Typography - Task 2

4 October 2022 - 11 October 2022 / Week 6 - Week 7
Sim Jia Min 0349784
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication

LECTURES
Typo_Task 2_Process Demo (Quick tutorial video of Task 2)

- Do sketches for headline expression

- Create headline in Illustrator, then import it into InDesign to do the rest (depends on the expression, some can also directly do on InDesign)

- InDesign document size: 200mm x 200mm, 6 pages, 3 columns, column gutter 5mm

- Facing pages: pages> select all pages> right click turn off allow selected spreads to shuffle> drag pages into two pages

- Place illustrator headline into document

- After done a layout, copy & paste them and cover them with patches (grey), for seeing division of white areas and grey areas

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication

Research & inspiration of headline expression

Figure 1.1: Poster design by Nicole Lesko

Figure 1.2: Type design by Ced Ferrer

Since I chose "Follow The Code" for this task, so I want to focus on the "follow" to make the headline expression, and I am inspired by the headline of these designs (Figures 1.1 & 1.2), lengthen the stroke of the letterforms to connect with the body texts. I think the term "follow" is suitable for this type of connected expression because it will make the headline looks like they are "following" the body text.

Sketches

Figure 1.3: Layout sketches (Week 6, 4/10/22)

I sketch out a few ideas before digitalization, the ideas are clear and simple, long lines & arrows to express the term meaning of "follow" and make them have some certain interaction with the body text.

Layout Progress

Figure 1.4: WIP of diagonal layout (Week 6, 4/10/22)

I was planning to arrange the layout by following diagonal baselines but then I realised making a layout like this is quite risky and difficult for me, as a beginner. Also, it will be better to start learning to do layout by following straight baselines, so I decided to drop this layout and move on to the others.

Figure 1.5: Headline type expression (Week 7, 7/10/22)

Some headline expressions that are made directly on InDesign, refer to the sketches and inspirations.

Figure 1.6: Draft layout compilation (Week 7, 10/10/22)

Figure 1.7: Draft layouts with patches (Week 7, 10/10/22)

My main idea for these layouts is to create an interaction between the lines from the headline with the body texts, which makes the texts look like they are actually "following" by the lines.

Figure 1.8: Layout #1 (Week 7, 10/10/22)

Fonts: Univers LT Std Ultra Condensed (headline), ITC New Baskerville Std Bold, Roman & Bold Italic (lead-in text & body text)

Font Size: 100 pt (headline), 27 pt (lead-in text), 9 pt (body text)

Leading: 25 pt (lead-in text), 10 pt (body text)

Paragraph Spacing: 10 pt (body text)

Average characters per line: 55 (body text)

Alignment: Aligned left

I found that the lead-in text in this layout is not really in an appropriate position, it should be near the body text instead of the headline, as it is called a "lead-in text".

Figure 1.9: Layout #2 (Week 7, 10/10/22)

Fonts: Univers LT Std Ultra Condensed (headline), ITC New Baskerville Std Bold, Roman & Bold Italic (lead-in text & body text)

Font Size: 100 pt (headline), 18 pt (lead-in text), 9 pt (body text)

Leading: 18 pt (lead-in text), 10 pt (body text)

Paragraph Spacing: 10 pt (body text)

Average characters per line: 55 (body text)

Alignment: Aligned left

The type expression for this is too plain, just a line doesn't really speak much for me.

Figure 2.1: Layout #3 (Week 7, 10/10/22)

Fonts: Univers LT Std Ultra Condensed (headline), ITC New Baskerville Std Bold, Roman & Bold Italic (lead-in text & body text)

Font Size: 100 pt (headline), 16 pt (lead-in text), 9 pt (body text)

Leading: 13 pt (lead-in text), 10 pt (body text)

Paragraph Spacing: 10 pt (body text)

Average characters per line: 57 (body text)

Alignment: Justify aligned left

The vertical line at the middle of the gutter looks weird to me, especially if it prints as a book, it might cause some misalignment or even becomes not so visible.

Figure 2.2: Layout #4 (Week 7, 10/10/22)

Fonts: Univers LT Std Ultra Condensed (headline), ITC New Baskerville Std Bold, Roman & Bold Italic (lead-in text & body text)

Font Size: 123 pt (headline), 20 pt (lead-in text), 10 pt (body text)

Leading: 13 pt (lead-in text), 12 pt (body text)

Paragraph Spacing: 12 pt (body text)

Average characters per line: 54 (body text)

Alignment: Justify aligned left

Figure 2.3: Layout #5 Chosen Final Layout (Week 7, 10/10/22)

Fonts: Gill Sans Std Regular (headline), ITC New Baskerville Std Bold, Roman & Bold Italic (lead-in text & body text)

Font Size: 72 pt (headline), 18 pt (lead-in text), 9 pt (body text)

Leading: 14 pt (lead-in text), 10 pt (body text)

Paragraph Spacing: 10 pt (body text)

Average characters per line: 57 (body text)

Alignment: Aligned left

I think the lead-in text and body text boxes arrangement does have a better hierarchy compared with other layouts, so I pick this as the final.

Figure 2.4: Layout #6 (Week 7, 10/10/22)

Fonts: Gill Sans Std Regular (headline), ITC New Baskerville Std Bold, Roman & Bold Italic (lead-in text & body text)
Font Size: 72 pt (headline), 14 pt (lead-in text), 9 pt (body text)
Leading: 14 pt (lead-in text), 9 pt (body text)
Paragraph Spacing: 9 pt (body text)
Average characters per line: 57 (body text)
Alignment: Justify aligned left
The lead-in text doesn't really have a good placement, even though my idea is to make it follow the diagonal line, but the result looks a bit abrupt compared with the body texts near it.

FINAL TASK 2

Figure 2.5: Final Task 2 jpg (Week 7, 11/10/22)

Figure 2.6: Final Task 2 jpg with baseline grid (Week 7, 11/10/22)

Figure 2.7: Final Task 2 pdf (Week 7, 11/10/22)

Figure 2.8: Final Task 2 pdf with baseline grid (Week 7, 11/10/22)

FEEDBACK

Week 6

Peers' feedback: Most of them think that the diagonal line layout is a good idea, but the body text is quite confusing to read because they not sure where to start reading, they suggested to make the text start from top instead of the bottom.

Specific feedback:

Headline 'F' stroke are way thicker than other headline letters, make it thinner like others. The body words are not readable, can look up some professional's work like Paula Scher and learn from it.

General feedback:

- Must always do more layout exploration

- Headline & body text must have some certain interaction with each other

- Always make sure the body text is in an appropriate size so it's readable

REFLECTION

Experience:

For me the hardest part is always adjusting appropriate line length with smooth ragging, so I struggled with doing the kerning & tracking, I try my best to avoid applying hyphenate but somehow it is necessary for certain paragraphs. Also from the peers' reviews session during physical class, I found that it is quite significant to listen to their suggestions because I get to learn things from them, it is nice to have discussions with them since most of them are very passionate, kind and helpful.

Observation:

I noticed that arranging and separating the body text box followed by paragraphs is somehow effective, it makes the texts much more readable. I am not very satisfied with any of my layouts because I feel that there is something off about them, perhaps is that I am too reliant on the lines to make connection between the headline and body texts, or maybe the headline type expression is not strong enough. The reason for this might be I spent more time struggling with arranging layouts instead of thinking of a good headline expression.

Findings:

I have acquired that it is significant to make headlines have a certain connection with the body texts, and make them be related as a whole content. For improvement, I should think and sketch more ideas for headline expression, and also have good time management to avoid spending too much time on a part and neglecting other parts of the project.