Exercises
Daryl Pung Xi Ern (0333743)
Advanced Typography Exercises
LECTURE NOTES
Week 1: Briefing 08/26/2019
Today was our first day of advanced typography class. Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul spent most of the class explaining to us about what we're going to do for this semester. After the briefing we were split into groups and tasked to present about different typographic systems. We learned about: dilatational, random, transitional, axial, bilateral, radial and modular.
Week 2
9/02/2019
I was absent for this lesson.
INSTRUCTIONS
EXERCISES
Week 1: Exercise 1
For our first exercise we had to make 2 layouts for each typographic system and using a canvas size of 200mm x 200mm. We could only use one color and a few non-objective elements.We had to use this passage to create our composition:
Here are my sketches:
After finishing my sketches and having a rough idea of my composition, I proceeded to digitize it.
 |
| Fig 1.2 Random System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.3 Transitional System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.4 Radial System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.5 Modular System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.6 Dilatational System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.7 Bilateral System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.8 Axial System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.9 Grid System (1st Attempt) |
 |
| Fig 1.10 2nd Attempt |
 |
| Fig 1.11 2nd Attempt |
Here's the final compilation:
Week 2+3
For week 2, we had to find an image from the internet and extract letters from it. I chose a stone wall as I found that the gaps inbetween the stones could make interesting letters.
 |
| Fig 1.12 Tracing the image |
 |
| Fig 1.13 Outline of the image |
 |
| Fig 1.14 Extracting letters 'H' 'A' 'C' 'Y' 'L' |
 |
| Fig 1.15 Aligning them on a baseline |
 |
| Fig 1.16 Refining extracted letters |
 |
| Fig 1.17 Further tweaking |
| Fig 1.18 Final Outcome |
 |
| Fig 1.19 Inspo 1 |
 |
| Fig 1.20 Inspo 2 |
 |
| Fig 1.21 Inspo 3 |
Then I went on to search for possible images I could use. I wanted to focus on people doing expressive movements.
 |
| Fig 1.22 Choice 1 |
 |
| Fig 1.23 Choice 2 |
 |
| Fig 1.23 Choice 3 |
Although I had my mind set on the third photo, I decided to experiment a little with the first one.
 |
| Fig 1.24 "Float" 1st layout |
 |
| Fig 1.25 "Float" 2nd layout |
 |
| Fig 1.26 "Float" Final (Not Final Choice) |
I then worked on the last photo because I found that the angle at which the photograph was taken is pretty interesting, I was also wondering how I could make the words interact with the perspective. I thought that the phrase "It's all about perspective" was quite fitting.
 |
| Fig 1.27 "It's All About Perspective" Arranging the words |
 |
| Fig 1.28 "It's All About Perspective" Adding shadow + masking |
 |
| Fig 1.29 "It's All About Perspective" Final Outcome |
FEEDBACK
Week 2: Exercise 1
Mr Vinod said this on facebook about my grid system layout: "There are problems with these. To many angles and irregular shapes." and about my random layout: "While chaos is needed in random, yours is too chaotic without order"'
Week 3: Exercise 2
He said that the progression of my extracted letters is looking good so far, but it's still too rough and it needs to be refined more. "Keep refining it, until only a core feature of the rock part is retained. Presently it’s progressing well but still too much rock than font."
Week 4:
Mr Vinod's feedback on facebook about my type on image: Interesting. Good placement. I wonder whether there is anyway to increase the interactivity (a little more) between type and image.
Week 5:
When I showed him the finished outcome of my extracted letters, he said that it retained the same characteristics of the rock wall but it wasn't a particularly interesting design.
REFLECTION
Experience
Week 1
It was quite fun making the different designs, especially the random system since I could be as experimental as I wanted.
Week 2
It was quite tedious to outline each stone and even harder to find the letters.
Week 3
Although I was a little unsure if my extraction was good, after hearing Mr Vinod's feedback it gave me a lot of confidence to continue refining it.
Week 4
I enjoyed looking for pictures on layout and I became really inspired by how dynamic the photos I found were.
Week 5
It was nice to hear that Mr Vinod liked my type on image, however, I was a little bummed out that my extracted letters weren't that good.
Observations
Week 1
It took a while for me to get use to indesign again since I haven't be using it that often. However, I quickly remembered all the keyboard shortcuts.
Week 2
After looking at all the possible letters I could extract from the image, I realized that I became more aware of the objects around me and how typography could be influenced by it.
Week 3
I have a much clearer idea on what I want to achieve from the extracted letters.
Week 4
I have a better understanding of what Mr Vinod meant when he said to refine my letters, and to somewhat divert from the original image into a more proper typeface.
Week 5
I'm slowly getting better with the masking tool on photoshop.
Findings
Week 1
I'm more observant of the compositions of various typography designs after learning about the systems.
Week 2
I'm a lot more used to using the pen tool now, and I feel that I can outline things much faster than before.
Week 3
After reading articles about illustrator shortcuts, I'm beginning to work more efficiently.
Week 4
I was reading a few articles about words in our everyday life, and I found it quite enlightening.
Week 5
I work much better when I have to combine typography and images together.
FURTHER READING
Week 1
This week, I borrowed a book from the library called "Type Object" by Barbara Brownie which focuses on contemporary artifacts the features exhibited by the extension of 3D letterforms.
"When letters become objects they're no longer limited in size by the boundaries of the page. They can grow to immense proportions, becoming sculptural or architectural. [...] A letter that stands alone is more likely to be appreciated for its appearance than its potential for linguistic meaning, and audiences are invited to consider its smooth curves or sharp angles - features that we take for granted in print. "From this passage, I realized that when types are presented in bigger scales, it makes the viewer pay attention to the finer details and focus on what makes the design appealing. When a letter stands out alone, people tend to look at it not for the linguistic meaning but instead the visual aspect of it.
Week 2
I wasn't able to borrow a book this week, so I opted to read an online article instead. The article is called "11 Beautiful examples of typography in the real world" by Harrison Weber, which talks about how we often come across beautiful typefaces that we might never use, and he shows examples of when it is put into use. One of the examples that really stood out to me is the bauhaus. The article reveals that the original Bauhaus typeface used art nouveau flavored text instead of the modern rendition (geometric sans) we see today. It's quite fascinating how certain typefaces can evolve through the years.
