Digital Typography Task I: Type Expression & Text Formatting
MODULE GCD: Digital Typography
26/09/2023 - 03/11/2023 : Week 1 - Week 5
Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task I: Exercises I & II
PARTICIPATED LECTURES:
When referencing the Module Information booklet (as covered by Mr Vinod;) students were made clear of the importance of the module, expected learning outcomes and beneficial skills taught. I was originally surprised by the development of critical thinking and in-depth look into design as it is something often forgotten about when introducing Typography. However, I would also be made _ of the module as Mr. Vinod expressed how the course can be difficult for students as the course may work against normal thinking.
WEEK 1b: Early Look into Typography (Subject)
During our first Tutorial session, our lecturers suggested we view a video previously produced by Mr Vinod which would go more into Typography as a whole. For the most part, I was very thankful that Mr. Vinod was clear with his definitions and provided additional links to external websites to deepen our understanding of Historical Typography.
Often confused with Typeface, “Font” refers to a variation of a root Typeface - often changing the line weight or direction of writing. This is best depicted as Italics, bolding or different line weights.
Calligraphy is a neighbouring study of literature which stems from the Greek phrase meaning “To write beautifully;” it refers to the development and practise of stylised penmanship.
As previously mentioned, the linked video came bundled with a link which went further into the development & history of Typography and writing as a whole. Interestingly, it references different points in history which are often forgotten about in the development of human scripture.
_ is between the Phoenicians and the Greeks who would begin experimenting with writing styles which would form the modern alphabet. “Letters” would gradually begin to develop as civilisations needed to write quicker and the repetitive motion led to the development of some modern characters.
“Fig 1.2.1 - Phoenician to Roman Writing”
Interestingly in their times, both the Phoenicians and the Greeks chose to structure their texts in entirely different ways. Phoenicians would write from and read from right to left and the Greeks would write in ‘Boustrophedon’ (as the Ox Ploughs.) In essence, they would write from left to right then write from right to left on the line below - inspired by how Oxs were used to plough fields.
“Fig 1.2.2 - “Boustrophedon writing scheme”
Hand-Written Scripts (3rd - 10th Century Development)
It would be discovered that the Romans would be the first to implement Serifs into their writing when working with sculptures. This style of writing would be recognised as ‘Square Letterforms.’ Conversely, the Romans would also attempt to simplify their writing when on parchment - choosing to condense letterforms to make it easier and quicker to write. Known simply as Rustic Capitals.
WEEK 2a: Design Corrections & Digitalisation
With the formalities and arduous set-up completed, the lecturers would begin teaching the creative processes for our First Exercise, “Type-Expression.” In essence, students would need to produce typographical designs around six different words. To begin the project, the cohort was expected to provide possible word options; the six most voted words would then become the ones we would have to use in the Exercise.
Once we’d had all voted for our choice of words, (Resulting in Bounce, Chaos, Crush, Dive, Float and Spring being chosen,) the cohort was expected to begin producing mock-up ideas using the newly obtained Adobe Creative Cloud License.
WEEK 2b: Development of Text Rules - Typography
Continuing from the previous week’s study, Mr Vinod had produced an additional video (as well as series) which document the history, important terminology as well as provide effective examples about Typography as a whole.
2.1 - Spacing & Presenting Texts
“Fig 2.1.1 - “Kerning + Letterspacing”
Kerning is the term used to describe the automatic adjustment of spaces in between letters - usually in response to make a text more presentable or easier to read.
Tracking on the other hand is the addition or removal of space between all characters in a word; often used to extend lines of text to make a paragraph look evenly spaced.
Letter-Spacing is the process of adding additional space between letters by adding additional space to a letter’s bounding box.
2.2 - Formatting Texts
“Fig 2.2.1 - “Flush Left”
Flush Left is the most common arrangement of text which resembles the asymmetry experienced in normal handwriting. In essence, every line in a text starts at the same point but ends on the last word of the line. Spacing (both inside and between words) are consistent throughout the entirety of the text. This statement is formatted using Flush Left.
