Foo Hui Xin || 0351665
Typography || Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Task 2
1 || Lectures
(Lectures in Task 1: Exercise 1 & 2)
Typography Task 2 Progress Demo
For this task, we had to watch a recorded video on youtube to get a gist of
what we are supposed to do.
Basically, we had to make out a type expression for a headline to go along
with a given text which needs to be formatted.
2 || Instructions
Task 2 - Typographic Exploration & Communication (Text Formatting & Expression)
Sketches
Following the video, I started on my sketches to map out ideas for what I
would like to do.
|
| Fig 1.1, Idea 1, Week 6 (7/5/2022) |
|
| Fig 1.2, Idea 2, Week 6 (7/5/2022) |
|
| Fig 1.3, Idea 3, Week 6 (7/5/2022) |
Type Expressions
I used Adobe Illustrator for the type expressions.
For the first one, I was inspired by pixels. The pixel, which is a word
for 'picture element', is the basic unit of programmable colour on a
computer display or in a computer image (TechTarget.com). The computer
uses pixels together to display anything (Canada Learning Code), so I
thought it would be appropriate to express the word 'code' with
pixels.
|
| Fig 2, Pixels |
To achieve this technical coding vibe to represent the word 'Code', I
went to [Effects] > [Texture] > [Patchwork] and set the size to 2
and the relief to 7. I used Serifa Std 55 roman for 'follow the' and 65
bold for 'CODE'. For the bar code at the bottom right, I used Gill Sans
light and spammed the letter 'I' and did some kerning to imitate a bar
code. To imitate code language, I have also changed letter 'O's and 'L's
to zeros and ones, and also added some symbols.
|
| Fig 3, Type expression 1, Week 7 (9/5/2022) |
For the second type expression, I used the idea of morse code and translated 'follow the code' into morse code to line up against the words 'follow the code' on top.
|
| Fig 4, Morse code |
I also made the words curve downwards for 'follow' so the eye follows
the path downwards leading to the word 'code'. Furthermore, I added a
simple line to sandwich the words 'follow the' so the eye stays on
path. For the word 'code' I used '<' and '>' to replace the 'O'
to imitate code language. I used Gill Sans Italics for 'follow', light
for 'the', and bold for 'code'.
|
| Fig 5, Type expression 2, Week 7 (9/5/2022) |
For the last but not least, I used the idea of pixels again,
but this time I made the entire thing look pixelated like
8-bit.
|
| Fig 6, 8-bit art by @8bitaday |
I also added binary numbers that translates to the
headline for the side of the page, and I used Univers
LT Std Ultra Condensed for the binary code numbers.
For the headline, I used Serifa Std 45 Light, also
adding some code language in. To achieve the 8-bit
look, I clicked on [Effects] > [SVG Filters] >
[AI Pixel Play 1] and did some letter kerning to make
the 8-bit words look more evenly spaced out.
|
| Fig 7, Type expression 3, Week 7 (9/5/2022) |
Text Formatting
|
| Fig 8, Grid showing, alignment and hidden characters |
|
| Fig 9.1, Before kerning |
|
| Fig 9.2, After kerning |
|
| Fig 10.1, Before kerning |
|
| Fig 10.2, After kerning |
Type Expression + Text Formatting
Layout #1
Instead of having the type expression on the
left side like in Idea 1, I placed it on the
right side instead.
Font : Serifa Std
Typeface : 55 roman, 75 black
Font size : 8.5 pt, 12 pt (last sentence)
Leading: 10.5 pt
Paragraph Spacing: 10.5 pt /3.704 mm
Average characters per line: 55-63
Alignment: Left alignment, Right alignment
(for last sentence)
Margins : 10mm (all sides)
Columns : 2 (each page)
Gutter (for columns) : 4.233 mm
|
| Fig 11.1, Layout 1 + no grid, Week 7 (11/5/2022) |
|
| Fig 11.2, Layout 1 + with grid, Week 7 (11/5/2022) |
|
|
Fig 11.3, Layout 1 + with grid +
visible words, Week 7
(11/5/2022) |
 |
| Fig 11.4, Layout 1, Week 7 (11/5/2022) |
Layout #2
I still wanted to make use
of Idea 2 because I liked
the idea of the type
expression, so I changed the
layout so it does not look
similar to the example shown
at all.
