Typography - Task 3: Type Design & Communication

November 23, 2024

Typography - Task 3: Type Design & Communication

4.11.2024 - 20.11.2024 / Week 7 - Week 14
Aw Wen Chia / 0368828
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 3: Exercise 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Lectures
2. Instructions
3. Exercise
4. Feedback
5. Reflection
6. Further Reading

1. LECTURES

Refer back to Task 1 and Task 2.

2. INSTRUCTIONS

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3. EXERCISE

TASK 3 - Typographic Exploration & Communication

We were tasked with creating our own display fonts, at first, we had to make a detailed dissection of the letters h, o, g and b.

Fig 3.1, Letters Dissection (10.12.2024)

I then started by getting a variety of pens with different thicknesses and started writing.

Fig 3.2, Writing the letters (18.12.2024)

Fig 3.3, Writing the letters (18.12.2024)

After a variety of sketches, I chose a sketch I liked and continued it.

Fig 3.4, Lettering (18.12.2024)

I, satisfied, transferred the lettering to Illustrator. I then started digitizing it.

Fig 3.5, First digitized lettering (18.12.2024)

However, I did it wrong and my tutor corrected me, I then made another version of it.

Fig 3.6, Second digitized lettering (18.12.2024)

After correcting it, my tutor told me there was a little too much going on, and I had to change some parts of the font ever so slightly.

Fig 3.7, Third digitized lettering (18.12.2024)

Fig 3.8, Digitization compilation (18.12.2024)

I then started transferring my font into Fontlabs and kerned it.

Fig 3.9, Process in Fontlab (18.12.2024)

For the poster, I did a simple design using the font to make a shape.

Fig 3.10, Poster making (18.12.2024)

FINAL TYPE DESIGN & COMMUNICATION:

Download Font here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lk4umTaYv4VrXCjKO-KQTficPn6PWEzM/view?usp=sharing

Fig 3., Screen grab from FontLab (18.12.2024)

Fig 3., Final Type Construction in Ai JPEG (18.12.2024)

Fig 3., Final Type Construction in Ai PDF (18.12.2024)

Fig 3., Final Poster JPEG (18.12.2024)

Fig 3., Final Poster PDF (18.12.2024)

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4. FEEDBACK

Week 8:

independent learning week

Week 9:

General Feedback: My lettering for the font was still incomplete, and there was not much feedback.

Specific Feedback: I had not finished completing my lettering to get feedback.

Week 10:

General Feedback: The way I did my words was apparently wrong and I had to fix it.

Specific Feedback: I used the pen tool to trace my handwriting, which was wrong as the lettering became inconsistent, I then reworked the lettering by using the brush tool.

Week 11:

General Feedback: My font had too much going on and I had to tone it down.

Specific Feedback: There were a lot of "tails" in my lettering which I thought was nice, however, my tutor had a different interpretation of "nice", so I reworked my lettering again to make it consistent.

Week 12:

General Feedback: It was alright.

Specific Feedback: I placed my font into Fontlab, and it was decent.

Week 13:

General Feedback: The poster was good.

Specific Feedback: My tutor said that he likes my poster design and to continue with the e-portfolio.

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5. REFLECTIONS

Experience

When I was first tasked with this assignment, I got excited. It was fun at first when I was just starting to write the letters on some graph paper, however, when it came the time to digitise it I got piled on with rules to follow and a risk of losing marks if I did not comply. It started becoming stressful and I made many mistakes that caused me to rework the same font several times. It got tedious fast, and I wanted to be done with it. Nevertheless, when I finally input my font into FontLab and typed it. I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I am glad I got the chance to do it.

Observations

I looked at many different fonts and tried a variety of lettering before settling on the one I have now. Although I looked through all those fonts I never realised all the fonts followed the same set of rules like the letter "t" having one side shorter than the other. It made me realised people put a lot of care and thought in the fonts they made.

Findings

I found out that making a font is way more difficult than I imagined. I always saw on social media people making their handwriting into fonts, they made it look so easy, so I boldly assumed this task was going to be easy, I was proved wrong so fast and I now appreciate fonts way more than I used to.

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6. FURTHER READINGS