Advanced Typography - Task 3: Type Exploration & Application

April 23, 2025

Advanced Typography - Task 3: Type Exploration & Application

16.6.2025 - 18.7.2025 / Week 9 - Week 13
Aw Wen Chia / 0368828
Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 3: Type Exploration & Application

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

1. LECTURES

Refer to Task 1 & Task 2.

back to the top

2. INSTRUCTIONS

3. EXERCISE

For this task, I chose to make a font. At first, I chose to experiment with a font that was inspired by the Zodiac Sign, while making it geometrical. I thought it could be used in children's storybooks as a nice font.

Fig 1, First idea (Week 9)

He approved of my idea, and I started to make my uppercase sketch.

Fig 2, First sketch (Week 9)

After making a simple sketch, I transferred it to Adobe Illustrator and started digitising it.

Fig 3, Progress (Week 9)

I made two versions, 1 thicker than the other; however, before I could start on my lowercase, my tutor told me if I could make the letter H, O, A in a new style to show him. Basically, he thought my font was too simple and told me to redo it.

So I did, honestly, I played it safe with my first idea with something I was mildly interested in. But, when my tutor told me to "redo", I went with something I am very interested in. A light novel and webcomic series called "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint". I searched for character references for Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

Fig 4, Sketch reference, artwork by Sleepy-C

After reviewing my reference, I started sketching.

Fig 5, Progress (Week 9)

Truthfully, I was surprised when he approved it, but that was good news to me, so I used the font Univers as a base, continued sketching and reworked some of the letters. I based the letters on the character's name.

Fig 6, Progress sketch (Week 9)

Afterwards, I started digitising it in Illustrator. I used the brush and pen tool to make my desired shapes and path, then used the Pathfinder tool to combine the shapes together.

Fig 7, Progress (Week 10)

After digitising the uppercase, I started on the sketch for the lowercase, symbols(punctuation), and numbers. For the lowercase, I made simplified versions of the uppercase; the numbers correlate to the scenarios (challenges) the characters faced. While the symbols were of a certain beloved character.

Fig 8, 9, 10, Progress (Week 11)

After sketching, I digitised the lowercase and symbols in the same way as I did for the uppercase.

Then I exported it as SVG files and started making the font in FontForge, and started editing and kerning.

Fig 11. Progress (Week 12)

After kerning, I finished my font, and then I started sketching my font presentation and font application, and then digitising it.

Story behind the designs:

The two characters that are present for the majority of the designs are the two main characters of the light novel. The two have a complicated relationship and often clash with each other; however, as the story progresses, they start warming up to each other and eventually depend on each other.

Fig 12, Progress (Week 13)

Fig 13, Progress (Week 13)

Artwork on the last panel done by @joonkang_je

TASK 3 FINAL COMPILATION:

WARNING! Please remember that while the font is "copyrighted" by Avery, the characters present in the font are originally owned and still are copyrighted under Sing Shong (Sing N Song). The characters I used as reference are written by Sing Shong (Sing N Song), light novel artwork by Black-box-nim, and webnovel artwork by Sleepy-C. Please do not use this font for profit, as I did not either; this is for an assignment and my motivation as a fan of the story.

Story behind the designs:

To download font: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15H-pgETPsR84Hc_OIIYrRlKAwmz0IOPc/view?usp=sharing

Fig 14, PDF of Uppercase & Lowercase (Week 13)

Fig 15, FontForge screen grab (Week 13)

Five Font Presentation:

Fig 16, Font Presentation 1 (Week 13)

Fig 17, Font Presentation 2 (Week 13)

Fig 18, Font Presentation 3 (Week 13)

Fig 19, Font Presentation 4 (Week 13)

Fig 20, Font Presentation 5 (Week 13)

Five Font Application:

Fig 21, Font Application 1 (Week 13)

Fig 22, Font Application 2 (Week 13)

Fig 23, Font Application 3 (Week 13)

Fig 24, Font Application 4 (Week 13)

Fig 25, Font Application 5 (Week 13)

Fig 26, Font presentation and application PDF (Week 13)

back to the top

4. FEEDBACK

Week 9:

General Feedback: He approved my idea

Specific Feedback: He said to go for it

Week 10:

General Feedback: Was asked to redo

Specific Feedback: My tutor told me to design a completely different style for H, O and A. I redesigned it with my interests in mind and was approved.

Week 11:

General Feedback: It was alright, try to finish it

Specific Feedback: All good so far, but was told to complete it faster as I was behind schedule.

Week 12:

General Feedback: Complete the font.

Specific Feedback: Finish up the font to proceed with the next part.

Week 13:

Genaral Feedback: It looks good, add the concept of the design.

Specific Feedback: It looks alright, however I had to explain why I did that design and the story behind the composition of the font application and presentation.

back to the top

5. REFLECTION

Experience

I tried playing it safe on my first proposal; however, I am glad it got rejected because I got to do something I actually enjoy and not just "somewhat". While the time crunch and other assignments made it harder and less fun to complete, it was enjoyable nonetheless. And because I dealt with making a font in a previous assignment, this task was slightly smoother as I had the experience.

Observations

While making the font, I was constantly with my friends, we would make our fonts together, and it was fun seeing their fonts come to life. They also have incredibly interesting ideas, and it was nice to see how they think about how to confront problems. Speaking of problems, I had to witness my friends losing their minds over applications crashing and losing progress; that was not fun, but at least they all made it in time.

Findings

I find that fonts are really hard to get right. Cool-looking fonts are unreadable, readable fonts look bland, so it's hard to find a perfect balance of both, and I am pretty sure that font will be really hard to make if it's even possible. This assignment, again, makes me appreciate the love and effort put into making a font.

back to the top

6. FURTHER READING