Typography Task 3

20.11.2023-7.1.2024 / Week 9 - Week 14
Aliah Farhana Binti Mohd Fauzi / 0357957
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 3

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LECTURES

Week 9

In this week we were tasked to do a sketch of fonts on a graph paper with using three different kinds of marker pens (must be 3.0 above). Thus, we have to choose a preferred fonts from the 10 fonts that are given and sketch a letter of ODHNG / odhng. 

Week 10

For this week in order to digitise your fonts our sketch have to be approved by Mr. Vinod then we can proceed with digitalised it with the letter of ( O L E D S N H T I G , . ! # ).

Week 11

As sir Vinod mentioned in the teams, we have to choose to do our letter either in UPPERCASE letter or lowercase letter before even started digitalised  it.

Week 12

Therefore, for this week we have to convert our digitised font to FontLab 7 and we have to adjust our letters side bearings using the 

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INSTRUCTIONS

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XVAyrxLmsnQ95puZbk3KsrDqY4D11V2f/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

Task 3: Type Design & Communication 

In this tasked we were instructed to design a limited number of western alphabets. To begin, we were asked to choose an existing font design that interest us as reference,  then after we have to study the font carefully and analysing its anatomical parts.

1. References

Figure 2.0 Serif alphabets

Figure 2.1 I've referred to 'Book' size of serif font to be my thickness

Elaboration:

Within a specific typeface or family of fonts, a serif is a small line or stroke that is frequently added to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol.

I've selected this font for my reference is because I like the classical looks on this font while the small line or stroke on this font makes it more unique compared to other fonts.

2. Sketches

Figure 2.2 Sketching before feedback, Week 9 (24/11/23)

Figure 2.3 Sketching after feedback, Week 9 (25/11/23)

Figure 2.4 Practices fonts sketch number 6 in Figure 2.3, Week 9 (25/11/23)

3. Digitisation

Figure 2.5 First attempt of illustrate it, Week 10 (28/11/23)

Figure 2.6 Letter S - Before and After feedbacks, Week 10 (1/12/23)

Figure 2.7 Letter D and G - Before and After feedbacks, Week 10 (1/12/23)

Figure 2.8 Second attempt after feedbacks, Week 11 (5/12/23)

Figure 2.9 Command y for both before (bottom) and after (top) font, Week 11 (8/12/23)

Figure 2.10 Final comparisons Before (bottom) and after (top) font, Week 11 (8/12/23)

Figure  2.11 Transferring my font into FontLab 7, Week 11 (8/12/23)

Figure 2.12 Screen Grab of side bearing process, Week 11 (8/12/23)

Figure 2.13 Screen Grab of side bearing process, Week 11 (8/12/23)

Figure 2.14 My font after adjusting the tracking and kerning, Week 12 (15/12/23)

 

Final Works:

Link to download the Font  (here)

Font

Figure 2.15 My final Type design and communication - JPEG,Week 13 (18/12/23)

 

Figure 2.16 My final Type design and communication - PDF, Week 13 (18/12/23)

Poster

Figure 2.17 Final Poster in white - JPEG, Week 13 (18/12/23)

Figure 2.18 Final Poster in black - JPEG, Week 13 (18/1/23)

Figure 2.19 Final Poster in white - PDF, Week 13 (18/12/23)

Figure 2. 20 Final Poster in black - PDF, Week 13 (18/12/23)

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FEEDBACKS

Week 9

Type Design and Communication: Wrong writing sequence.

Week10

Type Design and Communication: Amend the letter of S (the spine is looking weird), fullstop, hashtag, comma and exclamation mark. All letter should be consistence.

Week 11

Poster: Be careful with the negative space on the poster.

Week 12

     Type Design and Communication and Poster: Amend the comma, the focus point for the poster is not the background its the font itself

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REFLECTION

Experience

This task has given me experience creating a font that I had never considered before. Thus, Mr. Vinod has given me an opportunity to learn and style my own font.

Observations

This assignment is not particularly easy, from what I've seen, but anyone can actually complete it with some challenges at first if they keep trying and manage to grasp what's going on. Apart from that, I have been seeing how the baseline, ascender, descender, and even the evenness of each letter that we have been creating should definitely be taken into consideration while creating a font. This is because each letter must have a similar relationship to the others.

Findings

Patience is most of the time a key that I've implied to myself when I'm doing this task. This is because if you don't have tolerance, you will likely be stressed out.

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FURTHER READING

Figure 5.0 I.D.E.A.S by David Creamer, 2003

Week 9

Figure 5.1 Serif vs Sans Serif

Serif fonts, with their distinctive feet or arms on letter strokes, are commonly used for body and headline text due to their readability. They're categorised into Oldstyle, Modern, and Square Serif. 

Oldstyle

This fonts, inspired by classical Roman inscriptions, feature wide, open, and round letters. They exhibit pointed serifs and a pleasing contrast between heavy and light strokes.

Modern

Despite their name, Modern fonts, created over 200 years ago, exhibit greater mechanical precision than Oldstyle fonts. They feature increased distinction between heavy and light strokes, along with thin, squared-off serifs.

Squared Serif

Slab serif, a modern style, are ideal for short text like advertising, subheads, and headlines. The letters have square serifs and mostly uniform strokes with little contrast.

Sans serif fonts are "without serif," often maintain an even stroke weigh, resulting in minimal contrast between letters. They offer a modern appearance but can be less readable than Serif fonts. While typically used for smaller text, they can also be applied to larger body copy with careful consideration.

Week 10

Figure 5.2 Font Families

Font families refers to fonts of similar design but varying weights. Most fonts have a single plain weight, but body-copy fonts often offer variations like:

• plain (or Roman),
• italic (usually Serif) or oblique (usually Sans Serif),
• bold
• bold italic or bold oblique

Several fonts offer extra weights, expanding options for designers. Each weight may also come with an italic or oblique version. Popular fonts might even include condensed and extended variations for more versatility.

Some of the weights, in order from the lightest to heaviest, include:

• Extra Light, Ultra Light, or Extra Thin
• Thin or Light
• Roman or Book
• Medium or Regular
• Demi-Bold or Semi-Bold
• Bold
• Heavy, Extra Bold, Black or Super Bold

The weights for a font are named by the font designer and follow no set rules.

Week 11

Figure 5.3 Identifying and Selecting a Font

The correlation between uppercase/ascender letters and x-height varies by font design. Fonts with taller lowercase characters (large x-height) are more readable. Additionally, descender depth and shape are crucial factors in font distinctions. 

Week 12

Figure 5.4 Character and Word Spacing

Kerning, the spacing between characters, enhances text aesthetics. While many word processors lack kerning adjustments, most page-layout programs apply it automatically. Manual adjustments might be needed for specific letter combinations like most lowercase letters and certain uppercase combinations (F, I, K, L, O, P, Q, T, V, W, X, Y). Kerning is also necessary for all uppercase combos like VA and WA.