Typography-Task 2

4.10.2022-11.10.2022 / Week 6-Week 7

Kor Qian Qian / 0359496

Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication (Text Formatting and Expression)

LECTURES

Week 6

Leeson recap: Today is the submission of Task 1 E-portfolio. We uploaded our last week's work (task 2) to FB and got feedback from peers while sir is giving feedback to our e-portfolio. We were asked to walk around in the class, see and give feedback on peers’ work. After sir finished seeing everyone's e-portfolio, he pointed out some mistakes and problems with most of our e-portfolio.

Week 7

Leeson recap: Sir brief us about the detail of what we will do in the new task. Create a group of the alphabet. First, do some research and only start rough sketches (min 5 type sketches). Watch the video first.

Letter: a e t k g r i y m p n ! # , .

Typography: Basic / Describing letterforms

Baseline: The imaginary line the visual base of the letterforms.
Median: The imaginary line defining the x-height of letterforms.
X-height: The height in any typeface of the lowercase ‘x’.
Stroke: Any line that defines the basic letterform
Apex / Vertex: The point created by joining two diagonal stems (apex above and vertex below)
Arm Short: strokes off the stem of the letterform, either horizontal (E, F, L) or inclined upward (K, Y).
Bowl :The rounded form that describes a counter. The bowl may be either open or closed.
Beak: The half-serif finish on some horizontal arms.
Barb: The half-serif finish on some curved stroke.
Ascender: The portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that projects above the median.
Bracket: The transition between the serif and the stem
Cross Bar: The horizontal stroke in a letterform that joins two stems together
Cross Stroke: The horizontal stroke in a letterform that joins two stems together
Crotch: The interior space where two strokes meet.
Descender: The portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that projects below the baseline.
Ear: The stroke extending out from the main stem or body of the letterform.
Em/en: Originally refering to the width of an uppercase M, and em is now the distance equal to the size of the typeface (an em in 48 points, for example). An en is half the size of an em. Most often used to describe em/en spaces and em/en dashes.
Finial: The rounded non-serif terminal to a stroke.
Leg Short: stroke off the stem of the letterform, either at the bottom of the stroke (L) or inclined downward (K, R).
Ligature: The character formed by the combination of two or more letterforms.
Link: The stroke that connects the bowl and the loop of a lowercase G.
Loop: In some typefaces, the bowl created in the descender of the lowercase G.
Serif: The right-angled or oblique foot at the end of the stroke.
Shoulder: The curved stroke that is not part of a bowl.
Spine: The curved stem of the S.
Spur: The extension the articulates the junction of the curved and rectilinear stroke.
Stem: The significant vertical or oblique stroke.
Stress: The orientation of the letterform, indicated by the thin stroke in round forms.
Swash: The flourish that extends the stroke of the letterform.
Tail: The curved diagonal stroke at the finish of certain letterforms.
Terminal: The self-contained finish of a stroke without a serif. This is something of a catch-all term. Terminals may be flat (‘T’ above), flared, acute, (‘t’ above), grave, concave, convex, or rounded as a ball or a teardrop (see finial).

Typography: Basic / The Font

Uppercase: Capital letters, including certain accented vowels, the c cedilla and n tilde, and the a/e and o/e ligatures.
Lowercase: Lowercase letters include the same characters as uppercase.
Small Capitals: Uppercase letterforms draw to the x-height of the typeface. Small Caps are primarily found in serif fonts as part of what is often called expert set.
Uppercase Numerals: Also called lining figures, these numerals are the same height as uppercase letters and are all set to the same kerning width. They are most successfully used with tabular material or in any situation that calls for uppercase letters.
Lowercase Numerals: Also known as old style figures or text figures, these numerals are set to x-height with ascenders and descenders. They are best used when ever you would use upper and lowercase letterforms. Lowercase numerals are far less common in sans serif type-faces than in serif.
Italic: Most fonts today are produced with a matching italic. Small caps, however, are almost always only roman. The forms in a italic refer back to fifteenth century Italian cursive handwriting. Oblique are typically based on the roman form of the typeface.
Punctuation, miscellaneous characters: Although all fonts contain standard punctuation marks, miscellaneous characters can change from typeface to typeface. It’s important to be acquainted with all the characters available in a typeface before you choose the appropriate type for a particular job.
Ornaments: Used as flourishes in invitations or certificates. They usually are provided as a font in a larger typeface family. Only a few traditional or classical typefaces contain ornamental fonts as part of the entire typeface family (Adobe Caslon Pro).

