Project 2

May 21, 2019

Project 2

17 May 2019 - 14 June 2019(week 07-week 11)

Soo Wen Yi (0334653)
Typography _
Project 2/Font Design

LECTURES_

Lecture 07 _ Text/Tracking: Kerning & Letterspacing
17 May 2016 (week 07)
Tracking is the spacing between words. (normal, lose and tight)
- Kerning - the automatic spacing
- Kerned - minus space between letters
- Letterspacing - adding spacing between letters
A good typefamily consists of a good range of typefaces.

Text align
- flush left, rugged right
- centered, ragging on both sides - not good for large amount of text
- flush right, rugged left - not good for large amount of text
- justify - uneven colour(body text) created by river

Text
- typeface feel as text
- type with generous x-height/dark stroke, darker colour
- setting text type is to allow for easy and prolonged reading
- type size, leading & line length all correlate to produce easy and prolonged reading

Type specimen book
- book shows sample typefaces in various different sizes
- printed page to judge the typeface

No Lecture
24 May 2019 (week 08)
There was no lecture in this lesson because we were shown how to use FontLab.
- use "z" to zoom
- when pasted inside the Glyph, it will not be at the center so need to search for it
- make sure that all the anchor points are joined together or else the design will not appear properly
- if the design is made up of multiple vectors, merge it before copying into FontLab
- cap line is slightly smaller than the ascender

Lecture 08 _ Text/Indicating paragraph
31 May 2019 (week 09)
Paragraph spacing
- based on the leading space + 2/3 pts
- pilcrow is the name for the paragraph symbol
- line spacing, space from descender of a line to the descender of the line above
- leading, space between descender of a line above to the ascender of a line bellow

Fig. 1.1: example from internet of the difference between leading and line spacing

- indentation, not advised to do this if its right aligned text/only use at left justified

Text/Widow & Orphans
We should always avoid widows and orphans
- widow, single word or line at the end of a column
- orphan, single line at the beginning of a new column

Text/Highlighting text
ways to highlight text:
- italicised (a small paragraph, name, quote etc.)
- bold
- colour
- bullet points
- quotation mark
- create light grey background

Fig. 1.2: example written on phone for reading axis

- change the type family

Fig. 1.3: example written on phone for things to look out for when using different type family

Text/Headline

used for clear break between topics

Fig. 1.4: example written on phone for types of headings

No Lecture _ e-learning week
31 May 2019 (week 10)

INSTRUCTIONS_

PROJECT 2_

Week 07
Project 2
We have to choose existing font that we would like to create. Dissect/analyse the regular/book/roman/normal from any typeface. And rough sketch our own font and get it approved before digitalising it. I chose to base my design form Futura Std book.

Fig. 2.1: dissection of Futura Std book "a"

Fig. 2.2: dissection of Futura Std book "b"

Fig. 2.3: dissection of Futura Std book "n"

Fig. 2.4: dissection of Futura Std book "v"

Fig. 2.5: dissection of Futura Std book "z"

After dissecting I noticed that the letter a fits into the letter b for this typeface, and so I wanted to maintain that in my own design too.

Fig. 2.6: Futura Std book "b" and flipped "a"

I did rough sketches on my sketchbook first then get it approved by Mr Vinod to continue.

Fig. 2.7: rough sketches for my own font design for approval

Process of digitalising my font is based on Futura Std book and use the thickest stroke and making sure that its consistent through my font.

Fig. 2.8: screenshot of process of digitalising my font

Fig. 2.9: screenshot of my font "b" compared to Futura Std book

Fig. 2.10: screenshot of my font "v" compared to Futura Std book

Fig. 2.11: screenshot of my font "a" compared to Futura Std book

Fig. 2.12: screenshot of my font "z" compared to Futura Std book

Fig. 2.13: screenshot of an example on how I design the curves on the letters

And here are the letters to the font that I've designed.

Fig. 2.14: my own font "a"

Fig. 2.15: my own font "b"

Fig. 2.16: my own font "n"

Fig. 2.17: my own font "v"

Fig. 2.18: my own font "z"

Week 08
Continue Project 02
After getting the designs approved by Mr Vinod, we had to design the required letters and punctuations "v e d m n o c l a '. i s u r" with the characteristics that we have used in our designs. Only after getting the designs approved, we can move onto putting it in FontLab.

Fig. 2.19: experiment on letter "e" and "s"

After getting feedback from Mr Vinod, this is the outcome of all the letters.

