Digital Typography Task II: Typo Exploration & Communication

 MODULE GCD: Digital Typography 

31/10/2023 - 19/11/2023 : Week 6 - Week 8

Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120

Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Task II: Typographic Exploration & Communication

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PARTICIPATED LECTURES:

WEEK 6: Module Introduction & Briefing

This week would mark the conclusion of the first Task while introducing the Second, upcoming task. As pointed out by our lecturers, the cohort’s second task would be shorter when compared to the previous; however, this is due to it being near replication of the first task. In essence, students would need to explore how to creatively express a headline - similar to the way we were expected to approach type expression as well as format an entire article collected from the internet.

This would not be an entirely new concept to the cohort however, we were now subject to a shorter time-frame as well as a larger restriction imposed via the article the student would choose. Before beginning this task, Mr. Vinod advised the class to do some investigation into our selected article in order to have a deeper understanding which would hopefully inspire our compositions.

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MODULE INSTRUCTION:

“AUG - DEC 2023: GCD 60104 / TYPOGRAPHY MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”

TASK II - Exercise I

Typographic Exploration & Communication: In this upcoming Exploration, the goal of the students in the cohort is to typographically express the content provided by the module into a 2-page spread (200mm x 200mm.) From the content, students must choose 1 of the 3 text options provided to them. No images are allowed however, students are permitted to use minor graphical elements (in reference to lines, shading etc.) Students are still constricted to the 10 typefaces outlined by the lecturer.

Beginning Research

As to not go into the upcoming task without any ideas, I would begin looking at various visual references relating to editorial spreads before starting to work. This way, I would be able to develop a visual catalogue where I could find some inspiration to aid me in developing some of my ideas. 

“Collection of Referenced Text-Editorial Spreads”

In addition to gathering visual references, I would also decide to research more into the main topic expressed in the Text Option (The role of Bauhaus thought on modern culture.) This way I would be able to develop my own editorial spread which matches the message of the text. 

“Collection of Referenced Bauhaus-Editorial Spread”

Early Concepting Designs

Following my completed research - I started looking more into design choices as well as finding the visuals associated with Bauhaus (Considering it was an institute for design.) I began by sketching some beginning ideas which were themed to look similar to “Bauhaus Style” to start getting some early layouts for the task. Despite having some good ideas (in my opinion,) the greatest challenge came from imitating the style as a majority of it hinges on geometric shapes for additional elements.

“Hand-sketches for the Task”

Regardless, I mainly worked to complete the sketches and was attempting to re-create them in a digital format. For the large striking elements such as the headlines and lead-in text, I thought it would be reasonable to first start designing in Adobe Illustrator. This way, I could utilise a more ‘creative friendly’ program before using Adobe Indesign to format and layout the remainder of the text. During this phase, I thought of removing some of these additional elements but ultimately decided against it as the pieces felt empty without them.

Image Files

“Headline text arrangement made using Illustrator”

Overall, I’m not too upset with the final presentation of some of these Headline layouts and I felt confident to begin porting them over to InDesign where I would look into more creative ways to incorporate the body text.

Text Formatting

Upon porting the Illustrator designs over to InDesign, I realised that my piece would have a large amount of white space - normally this would not be an issue in Typography however, this left this piece feeling rather lack-lustre. In an attempt to mitigate the excessive negative space, I began experimenting with some layouts which are still inspired by the source material.

 

One design feature I was proud of utilising was “off-kiltered text” or text being presented vertically rather than horizontally. This could provide an interesting composition as the Headline + Lead-in could be angled in one direction while the body text could be presented on the opposite plane.

Another Design feature I was recommended by my lecturers was to determine the ‘visual weighting’ of the piece which would be to obscure all the text (Including headlines) to see their grey-values and to see how much draw they have to the audience. Once again, it is important that the pieces remain easily readable to the viewers and this step may help the student in determining what may need to be improved.

One final design element which may further support the reader is the additional elements. In this case, the use of lines and rough shapes is almost excessive, it can help to segment the text but also provide the which direction elements of the text can be read. This is actually quite useful in this Exploration as a majority of the concepts surrounding “Bauhaus” predominantly feature straight lines.

Editorial Spread Concepts

“Design 1 - Slanted Texts”

In regards to the selected designs, these three were the best of the attempts. For the first design (as detailed above,) I liked the original concept and felt that I was quite successful in re-creating it. As previously mentioned, this design relied heavily on the ‘off-kiltered’ text and the opposing angle between the headlines vs the body text. I believe that this presentation would be the most unique (of my designs) as the 45 degree angle makes it interesting to look at. Conversely however, I feel that this may not be the best editorial choice as it causes the reader to re-align their head to read the text which is not the best solution.

