Typography / Final Compilation and Reflection

7.4.2023 - 7.7.2023 (Week 1 - Week 14)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Typography
Final Compilation and Reflection

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Links to individual task posts 

2. Submissions

3. Reflection

LINKS TO INDIVIDUAL TASK POSTS

1. Task 1: Exercises

2. Task 2: Typographic Exploration and Communication

3. Task 3: Type Design and Communication

SUBMISSIONS

Task 1     Task 2     Task 3

Task 1: Exercise 1 - Type Expression 

7/4/2023 - 28/4/2023 (Week 1 - Week 4)

Fig. 1.1. Type Expression Final (28/4/2023)

Fig. 1.2. Type Expression Final (PDF) (28/4/2023)

Fig. 1.3. Final GIF animation (28/4/2023)

Task 1: Exercise 2 - Text Formatting

28/4/2023 - 14/5/2023 (Week 4 - Week 6)

HEAD
Font/s: Univers LT Std 67 Bold Condensed
Type Size/s: 36 pt (heading), 26 pt (subheading)
Leading: 38.5 pt (heading), 36 pt (subheading)
Paragraph spacing: 0

BODY
Font/s: Univers LT Std 55 Roman
Type Size/s: 6,5 pt
Leading: 9 pt
Paragraph spacing: 9 pt
Characters per-line: 53
Alignment: Flush left

Margins: 12 mm top + bottom, 11 mm left + right
Columns: 3
Gutter: 5 mm

Fig. 2.1. Text Formatting Final (14/5/2023)

Fig. 2.2. Text Formatting Final (PDF) (14/5/2023)

Fig. 2.3. Text Formatting Final w/ guides and grids (14/5/2023)

Fig. 2.4. Text Formatting Final w/ guides and grids (PDF) (14/5/2023)

Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication

12/5/2023 - 30/5/2023 (Week 6 - Week 9)

Margins: 12 mm
Gutter: 7 mm

Head
Font: Univers LT Std, Futura Std, Gill Sans Std

Body
Font: Serifa Std
Type Size: 10 pt
Leading: 12.5 pt
Paragraph spacing: 12.5 pt
Characters per-line: 53
Alignment: Align left

Fig. 3.1. Typographic Exploration Final (28/5/2023)

Fig. 3.2. Typographic Exploration Final (PDF) (28/5/2023)

Fig. 3.3. Typographic Exploration Final w/ guides (28/5/2023)

Fig. 3.4. Typographic Exploration Final w/ guides (PDF) (28/5/2023)

Task 3: Typographic Exploration & Communication

2/6/2023 - 29/6/2023 (Week 9 - Week 13)

Font download link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WImNM3ITOltUkUFFFHCnr7IrgiTatwLV?usp=sharing

Fig. 4.1. Font information (30/6/2023)

Fig. 4.2. Type design poster (30/6/2023)

Fig. 4.3. Type design poster (PDF) (30/6/2023)

Fig. 4.4. New metrics tab with finalised sentence (30/6/2023)

REFLECTION

Experience
Typography has interested me for a while now. The act of smartly positioning and designing words to convey a meaning intrigues me, and I was very excited to find that I would be learning that in this course. Before, I understood that font choice and sizing were a strong way to convey meaning, but throughout this module, I've learnt about the more intricate and technical details. Things such as weight, even spacing down to the individual letters (known as kerning), are all important factors in ensuring text is not only readable but pleasant to look at, and in more design-focused projects, aesthetically pleasing yet easy to understand. 

Not only that, but in learning how to use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, I'm now even better equipped to execute the ideas that I have in my head, to turn them into reality. Despite my struggles throughout each task, I think I can say that I've grown a lot from where I started. I know a lot more challenges and difficulties will be waiting for me in Advanced Typography, but hopefully with all that I've gained this semester, I'll be able to tackle them head-on. 

Observations
As the projects pile up, I truly understand the importance of not procrastinating. I should always be trying to get an appropriate amount of rest for me, but I should also better learn to manage my time. Sometimes, forcing yourself to get started is necessary. Starting is almost always difficult, but it's easier to keep going once you get the momentum. There are times where I'm not motivated to work at all, but after forcing myself to make at least a little bit of progress, I start to see a bunch of things I can do or fix and before I know it, it's been an hour of working. 

I've also gotten to see how useful it is to take note of feedback from the lecturer - not just feedback that is personal to your own work but feedback that is given to others. There can be a lot of common mistakes, especially when most of the class are at the same learning level, and there is wisdom in learning from not just your own past mistakes but the mistakes of others. 

Findings
Typography is complicated. Coming up with clever ways of expression is one thing, executing it in a way that looks good is another thing. There are many things to pay attention to when formatting text, creating a typeface, creating a type expression or even just coming up with a creative layout for a poster. In all forms of typographic design, all elements used join together to create the final work, and if even one detail is wrong, the work can appear inconsistent and amateur. 

Kerning, leading, font type and size, paragraph spacing, everything down to the images chosen has an impact on the reader when they look at typographic design. Therefore, as tedious as the work is, the more attention you pay the more worth it it'll be.