“Fig 2.2.2 - “Centre”
Centred text is the arrangement which attempts to make all lines symmetrical - equal values and weighting on both ends of the lines. Centred text is often appealing due to its ability to create strong shapes on the page; for the best outcome, it is recommended that the text should be staggered as to not appear too jagged/focused. This statement is formatted using the Centre style
“Fig 2.2.3 - “Flush Right”
Flush Right is similar to Flush Left; however, the arrangement puts more emphasis on the end of the line in contrast to the start. In essence, the Right side will start at the same point while the left is uneven. This can prove useful when presenting information relating to material placed to the right of the text. This Statement is formatted using Flush Right.
“Fig 2.2.4 - “Justified”
Justify Text is a special alignment as it attempts to impose symmetry into a text, either by increasing or reducing the amount of space between words or (rare cases) letters. This can be quite difficult to manage as this can occasionally leave texts feeling open as a result of it producing “Rivers” (white spaces running vertically to the text.) This can be corrected using “hyphenation” however this is not always the desired effect. This statement is formatted using the Justify Style.
2.3 - Textures produced by Texts
“Fig 2.3.1 - “Grey Values of text”
When presenting a text, it is ideal that the text has a Middle-grey value - referring to a balance between the space between the text and the text itself. It is important to note that different typefaces can produce differing grey values; some of which may be lighter or darker than others. Once again, it is the best choice to choose a middle grey value for information.
When Considering how large the Type Size should be, it is important to consider that the text should be easily readable from a minimum distance of an arm’s reach. One alternate idea suggests that a line should have on average 45-65 characters which can determine the effective range.
“Fig 1.2.3 - “Leading + line Length”
Leading is the term that refers to the spacing found in between each vertical line and is an important measurement to consider. In cases where texts are too compact, the eye tends to move more vertically - making it easier for readers to get lost mid sentence. However, text with too much white space between lines can be distracting.
One good tool which can help in considering a text for a specific project is a Type Specimen Book which shows samples of various typefaces in differing sizes. It helps to provide a more accurate reference for the text, type size, leading, line lengths etc.
WEEK 3a: Animated Type Expressions (w/ Corrections)
To close out the first Exercise in Task I, the lecturers informed the class that we would need to take one of our four finalised designs and to translate it into an animated format. In a similar case to the previous lectures, Mr Vinod had prepared a short demonstration video on how we could develop an animation. In summary, students would be able to animate their Type-Expressions using both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The way students would animate is by creating a series of artboards - in a similar fashion to traditional stop-motion animation.
WEEK 3b: Formatting Paragraphs and special Context - Typography
A Pilcrow (represented by ¶) is an outdated holdover which first appeared in Mediaeval manuscripts and it seldomly used in the modern era. In the past, it served to mark the end of a paragraph but, in the modern times, it is often used to present the settings which aid in formatting Paragraphs (is used in InDesign CC).
“Fig 3.1.1 - “Standard Indentation”
Standard Indentation refers to an indent in the text which is the same size as either the line spacing or the point size of the text as presented above.Image File
“Fig 3.1.2 - “Widows and Orphans”
“Fig 3.1.3 - “Cross alignment”
“Quotation Marks” can be used to create a clear indent via breaking the left reading axis (creating a space at the start of a paragraph.)
“Fig 3.3.1 - “A-Heads”
“Fig 3.3.2 - “B-Heads”
The “B-Heads” are headings that are below A-Heads in the hierarchy. In most cases, B-Heads are used to indicate when a new supporting argument or example is being explained in a Section of Study. Due to this, they should not be able to interrupt the text like the A-Head can.
“Fig 3.3.3 - “C-Heads”
Finally, “C-Head” are headings that are the lowest on the hierarchy. These headings are ingrained into paragraph lines, often to highlight an element of the material under the B-Head texts.WEEK 4: Text Formatting
1.3.2 - Highlighting Texts
“Quotation Marks”
4.1 - Development of letterforms
In regards to the best way to describe letterforms, the provided evidence is excessively dense and would prove ineffective to replicate. The best advice provided by the lecturer was to import the reference document linked below as to save time.
4.2 - Describing Letterforms
“Upper-Case Letterforms” are designed to draw the X-Height of a typeface and are often used in text to mark the beginning of a new sentence or to display the name of a Noun. “Lower-Case Letterforms” were designed to be distinct from the Upper Variants, making texts easier to read. Interestingly, the naming structure originates from the way writers would organise their letterform stamps.
A Variation of common letterforms is the “Small Capitals” which are mainly found in serif style fonts and are often renamed as “the Expert Set.” In essence, these shortened versions of Capital letters replace the lower-case letterforms when used.
