried to digitalize them with different typeface styles using different tools on Ai.

Figure 2.4 ; Digitalization trial(11/11/2024)

I decided to go with the third design that I liked the most. It was inspired by the blackletter typeface but I made it with no curves.

Figure 2.5 ; typeface before feedback(11/11/2024)

I received feedback from Ms. V saying that the terminal in some of my letters doesn't look good, so I made some changes and below is my typeface after feedback.

Figure 2.6 ; typeface after feedback(19/12/2024)

I took out the shapes that I used after creating the letters to reuse them and to make sure I have constancy in my letters.

                    Figure 2.7 ; Shapes I used
                  

Below is the process where I first created the typeface with design inconsistency, then I refined them after consulting with Ms. V , and lastly the combined them using the pathfinder tool.

Figure 2.5 ; Digitalization process

Using the same style, I also created extra letters so I have more letters to use when making the poster.

Figure 2.6 ; SPARK (All created letters)

Poster :

I decided to name it “SPARK” after a favorite song of mine, I also thought the font has a “spark” feel to it. Then, I installed it on my computer and created a black&white poster as instructed. Since I wasn't sure which color background would work better so I tried a couple of different layouts, I also used several different quotes to try and see if they would make a difference, and I ended up going with #5.

Figure 2.6 ; A4 posters layouts

FINAL Task 3 : Type Design & Communication

Download font here : SPARK-Regular

Measurements (from baseline)

Ascender: 934 pt

Capital height: 903 pt

Median: 712 pt

Descender: -360 pt

Figure 2.7 ; FontLab Screengrab(16/12/2024)

Figure 2.8 ; FINAL Type Design and Communication ; PDF (16/12/2024)

Figure 2.9 ; FINAL Type Design and Communication ; JPEG (16/12/2024)

"SPARK" A4 black poster ; PDF (19/12/2024)

"SPARK" A4 black poster ; JPEG (19/12/2024)

FEEDBACK

Week 9

General feedback: check your previous e-portfolio and organize them.

Specific feedback: There are inconsistency in some of your letters.

Week 10

General feedback: check this google sheets and make sure the e-portfolio is arranged nicely

Specific feedback: The second design is nice but there is design inconsistency, some has line at the bottom, some has dots, need to have a constant.

Week 11

General feedback: Do the TES evaluation.

Specific feedback: Ms. V suggested to browse the website named "DaFont" to see how other people deal with the letters especially letter "S".

Week 12

General feedback: Start doing the poster, and show it to Ms. next week.

Specific feedback: some details of the letters can be refined. For example, the terminal of letter "s" can be changed to a sharped one.

Week 13

General feedback: Finalize task 3 and start doing the task 4 FC&R, deadline set as 22 December

Specific feedback: Try adding a few more words to the poster to showcase more letters

Week 14

General feedback:

Specific feedback:

REFLECTION

Experience

Throughout task 3, I doubted myself many times because we had more time to complete this task compared to the previous tasks, so I changed my decision many times. Basically, I thought the first design was the most creative, but after consulting with Ms. V, I chose the design #2 and then....As you can see at the end, I went with the third design that I liked the most. Overall, it was an interesting experience because I never thought that I could actually create my very own typeface. Although I felt very lost at first, I still feel a sense of accomplishment after completing this task.

Observation

In this task, I observed all the little details of the different fonts. Also, I observed that when I created the letters in Ai, they might look okay, but when I tried to import them into FontLab, some of the letters looked awkward. I also checked for gaps or collisions between letters. So I had to adjust them over and over again to achieve the final result.

Findings

Through this task, I learned how important structure and consistency are in type design. I realized that small details—like stroke thickness and spacing—can make a big difference in how balanced and readable a typeface looks. Sketching and refining my designs taught me to pay attention to optical adjustments and how letters work together as a set. Testing different ideas and getting feedback also showed me that type design is an iterative process, where problem-solving plays a key role. Overall, this experience helped me see how typography isn’t just functional but also a way to express mood and personality.

I read "Logo, Font & Lettering Bible" by Leslie Canaria to gain more knowledges and get inspiration in type design. In this book, Leslie discusses how fonts communicate mood and style. For example, there are different styles like elegant, bold, playful, or modern. She breaks down the parts of a letter in details, baseline, x-height, ascenders, descenders, etc. Also, it provides diagrams to explain strokes, counters, terminals, and more. Although I had learned these from Mr. Vinod’s video lecture, I still get to know more in details in this book.

Figure 3.2 ; examples of typefaces

I can see various examples of typefaces as shown in figure 3.2 and many more in this book. Besides that, Leslie also demonstrates how to sketch letters manually before digitizing. She recommends starting with pencil sketches to explore ideas before digitizing. She also focuses on cleaning up rough sketches by adjusting curves, angles, and line weights.

From this book, I learned that there are a few common mistakes to take care of when designing. First, avoid over-designing, adding too many details can reduce readability. Apart from that, ignoring kerning and spacing will results in inconsistent text flow. There are also scaling issues I need to check for my typeface because some typeface look good at large sizes but fail at small sizes. To settle this problem, Leslie demonstrates how to test letters at different sizes for readability in the book.

Figure 3.3 ; examples of logos

In addition, I got the chance to learn some additional knowledges as this book also covers logo design. As you can see in the image, we can see how different typeface design with the same text affects the overall feeling of the logo when viewers see it. Leslie provides case studies of successful logo designs and their evolution in this book.

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Racheal Tan Tze Rou (0381005)