TYPOGRAPHY / TASK 2 : Typographic Exploration & Communication

on

24.9.2021 - 9.10.2021 (Week 5 - Week 8)
Angelyn Valencia / 0349573
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 2 / Exercises

LECTURES

Week 5 - Lecture 5

Typography: Letters / Understanding Letterforms
  • The uppercase letterforms below suggests symmetry, but is actually asymmetrical. It's easy to see the two different stroke weights: the fact that each bracket connecting to the serif to the stem has a unique arc.
Figure 1.1 Baskerville
  • Uppercase letterforms may seem symmetrical but width of the left stroke is actually thinner than the right.
Figure 1.2 Univers
  • The complexity of each individual letterform is neatly demonstrated by examining the lowercase 'a' of two seemingly similar sans-serif typefaces - Helvetica and Univers. A comparison of how the stems of the letterforms finish and how the bowls meet the stem quickly reveals the palpable difference in character between the two.

Figure 1.3 Helvetica and Univers

Typography: Maintaining x-height
  • X - height describes the size of the lowercase letterforms.
  •  important to consider if they're distinctive and repeatable
  • curved strokes, such as in 's', must rise above the median (or sink below the baseline) in order to appear to be the same size as the vertical and horizontal strokes they adjoin.
Figure 1.4 Median and Baseline

Typography: Letters / Forums / Counterform

  • Counter or Counterform
    • often contained by the strokes of the form
    • When letters are joined to form words, the counter form includes the space between them
Figure 1.5 Counterform

Figure 1.6 Letters Enlargement

Typography: Letters / Contrast
  • The basic principles of Graphic Design apply the directly to typography. 
Figure 1.7 Contrast
Figure 1.8 Contrast

Week 6 - Lecture 6

Print Type vs Screen Type
  • For Print:
    • text has to be smooth, flowing, pleasant to read
    • good typefaces for print : Caslon, Garamond, Baskerville
      • because they are elegant, intellectual, and highly readable when set as small size. 
      • they are versatile, easy to digest classic typeface

Figure 1.9 Example of Type for Print

  • Type for Screen:
    • typefaces intended for use on the web are optimized, often modified to enhance readability and performance on screen, includes:
      • taller x-height
      • wide letterforms
      • more open counters
      • heavier thin strokes and serifs
      • reduced stroke contrast
      • modified curves and angles 
    • Hyperlink:
      • word, phrase, or image that can be clicked on to jump to a new document or a new section within the current document.
      • found in nearly all webs
      • the cursor arrow should change to a small hand pointing at the link
    • Font size for Screen: 16, about the same size as text printed in a book or magazine, reading distance.
    • System fonts for Screen/Web safe Fonts: Open Sans, Lato, Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Times, Courier New, Courier, Verdana, Georgia, Palatino, Garamond.
Figure 1.10 Screen vs Print
  • Pixel Differential between Devices:

Figure 1.11 Pixel Differential between Devices
  • Static vs Motion
    • Static
      • has minimal characteristic in expressing words
      • traditional characteristic such as bold and italic offer only a fraction of the expressive potential of dynamic properties
Figure 1.12 Example of Static
    • Motion
      • fluid, kinetic, expressive
      • often overlaid onto music videos and advertisements, set in motion following the rhythm

INSTRUCTIONS

EXERCISES

Task 2 : Text Formatting and Expression

1. Research 
Figure 2.1 Headlines Research (28/09/21)
From reading the text given by Mr.Vinod about celebrating 100 years of Bauhaus by reminding the impact of it on the modern culture today and some more research, I was able to understand the main point of the text and more about what Bauhaus really is before I start to sketch some ideas. I also searched for some inspiration and examples on Pinterest. As can be seen, some of the type expressions shown in figure 2.1 are inspired by the bauhaus movement created by the German design school, Staatliches Bauhaus as Bauhaus has become a huge movement in the design industry.

