AD Typography Task II: Key Artworks + Collateral
MODULE GCD61004: ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY
22 May 2024 - 16 June 2024 : Week 5 - Week 8
Bachelor of Design (Hon) in Creative Media
Task 2 / Exercises: Key Artworks + Collateral
PARTICIPATED LECTURES:
WEEK 5: Typographic Systems (Video Lecture Link)
Contrast: Refers to the authorial choice to include strongly dissimilar elements which strategically juxtapose one another in order to create appealing design, emphasising specific elements while ensuring the design is clear & legible. Contrast is often achieved by authors using size, weight, form, structure, texture, direction, colour and form. Contrast is often used to stress the importance of specific elements.
“Examples of Size”
“Examples of weight”
“Examples of structure”
“Examples of texture”
“Examples of direction”
“Examples of colour”
“Examples of form”
Gestalt Theory: Roughly translating to “Shape/Form Theory” in German, Gestaltism would become an area after a 20th Century Psychologist study with the same name. In essence, the theory refers to an individual’s perception - their inherent ability to organise & deconstruct complex visual information into simple elements such as shapes or patterns etc. Gestalt’s Theory is often implemented using Similarity (similar shapes/iconography), continuity (repetitive shapes/lines), closure (infer an suspected shape when obstructed or incomplete), Symmetry (mirrored shapes), and Proximity (relative elements placed together): creating what appears to be a coherent design
MODULE INSTRUCTIONS:
“APR - JUL 2024: GCD 60904 / ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
Task 2 / Exercises: Typographic Systems + Collateral (Week 5 - 8)
Key Artworks: Students within the cohort are expected to explore and compose a series of designs and stylisations centred around the student’s name and perceived personality in order to produce a unique wordmark/lettering. As a result, the student’s final key artwork must create a whole solution; being well-balanced & composed and not complicated or confusing which can degrade the functionality and communication of the key artwork. The completed design will be used in the second half of the task, Task 2B.
Artwork Collateral: Students within the cohort are expected to take their designs from the previous section and utilise it to design, -shirt, lapel pin, an animated key artwork and an Instagram account (or as instructed in class) in order to build up a band design. Students will work on the key artworks first and then fine-tune the details before working and developing the collateral material. At the end, students are to post their designs onto an instagram account (of their choice). The output must result from in-depth exploration and must communicate both visually and textually the desired message and mood set by the key artwork and its function.
MODULE PRACTICAL:
WEEK V - Task 2A: Key Artwork Concept Sketches
Ideation and sketches: Before I would be able to begin this new project, I started by looking for other examples of ‘brand-based’ Typography to more-or-less understand what a final design should look like. Additionally, Mr. Vinod suggested to the class that we should tailor our designs to our personalities as well as the occupation we intend to pursue; simplifying your character into one design. Following this advice, I also began looking at ‘brand-based’ Typography which were very bold & pronounced as I wanted to express one of my better strengths being my forwardness & confidence. However, I also wanted to look for designs which were more ‘creative;’ having a unique stylisation or flare which wasn’t too corporate feeling to highlight my creative ideas & concepts. Finally, I also wanted to look for designs which either featured visual flow or interconnect letters as one of my greatest strengths I would like to believe is my resilience towards problems. With a rough mood-board outlined, these were a series of designs which I based my exploration around.
“Visual Research & Inspiration”
After collecting a suitable amount of reference images for the project, I started creating designs for my wordmark. With these sketches, I wanted to explore the three design ideas I mentioned in the previous paragraph; not only to get a larger range of designs but also to design unique elements which I could mix between the designs. Of these designs, I mainly preferred the top two sketches as they presented the most opportunities to be adapted and changed. Additionally, I feel that they can express the three design ideas with minor alterations when digitised. However, one part of the design I was not too confident in was the use of “TV” in the wordmark. While this wordmark was supposed to be my initials and last name; Mr. Vinod correctly suggested that its inclusion made the design look a bit strange. And, as backed up by some later attempts, it was difficult to design “TV” into the design so I instead shortened the Wordmark down “T. Sleep” - my main short-hand signature.