“Italics” refers to a practice in the 15h century when most Italian texts were written in Cursive Handwriting. Italics is popular due to the cant found in the letterforms to mimic the tilt in a cursive writer's wrist. Another name for this style of letterform is “Oblique” which is typically found in the Roman-form typefaces.
“Fig 4.2.1 - “Miscellaneous Characters”
“Fig 4.2.2 - “Ornaments”
4.3 - Describing Typeforms
“Boldface” is a name given to fonts which are characterised by having thicker than normal strokes compared to normal Roman Forms. Can also be called names such as ‘semi-bold,’ ‘medium’ or in extreme cases, ‘black’ and ‘super.’
“Light” is the opposite of Boldface fonts, being categorised by their thinner than normal strokes. Hence why they are also known as ‘thin fonts.’
“Condensed or Compressed” fonts are stylised versions of Roman forms which often appear to be horizontally crushed.
Ultimately, all typefaces are different to one another and each project will require a different typeface to be used for a desired effect. It is possible to compare which is often done by looking into the X-Height, Line weight, forms, Stroke width etc.
Continued on last week’s assignment while working to complete the e-Portfolio.
WEEK 5b: Basics of Typography
5.1 - Development of letterforms
“Fig 5.1.1 - “ITC New Baskerville”
When the Uppercase letterforms were designed, they were designed to heavily suggest symmetry; however, it is quite obvious this is not true. In some instances such as New Baskerville, the main strokes used two different stroke weights with the left-side being the thinner of the two. Another interesting design point in this example is the design is quite geometric, having the serif connect the stem with a unique arc-shape.
“Fig 5.1.2 - “Gill Sans”
As I failed to mention previously, “X-Height” refers to the space between the letter baseline and the mean line which is the average lowercase letter height. In this example, we can see how this “X-Height” is maintained such is the case with the ‘s’ which actually has to sink below the baseline to appear the same size as the rest of the strokes.
5.2 - Development of letterforms
An Interesting design choice Typographer can include in their work is the use of Counterforms. Also known as counters it describes the space, including in between strokes, of the letterforms. Counters legibility however is heavily dependent on how close the letters and words hang together - if it is compact, it becomes difficult to read.
“Fig 5.2.1 - “Counter Forms”
MODULE INSTRUCTIONS:
“AUG - DEC 2023: GCD 60104 / TYPOGRAPHY MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
TASK I - EXERCISE I: Type Expression (Weighted 20%)
Exercise I: Cohort are provided with a set of words (as selected by students) in order to create Type Expressions. Selected words being Bounce, Chaos, Crush, Dive, Float and Spring. No excessive graphical elements or distortion of letterforms. Students limited to 10 Typefaces being Adobe Caslon Pro, Bembo, Bodoni, Futura, Gill Sans, Garamond, New Baskerville, Janson, Serifa and Univers.
WEEK 1: Type Expression & Word Sketches
6.1 - Assignment overview & Research
In the first week, the lecturers would make efforts for us to begin our first assignment in the form of “Exercise I - Type Expression;” a project in which students would express the meaning of words by manipulating their letterforms. However, our first steps would mainly be limited due to a majority of the cohort lacking the Adobe Creative Cloud Licence. As a compromise, students were expected to download the related material to begin working.
Our work for this week would mainly consist of hand-drawn sketches which could possibly be used for our digital designs once we’d obtained the Adobe CC Licence. For my design, I began experimenting with words CRUSH, DIVE, SPRING and FLOAT as I had a series of ideas going into it; however, I also found it useful to search online for some examples for the more difficult designs.
2.2 - Sketch designs & Potential Improvements
The researching portion of the exercise was quite useful especially with the harder word concepts as it gave me a more clear visual definition for each word. Additionally, I had now developed a “Mood-board library” where I could curate my best examples and take elements from them to inspire my own designs.
“Fig 6.1.2 - Crush Word Concept”
The first word I considered designing was Crush where I originally planned to emphasise the idea of something being condensed or limited. However, I also considered the idea of Crush in the form of romantic interest. Read from Left to Right, Top to Bottom.
Like the idea of expressing “Crush” using Cinematography (Cramped in corner). May need additional elements to feel more “crushed.”