Figure 2.1.2 Layout Research, Left: Design #1, Right: Design #2 (28/09/21)
I searched for some layout designs on the internet and found one particularly related to the topic that i chose and one other that I thought looks really good. From what I can see, even though both designs has left-aligned body text, I thought the rags on the body text in Design #1 was too rough and looked a bit messy. While the second one was more smooth and more comfortable to read, so good ragging really increases readability. I learn that readability is inherent to successful communication. Design #1 has no orphans nor widows whilst Design #2 has an orphan. Composition-wise, in my opinion, negative spaces and positive spaces are well balanced in both designs.


2. Sketches
Figure 2.2 Headline sketches (27/09/21)

Figure 2.3 Layout Sketches (27/09/21)

3. Headline-Making Process
Figure 2.4 Font Picking (28/09/21)
I started out by picking the font that suits the expression in my sketches the most. I eventually picked Gill Sans Std Bold for the word 'Impact' and 'Bauhaus'. As for the words 'The', 'of' and 'In Modern Culture', I use the regular. For 'bauhaus', I typed 'b (space) haus' because I wanted to use the 'a' from 'Impact'.

Figure 2.5 Arrangement (28/09/21)
I then continued on by adjusting the sizes and arranging them like my sketch. I realized that no matter how i try to adjust the size of 'Bauhaus' it won't fit right with the 'Impact'.

Figure 2.6 Kerning and Elongating letters (28/09/21)
So I decided to kern it and adjusted the space and arrangement a little better. I also elongated some of the letters using the direct selection tool. 

Figure 2.7 Final designs for headline expression (28/09/21)

4.  Layout Process:

Figure 2.8 Elongating Process (29/09/21)
I then exported it and moved it to Indesign. I decided to elongate some of the lines even further using the line tool and matching the line weight.

Figure 2.9 Cross Alignment (29/09/21)
I turned on the baseline grid and aligned the body text to the lines in order to create cross alignment. Then for one of the layouts (Layout #1, fig. 2.15), I rotated the body text as well as the lead-in text 31.75 degrees (following the elongated line from the headline).

3. Draft Layouts

Following some of the sketches I made and creating new layouts while experimenting with Adobe Indesign, I eventually came up with 5 draft layouts.
Figure 2.10 Draft #1 (29/09/21)

Figure 2.11 Draft #2 (29/09/21)

Figure 2.12 Draft #3 (29/09/21)

Figure 2.13 Draft #4 (29/09/21)

Figure 2.14 Draft #5 (29/09/21)

3. Final Layouts
Figure 2.15 Layout #1 (29/09/21)
  • Original Draft: Draft #2 and minor changes (fig. 2.11)
  • Typefaces & Fonts : 
    • Headline: Gill Sans Std Bold & Gill Sans Std Regular 
    • Lead-in Text: Universe LT St Roman
    • Body Text: Universe LT Std Roman
  • Point size : 
    • Headline: 97pt (Impact & Bauhaus), 48pt (The & of), 30.5pt(On Modern Culture)
    • Lead-in Text: 12pt
    • Body Text: 9pt
  • Leading : 
    • Lead-in Text: 15pt
    • Body text: 13pt
  • Line length : 50-60 characters
  • Alignment : left alignment
Figure 2.16 Layout #2 (29/09/21)
  • Original Draft: Draft #5 and minor changes (fig. 2.11)
  • Typefaces & Fonts : 
    • Headline: Gill Sans Std Bold & Gill Sans Std Regular 
    • Lead-in Text: Universe LT St Roman
    • Body Text: Universe LT Std Roman
  • Point size : 
    • Headline: 97pt (Impact & Bauhaus), 48pt (The & of), 30.5pt(On Modern Culture)
    • Lead-in Text: 12pt
    • Body Text: 9pt
  • Leading : 
    • Lead-in Text: 15pt
    • Body text: 13pt
  • Line length : 50-60 characters
  • Alignment : justified
Figure 2.17 Layout #3 (29/09/21)
  • Original Draft: Draft #4 and minor changes (fig. 2.13)
  • Typefaces & Fonts : 
    • Headline: Gill Sans Std Bold & Gill Sans Std Regular 
    • Lead-in Text: Universe LT St Roman
    • Body Text: Universe LT Std Roman
  • Point size : 
    • Headline: 97pt (Impact & Bauhaus), 48pt (The & of), 30.5pt(On Modern Culture)
    • Lead-in Text: 12pt
    • Body Text: 9pt
  • Leading : 
    • Lead-in Text: 15pt
    • Body text: 13pt
  • Line length : 50-60 characters
  • Alignment : justified
3. Final Outcome

