Typography - Task 3

18 October 2022 - 1 November 2022 / Week 8 - Week 10
Sim Jia Min 0349784
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 3: Type Design & Communication

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LECTURES

All lecture recordings are done on exercises.

Recorded demo notes of task 3:

Typo_Task 3A_Typeface Construction (Shapes)

- do research for good typefaces and then do sketches

- look for the reference of existing typeface that look similar with the sketches (exp: the 10 typefaces)

Developing on Adobe Illustrator

- illustrator: 1000px x 1000px

- board height need to be 1000px

- letterform x-height: 500pt

- control R drag and drop the guidelines: identify lines (ascender, descender, x-height, baseline, median line, cap line)

- use shape tool/pen tool create letterform

- reuse and matain the paths for each letter

- use pathfinder unite the letter to adjust the shapes of letterform. (selection tool - anchor point)

- try different exploration, to have few options and choose the best one

- make sure to measure unit points for the guidelines (for later developing on other softwares: fontlab)

Typo_Task 3A_Illustrator to Fontlab5 Demo

- fontlab: file>new, file>font info (fill up the names)>Metrics and Dimensions>Key dimensions (key in the measurement)

- copy the letter on illustrator, paste on fontlab according the letter

- matrix window>key in letters> adjust bearings(equal)

- kerning: the columns on the bottom 

- create space

- done>save file

- file>generate font>file.ttf>save

Typo_Task 3A FontLab7 Demo

- prferences>paste and duplicate>ignore sroke and colours>import original position>keep position if available

- paste vector from illustrator (select import as vector, copy in the exact place)

- window>new matrics tab>click show text bar (the icon on right taskbar)>click show matrics table (adjust spaces)

- file>font info (key in font names)>family dimensions

- file>export font as>open type tt>export

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INSTRUCTIONS

Task 3: Type Design & Communication

Type design inspiration & research

I borrowed the book "Thinking with Type" from Taylor's library, when I browsed the book, I discovered this parametric type design, "New Alphabet" by Wim Crouwel in 1967. The letters are only constructed in straight strokes, which embraced and adapted the limited display technology on video screens during that time. 

I especially like the unique resemblance of the letters represent, but also found that some of the letters are impractical for reading due to similar glyphs, such as the "i" looks like "j", "k" looks like "t". 

Figure 1.1: "Thinking with Type" pg 28: New Alphabet

- Wim Crouwel, rejecting centuries of typographic convention, he designed his letters for optimal display on video screens, where curves and angles are rendered with horizontal scan lines. 

- He promoted his new alphabet as "An Introduction for a Programmed Typography".

- Letters are created by straight strokes and with chamfer corners.

Figure 1.2: New Alphabet by Wim Crouwel, 1967.

According to the sources online, Wim Crouwel's peers also have mixed feelings about this typeface. For Crouwel, this typeface was an experiment and exercise, it was never meant to be used, but it still received much public attention.

Overall this is a very experimental typeface, and absolutely ahead of its time in 1967 compared with the everyday use typefaces. 

Figure 1.3: Joy Division's compilation album "Substance", featured New Alphabet, 1988

The album title letters actually spelt out "subst1mce", I was wondering if there is any meaning behind it, but according to the cover designer, it is just for aesthetic reasons.

New Alphabet was digitalised for contemporary use in 1997 by Freda Sack & David Quay from The Foundry based on Wim Crouwel's studies, it consists of three weights and a dot version, also supporting many languages.

Here is a PDF of New Alphabet specimen:

Source: The Foundry

Since I am very interested in New Alphabet, so I decided to take it as inspiration for my first type design, and I looked through other similar references on Pinterest:

Figure 1.3: "Sans Serious" by John Skelton, 2009. 

Figure 1.4: "The Empty Space" by Tommy Seddon, 2013.