Font : Gill Sans
Typeface : Regular, Bold
Italic, Bold
Font size : 9.5 pt, 12
pt (last sentence)
Leading: 11.5 pt
Paragraph Spacing:
11.5 pt /4.057mm
Average characters per
line: 55-63
Alignment: Left
Justified, Right
alignment (last
sentence)
Margins : 10mm (top,
bottom), 5mm (left,
right)
Columns : 3 (each page)
Gutter (for columns) :
10mm
|
|
Fig 12.1, Layout 2
+ no grid, Week
7 (11/5/2022) |
|
|
Fig 12.2, Layout 2
+ with grids,
Week 7
(11/5/2022) |
|
|
Fig 12.3, Layout 2
+ with grid +
visible words,
Week 7
(11/5/2022) |
|
| Fig 12.4, Layout 2, Week 7 (11/5/2022) |
Layout
#3
I tried
Idea 3 in
InDesign
and
realised
that it is
not
possible
to do it
(or at
least it
was very
difficult
and
unreadable
for me),
so I
changed
the
layout. I
think it
feels like
an
instruction
book which
matches
well to
the theme.
Font :
Serifa
Std
Typeface
: 65
Bold,
75
Black
Font
size :
10 pt,
14 pt
(last
sentence)
Leading:
11.5
pt
Paragraph
Spacing:
11.5
pt
/4.057mm
Average
characters
per
line:
65-75
Alignment:
Left
Justified,
Right
Alignment
(last
sentence)
Margins
: 5mm
(left,
right),
10mm
(bottom),
8mm
(top)
Columns
: 3
(each
page)
|
|
Fig 13.1,
Layout
3
+
no
grid,
Week
7
(14/5/2022) |
|
|
Fig 13.2,
Layout
3
+
with
grid,
Week
7
(14/5/2022) |
|
|
Fig 13.3,
Layout
3
+
with
grid
+
visible
words,
Week
7
(14/5/2022) |
|
| Fig 13.4, Layout 3, Week 7 (14/5/2022) |
Submission
PDF with visible Grid
PDF
JPEG
3 || Feedback
Week 7
General Feedback: have to do the layouts in InDesign to see
if it is possible in the first place
Specific Feedback: Idea 2 of my rough designs was too
similar to the given example, so I could not use it. For the other
2, expression wise they are ok, looks like code language, but layout
wise for one of them looks a bit complicated (again, have to try out
in InDesign first)
Week 8
N/A (Holiday)
4 || Reflection
Experience
It was almost exciting to combine both type expression and formatted text together in something like pages on each side of an open book. I realised that even though I get a lot of ideas to layout the text, they don't work very well if we were to follow the typographic rules. It limited the ideas I would get to do a layout greatly so it was a bit of a struggle.
Observation
I observed my classmates layouts and type expressions and realised how creative some of them were which I hope I can be like one day. It was super interesting to see the different styles and approach everyone has to the same few concepts to choose from.
Findings
I found out that having an even margin space for all four sides leads to a big gap in the middle of the final product. So, I had to change the gutter and the left and right margin size to avoid that big gap.
5 || Further Reading
Making and Breaking the Grid
by Timothy Samara
 |
| Fig 14, Making and Breaking the Grid book cover |
I have read about this before in Task 1 but I went through it again because I felt like it is very relevant to this task. After reading it and learning about different kinds of grids, I've noticed that we are using column grids a lot. There are manuscript grids, column grids, modular grids, and hierarchal grids.
 |
| Fig 15.1, Contents of the book (1) |
 |
| Fig 15.2, Contents of the book (2) |
 |
| Fig 15.3, Contents of the book (3) |
Aside from that, most of the ideas and examples showcased in the book usually uses a lot of pictures and illustrations which we avoid during this task.
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