Like the idea of conveying motion (important step in future.) Too much distortion on letter forms
Like the use of scaling letterforms to feel limited in spacing. Design can feel unbalanced due to placement of the smaller letterforms.
Like the idea of expressing it in an alternate form (The Heart / love). Design can be too complicated and require additional elements to emphasise the message.
“Fig 6.1.3 - Dive Word Concept”
Dive was the second word I considered and was one of the words I struggled on due to its definition being quite limited. All of the designs are connected to an “underwater theme” with a few of the designs being inspired by online interpretations.
Like the idea of conveying motion (important step in future.) Too much distortion on letter forms
Interesting choice to consider mimicking light refraction however it relies heavily on distortion of letterforms.
Using the diver to replace a letterform was a unique idea however, it could only be understood by using additional elements: not possible.
Like the idea of attempting to convey an action as the letters were diving from one another. Quite basic and unsure if the message could be understood.
“Fig 6.1.4 - Spring Word Concept”
Spring was one of the last words I started designing for due to it being quite limited to explain - not a lot of room for exploration. This one also proved difficult as even online resources were unable to make suggestions.
Interesting way to express the letterforms as the petals on a flower. Can be changed to include less additional elements.
The use of Foreign scripture looks visually appealing however, it does not suggest what the word means: not possible
Engraving the words on the spring seemed interesting but was a more complex version of using the letters as the literal spring
“Fig 6.1.5 - Float Word Concept”
To end this week, I considered looking at the word Float and tried to convey both the feeling and a visual representation of its meaning. The designs felt quite similar as there are only so many ways you could consider it.
Expressing float in the form of air could be expanded upon such as considering more space between letters and an unclean form.
Expressing float in the form of water was quite expected, however, the designs could be enhanced by using minor additional elements (hopefully passable.)
Our work would mainly consist of hand-drawn sketches for possible designs once we had obtained the Adobe CC Licence from the IT Supportive Branch. For my designs, I began experimenting with the words CRUSH, DIVE, SPRING and FLOAT however, I found difficulty in coming up with a few of the designs
Like the idea of expressing “Crush” using Cinematography (Cramped in corner). May need additional elements to feel more “crushed.”
Like the idea of conveying motion (important step in future.) Too much distortion on letter forms
Like the use of scaling letterforms to feel limited in spacing. Design can feel unbalanced due to placement of the smaller letterforms.
Like the idea of expressing it in an alternate form (The Heart / love). Design can be too complicated and require additional elements to emphasise the message.
Like the idea of conveying motion (important step in future.) Too much distortion on letter forms
Interesting choice to consider mimicking light refraction however it relies heavily on distortion of letterforms.
Using the diver to replace a letterform was a unique idea however, it could only be understood by using additional elements: not possible.
Like the idea of attempting to convey an action as the letters were diving from one another. Quite basic and unsure if the message could be understood.
Interesting way to express the letterforms as the petals on a flower. Can be changed to include less additional elements.
The use of Foreign scripture looks visually appealing however, it does not suggest what the word means: not possible
Engraving the words on the spring seemed interesting but was a more complex version of using the letters as the literal spring
Expressing float in the form of air could be expanded upon such as considering more space between letters and an unclean form.
Expressing float in the form of water was quite expected, however, the designs could be enhanced by using minor additional elements (hopefully passable.)
WEEK 2: Reconceptualising & Digitalisation
7.1 - Digitalisation
With reference to last week’s work and the feedback provided by the lecturers, I would need to make changes to the designs during the “Digital Exploration” phase. The previous week’s design put more emphasis on additional elements which defeats the point of Typography.
To make the most of this exploration, I will need to reconsider some of my previous designs while practising how to digitise my works. Some new concepts may need to be designed.
“Fig 7.1.1 - Digital Crush Word Concept” During this session of my attempts to digitise my works, I stuck with the original thought process for the word “Crush” - only making small adjustments such as additional words (Crush Word Concept I) and colour gradient + Font change (Crush Word Concept III). In my opinion, these designs still feel simple due to my naivety with Adobe Illustrator; however, simplicity can be a good thing as works can be less congested.
"Fig 7.1.2 - Digital Dive Word Concept”
As predicted in last week's write-up, “Dive” would be one of the words that would need to be re-designed as most of the designs used an excessive amount of additional elements.
