TYPOGRAPHY | PROJECT 1
Yeoh Xiao Shi (0331577)
Typography
Project 1 - A Story Book
Lecture 7 : Understanding The Text
08/05/18 (Week 7)
Before the class began, Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul checked on our previous work and gave us some feedbacks. After that, Mr Vinod gave us the lecture on kerning and letter spacing.
Text/Tracking: Kerning and Letter spacing
Kerning refers to the automatic adjustment of space between the letters while letter spacing means adding space between the letters. However, kerning is often mistakenly referred to letter spacing. Tracking in typography means the addition and removal of space in a word or sentence. There are three types of tracking which is normal tracking, loose tracking and tight tracking.
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| Fig.1.1: Types of tracking. |
Text/Formatting text
Flush left : This format most closely mirrors the asymmetrical experience of handwriting. Each line starts at the same point but ends wherever the last word on the line ends. The text of a paragraph is aligned on the left-hand side with the right-hand side ragged.
Centered : This format imposes symmetry upon the text, assigning equal value and weight to both ends of any line. Centered text is considered less readable for a body of text made up of multiple lines because the ragged starting edges make it difficult for the reader to track from one line to the next.
Flush right : This format places emphasis on the end of a line as opposed to its start.
Text/Texture
Different typefaces suit different messages. A good typographer need to know which typefaces suit the message at hand better. Different textures of these typefaces need to be considered as well. Type with a relatively generous x-height or relatively heavy stroke width produces a darker mass on the page than type with a relatively smaller x-height or light stroke. Sensitivity of these differences in colour is fundamental for creating successful layouts.
Text/Leading and Line Length
Type size : Text type should be large enough to be read.
Leading : It encourages vertical eye movement when the text is se too tightly while it distracts the reader from then material at hand when the text is set too loosely as it creates stripped patterns.
Line Length : Avoid long line lengths. A good rule of thumb is to keep line length between 35-65 characters.
Text/Type Specimen Book
Type specimen book shows samples of typefaces in different sizes. It is to provide an accurate reference for type, type size, type leading, type line length and so on.
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Lecture 8 : Understanding The Text
15/05/18 (Week 8)
This week, Mr Vinod began the class by having a quick recap on last week lecture. Then, he continue to gave us a lecture on text and indicating paragraph. There are several options for indicating paragraphs like using the ‘pilcrow’ (¶), line spacing, standard indentation and extended paragraphs. He also explained the difference between line space and leading. Line space refers to the space from one descender to the next line of descender while leading refers to the space between the baselines.
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| Fig.1.3: Line space vs leading |
Besides that, we also taught on widows and orphans. Widow is a short line of type left alone at the end of a column of text in contrast orphan left alone at the start of new column.
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| Fig.1.4: Examples of widow and orphan. |
Move on to another topic which is highlighting text, Mr Vinod showed us some examples of how to highlight text and explained it. There are several ways to highlight the text like changing the font, bold the type, change the colour and so on. Lastly, he talked about headline within text and cross alignment. A head indicates a clear break between the topics within a section. In typography, heading is follow by subheading and sub subheading. When putting together a sequence of subheads it shows hierarchy. However there is no single way to express hierarchy within the text; in fact the possibilities are limitless. Crossing aligning headlines and captions with text type reinforces the architectural sense of the page and the structure while articulating the complimentary vertical rhythms.
Lecture 9 : No lecture (Project 2 : Font Design)
22/05/18 (Week 9)
We don't have any lecture today. Mr Vinod started the class by checking our printed book and gave us some feedbacks. Then, he asked us to sit together and have a small group discussion to reflect on what we learned from the previous class and also the exercise. He also expect us to be brave for questioning in order to learn. We should not scare for making mistakes and we need to stand out as we are design students. After that, we were taught on the font designing by using adobe illustrator.
INSTRUCTIONS
PROJECT 1
A Story Book (Week 7-Week 9)
Week 7 (08/05/18)
This week, we were introduced to Adobe InDesign and we need to use it to complete our first project, a story book. We were told to express the content of the story book by only using a specific group of typefaces provided in the previous class. We are not allowed to use any images but only minor graphical elements like line, shadow and so on.
Text given to express :
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| Fig.2.1: Text. |
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| Fig.2.2: Designing the book cover. |
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| Fig.2.3: Process of expressing the text. |
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| Fig.2.4: Process of expressing the text. |
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| Fig.2.5: Front Cover (First attempt). |
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| Fig.2.6: Page 2-3 (First attempt). |
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| Fig.2.7: Page 4-5 (First attempt). |
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| Fig.2.8: Page 6-7 (First attempt). |
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| Fig.2.9: Page 8-9 (First attempt). |
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| Fig.2.10: Page 10-11 (First attempt). |
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| Fig.2.11: Back Cover (First attempt). |
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| Fig.2.12: Front Cover (Second attempt). |
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| Fig.2.13: Page 2-3 (Second attempt). |
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| Fig.2.14: Page 4-5 (Second attempt). |
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| Fig.2.15: Page 6-7 (Second attempt). |
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| Fig.2.16: Page 8-9 (Second attempt). |
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| Fig.2.17: Page 10-11 (Second attempt). |
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| Fig.2.18: Back Cover (Second attempt). |
Week 8 (15/05/18)
In this week class, both of our lecturers checked on last week work and we were told to rework it again in the class as most of us expressed the story book more than the requirement.
They explained to us again which we only need to choose a certain area and only three to four sentences to express it. Thus, here is the final outcome of my story book after reworking below.