I found out that both figure 1.3 and 1.4 type designs are inspired by New Alphabet when reading through the designers' descriptions on source websites. They look different but also shared some basic similarities based on New Alphabet, such as vertical & horizontal strokes, the simplicity of letters, and also the more negative spaces contained in each letter compared with the usual typefaces. I especially found "The Empty Space" is very interesting that the designer replaced some strokes that are supposed to be straight lines with little dots.

Sketches

Figure 2.1: Paper sketch 1 (Week 8, 19/10/22)

Figure 2.2: Paper sketch 2 (Week 8, 19/10/22)

Figure 2.3: Paper sketch 3 (Week 8, 19/10/22)

Figure 2.4: Paper sketch 4 (Week 8, 19/10/22)

Figure 2.5: Digital sketch 5 (Week 8, 20/10/22)

Inspired by New Alphabet, using only vertical and horizontal strokes to create letters, I sketch out some ideas. I decided to proceed with my digitalisation based on sketches 1 & 2. 

Digitalisation process

Figure 3.1: Guidelines (Week 8: 20/10/22)

Start with creating guidelines following the recorded demo.

Guideline measurements (also applied in FontLab):

Ascender: 733 pt

Capital height: 697 pt

X-height: 500 pt

Baseline: 0 pt

Descender: -231pt

Figure 3.2: Creating base structure (Week 8, 22/10/22)

I start with making the base structure following the sketches, the first one is kind of condensed, which is not what I plan to do, so I extended the strokes by starting using square shapes as guide for the second attempt. 

Figure 3.3: Thicken strokes (Week 9, 26/10/22)

Thicken strokes to create contrast in the letterforms. I changed some letterform designs since my peers said some of the letters are not readable at the first glance.  Also made the width of letter "m" wider since it is supposed to have a wider size than others.

Figure 3.4: Adjust corner radius (Week 10, 1/11/22)

I rounded the corner radius of counter spaces to create some curvature while keeping the corner of outer strokes remain straight, for presenting a contrast between round and straight corners. 

Figure 3.5: Punctuation references (Week 10, 1/11/22)

Since there are some punctuation problems in my designs, I make a list of punctuation from other fonts as a study and reference. 

I noticed that there are a few things I did not do in my designs: 

- Number sign is supposed to be in a diagonal form

- Exclamation mark need to be tapered til the end

- Comma should have a little tail at the end.

Figure 3.6: Failed attempts and final punctuations (Before & after, Week 10, 2/11/22)

Based on the punctuation references of other fonts, I adjusted some punctuation issues I have made.

Figure 3.7: Final Type Design (Week 10, 2/11/22)

My final type design with guidelines.

Figure 3.8: Type design process (preview & outline view) (Week 10, 2/11/22)

I recorded my process by doing my design step by step on different artboards.

Process of Development on FontLab 7 & Poster

Figure 4.1: Font dimensions (Week 11, 8/11/22)

Before starting to copy and paste the letters on FontLab, I adjusted font dimensions based on the guideline measurements in Illustrator.

Figure 4.2: Adjusting letter position on FontLab (Week 11, 8/11/22)

I copied and pasted all the letters one by one on FontLab based on the recorded tutorial video.  

Figure 4.3: Adjusting kerning (Week 11, 8/11/22)

Checked the spaces between each letter and did some kerning to make sure they have an appropriate distance.

Figure 4.4: Poster design (Week 11, 9/11/22)

After exporting the letters as font from FontLab, I use the font to make a few posters. The left one is what the regular font looks like, the other two I have adjusted the tracking to make the letters look condensed.

Final Task 3: Type Design & Communication

Click here for the "Mecha Sans" font download.

