Typography | Task 2 - Typographic Exploration & Communication
28/04/24 - 11/06/24 | Week 6 - Week 8
Nadia Chong Wen | 0355736
|
Bachelor's of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 2 | Typographic
Exploration & Communication
Table of Contents
- Lecture Notes
- Instructions
- Task 2 | Typographic Exploration & Communication
- Feedback
- Reflection
- Further Reading
I. Lecture Notes | Week 6 - Week 8
Typo 5 | Understanding
1. Understanding Letterforms
Some letterforms seem to be symmetrical but upon closer inspection, the letters are actually a bit uneven.
- The letterform on [Figure 1.1] is a Baskerville letterform, which suggests symmetry but is in fact not with every stroke with its own personal flair.
- On [Figure 1.2], a close examination on the Univers letterform will allow you to see that the width of the left slope is thinner than the right stroke.
- The complexity of each individual letterform can be demonstrated by observing the lowercase [a] of two similar typefaces– Helvetica & Univers. All these differences are minor but yet shows the differences between the two typefaces.
All of these helps typeface designers create letterforms that are internally harmonious and individually expressive.
2. Maintaining x-height
x-height: Size of the lowercase letterforms.
- Keep in mind that letterforms with a curved stroke must rise above the median (or sink below the baseline) in order to appear the same size as the vertical & horizontal strokes they adjoin.
Developing a sensitivity to the counterform (or counter) is as important as recognizing specific letterforms. Why?
- The counterform plays a crucial role on being able to recognize the form of either the word or the letterform itself and is important for readability.
- Most typographers are against adding a letterspace in the form because they have already designed the typeface for optimum readability.
To understand the form and counter of a letter is to analyze them in close detail in order to provide a good feel for how the balance between the form and counter is achieved.
4. Contrast
- Contrast is the most powerful dynamic in design.
- In typography, contrast is required in order to differentiate information within the text presented.
Typo 6 | Screen & Print
Different Medium
- Typography for screens are very restrictive because we have to view it through the screen rather than how it was in the past.
Print Type VS Screen Type
Good Typefaces for Prints:
- Caslon
- Garamond
- Baskerville
These typefaces are the most common in prints due to their characteristic being elegant and intellectual while being highly readable when set a small font size. They are versatile and easy to digest that makes typesetting with it a breeze.
Type for screens
Typefaces intended for screens are optimized and modified to enhance readability and performance onscreen in a variety of digital environments. This can include the x-height, wider letterforms, more open counters, heavier thin strokes and serifs, reduced stroke contrast, as well as modified curves and angles for some designs.
Another important adjustment would be more open spacing for typefaces intended for smaller sizes.
- Hyperactive Link/hyperlink : A word, phrase, or image that you can click on to jump to a new document or section within the current document.
Font Size for screen
- 16-pixel text on a screen is about the same size as text printed in a book or magazine; this is accounting for reading distance.
Web Safe Fonts
- Open Sans / Lato / Arial / Helvetica / Times New Roman / Times / Courier New / Courier / Verdana / Georgia / Palatino / Garamond
II. Instructions
III. Task 2 | Typographic Exploration & Communication
In this task, we were tasked to express typographically 1 out of 3 texts in a 2-page editorial spread (200mm x 200mm per page). I chose to go with the theme of "A code to build on and live by" for this task. I was a bit confused with it at first but I soon got a grasp on it as I got into research.
3.1 Research
After doing some research, I managed to gain a vague idea of what I should do for the task at hand.
3.2 Sketching
I first started with sketching the layouts I had on mind. I was trying to go with the ideas of the words of the title stacking upon each other to give the expression of "Building on" of the phrase. I have yet to decide on the typeface but decided to focus on the brief structure of everything first.
I decided to start making the structure of the title on Illustrator in order to see if my idea would be able to be executed effectively.
When I did put my idea into practice, it felt like it fell short when it comes to the ideas my other classmates were coming up with. After consulting Mr. Vinod, I changed positions of the words and changed the typeface in order to fit his suggestion more. I decided to stack the words in a way that would have more space but yet give the message of "building" to the viewer.
With this, I decided to make new sketch layouts in order to think of a layout that would better suit the new titles made.
With this, I decided to go onto the next part of the task.
3.3 Layouts
I designed 3 layouts using the Futura typeface that I felt could convey the message of the subject I chose. While Layout 1 and 2 were based on the (Figure 2.2) sketches, Layout 3 was inspired from what I've seen of others works. I quite liked these works since I wanted to stay simple while still be able to express the message.
