Task 1: Exercise

March 27, 2022

Task 1: Exercise

28/3/2022 - 25/4/2022 / Week 1 - Week 5

Tee Jia Ern / 0348512

Typography / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

Task 1: Exercise

LECTURES

WEEK 1

Phoenician

Tools: sharpened stick & wet clay, chisel & stone

Straight lines and circles

Greek (boustrophedon)

read alternate from left to right & right to left

change orientation of letter

Roman

Square capitals

Serifs

Transactions

Cursive hand for speed

Lowercase

Uncials

Does not have uppercase lowercase

Half Uncials

Beginning of lowercase

Charlemagne

Standardize Europe

Uppercase, lowercase, capitalization, punctuation

Blackletter

Condense strong vertical

North Europe

South Europe round open named 'rotunda'

Gutenberg

Mimic scribe's hand as a type

Text Type Classification

1450 Blackletter

Northern Europe

Cloister Black, Goudy Text

1475 Oldstyle

Italian and Roman

Garamond, Janson

1500 Italic

Italian Handwriting

Originally it's own typeface, now accompanied with all typefaces

1550 Script:

Engraved calligraphy

Kuenstler Script, Snell Roundhand

1750 Transitional

Refinement of Oldstyle

Baskerville, Time Roman

1775 Modern

Further streamline of Oldstyle

Bell, Bodoni

1825 Square Serif

Commercial printing

Clarendon, Memphis

1900 Sans Serif

Removed serifs

Gill Sans, Futura

1990 Serif/Sans Serif

Both serif and sans serif

Rotis, Scala

WEEK 2

Letterforms

Baseline: visual base of letterforms

Median: x-height of letterforms

X height: height of all lowercase typeface

Stroke: lines letterform consists of

Apex/Vertex: two joining diagonal stems (AMV)

Arm: short stroke off the stem (FTY)

Ascender: stem above the median (bdhk)

Barb: serif on curve strokes (CGS)

Bowl: rounded form (bdpq)

Bracket: serif connects to stem

Cross Bar: horizontal stroke between two seperate stem (AH)

Cross Stroke: horizontal stroke between two stem

Crotch: interior space of two connecting strokes (KV)

Ear: Extended stroke from stem or body (gr)

Em: the distance equal to typeface size

Ligature: character of two or more letterforms (fl, fi)

Link: stroke between bowl and loop (g)

Spine: curved stem of S (S)

Stress: letterform orientation indicated by thin strokes in round forms (Os, es)

Swash: flourish extended from stroke

Terminal: stroke finish without serif (t)

Font

Uppercase: capital letters

Lowercase: smaller forms of letters

Small Capitals: Uppercase altered to the x-height

Uppercase Numerals: numerals equal height to uppercase letters

Lowercase Numerals: numerals in x-height with ascenders and descenders

Italic: reference to 15th century Italian cursive writing

Punctuation, miscellaneous characters: varies from typefaces

Ornaments: flourishes in invitations or certificates

Typefaces

Roman: derived from Roman monuments inscriptions

Italic: based on 15th century Italian handwriting

Boldface: thicker stroke than roman form

Light: lighter stroke than roman form

Condense: compressed version of roman font

Extended: extended variation of roman font

Comparing typefaces

-Gross differences of x-height

-Variety in line weight, relative stoke widths and feeling

WEEK 3

Kerning: automatic adjustment of space between letters

-Normal tracking

-Loose tracking

-Tight tracking

Letterspacing: add space between letters

-Uppercase letters are frequently letterspaced, as they are intended to stand alone.

-Lowercase should not be letterspaced because it necessitates the creation of a counterform between letters to maintain the line of reading.

Tracking: addition and removal of space in a word

Formatting text

Flush left

-Each line begins at the same point and ends at the same location as the last word.

-Mirrors the asymmetrical handwriting experience

-Even grey value is achieved by using consistent gaps between words

Centered

-Allocates the same amount of weight to the ends of all lines.

-Imposes symmetry on text

-Increases pictorial quality

-Adjusts line breaks so that the text isn't too jagged

Flush right

-Places the emphasis on the end rather than the beginning.

-It's useful in captions since it reduces the uncertainty of the text-image link.

Justified

-Imposes a symmetrical shape on text

-Occasionally produces 'rivers' of white space running vertically through text

-Pay attention to line breaks and hyphenation

If one sees the type before seeing the words, change the type.

Texture

Darker mass is produced by type with a reasonably generous x-height or a wide stroke width.

For good layouts, sensitivity to these colour contrasts is essential.

Type size: large enough to be read easily at arms length

Leading: Text set too tight encourages vertical eye movement, reader easily lose track. Text set too loose creates striped patterns that distract reader from the material.

Line length: Keep line lengths between 55 and 65 characters, lines that are too lengthy or too short make it difficult to read.