“Sketches and Designs”
WEEK VI - Task 2A: Key Artwork Finalisation
Key Artwork Digitisation: When it came to digitising some of the designs for the next stage of the project, I originally intended to do the first two design as I preferred them however, I was ultimately was only able to do the first one due to the second being rather difficult stylise and was taking up too much time for me to continue. Following the feedback provided to me in class and by a few of my friends, I began refining the wordmark in Adobe Illustrator and began experimenting with a few ideas. My first concept was designed to be nearly identical to the original sketch with a few tweaks. I mainly wanted to put emphasis on my last name as ‘Sleep’ is a very unique name in-and-of itself and it presents a few instances in which a joke could be visualised. As a result, the ‘bowl’ in the letter ‘P’ was converted to look like a pair of eyes which could be animated (alongside the addition of the letter Z) to create the representation of sleeping.
This first design begins to differ with the inclusion of ‘T.’ as I needed to adapt the design to incorporate it. My First problem I had with its inclusion was that its design was too simple and not feeling unique enough to separate it from the ‘Sleep’ part of the wordmark so, I wanted to include a small pattern on the letterform to make it stand-out but not over-power the ‘Sleep.’ This small square pattern was actually inspired by traditional African geometrics designs, being the elongated diamonds seen in tapestry. Its inclusion (especially in wire form) is a subtle reference to my country-of-origin.
For the second Variation of the design, I wanted to explore the ‘resilience’ design idea I originally had which I discussed with my lecturer. From his advice, I needed to make the idea of ‘being continuous or ongoing’ more visible so I experimented with increasing the border curve on some of the letters. This was done in hopes to help create a flow which viewers could follow and would understand its inclusion. Additionally, I altered the ‘S’ and the ‘P’ in such a way in which it looks like a continuous line; the ‘S’ being broken-up to draw the viewer's eye while the ‘P’ wraps in on itself, suggesting the end.
Once again, the ‘T.’ Design needed to be included once again but still needed to feel separate from the rest of the wordmark. Leaning in to my favouring of the wire design, I thought it would look interesting to make the ‘T.’ very simple; utilising its created white-space draw attention away from it, making ‘Sleep’ pop-out more. Another additional change was the exclamation mark. I chose to remove it and replace it with flavour texts which helps communicate the main message of the original design plus, I included basic shapes to suggest elements which could be worked into a design later on.
“Design Refinement”
With the designing of these two concepts, I would ultimately end up combining them in order to make my finalised key artwork which I wanted to use for the remainder of this project. To ensure that my design was still readable, our lecturer suggested that we printed off our designs to see how the lines would look at larger/smaller sizes - leading to minor changes. Ultimately, I was quite happy with how this final design came out and I was now ready to begin exploring and expanding the design using patterns and colours.
“Final Design on Print-out”
For this part of the project, I began looking at some of the recurring elements within the designs in order to help create a pattern which could be used to expand the key artwork and would allow me to present it in interesting ways. The first and easiest design I created (top row) was the simple characters added from the second Variation. Simply organising them in a line and shifting it helped to create a unique background texture which was better than a solid colour one - mainly to be used for texture. As for the second pattern (bottom row), I designed after the first variations square patterns and curving lines of the ‘Sleep’. The Ideas were to create a visually appealing grid pattern which again, could be used as an alternate texture.
As for colour palettes, I mainly sourced them from ‘Adobe Color;’ a site which provides five-tone colour palettes which was meant to be used for simple designs or coordinated designs. While I mainly picked palettes which I thought looked the best, I found myself mainly looking for ones which possessed a colour which contradicted the predominant ones. In an example, the first colour palette is dominated by cool, dark blues but features both gold and red which heavily contrasts which makes it better for designing. I wanted to apply these palettes in combination with the patterns in order to get a better feel with how they looked in practice. In the end, I really liked the look of the greens and the Blue + Red palette and ultimately chose the Blue + Red because I felt it looked the most in-line with my original idea.
