TYPOGRAPHY TASK 3A : TYPE DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

08.10.2021 - 29.10.2021 (Week 7 - Week 10)
Christie Angelica Bakhary / 0350655 
Typography / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Task 3A / Type Design and Communication

---

LECTURES

Completed lecture 1-6

Notes from recorded class :

• Consistency in weight distribution is a key to create a good font 

• Ctrl + Y = to see the outline shape

---

INSTRUCTIONS

For this task we were assigned to design our own typeface with these letters:

a i m e p y t g d o b ! . ,

Software used in this third task will be Adobe Illustrator & FontLab7

In designing a typeface for this task we need to ensure to prioritize subtly over complexity.

---

PRACTICAL

Research

As what many people said that firstly we need to learn the basic to master and to make a good things (not just design but anything), so I do some researches on typography and typefaces basic.

Fig. 2.1 : Basic of typography cheatsheet

Next I search some information about how typefaces evolve from time to time and I noticed that each of them has different characteristic. In modern typeface, it has a more obvious thick and thin line yet has a slimmer and thin straight stroke than the older one.

 

Fig. 2.2 : Different serif typefaces developed from time to time (Web source) (Week 8, 20/10/2021)

After some basic researches, I went to different platform like Behance, Pinterest, Creativemarket, etc. to look for references of typefaces design and made a moodboard of my favorites.

Fig. 2.3 Typefaces references moodboard 

For a clearer goal & final result, I listed some criteria and theme that I want to achieve for the final design :

- A modern and elegant looking typeface that can be used for   
   branding / web / editorial design (specifically for fashion brand). 

- Not too thick nor too thin 

- Simple and minimalist

Although I love both serif and sans serif, for this task I'll be choosing serif fonts because it suits well with the theme I wanted.

 

Exploration (sketches)

After doing enough researches, I started sketching on my grid notebook just to make it more neater.

Fig. 2.4 : First Sketch (Week 8, 20/10/2021)

The inspiration for this second design is to make an elegant serif but also has unique style in it, that's why I used the curve line in each letters. This lines also act to be the characteristic of this typeface and the way to make it the same and consistent with each other. I feel that this design will be more suitable for big titles and would be nice to use to make a logo.

Digitization

I chose the first design because it has more unique and modern style than the other. To proceed, I started by making the guidelines with 500x500 pix squares as the references.

Fig. 2.6 : Guidelines (Week 8, 25/10/2021)

Started by making the letter 'o' (because this can be used to create and influences the other letter) with some ellipse shapes combination, then I substract it using the pathfinder tool (minus front on shape modes)

Fig. 2.x : Combining shapes to form the letter O (Week 8, 25/10/2021)

Then I use this Control + Y shortcut to see how the outline looks like, this had help me to see mistakes and imperfection on the outline clearer. 

Figure below shows how the letters lines look like before they're combined, however some letters like y, t, and g had already been combined because I forgot to screenshot it earlier. Some of these lines shown are not that perfect although I have been trying to make them look good but some of them can't be fixed.

Fig. 2.8 : Final typeface's outline before united, with (above) & without guides(bottom) (Week 8, 25/10/2021)

Fig. 2.9 : Final typeface's outline with (above) and without guides(bottom) (Week 8, 25/10/2021)

Figure 2.9 shows the outline for the final typeface after being combined/united using the pathfinder tool (unite tool in shape modes).

Fig. 2.10 : Final typeface with guidelines (Week 8, 25/10/2021)

Fig. 2.11 : Final typeface (Week 8, 25/10/2021)

Measurement (from baseline) :

Ascender line : 700 pt

Capital height : 674 pt

Median : 500 pt

Descender : -204 pt
Thick line size: 112 pt

Fontlab Progression

Fig. 2.x : Copy paste letter to fontlab process (Week 9, 29/10/2021)

I wanted an elegant name for my font so I went googling how elegant was spoken in different languages and found a unique one, galánta which come from Irish language. Seeing this Galanta word reminds me of one of the books of bible, Galatians, which I really like. So I decided to combined both of them and came up with Galantiá for my font name.

Fig. 2.x : Struggle I had when importing letter g to fontlab (Week 9, 29/10/2021)

When importing the font to fontlab, some letters become really messy and don't appear as what I had made in illustrator, especially with the curve lines (like on letter g in Figure 2.x). This made me need to do adjustment also redo them again and again in both fontlab and illustrator which waste many hours of my time:"( 

The final result doesn't come out that good and as what as I expected but overall I am pretty okay with it so I proceeded to do the poster design. When searching my font on illustrator it doesn't appear although I had already refresh my computer as well as quitting and entering AI several times. So I decided to do the poster design on Photoshop because that's the only software my font wanted to appear to.

Final Submission

Download link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nLo_m-e2MCe4fQskreY-ewgU8HpKxo_4/view?usp=sharing

---

FEEDBACKS

Week 8 - Public Holiday

Week 9

General feedback : Pay attention to the consistency of each letter, especially with the thick and thin line.

Specific feedback :

The design looks nice and consistent with each other. But the letter 'y' sketch placement is wrong, the downward tail should be more longer and not the same size with the letter 'e'

---

REFLECTIONS

Experience

This task will definitely be one of my favorite in typography module. Seeing and searching different kinds of typefaces on Pinterest and other platform had always one of my favorite things to do in my spare time. In this task, I learnt how hard it is to make a typeface, how we must do a lot of researches(not just visual but also technical research) and brainstorming first before diving to it. All that things got me stressed at first and especially when near the deadline date because I kept changing and adjusting all the letters to make it looks perfect but in the end it doesn't seem how I wanted it to be and resulting to dissatisfaction with the final result. But other than that I really enjoy and very grateful that I can experience on making my own typeface.

Observation

I observed that some letters in a typeface also has many imperfection in it and also most of the letters are actually has a 'different size' (the thickness, etc.) with each other.

Findings

I found that we can form a letter not just with pen tool but also by combining different shapes then substract and unite them. Through this exercise I learnt how pen tool is actually very hard to control and really need a lot amount of practice to be able to get used and mastered it. So I decided that I'll be using half of my spare time practicing pen tool and learn more about the adobe software itself, as well reading more things about typography (because I think I have fallen for typography :D)

---

FURTHER READING

Fig. 5.x : Difference of font and typeface (Web source) (Week 8, 20/10/2021) 

Figure 5.x is something new that I know after reading this because these times I always thought that typeface and font were the same things.