Figure 5.1: Final type design: "Mecha Sans" jpg (Week 11, 11/11/22)

Figure 5.2: Final type design: "Mecha Sans" jpg (Week 11, 11/11/22)

Figure 5.3: Final type design: "Mecha Sans" A4 Poster jpg (Week 11, 11/11/22)

Figure 5.4: Final type design: "Mecha Sans" A4 Poster pdf (Week 11, 11/11/22)

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FEEDBACK

Week 8: ILW

Week 9

Specific feedback:

- be more conservative with the design, add some thickness to the stroke

- the design for now can't really see if understand the basics or not 

General feedback:

- do more sketches, sketches don't have to come out with all letters

Week 10

Specific feedback: 

- incorrect punctuation

- the gap in y is a little bit bigger

- e can add a line

General feedback:

- avoid having too many different characteristics on one typeface

- not all letter strokes necessarily have the same wide, some might need wider than others, such as "m"

Week 11

Specific feedback:

- punctuation issue (comma and period)

- exclamation mark needs to be tapered toward the end

- somehow consistent but the strokes still have some inconsistency (the direction of thin and thick strokes)

General feedback:

- kerning: look for evenness, for some particular letters they might need more spaces than others (can also adjust the bearing)

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REFLECTIONS

Experience: It is a quite challenging experience for me since this is the very first time I create an actual font by myself, also a very special experience for me. Honestly, I was quite lost at the start since I can't get any inspiration by scrolling through websites, then I read the book "Thinking With Type" from the library, discovered the New Alphabet and finally got some directions. I think the most challenging part is definitely to keep the have a certain consistency without making any of the letters look too prominent compared with others, at the same time also have to make sure they look functional and readable. Since this specific type design by me is quite a sci-fi style, so I tried to avoid making them look without any traditions of typography in it, so in the digitalisation process, I refined some letter designs to make them look more related to the usual typeface letters. 

Observation: I found that looking for references is the most significant part of type design, because there are no fully original ideas in designing something. As a beginner, looking up other designs are important for avoiding making mistakes, and also good for learning, such as I actually refer to some fonts like Futura and Univers to observe their letter heights, width and the spaces between each letter. I noticed that letter like "m" is meant to be wider than the other letters, some letters should also have more spaces than others. I also had the wrong idea that "i" is within the x-height, but in fact the little dot of "i" should be taller than x-height and close to the cap height.

Findings: I am glad to acquire the skill of creating a font by myself, and I actually have the desire to finish the rest of the letters because this is something that came from my own hands, even though they are not that well-made but they still has a special place in my heart. For improvement, I think I should focus more on traditional of typography to showcase more of my digitalised skills, maybe the next time I will try to make some types with dramatic strokes.

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FURTHER READING

Figure 6.1: Thinking With Type, by Ellen Lupton (2004)

Reference: 

Lupton, E. (2004). Thinking With Type (1st ed). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Letter size

Figure 6.2: Letter height measurements in point, pica, inch

Height: 

- Point system: the standard measurement of height as well as the distance between lines (leading)

- 1 point=1/72 inch/-35 millimeters

- Can also be measured in inches, milimeters or pixels, picas and points are standard default

Figure 6.3: Letters in different width

Width

- Horizontal measure: set width

- Set width: the body of the letter + a sliver of space that protects it from other letters. Some typfaces have narrow set width while some have wide.

- Different proportion by distorting: condensed, compressed, extended...

Figure 6.3: Different fonts in the same point size

- Different typefaces in the same point size, one often looks bigger than the other, because differences in x-height, line weight & character width affect the letters' scale.

- Bigger x-heights are introduced in the 20th century, fonts made to look larger by maximizing the area within the overall point size.

- The default type size in software application is usually 12 pt. Although 12 pt generally is readable type on screen displays, but it usually looks big on a printed page.

- 9-11 pts are common for usual printed text, but 12 pt is a good size for children's books.

Grid

Figure 6.4: Book 1472, printed by Nicholas Jenson

- Grid breaks space or time into regular units, it can be simple or complex, specific or generic, tightly defined or loosely interpreted.

- Grid establish a system for arranging content within the space of pages, the internal pressures of content (text, image, data), and the outer edge or frame (page/screen).

- Grid belongs to the technological framework of typography, from the concrete modularity of letterpress to the rules, guides & coordinate systems of graphic applications.

- Grid has evolved over centuries of typographic development, it is the inescapable mesh that filters, at some level of resolution, nearly every system of writing and reproduction.