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| Fig.3.1: Front Cover (Final Outcome). |
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| Fig.3.2: Page 2-3 (Final Outcome). |
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| Fig.3.3: Page 4-5 (Final Outcome). |
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| Fig.3.4: Page 6-7 (Final Outcome). |
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| Fig.3.5: Page 8-9 (Final Outcome). |
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| Fig.3.6: Page 10-11 (Final Outcome). |
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| Fig.3.7: Back Cover (Final Outcome). |
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| Fig.3.8: Thumbnails |
Embedded PDF of Mr Babadook.
Week9 (22/05/18)
Printed Storybook.
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| Fig.4.1: Printed Book ( Cover page) |
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| Fig.4.2: Printed Book (Page 2-3) |
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| Fig.4,3: Printed Book (Page 4-5) |
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| Fig.4.4: Printed Book ( Page 6-7) |
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| Fig.4.5: Printed Book (Page 8-9) |
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| Fig.4.6: Printed Book (Page 10-11) |
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| Fig.4.7: Printed Book (Page 12-13) |
FEEDBACK
Week 7
General Feedback : Mr Vinod told us again to mention the personality at the caption for the name lettering exercise, so that people will know what are we trying to express when see through out e-portfolio.
Specific feedback : Mr Shamsul had commented for my animation for the type expression exercsie. He said that the animation timeline is too long and he asked me to reduce the timeline as well as to make it faster.
Specific feedback : Mr Shamsul had commented for my animation for the type expression exercsie. He said that the animation timeline is too long and he asked me to reduce the timeline as well as to make it faster.
Week 8
General Feedback : We were told that we should only express three to four sentences and choose certain area to express it for our story book. As most of us express more than the requirement, we were asked to redo it again in the class. Other than that, Mr Vinod said that the column is there to help us organise and place our information so we need to make use of it. Lastly, the body text used to express need to be similar to match the theme of the storybook.
Specific Feedback : Mr Shamsul said that I express too much as we were only asked to express three to four sentences and the word is too expressive. I was also told to remove the boarders for each pages as well as it is not necessary and I had misused the idea for the story book.
Week 9
General Feedback : At the beginning of the class, we had a small discussion to reflect on what we have learned from the previous class with both of our lecturers. Mr Vinod told us that as we are a design student we need to be brave for questioning and we need to stand out in order to success. He also asked us to utiliese our time to complete the work as next week is a public holiday. Move on to the font design project, we were told to change the size of the canvas to 1000 x 1000 point in Adobe Illustrator and the cap height for the letter must be 700 point. Lastly, we need to be aware of the consistency of the strokes when creating the letter. Specific Feedback : Mr Vinod said that the quality of printing book is good as it looks clean. He commented that I need to be aware of the layout for my book and the idea for the last spread looks like not matching the theme of the book. For the e-portfolio, he said overall is good as I have done updated my blog but for the project 1 it should be from week 7 to week 9 so I need to make changes for that.
REFLECTION
Experiences :
Week 7 : I get to learn Adobe In Design which I didn't use before in this week class. It took times for me to familiar with the software. However, it was fun to express the content of a story book.
Week 7 : I get to learn Adobe In Design which I didn't use before in this week class. It took times for me to familiar with the software. However, it was fun to express the content of a story book.
Week 8 : I need to rework for the story book in this week class as I express more than the requirement.
Week 9 : I got the feedback from Mr.Vinod for the printing book this week. He said I need to be aware of the layout when designing the book and the last two spread looks like not matching the theme of my book.
Observations :
Week 7 : I notice that I'm the one who always took a lot of times to get a idea for my work and the quality of my work is still not that good. I considered myself need more improvement.
Week 8 : From my observation, I knew that I'm not good in express the typeface and my confidence loss every time when I trying hard to do it well.
Week 9 : I look back my book after the feedback given and I think I need to have a better understanding on layout in order to improve myself,Findings :
Week 7 : I found out that it was important to plan for the layout and design before starting in order to improve the efficiency of the work.
Week 8 : I learned that we should always use the column and guide to organise and place information so that it doesn't looks messy.
Week 9 : I got to know that alignment, line spacing, letter spacing as well as the page layout is really important in the process of designing a story book. If we want to have a good design on our storybook, we need to understand the text first.
FURTHER READING (WEEK 7-WEEK 9)
Week 7
Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works (3rd Edition)
By: Erik Spiekermann
The author related picking typefaces with the experience of packing luggage. There are certain type faces you are familiar with and you know how they will behave under certain circumstances, but you are not sure if this is the right one to experiment on. Just like when you are choosing which shoes to take on your trip, you might think to choose the ones which is comfortable or the fashionable one are suit for your trip. So, you will need to look at the task ahead before you pack your font suitcase.
Week 8
Lettering & Type
By: Bruce Willen and Nolen Ellen Luptop
This week, I read about spacing and kerning from lettering & type. Type designers consider the spacing between the letters as important as the forms of the letters themselves. If the spacing is poor the overall typeface can be ruined. However, it helps to give a new life to the lackluster font if the spacing is good. The shape of a letter works in concert with its side bearings, left and right. Slightly changes to the character's form can improve its spacing extremely. Each of the character will fit comfortably and evenly within its negative space once the spacing is correct. A well spaced and drawn font requires less kerning, the compensation required to balance unwisely visual spaces between specific combination of letters. The gaps between the characters will looks awkward if there is not kerning. It said that punctuation and combinations of upper and lowercase letters frequently require kerning to maintain a font's even spacing.
Week 9
Thinking with type
By: Ellen Lupton
Read from : https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/thinkingwithtype_ellenlupton.pdf
By: Ellen Lupton
Read from : https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/thinkingwithtype_ellenlupton.pdf
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