After Mr. Vinod's advice and feedback to me and my other classmates, I adjusted Layout 1 to be more unique. Mr. Vinod told me I should use some lines to separate the words to give more of a sense of building in Layout 2 and I decided to apply it in Layout 3 as well.
I decided to choose the Layout 3 to improve on due to many people I asked liking it the best out of all the layouts.
First, I wanted to fill in the blank space left at the bottom of the layout. I decided to a slanted shape there to fill the space there in a way that the paragraphs are building on top of it too. I wanted to try adding some lines in order to separate the parts of the paragraph from each other to distinguish them more. At last, I decided to combine the both of them. In the end, I decided that the layout with both of these elements look the best and I was done.
3.4 Final Spread
Head Line
- Font: Futura Std (Heavy / Heavy Oblique)
- Type Size: 100 pt
Body
- Font: Futura Std (Heavy Oblique / Book)
- Type Size: 10 pt
- Leading: 12 pt
- Paragraph Spacing: 12 pt
- Characters per line: 30-36
- Alignment: Left Alignment
- Margins: 10 mm
- Columns: 6
- Gutter: 5 mm
IV. Feedback
Week 6
General Feedback:
- Make the layouts as soon as possible since the assignments are due in two weeks.
Specific Feedback:
- Keep it simple if you can express the words through normal means
Week 7
General Feedback:
- You can use two different fonts to create contrast for the heading and body.
- There is no need to use different fonts if they look similar.
- You shouldn't use too many different fonts in the same place
Specific Feedback:
- Add lines to the title in order to separate the words as well as express the intention of build.
V. Reflection
Experience
The time constrains for this assignment were very intense and stressful which made this one of the hardest assignments I have done in a long time. There wasn't much time to fix or to get feedback needed for the errors that I potentially made but with this assignment, I realized I could look towards friends and family for some feedback of whether the layouts were good. Overall, the experience this task brought me was both incredibly stress inducing but also very knowledgable.
Observations
This task was harder than the others due to the fact that we didn't manage to get many consultations with Mr. Vinod due to one week being the self-study week. It was really hard to gauge what I was doing right or wrong during that week which made me anxious. However, I do feel like the last week of not being able to see everyone's progress helped since I didn't feel like my work could even be compared to the others uniqueness.
Findings
I managed to learn more about Indesign thanks to this task and how to lay everything out if ever I need to convey something. It was a little hard to use but I managed to understand the basics of having to make pages connect with each other or how to design layouts.
VI. Further Reading
I decided to read this book for this task's further reading. I will summarize what I learned on some of the chapters that I found interesting and what would help me in the future.
Special Formatting
This chapter covers some common formatting errors that are simple to correct and give the document a more professional look.
Hyphens & Dashes
- Hyphen:
- Usually used only to divide words or numbers and are also used to break words from one line to the next.
- Headlines and subheads should never be hyphenated.
- A non-breaking hyphen should be used for words that are hyphenated but should not be broken at the line ending.
- Discretionary Hyphens:
- A hyphen should never be typed directly into a word if the program allows the use of discretionary hyphens, or "disheis." (Hyphens that disappear when they are not needed)
- A dishie will not be visible when it is not a line break, the word will appear normal in the middle of a line.
- Dashes:
- There are two varieties: en-dash / em-dash
- En-dashes are slightly longer than hyphens and are used to separate ranges of items. (Dates, Quantities, Time) If you can substitute the word "to" or "through" in place of the dash, then the dash is used correctly.
- Em-dash is used in place of a comma to set off a section of the sentence that requires special emphasis.
- Drop Caps:
- Used to start off new chapters and special sections of a report.
- Many programs have settings to automatically create the drop caps. If it doesn't, drop caps should be avoided.
Typographer Quotes & Inch Marks:
Text in Boxes (Sidebars):
- Indent the text from the sides of the box.
- Don't make the background tint or color too dark— unless the type is reversed.
- If using reverse type, try making the type bold and sans serif.
Formatting Styles
With styles, also called style lags, the user can incorporate the type settings covered so far into a single format command.
Styles have two major benefits:
- They are a great time saver because they condense 5-30 different settings into one. (Eliminating the possibility of user error)
- A change to a style will affect the applied text throughout the entire document, making "global" edits much easier and quicker.
Types of Styles:
Paragraph Styles
Styles generally come in two types: Paragraph and Character
Paragraph styles effect the entire paragraph and would be the most common style used for general formatting.
Character Styles
Character styles only effect text that is selected; this could be one character, word, or multiple words. Used when formatting a drop cap letter and for highlighting product or company names.
Type Specification in Adobe Programs:
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