Advanced Typography - Task 3

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Advanced Typography: Task 3

11.10.2021 - 15.11.2021 (Week 8 - Week 12)

Hussain Waheed (0344802)

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Task 3 -Type Exploration and Application

LECTURES: 

Week 10-12: Task 3 Review

INSTRUCTIONS:

Task 3: Type Exploration and Application

For this task, we are supposed to develop a font that is intended to solve a larger problem or meant to be part of a solution in the area of your interest in graphic design, new media...etc. 

To attempt the task, I did some research based on my interest areas. I particularly found issues that I wanted to address in my native language Thaana from the Maldives. The alphabet of Thaana is derived from a mixture of different languages and scripts. A very high influence from Arabic can also be seen through vowel marks and right-aligned writing as well as some of the characters in the alphabet. 

The vowel marks in Thaana however creates a problem of imbalance in terms of aesthetics since the vowel marks are relatively large compared to the letters. And the inclusion of such large vowel marks on both top and bottom of the letters create 3 significant layers of characters that are not consistent in the writing pattern. This creates the imbalance and causes an unaesthetic look when using typography especially for short texts such as names and titles. In Arabic, the letters are significantly larger than the vowel marks and so doesn't have the same issue.

Here is the proposal for my Task 3 to attempt find a solution for the problem:

Final project Proposal PDF - 28th October 2021

As mentioned in the proposal, one of the few solutions to the problem of inconsistency due to vowel marks is to eliminate vowel marks completely. Some of the biggest language that uses vowel marks have been successful in eliminating vowel marks. However Thaana will face readability issues such as Arabic when eliminating vowel marks completely so it is not a solution that addresses all the problems. But it is a solution to the issue at hand which is consistency.

Idea Exploration:

I did some more research on the applications of sans-vowel marks in Thaana and couldn't find much which I believe was because of the same readability issue. But I found an article about a Maldivian Mathematician named Thuhthu Sahib who addressed the issue. He designed a symmetric typeface that can be aligned back to back in a very consistent single line. Here is a reconstruction of that typeface:

Figure 1.0 - Font design by Thuhthu Sahib - 10th November 2021
After further exploration, I found two places where this design was used but with a different design. One was the name board of a cinema and the other was a magazine logo.

Figure 1.1 - Title font design for old Maldivian Magazine - 10th November 2021

The above logo of VYFR magazine interested me because it is the first Blackletter style thaana design I've seen. It was very unique and impressive for a logo back then. I wanted to take inspiration from this logo in designing my typeface. So I started working on my first letters.

Figure 1.2 - Type design process Illustrator- 10th November 2021

I quite liked how the letters were coming so I set the artboards and made all the letters with the same consistent look. My design turned out looking more Hebrew than Blackletter but it was an interesting look.

Figure 1.3 - Font design process in Illustrator - 10th November 2021


Mr.Vinod also reviewed my letters and said it was a decent design. So I completed the letters and used FontForge to generate the font.

Figure 1.4 - Font generating in FontForge - 10th November 2021

After going back and forth through the design, I finalised the letters. Then I continued to generate the font in FontForge. I tried my best to keep the kerning organised however there were some minor inconsistencies  the final font. However such little kerning can be done when using the font so it's not a big issue.

Final font Design:

Figure 2.0 - Final Font Design JPG - 13th November 2021

Figure 2.1 - FInal Font design PDF - 13th November 2021

Final font: Font link

Applications: I included this part to show some of the applications the font can be used apart from the collaterals on which I want to design artworks.

Figure 2.0.1 - Font application JPG - 13th November 2021




Collaterals:

Figure 2.2 - Idea exploration - instagram.com/youaretypography - 13th November 2021



I explored instagram, behance and other design websites for inspiration before beginning the collateral designs. I have still a lot to learn on mockups and collaterals but I am quite happy with the overall results.

Figure 2.3 - Collateral 1 JPG - 13th November 2021

Figure 2.4 - Collateral 1 PDF - 13th November 2021

Figure 2.5 - Collateral 2 JPG - 13th November 2021


Figure 2.6 - Collateral 2 PDF - 13th November 2021

Figure 2.7 - Collateral 3 JPG - 13th November 2021

Figure 2.8 - Collateral 3 PDF - 13th November 2021

FEEDBACK:

Week 12
General Feedback: Submit task 3 in week 13 with all the progression and files.
Specific Feedback: Typeface and collateral designs looks good. Specify on a theme for the collaterals.

Week 11
General Feedback: Use fontForge to generate fonts.
Specific Feedback: Consistent and well designed typeface. Need to adjust some letters.

Week 10
General Feedback: Explore more ideas and research.
Specific Feedback: Idea and exploration is good. Continue to design the typeface
REFLECTIONS:

Experience:
I found the overall experience of this task very exciting since I had full control of what I wanted to do. Especially since I made a work that is very close to me personally. My native language is something I've wanted to explore more and somehow contribute to. With the experience of this task I think I will be able to explore much more and experiment with.

Observation: I observed lots of typefaces that I grew up using and I keep finding little bits that I'd do differently. There are some really good typefaces but there are a lot of poorly designed typefaces designed merely as a solution.

Findings: I found that my local language Thaana has a huge scope of being explored and thought in a design perspective. I myself had some very cool ideas during the making of the project that I want to try in the future. And I believe there will be much more to play with. That is what I find interesting about typography.

FURTHER READINGS:

Thuhthu Sahib article by Professor Hassan Hameed. I found many references for my project from this article written in Dhivehi. It explains the typeface designed by a Maldivian Mathematician.
https://www.hassanhameed.com/mv-thuththu/


Figure 2.8 - Thuhthu sahib monogram - 13th November 2021




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