Type Specimen Book

-Enlarging type by 400% makes the relationship between descenders and ascenders clearer, such as one point leading

-Looking at a physical print would be better, and if it is designed for screen, judging type on screen would be better

WEEK 4

Indicating paragraphs

-Pilcrow, holdover from medieval manuscripts

-Paragraph spaces are equal to leading, ensuring cross-allignment across text columns

-Leading is the space between text (jelly), line spacings is the text and the spacing combined (bread+jelly)

-Indentation same size as line spacing or point size of text

Widows and Orphans

Widow: Short line of type left alone at the end of a text column

Orphan: Short line of type left alone at the start of a new column

Rebreak line endings throughout paragraph so no last line of paragraphs are not noticeably short

Highlighting Text

-Pairing different font size require varying point size, eg. 7.5 points Univers match the x-height of 8 points Times

-Reducing aligned figures (numbers) embedded in text can ensure visual cohesion of text

-Maintaining left reading axis of text ensures readability at its best

-Quotation marks and bullets can create indents, breaking left reading axis, sorted into intended and extended

Headline within Text

A head: Larger than text, small caps, bold, extended

B head: Small caps, italic, bold serif, bold san serif

C head: B heads but with em space for visual separation

Cross Alignment

-Enforces architectural sense of the page and articulates the complimentary vertical rhythms

-One line of headline can cross-align with two lines of text type

Text Formatting

Kern: Alt + Arrow Keys

Kern Value: Edit > Preferences > Units & Increments > Kerning/Tracking

Tracking: Select all > Alt + Arrow Keys

Alignment: Paragraph Formatting Controls

Paragraph Spacing: Paragraph Formatting Controls > type "pt"

Hyphenation: Paragraph Formatting Controls

Margins and Columns: Layout

Insert Image: File > Place

Flowing Text: Plus on Text Box > Drag to another Column

Baseline Grid: View > Grids & Guides > Show Baseline Grid

Baseline Grid Settings: Edit > Preferences > Grids > Increment Every/View Threshold

Adhere to Baseline Grid: Right Click Text Box > Text Frame Options > Baseline Options > Offset > Leading

Preview: W

Optimum stuff

Characters per Line: 55~65

Point Size: 8~12

Leading: Point Size + 2~3, can be multiplied by 2

Tracking: -3~3

Paragraph Spacing: equal to leading

Baseline Grid: equal to leading

WEEK 5

Understanding Letterform

-Though the letterform suggest symmetry, it is not symmetrical

-There is variety in stroke weight and the arc of each bracket connecting the serif to the stem

-Internally harmonious and individually expressive

Letter

-There are differences between each individual letterform

-Stems finishes and the connection between bowls and stems

Maintaining x-height

-Curved strokes such as 's' rise above the median or sink below the baseline

-In order to appear the same size as the vertical and horizontal strokes

Form & Counterform

-The space describes and contained by the strokes of the form

-When letters are joined to form words, the counterform includes the spaces between them

-Examining a letter in close detail, provide a good feel for how the balance between form and counter is achieved, and a letterform's unique characteristics

Contrast

There is a format devised by Rudi Ruegg

Small + Organic/Large + Machined

Small + Dark/Large + Light

Etc.

INSTRUCTIONS

WEEK 1: SKETCH

We were tasked to choose 4 out of 6 words given, and alter in a way that fits the word. I chose cough, grow, pop and wink. Cough I liked the idea of it spreading to the whole room, so the text occupies the whole space in varying ways. I like the third one because everything is align with a diagonal line making it seems like the radius of a cough.

For grow I wanted to play with size. Each letter ascends to a different size. I tried different orientations to make the composition look more interesting.

As for pop, I wanted the O to be placed differently than the P's, I transform the O to make an illusion of perspective, further accentuating the O's difference.

I knew for wink I wanted a letter to lay on the floor. Like how an eyelid goes down. Adding a path helps making it look more like the eyelash of closed eyes.

Fig 1

Sketches (3/4/2022)

WEEK 2: DIGITISATION

So I did not apply everything I wanted, text could be more transformative. Still getting used to the software, learning an effect could take half an hour. I also want it to be more clean to avoid distractions from the typefaces.

Fig 2

Digitisation (10/4/2022)

WEEK 3: ANIMATION

I made the animation is adobe after effects, as there are more animation options provided. It is a curve line with letters bouncing out of the curve line, aligning with it. Have not learn how to export or convert to gif, so here is a default avi file instead.

Fig 3

Animation (17/4/2022)

WEEK 4: TEXT FORMATTING

In this day we learned formatting text, using the 10 fonts we are given, and the typefaces along with it. Make a list of our names with the fonts. At first I put effects on every text, so the entire thing looks very busy and conflicting. I realised simplicity is the key to make the sheet look uniform. Though this comes with another obstacle of being simplistic yet visually appealing.

Fig 4

Names (25/4/2022)

We also were given a paragraph about helvetica, and we have to format it using the techniques we learned such as cross alignment and tracking.

Font: Universe

Typeface: Universe bold & regular

Font size: 20 pt, 10 pt

Leading: 12pt

Paragraph spacing: 12pt

Average characters per line: 45 ~ 55

Margins: 3p (top, left, right, bottom)

Columns: 2

Gutter (for columns): 1p

Fig 5

Text Formatting (25/4/2022)

(haven't tracking and remove hyphenation)

Fig 6

Text Formatting Grid (25/4/2022)

(after tracking and removing hyphenation)

WEEK 5: FINAL SUBMISSION