Fig. 2.20: final version of the 15 total letters & punctuations

After that I copied them into FontLab and did everything as instructed in the class.

Fig. 2.21: screenshot of adjusting the ascender to the height of my letter

Fig. 2.22: screenshot of the glyph window when adjusting the kerning

Fig. 2.23: screen shot of adjusting the kerning

Week 09

Continue Project 02
After getting feedback from Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul, I went and changed the kerning accordingly.

Fig. 2.24: after getting feedback from the lecturers

Fig. 2.25: adjusted all the kernings and this shows the individual combinations between the letters "v" and "n" would overlap so I need to adjust the kerning on that

Fig. 2.26: after generating the typeface and testing it in illustrator

Because we had the demo version of FontLab, the generated type will have watermarks on it like what is shown above. So we are require to go to the iMac lab to use the FontLab there. Then we are require to generate the type and compose the sentence "i survived mr. vinod and mr. sam's class." in an interesting way.

Fig. 2.27: composition 1

Fig. 2.28: composition 2

Fig. 2.29: composition 3

Fig. 2.30: composition 4

After asking Mr Vinod about the compositions I made some changes.

Fig. 2.31: composition 5

Fig. 2.31: composition 6

Week 11
After showing them to Mr Shamsul and Mr Vinod, Mr Shamsul say to change the font size to be all the same.

Fig. 2.32: final composition

Here's the pdf version of the final composition:

FEEDBACK_

Week 07
General feedback
all excersize 1 images should have the personality clearly labeled.

Specific feedback
Mr Vinod said that the project 1 spread layout is fine, just the name list's leading is a bit too tight. Also approved on project 2's letters design and he told me that the letter "a" is going to be a bit tricky and that I should look at other sans serif typeface to see how they solve the problem.

Week 08
Specific feedback
Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul said that my digitised letters are good, but there are some areas of improvement. All curved lines appears to be thicker than the stroke of the letters due to illusion even though they are the same thickness, same thing applies to the letter "z". Mr Vinod said that usually "z" bottom part will be longer than the top so it doesn't look strange. My ascender on the letter "b" is too long, it's suppose to be shorter than the x-height. After making the improvements, Mr Shamsul commented that the "b" where the curve appears thicker due to overlapping with the ascender and that I should make that curve thinner. After asking Mr Vinod about my "e" and "s" digitisation: This is better but the s isn’t resolved. Research la. After refining the "s" Mr Vinod said that its better.
Week 09
General feedback
We should include the letter dissections, sketches and digitisation in the project 2 blog. And we should upload a screenshot of the final design of the 15 letters and punctuations showed in one artboard to the blog. And Mr Vinod said that it's important to write the reflection as it gives an inside to our struggles and might help to improve the lecturer's teaching through our reflection. It also helps us to develop thinking skills. We shouldn't distort our type when placing it in illustrator.

Specific feedback
Overall looks good, just that the "s" could be improved but its good for a beginner, as Mr Vinod said that if I want to continue in this field in the future I will learn that there's a certain way to designing the letter "s" and it will look more curved. Mr Vinod showed me how to change all of the spacing numbers in the kerning and what are the purpose of each of the spacings and how to adjust spacing in certain letter combinations where it might overlap. After asking Mr Vinod about my composition: Try to use the white space a little more creatively — analyse the examples. You don’t need to fill up the page. Also, remember the exercise we did in class for the layouts, black/grey boxes on the page to judge composition and alignment.

REFLECTION_

EXPERIENCES

Week 07

Today's class was interesting as I learnt how to dissect and analyse letters and finding out there are more differences in different typefaces than I thought.

Week 08
It was fine since I can start to design all the other required letters.

Week 09
Blogger is a bit annoying to work with example a sentence it is clearly normal sized in the editing page, but when published it became small but when I try to see in the editing page again its still normal sized. I still haven't found a solution regarding to this problem.

OBSERVATIONS

Week 07

I got my design approved right after I finished designing.

Week 08
I was frustrated.

Week 09
This time's feedback is clear.

FINDINGS

Week 07

I learnt from last week that I should ask right away if I'm done or have a doubt, so I did and it was good.

Week 08
Because I couldn't download the trial version of FontLab. But found a solution as my friend have her old laptop that I lend and downloaded the trial version of Adobe Illustrator and FontLab on, so I was able to do my work in the end.

Week 09
Because of the clear and direct feedback, I know what to fix and how to improve my composition for this project.