“Patterns and colour palette”
“Final Choices for Task 2A”
“Final Choices individually”
WEEK VII - Task 2B: Key Artwork Collateral
Collateral Mock-ups: Starting off Task 2B, we needed to begin presenting our designs in the form of mock-up designs on a series of general products to get a better feel of how the product would look in the real-worlds. For most of my designs, I ended up using a website recommended by senior students called “unblast mock-ups” (https://unblast.com/mockups/) which previewed a series of documents which could be edited to include your design. In my case, I chose objects or things I would potentially put in my own design - just as a thought experiment. I ultimately chose apparel such as t-shirts, caps, tags, carry bags and chose unique objects like a digital advertisement display and match boxes. For the mock ups, I used the colours featured in the original colour palette and I was quite surprised at how nicely the designs turned out in the end.
“Final mock-ups individually”
Instagram post: Following the completion of all the designs which I was satisfied with, our final task was to upload our designs to an instagram page of our choice in order to better showcase how your designs may appear in modern social settings. In addition, it also required us to consider the overall presentation of our designs and how they would look alongside similar products/ideas.
Before I would be able to submit the final instagram post however, I needed to include a key artwork of myself to show the ‘creator behind the brand.’ For this, I experimented with more professionally taken photos of myself which I wanted to put in front of the text. When experimenting, I was unhappy with how the photos and text looked in their more vibrant colours so instead, I chose to use the text variation which utilised the dark colours of the palette and paired with a black & white photo of myself.
TASK FEEDBACK:
TASK 2A - WEEK V: Key Artwork
General Feedback: Looking at other students and my work, the lecturer would provide the following information to improve our Works: An aspect of the design does not need to be clear upon the first observation; if your intentions can be defined and then seen by the viewer it is still acceptable. This also provides additional space to be more creative with the designs. Have a main idea in mind which you would like to communicate to your viewers - what are the key points which represent you as a person. Producing multiple designs as limiting yourself to one can slow down work or shows that you were unable to further explore your design.
In the case of mine, I appear to be working backwards through the project; making a form without reason which is not necessarily a bad thing as the designs were consistent - suggesting a common idea. To improve my work. Mr Vinod suggested that I find what that common idea is and what it means about me. I found it to be the connected-ness between the letters which relates to my resilience; the willingness to go on and on and on despite how bad a situation may look.
TASK 2A - WEEK VI: Key Artwork
General Feedback: Looking at other students and my work, the lecturer would provide the following information to improve our Works: One major design flaw in our works is the lines. They’re too thin and, when shrunk down to a small size; lose their readability which is undesirable. In addition to this feedback, White space produced can become your enemy as too much of it makes a design feel minimal, too open or invisible which you should not want.
In the case of my newly digitised works, Mr. Vinod suggested that it is a little bland in concept which could be improved with some detail of some kind. When I introduced said detail into my work, the next concern was that the lines produced were too thin and would be unreadable at smaller sizes, suggesting a reworking.
TASK 2B - WEEK VII: Key Collateral
General Feedback: Looking at other students and my work, the lecturer would provide the following information to improve our Works: When looking at displaying your wordmark on objects; it is important to think about objects important to you and your future career choice. Becoming familiar with such concepts will make you more cognitive of which design works best in certain situations. Additionally, the choice of colour palette should also be something more personal to you.
TASK 2B - WEEK VIII: Key Collateral
General Feedback: INDIVIDUAL STUDENT-LED STUDY WEEK
FURTHER READINGS:
WEEK V - VIII: Typographic Systems: Frameworks by KIMBERLY ELAM
General Reading: Simon Garfield's 2010 novel, “Just my Type” is another detailed design-orientated novel; however, this novel focuses on how fonts are explored and then adapted to be used in the real-world. While the book starts with an explanation on fonts and their application, Simon Garfield also covers the history, development and reasoning of some of the most common fonts found within the world today.
From my brief readings and flicking through the book looking for usable resources; the novel looks at subjects such as Font Influence, Type Origins, Font Choices & Selection as well as Digital Fonts. Using the history of fonts such as Helvetica and Comic Sans, Simon Garfield argues as to how these styles gained prominence - suggesting its due to them being influenced by type choices made over 500 years ago (humans prefer a testament-to-time?) Simon Garfield also ‘reveals’ what he believes to be the best and worst fonts ever designed, looking into human perception and how we make preferences about fonts. Furthermore, he outlines that certain fonts need to be chosen based on the general message/mood of the situation.
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