Typography: Task 2

2/5/2023 - 26/5/2023 (Week 5 - Week 8)

Seh Zi Qi/ 0355872/ Bachelor of Design(Honours) in Creative Media

Module Name: GCD 60104/ Typography

Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication

LIST

Final Typographic Exploration & Communication

Feedback

Reflection

Further Reading

CLASS SUMMARIES

Week 5:

Here

Week 6:

Mr Vinod talked about how the legibility of the text is of the utmost importance and how graphical elements aren’t just for eye candy and needs meaning behind them since we have so little to show besides the words themselves and a few lines for those types of elements. He also talked about the line length and where the

Week 7:

Mr Vinod talked about his past experiences, and of course, there’s a lot of information, but it was valuable information. Where sacrifices must be made when time management is involved and how to further reading would give a person more insight towards a specific knowledge or topic if they are willing to. As well as why he wears the same outfit every time we have classes with him, these types of experiences personally help me to understand why he handles us this way and why he’s somewhat harsh towards our criteria in our finalised works.

He started with the brief of Task 3, where we have to analyse our favourite typeface given from the 10 fonts and study the font carefully by analysing its anatomical parts. Further instructions will be listed here.

Week 8:

Independent Learning Week so there weren’t any classes held during this week.

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication

This task requires us to explore the contents typographically in a 2-page editorial page. The contents consist of 3 text options and we have to choose 1 to explore. No images are allowed while minor graphical elements like lines and shading are permitted.

_______________

Research

Before I started sketching, I had done a bit of research on Pinterest, this was a good way to find references to visually and mentally prepare myself for this task.

Fig 1.1, Typographic visual references, 03/05/2023

I also found some layouts made by other typographers, I thought it would give me more inspiration towards my sketches and gain an understanding towards their works.

Fig 1.2, Typographic visual layout references, 03/05/2023

The further reading also helped me towards my understanding of what I needed to do when it comes to layouts.

_______________

Initial Process [Sketching, Digitisation]

After reading the several text contents that was given to me, I chose the 3rd text as I had several ideas in mind once I read it. I wanted to focus on the word ‘Unite’ the most.

Unite #1 & Unite #2

These two sketches have the same headline and text-in but they have different body texts, the black boxes. Unite #1 shows a hierarchy that starts from the left and ends at the right, this improves legibility as that's how we've been taught for generations. I've also emphasized the last sentence for both sketches as I felt that it's an important part of the content that needed to be highlighted.

Unite #2 has a spiral body text that starts at the top and spirals towards the middle. Personally, it was more for the design aspect rather than the legibility of the text; I wanted to go for something that emphasized the last sentence rather than the body text.

Fig 2.1, Unite #1 & Unite #2 Sketch, 03/05/2023

Unite #3

I tried replicating the spiral effect to show that we needed to unite towards a specific goal. The body text, the light grey boxes, follows the movement of being enlarged so the text gets longer when it's further away from the headline as well as the text-on, dark grey boxes, have the same effect and are portrayed in a similar style.

Fig 2.2, Unite #3 Sketch, 03/05/2023

Other Ideas

I drew 2 ideas vertically though it didn't feel right as the prompt will more likely be viewed horizontally than vertically. I also didn't like how it turned out so I won't be creating it when digitising what I sketched.

Fig 2.3, 'Unite' other ideas Sketch, 03/05/2023

I also drew 2 more that emphasized the word 'visualise' as it was one of the other words that felt connected towards the contents of the text. I had also scrapped these ideas because it was being carried by the graphical elements more than the actual texts expressing themselves.

Fig 2.4, 'Visualise' other ideas Sketch, 03/05/2023

_________

Once I was done with my sketches, I went ahead with digitising in Adobe Illustrator, mainly doing Unite #1 and Unite #3 as they felt like the best choices and had a simple enough design that can be improved further when needed.