During these attempts, I wanted to experiment with the tools provided by the Adobe program and to see how I could integrate them into some new designs. One Tool: “Pathfinder,” was used to create counterforms shapes as depicted in “Dive Word Concept II” to represent diving into waves. Additionally, I experimented with outlining and Expressive writing - leading to development of “Dive Word Concept III;” featuring fish made from “V” and goggles made from “D” and “J” respectively.
Similar to the previous Word Concept, “SPRING” was one of the words that would need to be re-designed as it either relied too heavily on additional elements or did not capture the essence of “Spring.”
"Fig 7.1.3 - Digital Spring Word Concept”
During this session, I wanted to redesign the word concepts while learning some additional tools in Adobe for future reference. Another Interesting tool: “Type-on-path” was used mainly on designs “Spring Word Concept II” & “Spring Word Concept III” which helped position the letters correctly in a space to help sell a design. Additionally, it allowed me to make shapes using letters.
"Fig 7.1.4 - Digital Float Word Concept”
For the final Word Concept “FLOAT,” I did not originally have a lot to work with regarding my previous sketches and needed to essentially restart without reference.
With these attempts, I reused some previous techniques to ensure I have more or less remembered how to use an effect with the only new tool being “Line Texturing.” This tool can best be seen in the “Float Word Concept I” as seen by the water ripple effect which is basically a circle-line decorated with period dots. Additionally, the wavy effect was achieved by using the “Warped Tool” - being performed after dividing the word in two halves.
7.2 - Finalised Designs
"Fig 7.2.1 - Digital Float Word Concept”
Ultimately, I had finalised these four Type Expressions Designs to continue into the next session of this Exercise. A part of the reasoning as to why these designs were chosen was due to my cohort and I being informed that the next Section would be animating ONE of the final Four. Thus, I chose these designs as I believed they could be animated in interesting ways. Continuing with the previous week’s development, our Lecturers informed the cohort of the last section of “Type Expression Exercise;” Animation. In essence, all students would need to take at least one of their finalised designs from the previous week and develop them into an animated format - expanding on the ideas of Typography. In regards to how students are expected to complete this Section, our lecturer Mr. Vinod provided a short video teaching a general process to produce an animation in the form of a gif. The provided method suggests that students animate by manipulating the image, frame by frame similar to traditional animation.
WEEK 3: Developing an Animated Type-Expression8.1 - First AttemptContinuing with the previous week’s development, our Lecturers informed the cohort of the last section of “Type Expression Exercise;” Animation. In essence, all students would need to take at least one of their finalised designs from the previous week and develop them into an animated format - expanding on the ideas of Typography. In regards to how students are expected to complete this Section, our lecturer Mr. Vinod provided a short video teaching a general process to produce an animation in the form of a gif. The provided method suggests that students animate by manipulating the image, frame by frame similar to traditional animation.
“Fig 8.1.1 - Animated Gif”
8.2 - Second Attempt (Revisions)Building upon the advice given to me by the lecturer, it was recommended that I return to this section and work to smooth out the animation. In essence, I needed to go back through and add additional frames to reduce the choppy look of the animation.
“Fig 8.2.1 - Failed attempt Replace with Link”
Update regarding this file, due to an unforeseen issue, Photoshop is unable to produce a working GIF of the second Attempt. This may be due to the file being around 50 frames long and me accidentally producing it with at 1000 pixels. In its place however, I've attached a link to all the frames as proof of wishing to complete this Exercise.
TASK I - EXERCISE II: Text Formatting (Weighted 20%)
Exercise II: Cohort is instructed to create a finalised layout designed for formatting text. Students are expected to consider leading, line-length, Kerning, typefaces, type sizes, tracking etc. Students are limited to the previous 10 Typefaces as per Exercise I.
9.1 - Learning about Kerning & Tracking
For this second Exercise, Mr. Vinod expected us to create a finalised document spread which was capable of addressing the different elements which make up the concept of word formatting - including concepts like Kerning, spacing, Baseline alignments etc. This final Exercise would train students to develop the necessary skills to arrange information in a coherent and chronological manner. Furthermore, it would begin to teach us our new software, InDesign CC and how we could use our previous programmes to aid the final outcome.
