Project 1
Daryl Pung Xi Ern (0333743)
Typography Project 1: Text Formatting and Expression
LECTURE NOTES
Week 5: Understanding Letterforms
03/05/2019
During class today we learned about how certain words suggest symmetry, but when in actuality they aren't symmetrical. Take baskerville for example, you can see that one side is heavier than the other.
I also learned that curved strokes of lowercase letterforms must rise above the median or sink below the baseline, this is so that it will appear to be the same size as the vertical and horizontal strokes.
After the lecture, Mr Vinod gave us a brief tutorial on how to use adobe indesign. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that the full bleed option in indesign means that there are no margins, and that the design will take up the whole page.
Week 6
This week there was no lecture, instead, we focused on updating our blogs.
Week 7
Today we learned about the different types of letterforms and alignments in a margin.
Designers have always letterspace uppercase letters, but there has long been strong resistance within the type community to letterspace lowercase letters within text. Uppercase letterforms are drawn to be able to stand on their own, whereas lowercase letterforms require the counterform created between letters to maintain the line of reading.
Flush left: format that mirrors asymmetrical experience of handwriting.
Centered: Imposes symmetry upon the text, assigned equal value and weight to both ends of any line.
Flush right: Places emphasis on the end of a line as opposed to its start.
INSTRUCTIONS
PROJECT 1
Week 5
FEEDBACK
Week 5
Today I showed Mr Vinod my 6 words along with my final animation for the word "angry", he said that it was pretty good. I also showed him my blog progress and he approved of it.
Week 6
During class, Mr Vinod told me that the decorations on my layouts were unnecesary, so I decided to get rid of the extra shapes.
Week 7
Today Mr Vinod reviewed my layout in class. Although there was consistency in alignment, spacing and order, but there were too many recipes and none of it was being carried forward. The pages needed to relate to one another and needed to be more simplified (according to the main expression), too many good points, too much movement (tortures the reader) and complexity.
REFLECTION
Experience
Week 5
It was my first time using indesign so I was quite excited to try it out. Although it was hard at first, I quickly got used to it after familiarizing myself with the buttons.
Week 6
After searching for inspiration on pintrest, I tried experimenting with unconventional layouts and I felt that I have a much better understanding of how type affects the feeling of a word.
Week 7
Although Mr Vinod had a lot to criticize about my layout, I thought it was a really good eye opener for me to stop being so ambitious and to stop making things more complicated than it needs to be.
Observations
Week 5
It wasn't as easy as I thought to make a design that reflects the message of the article.
Week 6
I spent too much time decorating my layouts rather than focusing on the typefaces and the arrangement.
Week 7
I should've asked Mr Vinod for more advice.
Findings
Week 5
I've learned a lot of new shortcut keys in indesign that helped me immensely in making my layouts.
Week 6
Adding shapes does not equal to a better design.
Week 7
I've realised the importance of alignment and just how much it could affect the way the viewer reads.
FURTHER READING
Week 5
This week I started a new book called "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works" by Erik Spiekermann. I came across a passage that really stood out to me:
Week 6
Continuing off, I read a passage that went a little detail into the background behind modern typography:
Week 7
Based on this week's feedback, I found that this part of the book to be really beneficial to me:
Week 5: Understanding Letterforms
03/05/2019
During class today we learned about how certain words suggest symmetry, but when in actuality they aren't symmetrical. Take baskerville for example, you can see that one side is heavier than the other.
I also learned that curved strokes of lowercase letterforms must rise above the median or sink below the baseline, this is so that it will appear to be the same size as the vertical and horizontal strokes.
After the lecture, Mr Vinod gave us a brief tutorial on how to use adobe indesign. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that the full bleed option in indesign means that there are no margins, and that the design will take up the whole page.
Week 6
This week there was no lecture, instead, we focused on updating our blogs.
Week 7
Today we learned about the different types of letterforms and alignments in a margin.
Designers have always letterspace uppercase letters, but there has long been strong resistance within the type community to letterspace lowercase letters within text. Uppercase letterforms are drawn to be able to stand on their own, whereas lowercase letterforms require the counterform created between letters to maintain the line of reading.
Flush left: format that mirrors asymmetrical experience of handwriting.
Centered: Imposes symmetry upon the text, assigned equal value and weight to both ends of any line.
Flush right: Places emphasis on the end of a line as opposed to its start.
INSTRUCTIONS
PROJECT 1
Week 5
For this project, we had to make 3 layout pages based on an article called "First Things First Manifesto 2000", which is essentially about how art should be free from subjective values and tackles the topic on freedom of expression. In particular, it focuses on challenging the scope of the advertising design field and where one's artistic skills should be put to.