Unite #1

Unite #1 felt a bit weird but I couldn't see what was wrong until my friend pointed out that the 'U' made it look like each word starts with that same letter. So I decided to change up the composition and have it start at 'Unite' and connect each word to the last while also going outwards to have a simple yet effective type expression that shows what unites to make the better world.

Fig 2.5, Type Expression Digitisation of Unite #1, 04/05/2023

Unite #3

Unite #3 was a much harder process as we weren't taught how to create the spiral effect so I had to go on Youtube to search for tutorials that helped me achieve this effect. I did try a different method by masking the word 'Unite' on a line and turning it into a circle to create the effect shown below.

Fig 2.6, Type Expression Digitisation of Unite #3, 04/05/2023

Final decision

Although the effects were cool, I didn't pursue Unite #3 as it felt like I was walking on thin ice when it came to what is considered a graphical element or a type expression. Leaving me with Unite #1 as my main type expression digitisation to further upon.

_______________

Layouts

First of all, I tackled the text formatting by recreating some of the ideas I had sketched and some I thought may have looked nice but turned out bad.

Fig 3.1, Text Formatting Layouts, 06/05/2023

Personally, I liked the 3rd the most as it sticks to what I intentionally wanted and while the left justified, the 4th one, does make it look clean, it creates too many ‘rivers’ which are not ideal for legibility and therefore didn't make the cut.

Fig 3.2, Layout #1 Draft, 06/05/2023

Fig 3.3, Layout #1 Draft (Blocks), 06/05/2023

Once adding the headline, text-in and the 3rd text formatting, Layout #1 felt a bit bland so I decided to add lines to differentiate the different paragraphs and help guide the reader's eyes with where to start and end.

Fig 3.4, Layout #2 Draft, 06/05/2023

Fig 3.5, Layout #2 Draft (Blocks), 06/05/2023

Layout #2 felt like the headline takes too much attention from the text though it did feel bland but I couldn't think of any way that could enhance the body text section so I decided to leave it and show it to Mr Vinod to get more insight towards my drafts.

_________

After getting feedback towards Mr Vinod, I decided to continue Layout #1 only as he liked that one the most. I also used his feedback to create a new composition towards Layout #1, like he said, the headline may look too diagonal which can be improved if I changed the composition.

The first idea I came up with is to enlarge all of the words in the headline from the top of the page towards the bottom to tackle the diagonal aspect, but this didn't make sense as the word I'm trying to focus on is 'Unite' not 'Enlarge'.

Fig 3.6, Layout #1 Headline Improvement, 18/05/2023

This made me remember that simplicity is the best when it comes to making spreads like this, Mr Vinod said we shouldn't be making 'eye candy', we should convey what we want to focus on. So instead of trying to combat the diagonal aspect of the composition, I leaned towards it and used it to my advantage and created a simple yet effective headline.

Fig 3.7, Layout #1 Headline Improvement, 18/05/2023

Mr Vinod said that the body text should either stick to Flush Left or Left Justified as those are the best ways to format legible texts. I have explained before why Left Justified isn't good, so I went to Flush Left as my final text formatting.

Fig 3.8, Layout #1 Text Formatting Improvement, 20/05/2023

Flush Left usually has a lot of ragging, therefore I need to do some kerning and tracking towards it to make it less ragged, this helps with mostly the aesthetics of the body text but it can also contribute towards the legibility as it has a smooth edge that helps guide the reader's eyes.

Fig 3.9, Layout #1 Text Formatting Improvement (Kerning and Tracking), 20/05/2023

Mr Vinod also advised me to remove the horizontal lines that were with the body text, he said that it felt too constricting or too fixed. Since the paragraphs connect back to 1 headline only, it shouldn't be blocked off therefore the readers can make that connection.

Fig 3.10, Layout #1 Graphical Element Improvement, 20/05/2023

Before submission, I checked how the spread looked when it is shown using blocks and it seems to have a balanced look which I'm very happy about!