Before working on the final phase of the Exercise, students would need to become familiar with concepts such as Kerning & Tracking as they would become crucial in formatting the large amount of text. Additionally, it would prove effective to explore the capabilities of typeforms to determine which ones look the best in a given context “Font A looks good as a title but not as body text etc.” To do this, the cohort was instructed to produce a document where we would change elements of the Kerning & Tracking using our names as reference. Something similar to the attached image below:
“Fig 9.1.1 - Exploration of Kerning + Tracking”
For this practice, I also tried to experiment with some presentation features as well. On a majority of the designs, I wanted to experiment with the Typefaces as if they were titles - choosing to elongate them to take up more space and feel more important. Additionally, with typeforms such as Garamond, Janson & New Baskerville; I wanted to see if they could be used as a digital signature in cases where writers include the “Written by __.”
One small detail that might be hard to see is the mixture of fonts in a typeface. Case in point being Bodoni which has the Beginning Letters of each word being Black-letters instead of Bold. This could be used to make the title pop more. For Typeforms like Gill Sans & Univers, I found that if you use a very extended tracking, the text remains quite legible and can be used to counterform Title Cards. Overall, with this practice, I felt confident to begin tackling the Final Exercise.
9.2 - Practice Designs for Text Formatting
In these designs, Kerning was mostly used to better space-out the titles and Subtitles of the composition. As previously discussed, by making the titles take up more space, it is where the audience's eye will be drawn to. Additionally, by scaling the Text down, I would be able to state an information Hierarchy.
Kerning was also occasionally used in the body text to better arrange some of the paragraphs as to reduce the amount of orphans being produced. However, I needed to be careful with the Kerning as if the text is too condensed or too expanded, the colour value of the text changes from a mid-grey to either a light or dark grey.
Another point to be cautious around is the composition of the body text. Traditionally, the line length should be between 55-65 characters which determines the font sizing. Additionally, I prefer to not use hyphenation as I believe to prove challenging for some readers as they need to look for two halves of a word. However, this can lead to minor inconsistencies in the text where the text appears staggered as larger words are forced into the line below. To reduce the visual impact of the staggering, I could use tracking to extend the general space of the lines to become flush with one another - appearing like a block of text rather than a wavy line.
Furthermore, it is important to remember not to overdo the Tracking as this can lead to the development of rivers in the body text. In most cases, students should not exceed +3/-3 Tracking as the lines will begin to feel too inconsistent and rivers will form.
Finally, it was important to note the X-Height of the typefaces used as this would determine the distance between each baseline grid which is important itself as it keeps the lines feeling consistent, even if they are not a part of the same text block.
9.3 - Concept Designs and the Final Design
This first design was inspired by texts you may find within a magazine or booklet of some kind. Because of this thought process, the Right Text margin is larger than the left margin. Additionally, I wanted to enhance the design by using minor additional elements which force the viewer's eye in one direction as well as use something I would later learn is called a “Drop-Cap.”
“Fig 9.3.1 - Design Exploration I”
Although impressive, it was recommended by the lecturers that I make some changes to the design to fit the current Module (some ideas appear in Advanced Typography - good head start.)
This Second design was made to appear more “artistic” as I really wanted to explore layering the text at different heights while incorporating a larger image. Similar to the way you read text, the composition expects the reader to start at the top left and move across and down to the bottom Right.
“Fig 9.3.2 - Design Exploration II”
Once again, it was suggested to make changes to some of the titles which originally had distorted letterforms - the right stroke in both the ‘H’ and the second ‘E’ being extended downwards to act as a way to section off the text.
For this Final Concept Design, I thought it could be interesting to explore arranging text by incorporating a vertical text-line. The Title was made to be vertical as I saw it being a unique feature which may make the text more attention grabbing. Furthermore, as it is the only element of text being vertical, viewers are immediately made curious as to what it is saying - being a weird form of text hierarchy.
“Fig 9.3.3 - Design Exploration III”
With these designs, I was able to make a final Design which I would be satisfied with submitting for the Final Exercise.
9.3 - Elements of the final Design
Fonts: FUTURA STD (Book, Book Oblique, Heavy)
Point Size: 8 pt (Body Text + Caption), 24 pt + 48 pt (Heading), 11pt + 36 pt (Subheading)
Leading: 11pt (Body Text), 57.6 pt (Heading)
Paragraph Spacing: 11 pt
Line Length: 51 - 56 characters
Alignment: Left Alignment
TASK I - EXERCISE II: Text Formatting (Weighted 20%)
Exercise II: Cohort is instructed to create a finalised layout designed for formatting text. Students are expected to consider leading, line-length, Kerning, typefaces, type sizes, tracking etc. Students are limited to the previous 10 Typefaces as per Exercise I.
