Typography Task 3

   Week 8 - Week 10 [23/4/2024 - 21/5/2024]

Edlin Raihana binti Mohamad Firdaus 0359096 Bachelor in Design Creative Media

GCD60104

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《Task 3 (30%)》

Learning Goal: You will be tasked to design a limited number of western alphabets. To begin, choose an existing font design that adheres to the direction that you would like to head in. Study the font carefully by analysing its anatomical parts.

    Submission: E-Portfolio (with all the information gathered documented logically and chronologically in the portfolio for the duration of the task in one post)

    Exercises: 

• Create a typeface that has the hallmarks of a good typeface; subtlety or character, presence, legibility and readability with the letters o l e d s n c h t i g , . ! #
• Create a basic A4 size poster displaying your font

    Deadline: Week 14 (26th July 2024)

《Progress Work》

    Research & Sketches

    I searched for some inspiration for the font type that I was making and stumbled upon these designs on Pinterest that would look good as my font.

fig 1.0 fonts I found in Pinterest

    I really liked the hollow out letters found in these fonts but for a sense of variety I wanted to incorporate serif font rather than the rounder fonts that I see with usual neon alphabets.

    

From these fonts, I played around with the specialty pens (chiselled, bullet and brush) to find what strokes I could get from each pen. 

Here are the pens I used for the pen strokes:

• Artline Calligraphy Pen 4.0
• Artline Drawing System Brush
• Artline 210 Medium 0.6

fig 1.1 - 1.3 getting a feel with the markers

    Once I have gotten some sort of familiarity I came up with these options that could be digitised into my main font:

fig 1.4 font options for digitization

    Ms Hsin prefers the first 2 and said to reference Bodoni or Didot as a reference point for my first option font if I was planning on using it. I was torn between the two but ultimately decided for the first option since it had used basic shapes and has an existing font that I can use as a reference point for me to use. Ms also said to change up bits of the first option (like removing unnecessary tail/reducing the swirls). After getting it finalised I did the rest of the letters:

fig 1.5 final letter write up (failed)

    I tested out if it looks good with a lighter pen thickness (0.2) and it looks out of touch so I settled for a thicker pen (0.6). I also wanted to figure out the layout of the remaining letters before I drew the final letter write up.

fig 1.6 Final letter write up

    Once I had gotten those approved, I started digitizing in Adobe Illustrator.

    Digitalization

    First I did a breakdown of the letters of the font that I wanted to use. After looking at both Didot and Bodoni, I used Bodoni since it was the closest to the image that I had of my font. The letters I used for the breakdown was 'H', 'c', 'y' and 'b'

fig 2.0 - 2.4 breakdown of Bodoni's Letter 'H', 'c', 'y', 'b'

     After getting to know how Bodoni shapes their letters, I started digitizing my font. But first, I had to figure out the ascender, capital, descender using Bodoni as a base

fig 2.5 Ascender, Capital, Descender, x-base height of Bodoni

    After finding those out I started digitalizing my letters using the grids. I also used 4 pillars as the base shape for the letters to keep everything in uniform.

fig 2.6 Finished digitized letters

Ascender: 832px

Capital: 832px

Descender: -324px

x-height: 500px

    Font Labs

    After completing all my letters I started moving them to Font Lab 7 to officially make it into a font starting with aligning the limits to match my fonts.

fig 2.7 font family dimensions

    I started adding the letters in and start editing my letters through the preview window.

fig. 2.8 editing 'N' in font labs

    After setting up all the letters, I start to kern the letters to each other to create a sentence. I tried creating a whole sentence for the first preview ('THE OLD NIGHT IS COLD) but then settled for another sentence that I created using those letters were "THE NIGHT SHINES!" in the poster.

fig 2.9.1 'THE OLD NIGHT IS COLD' preview

fig. 2.9.2 &2.9.3 kerning for the 'THE NIGHT SHINES!'

    I named the font 'X-Ray' and exported the font to OpenType TTF and installed it on my computer to start making the A4 Poster.

    Poster

    From the words 'THE NIGIHT SHINES!' I wanted to create a nightly atmosphere, kind of like a foggy evening. In addition to the text, I added a little sparkle around the letters to emulate the stars and give the text more pizazz.

fig 3.1 THE NIGHT SHINES POSTER (JPEG)

fig 3.2 THE NIGHT SHINES POSTER (PDF)

Download link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e_-od-L82SW3VC0pu_7i-5PJwUVyTUMG?usp=sharing

《Further Reading》

fig 4.0 Just My Type by Simon Garfield

    Capital Offence

    When writing an email to someone, an unspoken rule that people are aware of is that using capital/uppercase letters often conveys an angry or confrontational tone of voice comparable to shouting.

    Why they were named 'Uppercase' and 'Lowercase' letters refers to the arrangement of loose metal or wooden letters that are arranged in the printing press before a conventional compositor's hand to make words, with the capitals placed above and the often used ones (usually smaller letters)on an accessible lower level.

    Johannes Gutenberg, a Mainz native, was the first to understand the principles of mass production in Europe, establishing the standard for printing for the following 500 years with his invention of casting reusable letters. As a result, books became less expensive and more widely available, making what was formerly thought to be exclusive to high society a source of entertainment and enlightenment for all.

    Gutenberg's exact methods are unknown, but scholars believe that they were similar to the first documented process, which occurred twenty years later and involved punchcutting a letter in reverse onto the end of a short steel rod, that is then struck into softer metal to form an indented matrix that then fits into a wooden mould. Another name, Peter Schoeffer, is thought to have played an important role in his early experiments with punchcutting.

    With the teamwork of Johannes Gutenberg and Peter Schoeffer, the typeface that the team used for their book became known as Textura, after one of the 'writing hands' of the time. 

    Type was previously set by hand, and a font was a complete collection of letters from a typeface in a specific size and style.

    Frutiger

    Frutiger is the typeface that many consider to be the best typeface ever created for signs and directions; the font was more humane in tone, had few intricacies, no mathematical logic, and was simply attractive to the eye. It was intended to seem crisp and succinct against lighted and highly coloured backgrounds, as well as readable from an angle.

This made Frutiger difficult to avoid due to it being used as a standard in many big institutions and has grown into a wide family with different weights. bold and even a variation in serif font.

    Futura

    Futura was first created by Renner for publisher Jakob Hegner, who was looking for a visually freeing work. During the golden age of font design, Renner had produced a font that was regarded as genuinely ageless. Although its impact was seen right away, he continued to refine it for an additional four years. It was quickly in use throughout Frankfurt am Main, and numerous other typefaces that were similar started to appear at the same time. 

    Futura is still widely used in Volkswagen advertisements, and even celebrities have started to adopt it. The astronauts of Apollo 11 are famous for leaving plaques with Futura capital letters on them.