04/05/2021 - 11/05/2021 (Week 6 - Week 7)
Hussain Waheed (0344802)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 2: Typographic Exploration and Communication
LECTURES
Week 6 / Understanding letterforms
For the beginning of task 2, we were provided the week 6 pre-recorded lecture delivered by Mr.Vinod who talks about the understanding of letterforms. Some of the important points are noted below:
Letters are not symmetrical. Type designers create varying thickness and asymmetry to maintain harmony and individual expression (optical delicacy).
figure 1.0.0 Asymmetry in letterforms - 8th May 2021
The complexity of letterforms are identified by examining the lowercase "a" of seemingly similar sans-serif typefaces.
Figure 1.0.1 Complexity of letterforms using "a" - 8th May 2021
Figure 1.0.2 Above the meedian height - 8th May 2021
Figure 1.0.3 Video on these movies - 8th May 2021
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Figure 1.0.4 Close detail - 8th May 2021
Figure 1.0.5 Contrast in typography - 8th May 2021
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 2: Typographic Exploration and Communication
For task 2, we were assigned to create a 2-page editorial spread to express an article using what we have learned about typography. We were given two options for our expression article on our Facebook group;
- Do good, Be Good
- The impact of the bauhaus on modern culture
Figure1.1.0 Bauhaus building for reference - 9th May 2021
I was already sketching ideas for the title expression when I found this image. The iconic design of the building gave me a good inspiration on how I wanted my Type to be.
So I created a square document in Adobe illustrator to design the title page of the expression. I did my first sketch, which I didn't like.
Figure 1.1.1 Bauhaus first sketch in AI - 9th May 2021
For the second try, I went straight to a bauhaus look. I created a 3d-ish wall of the letters of the title using the perspective grid to create the iconic look of the Bauhaus building.
Figure 1.1.2 Bauhaus second sketch - 9th May 2021
Figure 1.1.3 Bauhaus on Indesign - 9th May 2021
A black back for the first page seemed to create a more interesting composition so I inverted the design from Illustrator to create a white on black for the title page. And the sub-heading I put on the top-right corner of the first page as well. Even though it is on the top of the first page, because of the size hierarchy of the titles, it can only be read by a viewer after reading the main heading. And now, moving on to the text.
For the texts, I checked the point size for two columns and three columns and as it turned out, 3 columns were far too narrow for the document margin. So I decided to do a two column document with font size 10 and a 12 pt leading.
Figure 1.1.4 Texts - 9th May 2021
Figure 1.1.5 Bahaus Experiment 1 - 9th May 2021
Figure 1.1.6 Bahaus Experiment 2 - 9th May 2021
FEEDBACK
Week 6:
Specific Feedback: I posted my work update on the Facebook post but didn't receive any specific feedback yet for Week 6.
Week 7:
Specific Feedback: Mr.Vinod and Mr.Sam evaluated my work and said that it was not bad and the type settings are good, but the composition and type expression could be done better.
General Feedback: "Know the individual fonts you use". Try to express the message and try not to be over-expressive of the idea.
Experience: Compared to the previous exercises, task 2 was more technical and advanced since it involved both type expression using fewer words and text formatting using larger amounts of text. The overall experience was a very new experience and an eye opener for large scale printings of books and documents.
Observation: I found the importance of self criticising and knowing how to criticise works of my own and other's. It is much easier to know how and what to improve by asking the right questions in my head for my own work so that I can evaluate how good my work is. The same applies to criticising the works of others and by listening to their feedback for my own works.
Findings: While reading books, I have had a hard time concentrating on some books while I can very comfortably finish some other books that I necessarily was not that interested in. It is by learning typography and type settings now that I understood the reasons for that and the role that it plays when delivering huge sums of textual information for readers to read. I found that typographic expression and communication plays as vital a role as the contents of the book or document.
FURTHER READING
Week 6: On week 6, I read an article about "Typesetting for Academic book publishing" by Jennie Goforth on
This article focuses on the design components and typesetting tools most commonly used in designing academic books (mostly using InDesign). The article features a YouTube video showing the time-lapse process of designing typesetting for a book as well.
At the end of the article she writes, "Typesetting is one of the most exciting ohases of book production. It's when you can see your writing finally coming together as a real book, and it's the first step before you can share your work with the world."
Figure 1.2.0 Typesetting for academic books - 9th May 2021
I also watched a youtube video labelled "Johannes Gutenberg, The Art of manual typesetting". It was a very interesting video showing Gutenberg manually composing metallic blocks of individual letters to design the type settings. It shows the arrangements and variations needed for this method. The video gives a very clear understanding of the basics of typesettings from earlier times that applies to current apps such as manually aligning letters to create side alignments or justified alignments...etc
Figure 1.2.1 Johannes Gutenberg video - 9th May 2021
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