9.1 - Learning about Kerning & Tracking
For this second Exercise, Mr. Vinod expected us to create a finalised document spread which was capable of addressing the different elements which make up the concept of word formatting - including concepts like Kerning, spacing, Baseline alignments etc. This final Exercise would train students to develop the necessary skills to arrange information in a coherent and chronological manner. Furthermore, it would begin to teach us our new software, InDesign CC and how we could use our previous programmes to aid the final outcome.
Before working on the final phase of the Exercise, students would need to become familiar with concepts such as Kerning & Tracking as they would become crucial in formatting the large amount of text. Additionally, it would prove effective to explore the capabilities of typeforms to determine which ones look the best in a given context “Font A looks good as a title but not as body text etc.” To do this, the cohort was instructed to produce a document where we would change elements of the Kerning & Tracking using our names as reference. Something similar to the attached image below:
“Fig 9.1.1 - Exploration of Kerning + Tracking”
For this practice, I also tried to experiment with some presentation features as well. On a majority of the designs, I wanted to experiment with the Typefaces as if they were titles - choosing to elongate them to take up more space and feel more important. Additionally, with typeforms such as Garamond, Janson & New Baskerville; I wanted to see if they could be used as a digital signature in cases where writers include the “Written by __.”
One small detail that might be hard to see is the mixture of fonts in a typeface. Case in point being Bodoni which has the Beginning Letters of each word being Black-letters instead of Bold. This could be used to make the title pop more. For Typeforms like Gill Sans & Univers, I found that if you use a very extended tracking, the text remains quite legible and can be used to counterform Title Cards. Overall, with this practice, I felt confident to begin tackling the Final Exercise.
9.2 - Practice Designs for Text Formatting
In these designs, Kerning was mostly used to better space-out the titles and Subtitles of the composition. As previously discussed, by making the titles take up more space, it is where the audience's eye will be drawn to. Additionally, by scaling the Text down, I would be able to state an information Hierarchy.
Kerning was also occasionally used in the body text to better arrange some of the paragraphs as to reduce the amount of orphans being produced. However, I needed to be careful with the Kerning as if the text is too condensed or too expanded, the colour value of the text changes from a mid-grey to either a light or dark grey.
Another point to be cautious around is the composition of the body text. Traditionally, the line length should be between 55-65 characters which determines the font sizing. Additionally, I prefer to not use hyphenation as I believe to prove challenging for some readers as they need to look for two halves of a word. However, this can lead to minor inconsistencies in the text where the text appears staggered as larger words are forced into the line below. To reduce the visual impact of the staggering, I could use tracking to extend the general space of the lines to become flush with one another - appearing like a block of text rather than a wavy line.
Furthermore, it is important to remember not to overdo the Tracking as this can lead to the development of rivers in the body text. In most cases, students should not exceed +3/-3 Tracking as the lines will begin to feel too inconsistent and rivers will form.
Finally, it was important to note the X-Height of the typefaces used as this would determine the distance between each baseline grid which is important itself as it keeps the lines feeling consistent, even if they are not a part of the same text block.
9.3 - Concept Designs and the Final Design
This first design was inspired by texts you may find within a magazine or booklet of some kind. Because of this thought process, the Right Text margin is larger than the left margin. Additionally, I wanted to enhance the design by using minor additional elements which force the viewer's eye in one direction as well as use something I would later learn is called a “Drop-Cap.”
“Fig 9.3.1 - Design Exploration I”
Although impressive, it was recommended by the lecturers that I make some changes to the design to fit the current Module (some ideas appear in Advanced Typography - good head start.)
This Second design was made to appear more “artistic” as I really wanted to explore layering the text at different heights while incorporating a larger image. Similar to the way you read text, the composition expects the reader to start at the top left and move across and down to the bottom Right.
“Fig 9.3.2 - Design Exploration II”
Once again, it was suggested to make changes to some of the titles which originally had distorted letterforms - the right stroke in both the ‘H’ and the second ‘E’ being extended downwards to act as a way to section off the text.