After reading the article, I quickly got to work with some rough sketches.
Fig 1.0 Layout Sketches 1
Fig 1.1 Layout Sketches 2
I then decided to attempt my first layout design, which I wasn't particularly happy with the outcome. I aimed for a more simpler style, except it didn't turn out the way I wanted. For the title and subheadings I used Arial and for the paragraphs I used Myriad Pro.
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| Fig 1.2 First Layout |
I moved on to my 2nd layout. This time, I decided to try something a little different. I wanted to experiment with how color could make an impact on the message, even if it was just black and white. I tried to make each page as striking as possible with the use of shapes and color. For the main title I used Univers LT std and for everything else I used Futura. I like the outcome of this a lot more than the previous layout as I felt that I executed it pretty well.
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| Fig 1.3 Second Layout |
For my final layout, I decided to combine my ideas for the first and second layout. I tried to make a somewhat simple design but with the use of different colors to show contrast. I used Futura std for the main title, Adobe Carlson Pro for the paragraphs and Arial for the subheadings.
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| Fig 1.4 Third Layout |
Week 6
This week, I asked Mr Vinod on facebook for some feedback, he replied with some annotations he made on my work.
I then redid the layouts according to his annotations:
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| Fig 1.5 First Layout Reworked |
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| Fig 1.6 Second Layout Reworked |
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| Fig 1.7 Third Layout Reworked |
Week 7
During class, Mr Vinod gave my layout feedback again and this time went into more specific detail as to how I could change it. I then decided to turn one of my layouts into 2 pages, to make it much more consistent and simplified.
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| Fig 1.8 Final Outcome |
FEEDBACK
Week 5
Today I showed Mr Vinod my 6 words along with my final animation for the word "angry", he said that it was pretty good. I also showed him my blog progress and he approved of it.
Week 6
During class, Mr Vinod told me that the decorations on my layouts were unnecesary, so I decided to get rid of the extra shapes.
Week 7
Today Mr Vinod reviewed my layout in class. Although there was consistency in alignment, spacing and order, but there were too many recipes and none of it was being carried forward. The pages needed to relate to one another and needed to be more simplified (according to the main expression), too many good points, too much movement (tortures the reader) and complexity.
REFLECTION
Experience
Week 5
It was my first time using indesign so I was quite excited to try it out. Although it was hard at first, I quickly got used to it after familiarizing myself with the buttons.
Week 6
After searching for inspiration on pintrest, I tried experimenting with unconventional layouts and I felt that I have a much better understanding of how type affects the feeling of a word.
Week 7
Although Mr Vinod had a lot to criticize about my layout, I thought it was a really good eye opener for me to stop being so ambitious and to stop making things more complicated than it needs to be.
Observations
Week 5
It wasn't as easy as I thought to make a design that reflects the message of the article.
Week 6
I spent too much time decorating my layouts rather than focusing on the typefaces and the arrangement.
Week 7
I should've asked Mr Vinod for more advice.
Findings
Week 5
I've learned a lot of new shortcut keys in indesign that helped me immensely in making my layouts.
Week 6
Adding shapes does not equal to a better design.
Week 7
I've realised the importance of alignment and just how much it could affect the way the viewer reads.
FURTHER READING
Week 5
This week I started a new book called "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works" by Erik Spiekermann. I came across a passage that really stood out to me:
Letters can stand at attention next to each other like soldiers or they can dance gracefully on the line. Just as some words sound better than others, some words look nicer than others. That may be because we don’t like the meaning of the word, but often we’ve formed an opinion before we’ve even read it.It was a interesting way of describing letters to soldiers or dancers but it does speak volumes of how we judge a layout at first glance.
Week 6
Continuing off, I read a passage that went a little detail into the background behind modern typography:
Typography is writing with mechanical letters. But as formal as our printing letters may have become, they still show traces of the hand. The rhythm of up- and- down strokes seems natural to our eyes, seriffed strokes seems natural to our eyes, seriffed stroke endings betray the brush or the quill, and typographic terms like cursive remind us of the origin of our writing system.I've never really thought of how much fonts and typefaces show traces of traditional hand writing. Despite the fact that it is digitalized, fonts such as Brush Script M7 mimics cursive brush writing.
Week 7
Based on this week's feedback, I found that this part of the book to be really beneficial to me:
If you know your text is going to be fairly long and that it will require some time to read, you should adjust the layout accordingly. The lines should be long enough to get complete thoughts into them and there ought to be enough space between them to allow readers to finish reading a line before their eye gets distracted by the text.I've been struggling with alignment and how to create an easy flow in paragraphs. When it mentioned that the lines should be long enough to get complete thoughts into them, it made me think about my layout and how I've been spacing it.