“Design 2 - Lined Texts”

Following the provided feedback from the lecturer, the previous design showed a good understanding of the content however - as predicted; the slanted text would not be a good idea for this Exercise. Therefore, this second design returned to a more normalised style of presenting text (being horizontal.) For this design, I wanted to mainly experiment with additional lines and how they could be used to organise text. Other than that, this design is normal with nothing too exciting about it. 

“Design 2 - Lined Texts”

For the final design, I wanted to once again explore using alternate angles but I made sure to keep the text at 90 degree angles (Despite text being sideways, people can read it with little issue.) Another design feature I wanted to try more was “Counterforms” where students could potentially highlight the important parts of the text. It also would be useful in breaking up text or making it look more diversified which is always helpful in long texts. This design however is good to a fault. When talking more with my lecturers, the idea was good and the reasoning was not fully wrong; however, text should only be presented at a 90 degree angle if it is short - not causing the reader to have eye strain. In essence, the lead-in text and dates were fine being at an angle however the whole text should be presented in a more formal manner.

Overall, these designs were useful in getting my general idea across to both the lecturers and the cohort; however, I would need to build upon the mistakes and less-than-optimal editorial choices in order to compose my Finalised design for this Exercise. 

One element I was determined to reuse was the 45 degree Headline + lead-in Text from the first design as it really caught the attention of the lecturers and a “wow Factor” is always useful in a unique design. Additionally, I would need to implement the ‘visual motif’ of the “base forms (square, triangle, circle) which is the core of “Bauhaus style. Finally, it was recommended to keep elements which support the original text such as the additional elements (as previously mentioned) but also elements such as date and images.

Taking this all into consideration, I was finally able to produce a final design which I was more than satisfied with - combining the best elements of the three pieces.

Final design elements for Editorial Spread

Fonts: FUTURA STD (Book, Medium, Heavy)
Point Size: 10 pt (Body Text), 24 pt + 48 pt (Heading), 14 pt (Lead-in Text)
Leading: 12 pt (Body Text), 57.6 pt (Heading)
Paragraph Spacing: 12 pt
Line Length: 55 - 60 characters
Alignment: Left Alignment

“Image of Final Design without the lines”

“Image of Final Design with the lines”

“Finalised design compressed into a PDF”

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TASK II REFLECTION:

WEEK 6 - Exercise I + II: Type Expression + Typo Explr. & Comm.

General Group Feedback: The main form of feedback presented this week was the lecturers informing the cohort to look more into the selected article. This way, our work should be themed more around the context which elevates the Task as a whole. However, students are still to remember the restriction posed in the last task as they still apply. Finally, students were reminded to complete their e-Portfolios by this point and will begin having concerns raised should they not be completed.

WEEK 7 - Exercise II: Typographical Exploration & Communication

General Group Feedback: When it comes to formatting the article in this task, the lecturers wanted to express some ‘soft-rules’ of Typography which is necessary in remembering moving forward. As seen by a good portion of students in the cohort, text is rarely ever rotated at angles due to this affecting legibility, therefore it was recommended to a few students (including myself) that we attempt to fix our designs to not incorporate exaggerated text angles. Angling text is not a bad practice however, it is exclusively meant for the odd line (something shorter than a sentence.)

Specific Feedback: Ms. Hsin Yin Low was rather impressed with the graphical design of my produced composition as they demonstrated a rather in-depth understanding of the Bauhaus style. Although not entirely unique to me - my presentation was special when compared to the remainder of the cohort. As previously stated above, the lecturer was not too fond of angled text - especially in large quantities as it could ruin the legibility of the original text. However, it still demonstrated my willingness to try unconventional ideas.

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FURTHER READINGS:

“ Typographic design: Form and communication”

DIGITAL BOOK II - “Typographic design: Form and communication”

‘Typographic design: Form and communication’ is an expertly crafted book curated by a collection of artists who explore deeper into the design of Typography. Upon reading this, it makes more sense as to why Mr. Vinod strongly recommended this book as it fully explains the complex elements of Typography.

As for the reasons why I decided to switch books, I had previously seen this book's models and diagrams about letterforms & design which I believed would be important to know considering that our next Exercise will be developing a typeface. In ‘‘Typographic design: Form and communication,’ the first section (Letterforms analysed;) helped to learn the basics about letterforms but also the extreme craftsmanship that goes into designing them. Additionally, the first chapter provided a more deeper look into some of the previous terms we learnt about in the previous Task - terms relating to line-weight, x-height and ascenders + descenders. Furthermore, the book also explains the development into how all typefaces are universally designed - despite them all looking different, certain design features are kept for clarity of reading.