For this Final Concept Design, I thought it could be interesting to explore arranging text by incorporating a vertical text-line. The Title was made to be vertical as I saw it being a unique feature which may make the text more attention grabbing. Furthermore, as it is the only element of text being vertical, viewers are immediately made curious as to what it is saying - being a weird form of text hierarchy.
“Fig 9.3.3 - Design Exploration III”
With these designs, I was able to make a final Design which I would be satisfied with submitting for the Final Exercise.
9.3 - Elements of the final Design
Point Size: 8 pt (Body Text + Caption), 24 pt + 48 pt (Heading), 11pt + 36 pt (Subheading)
Leading: 11pt (Body Text), 57.6 pt (Heading)
Paragraph Spacing: 11 pt
Line Length: 51 - 56 characters
Alignment: Left Alignment
“Fig 9.3.1 - Final image w/o Lines”
“Fig 9.3.2 - Final image w/ lines”
“Fig 9.3.3 - Finalised PDF”
TASK I REFLECTION:
Personal Experience:
This first task I believe was very successful in teaching me the basics and fundamentals of Typography. One of the greatest challenges I faced was trying to make unique designs and more expressive images due to the limitation of ten typefaces, the restricted use of additional elements and more advanced Typography. Additionally, as we also had a limited choice in words and a larger-than-normal cohort (supposedly), creating similar ideas would be very common. Regardless I’m quite happy with the result.
Another process I was happy with was the gradual learning of a new software; the Adobe Creative Cloud Series as not only is it beneficial for my future endeavours but it was also something I had aspired to do at a later date. In the beginning, it was quite difficult as I never used these programmes which slowed down my work dramatically. During the first exercise, I hated the inconsistent feel of the programme as it did not also behave the same when using grids, measurements and the pathfinders. A similar hate came from the second exercise I had to juggle two different measurements and the odd phenomenon where the fonts would not sit on the baselines. One design would work and the other it wouldn’t. Another thing that bothered me about the programme was the feel of learning for this subject. It felt too dense in some parts and often felt like it took up more valuable time which I should be spending on other subjects. Additionally
At the end of the day however, I felt this exercise taught the cohort how to truly use our creativity despite heavy limitations which can cause you to look at situations from different angles.
Module Observations:
In my observation with this exercise and exploration in other module examples, I noticed that there are a lot of design elements that are ingrained into the field of study. Going into the Module, I thought it would be mainly about laying out text and formatting text however, there is so much more that is involved. Elements such Shaping, colour diversification, visual hierarchy (what you want the readers to see first) etc.
Later Findings:
Typography is a rather dense subject which can be quite confusing for students to start learning about. As a good portion of Typography is based on its history, there are a lot of definitions and concepts students need to understand in order to stay on top of the work and stay in the loop with the lecturers. Additionally, I learnt how in-depth Typography goes - learning about the developments of fonts and how difficult it is to design.
Further Readings:
DIGITAL BOOK I - “Vignelli Canon on Design”
“Digital Cover - 'Vignelli Canon on Design'"
Massimo Vignelli is an Italian graphical and industrial designer who is well known for his works and his interest in Typography. In his book, ‘Vignelli Canon on Design,’ he discusses his accumulated knowledge about typographical design - including his interpretation on rules, guidelines and extended principles. Interestingly, the book is presented in two separate parts - being what Vignelli considers ‘The Intangibles’ and ‘The Tangibles’ of graphic design. In reference to the limited time I possessed and my want to look more into some of the additional books provided, I was only able to read through a portion of the first part.
In the first part: “The Intangibles,” Vignelli speaks of the three aspects that are important to graphical design (From his reasoning.) One aspect he tries to reason about is “Semantics” or the ‘meaning found in language or in one's logic.” Similar to our projects in this first Task, Semantics in design originates from us developing a meaning for the design - everything has a meaning in its form. When working to make something, you need to consider how you convey its meaning.
To best succeed in this front, Vignelli suggests researching deeper into where our work is coming from, what is its purpose and only then can we create something with good semantics. In relation to our Exercise I, this can be seen in our need to research the type Expressions - cultivating designs which would be easily recognisable by the group.
Interestingly, Vignelli has a strong stance on this section of part one to the point that he believes it could be criminal to misinterpret its meaning. In his works, he states that it is wrong to create works which lack a meaning and should be prohibited as he is afraid that this contributes to the ever-growing amount of visual pollution.
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