Typography: Basic / Describing typefaces

Roman: The letterform is so called because the uppercase forms are derived from inscriptions of Roman monuments. A slightly lighter stroke in roman is known as ‘Book’.
Italic: Named for fifteenth century Italian handwriting on which the forms are based.
Oblique: conversely are based on roman form of typeface
Boldface: Characterized by a thicker stroke than a roman form. Depending upon the relative stroke widths within the typeface, it can also be called ‘semibold’, ‘medium’, ‘black’, ‘extra bold’, or super. In some typefaces (notably Bodoni), the boldest rendition of the typeface is referred to as ‘Poster’.
Light: A lighter stroke than the roman form. Even lighter strokes are called ‘thin’.
Condense: A version of the roman form, and extremely condense styles are often called ‘compressed’.
Extended: An extended variation of a roman font.

Fig 2.1-describing typefaces

You can’t be a good typographer, if you aren’t a good reader.

— Stephen Cole

Typography: Letters / Understanding letterforms / Counterform

The uppercase letter forms below suggest symmetry, but in fact it is not symmetrical. It is easy to see the two different stroke weights of the Baskerville stroke form (below); more noteworthy is the fact that each bracket connecting the serif to the stem has a unique arc.

Fig 2.2-asymmetrical letter

The uppercase letter forms may appear symmetrical, but a close examination shows that the width of the left slope is thinner than the right stroke. Both Baskerville (previous) and Univers (below) demonstrate the meticulous care a type designer takes to create letterforms that are both internally harmonious and individually expressive.

Fig 2.3-symmetrical letter

The complexity of each individual letterform is neatly demonstrated by examining the lowercase ‘a’ of two seemingly similar sans-serif typefaces—Helvetica and Univers. A comparison of how the stems of the letterforms finish and how the bowls meet the stems quickly reveals the palpable difference in character between the two.

Fig 2.3-difference

Typography: Maintaining x-height

X-height generally describe the size of the lowercase letterforms. However, you should keep in mind that curved strokes, such as in ‘s’, must rise above the median (or sink below the baseline) in order to appear to be the same size as the vertical and horizontal strokes they adjoin.

Fig 2.4-x height

Typography: Letters / Counterform

counterform (or counter)—the space describes, and often contained, by the strokes of the form. When letters are joined to form words, the counterform includes the spaces between them.

The latter is particularly and important concept when working with letterforms like lowercase ‘r’ that have no counters per se. How well you handle the counters when you set type determines how well words hang together—in other words, how easily we can read what’s been set.

Fig 2.5-counterform

Fig 2.6

Typography: Letters / Contrast

The simple contrasts produces numerous variations: small+organic/large+machined; small+dark/ large light …

Fig 2.7

On the streets, you look at girls [or boys]. I look at type.

— Hannes von Döhren

Typography in Different Medium

Type for Print

Type was designed intended for reading from print long before we read from screen. It’s the designer’s job to ensure that the text is smooth, flowing, and pleasant to read.

Common typefaces used for print: Caslon, Garamond, Baskerville.They are versatile, easy-to-digest classic typeface, which has a neutrality and versatility that makes typesetting with it a breeze.

Type for Screen

Typefaces intended for use on the web are optimized and often modified to enhance readability and performance onscreen in a variety of digital environments. This can include a taller x-height (or reduced ascenders and descenders), 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 – especially for typefaces intended for smaller sizes – is more open spacing.

Hyperactive Link/ hyperlink

A hyperlink is a word, phrase, or image that you can click on to jump to a new document or a new section within the current document. Hyperlinks are found in nearly all Web pages, allowing users to click their way from page to another. Text hyperlinks are normally blue and underlined by default. When you move the cursor over a hyperlink, whether it is text or an image, the arrow should change to a small hand pointing at the link.

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. Because we read books pretty close — often only a few inches away — they are typically set at about 10 points. If you were to read them at arm’s length, you’d want at least 12 points, which is about the same size as 16 pixels on most screens

Fig 2.8-difference

Pixel Differential Between Devices

The screens used by our PCs, tablets, phones and TVs are not only different sizes, but the text you see on-screen differs in proportion too, because they have different sized pixels. 100 pixels on a laptop is very different from 100 pixels on a big 60″ HDTV.

Even within a single device class there will be a lot of variation

Static Vs Motion

Static Typography: Static typography has minimal characteristic in expressing words. Traditional characteristics such as bold and italic offer only a fraction of the expressive potential of dynamic properties.

From billboards to posters, magazines to fliers, we encounter all forms of static typography with wide ranging purposes. Whether they are informational, promotional, formal or aspirational pieces of designs, the level of impression and impact they leave on the audience is closely knitted to their emotional connection with the viewers.