Fig 3.11, Final Layout (Blocks), 20/05/2023

_______________

FINAL Typographic Exploration & Communication

Fig 4.1, Final Typographic Exploration & Communication without grids, 21/05/2023

Head:

Font/s: Univers LT Std [49 Light Ultra Condensed]
Type Size/s: 120 pt
Leading: -
Paragraph Spacing: None
Alignment: None

Subheading/ Text-in:

Font/s: Univers LT Std [47 Light Condensed, Italics]
Type Size/s: 15 pt
Leading: 12 pt
Paragraph Spacing: 12 pt
Alignment: Left Justified

Body:

Font/s: Univers LT Std [45 Light]
Type Size/s: 10 pt
Leading: 12 pt
Paragraph Spacing: 12 pt
Alignment: Left Justified

Margins: Top, Bottom, Left and Right: 12.7 mm Columns: 3 Gutter: 5 mm

Fig 4.2, Final Typographic Exploration & Communication without grids PDF, 21/05/2023

Fig 4.3, Final Typographic Exploration & Communication with grids, 21/05/2023

Fig 4.4, Final Typographic Exploration & Communication with grids PDF, 21/05/2023

FEEDBACK

Week 5:

- General & Specific Feedback:

Here

Week 6:

- General Feedback:

Mr Vinod gave us feedback for Task 2 digitisation. He mostly emphasised the graphical elements, where we can’t just make it as eye candy and not think about the legibility of the text, it also needs to have a thought process towards why we have chosen to put our text like this and that. Another thing he emphasised is the line length and how it can’t be too small or large as it should be kept around the 55 to 65 line length.

- Specific Feedback:

For the first layout, I didn’t need to make the U as big, it can be the same size as the current type size though it may shift the type to be more diagonal, this can be tackled by rearranging the text format to utilise the negative space that will be given. He also emphasised the graphical lines as it was a bit too much, they can be toned down by removing the horizontal line that runs across the middle paragraphs, the formatting text however needed to change as centred and flush right isn’t good for reading, which was mentioned in the lectures, so I either change everything to flush left or justified for better legibility.

For the second layout, graphically it looks interesting though it can be improved by using the ‘text on a path tool’ instead of masking the text on top of the circle, this means I can draw any shape without having distorted types. Instead of having the ‘to visualise a better world’ a bold font, make it lightly condensed as it would make the whole look better, I would also need to change the leading text to not have an oblique font, it already stands out with the small size, therefore there isn’t a need for the oblique font to bring it out.

Week 7:

- General Feedback & Specific Feedback:

Didn’t give much feedback about Task 2 but briefed us on Task 3. We need to do more writing exercises and once we’re finished, we will need to show Mr Vinod the progress on Week 9 and choose our favourites from there.

Week 8:

- General Feedback & Specific Feedback:

Independent Learning Week so no consultation with Mr Vinod.

REFLECTION

Experience

Personally, I thought this task was a bit boring but I ended up finding it quite enjoyable to create my first-ever editorial spread using just text and minimum graphical elements. Comparing this assignment towards Task 1, Type Expression and Text Formatting Layouts, this was much more fun as I had a little bit of free range when it came to designing what I wanted and making it in Adobe Indesign. Despite the creativity, I was still limited towards my end product which I wasn't mad at but I felt that I could do better if I had more than just lines and shades for my graphical elements. Another thing I found hard was still trying to work with Adobe products, I am still not used to using these types of apps and therefore kept my work as simple as possible which may also be good in some aspects but I would like to explore more to create a more dynamic typography when I'm ready.

Observation

By observing my peer's works, I was able to find out that words can be expressed in many forms. Although some may not convey the messages that it's trying to portray, the visuals are still beautiful despite those neglections. I also quite like the sentiment that Mr Vinod made when it comes to the words being able to express themselves instead of using a lot of graphical elements to make 'eye candy'.

Findings

Task 2 showed me that legibility has the utmost importance while graphical elements can either make or break the typography when it comes to editorial spreads like these. The words should have meaning that shows what it is or what they should be, it can be finicky by itself but good typography shows this regardless of the lack of graphical elements.