In Week 6's feedback session, Mr Vinod said Layout #1 is already good so I decided to use it for my final outcome and make it slightly neater.
Figure 2.18 Final Layout (29/09/21)
  • Typefaces & Fonts : 
    • Headline: Gill Sans Std Bold & Gill Sans Std Regular 
    • Lead-in Text: Universe LT St Roman
    • Body Text: Universe LT Std Roman
  • Point size : 
    • Headline: 97pt (Impact & Bauhaus), 48pt (The & of), 30.5pt (On Modern Culture)
    • Lead-in Text: 12pt
    • Body Text: 9pt
  • Leading : 
    • Lead-in Text: 15pt
    • Body text: 13pt
  • Line length : 50-60 characters
  • Alignment : left alignment

Figure 2.19 Final Layout in PDF (29/09/21)

3. Final Outcome After Feedback

Figure 2.18 Final Layout After Feedback (8/10/21)
After week 7's feedback, Lecturer said it'd be better off to choose layout #3 rather than layout #1 because the body text in layout #3 fall in the middle of the gutter.

  • Typefaces & Fonts : 
    • Headline: Gill Sans Std Bold & Gill Sans Std Regular 
    • Lead-in Text: Universe LT St Roman
    • Body Text: Universe LT Std Roman
  • Point size : 
    • Headline: 97pt (Impact & Bauhaus), 48pt (The & of), 30.5pt (On Modern Culture)
    • Lead-in Text: 12pt
    • Body Text: 9pt
  • Leading : 
    • Lead-in Text: 15pt
    • Body text: 13pt
  • Line length : 50-60 characters
  • Alignment : justified

Figure 2.19 Final Layout after feedback in PDF (8/10/21)

FEEDBACK

Week 6
Specific Feedback: Feedback from one of my classmates in Layout #2 as seen in Figure 2.16 is to make the body text more neat. Lecturer said my layout #1 as seen in Figure 2.15 is already good, the constructivism as well as the fineness.

Week 7
Specific Feedback: Lecturer said it'd be better off to choose layout #3 rather than layout #1 because the body text in layout #3 fall in the middle of the gutter.

REFLECTION

Experience: For me, I think this particular topic and task is pretty challenging as it requires creativity for the headline expressions and still following the rules for the body text, as well as still maintaining good composition and flow for the whole layout and connecting it with the right typefaces.

Observations: In this particular task, I see that in order to create the best layout, needs a lot of research and explorations. I also see that this task is a combination of the headlines expression exercise and the layout exercise, and this task is about being able to combine those two cohesively and with a good composition by maintaining the balance of the negative and positive spaces.

Findings: I find that there are a lot of important rules and unspoken rules in typography in order to create good designs.

FURTHER READINGS

Dennis Puhalla, and Kristin Cullen. Layout Workbook: Revised and Updated : A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design. Vol. Revised and updated, Rockport Publishers, 2018.
Notes:
  • Not only do multiple typefaces provide visual contrast, they also help the designer establish hierarchy and distinguish information. Typeface combinations—when used wisely and with a delicate hand—can also serve to enhance typographic color, rhythm, and texture while adding perceived value and sophistication (Chapter 7 pg. 102)
  • Typeface combinations should be notably distinct to provide enough contrast to justify the union. If a combination looks too similar, it might look like a mistake, rather than an intentional decision. (Chapter 7 pg. 102)
  • Readability is inherent to successful communication. It is influenced by the typographic arrangement, including factors such as line length, leading, and spacing. (Chapter 7 pg. 105)
  • The macro view is concerned with the whole body of type that makes up the design. Seeing all content at once, the designer establishes the format of the composition, its hierarchy, and the placement of the visual elements. (Chapter 7 pg. 107)
  • The macro view, concentrates on typographic details, such as kerning, spacing, and ragging, to ensure a clean presentation and consistent use of type throughout the design. (Chapter 7 pg. 107)

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