Motion Typography:Temporal media offer typographers opportunities to “dramatize” type, for letterforms to become “fluid” and “kinetic” (Woolman and Bellantoni, 1999). Film title credits present typographic information over time, often bringing it to life through animation. Motion graphics, particularly the brand identities of film and television production companies, increasingly contain animated type.

Type is often overlaid onto music videos and advertisements, often set in motion following the rhythm of a soundtrack. On-screen typography has developed to become expressive, helping to establish the tone of associated content or express a set of brand values. In title sequences, typography must prepare the audience for the film by evoking a certain mood.

“A great designer knows how to work with text not just as content, he treats text as a user interface.”

– Oliver Reichenstein

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 2-Typographic Exploration & Communication

For task 2, we need to design a 2 pages of type expression. There are three passages provided in FB files. We should pick a topic and come out with several ideas. We are able to create the type expression in Adobe Illustrator and paste it into Adobe InDesign.

Sketches:
Fig 3.1-rough sketch of the template (4/10/2022)
I sketched 3 different layouts and decide which idea am I going to use.

Digitization:
Fig 3.2-heading's expression 1 (4/10/2022)

Fig 3.3-heading's expression 2 (4/10/2022)

Fig 3.4-heading's expression 3 (4/10/2022)

I design a few headings and put them into the layout to see which are the most suitable.

Fig 1.1-attempt 1 (4/10/2022)

Fig 1.2-attempt 2 (4/10/2022)

Fig 1.3-attempt 3 (4/10/2022)

Fig 1.4-attempt 4 (4/10/2022)

I tried a few different designs and tweaked them on a per-design basis. I bolded the two main words and enlarged them to show that it is the subject. In addition, I added a curve to drive the direction of the picture, and it feels like following.

Final Outcome:

Fig 1.5-final outcome of type expression without grid (11/10/2022)

Fig 1.6-final outcome of type expression with grid (11/10/2022)

Passage font point: 9pt
Passage font used: ITC New Baskerville Std
Leading: 10pt
Paragraph spacing: 11pt

Headline font point: Follow-105pt, the-75pt, Code-150pt
Headline font used: Universe Lt Std

Characters per line: 35
Alignment: left

Margins: top: 25mm left: 12.7mm, right:12.7mm, bottom: 12.7mm
Columns: 3
Gutter: 5mm

Fig 1.7-final outcome of type expression without grid PDF

Fig 1.8-final outcome of type expression with grid PDF

FEEDBACK

Week 6 (Classmate's feedback)
General feedback: Some of the ideas are good but I can try to transfer them into AI and see how the effect is.

Specific feedback: I can add more detail and creative idea to the headline to avoid being too boring.

REFLECTION

Experience
Time passed quickly, and the second assignment was over. I still remember when the lecturer first started explaining the details of this task, I thought it was too difficult to complete it in such a short period of time. This task combines what we have learned from the first two exercises. Because of the experience, the operation is relatively familiar to the first time, so it can be completed quickly.

Observation
In the process of design, we can’t always limit ourselves to our own aesthetics. After looking at the same things for a long time, we will become aesthetically fatigued. We can ask our friends and classmates for their opinions and see where we can improve in our composition.

Finding
Typography is everywhere in our daily life. After learning this lesson, I will pay extra attention to the typography surrounding me. Learning font design is a lesson that requires a lot of watching and practising.

Figure 4.1-Typography Design: Form and Communication

I would like to talk more about Chapter 5: Syntax and Communication.

Syntax

The letter: A typographic sign is visually dynamic because of its interaction with the surrounding void—the white of the paper. This form-to-void relationship is inherent in the totality of typographic expression.

Fig 4.2-It is the figure/ ground reversal in the repetition of the letter T that creates a balanced and expressive poster. (Designer: Willi Kunz)

The word:

Word signs are independent of the things they represent, yet by design they can be made to signify and reveal their meaning.
Adrian Frutiger stated, “The material of typography is the black, and it is the designer’s task with the help of this black to capture space, to create harmonious whites inside the letters as well as between them.”
The universal principle for spacing letters is this: the typographer, calligrapher, or designer attempts to make the interletter space between each pair of letters appear equal to the space between every other pair of letters. Because these counterform spaces have such different configurations, this spacing must be achieved through optical balance rather than through measurement.

Fig 4.3-word-to-word interaction exhibits rhythmic recurrences of form and counterform. Individual letterforms are paired, and their corresponding interior counters are related here. (Designer: John Rodgers)

The line:

Words are joined to form verbal sentences and typographic lines.
In its most basic form, a line of type consists of a single point size and a single weight extended horizontally over a specific line width.
Lines of type can be arranged symmetrically or asymmetrically

Fig 4.4-symmetrically and asymmetrically line

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Kor Qian Qian 0359496

Typography-Task 2