Typography Task 3A - Type Design & Communication

17/5/2022 - 31/5/2022 (Week 8 - Week 10)

Afif Shukri / 0354429 

Typography / Bachelor of (Design) in Creative Media / GCD60104

Task 3A: Type Design & Communication

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LECTURES

Week 9: 3A Videos

Mr Vinod assigned us to watch the 3 lectures videos on Youtube titled 3A. After we have done watching the videos, we were told to sketch our font ideas then get some feedback from Mr Vinod.

fig 1.1 - typo task 3A videos

After receiving feedbacks, made some changes if any and were told to digitalized our sketch on Adobe Illustrator.  In the video, "Typo Task 3A Typeface Construction (Shapes)" Mr Vinod showed us on how to create a letterform with shapes and uniting them.

fig 1.2 - typo task 3A typeface construction
video

Once we have completed with designing our typeface on Adobe Illustrator and approved by Mr Vinod, we can start watching the no 20 and 21 videos which is to export our work from Adobe Illustrator to Fontlab 7.

fig 1.3 - typo task 3A illustrator to fontlab 7

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INSTRUCTIONS

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TASKS

Task 3A - Type Design & Communication 

In task 3A, Mr. Vinod assigned us to design a font for these alphabets: a e t k g r i y m p n ! # , .

We started off by doing our rough sketches on paper, once that is once we have it uploaded on Facebook to get some feedbacks from Mr Vinod. Once approved by Mr Vinod, then only we digitalized it on the alphabets mentioned above.

Research

Before doing my rough sketches, I did some research on font related to Futura, ITC New Baskerville and Gill Sans.

fig 1.4 - futura font inspiration

fig 1.5 - gill sans font inspiration

fig 1.6 - ITC new baskerville
inspiration

Sketches

From the ideas I gained from my research on the 3 different fonts. I came up with my own designs on sketch. here are my sketches:

fig 1.8 - sketch 1 & 2

In sketch #1, I took inspiration from the font Futura and did my own version of it. I went for more of a minimalist looking font and what i did was made a combination of thin and thick strokes to create the letters.

fig 1.9 - sketch 3 & 4

In sketch #3, I took inspiration from the font Gill Sans and created a slanted 30° slope from the cap line to the ascender line.

Digitalization

After receiving feedback from Mr Vinod regarding our sketches. i made some changes before designing it on Adobe Illustrator. 

fig 2.0 - first draft digitalized sketch #1

fig 2.1 - first draft digitalized sketch #2

For digitalized sketch #1, feedback given by Mr Vinod was good. Just need to make some changes and possibly making the base line to descender line slanted as well.

fig 2.2 - digitalized sketch 

My design was created with shapes, pen tool and the use of unite and shape builder tool.  For the slanted part, what I did was basically use a pen tool to create a line that would resemble at a 30° angle and use a shape builder tool to create the slanted shape.

fig 2.3 - slanted process

After making changes and approved by Mr Vinod, I chose this to be my final digitalized sketch to move forward with designing the letters: "a e t k g r i y m p n ! # , ."

fig 2.4 - letters reference

fig 2.5 - draft digitalization of typeface 29/5

Once again, I had to post my work on the Typography Facebook Page to get some feedback from Mr Vinod. Everything was great just needed to tweak the comma and exclamation mark. 

fig 2.6 - final digitalization of typeface 30/5

For the exclamation mark I change the design of the top part of the exclamation mark. I made it thinner as per request given from Mr Vinod. For the Comma, I extended the lower part to go below the baseline and made the shape slightly thicker.

fig 2.7 - final typeface outline 30/5

fig 2.8 - typeface measurements in points 30/5

Ascender Line: 700PT

Cap Line: 600PT

Median Line: 500PT

Baseline: 0PT

Descender Line: -100PT

fig 2.9 - exporting all the letters onto fontlab 7 1/6

Once I am done with kerning and adjusting all the letters. I exported my font and named it Slanted. The reason for this is because my font design is based on slope or should I say slanted. Hence why I named it Slanted.

fig 3.0 - metrics tab/ kerning 1/6

After I have done exporting my font and its ready to be used. We were told to make a poster on the sentence: make type great again!.

fig 3.1 - testing out the font 1/6

This is my take on the poster

fig 3.2  - make type great again poster 1/6

Final Submission 

fig 3.3 - final typeface submission in JPG 1/6

fig 3.4 - final typeface submission in PDF 1/6

fig 3.5 - final poster submission in JPG 1/6

fig 3.6 - final poster submission in PDF 1/6

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FEEDBACKS

Week 10

Mr Vinod likes the take I did on the slanted design. On my first draft, Mr Vinod advised me that instead of just having the top part slanted why not try putting the same slanted design for the bottom part. Also, trying to design the letter Y was a bit challenging due to its unique shape on the top part. Nonetheless, Mr Vinod approved my work and gave good criticisms. 

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REFLECTIONS

Experience:

Throughout the task 3A, I really enjoyed creating fonts using Illustrator. From my past experience of creating something similar using shapes, stroke and paths and uniting them, I really have no trouble doing all that. Most of the struggles I have was more in terms of designing the font and coming up with ideas. After doing some thorough research and countless tries sketching on paper. I have managed to come up with 4 different font ideas and digitalized them on Illustrator successfully. 

Having thought that I was done with the hard part, then comes FontLab 7. As a first timer, having to install the application itself had me troubled. After countless tries, I have managed to successfully installed the FontLab 7. After that we were told to export our work from Illustrator to Fontlab 7 which was suprisingly easier than trying to install the software itself.

Observation:

I found out that unite and shape builder have similar functions. Depending on your design. both can be used to create a shape. Also, when kerning in Fontlab 7, it needs to be adjusted well so that the when typing out a sentence the outcome does not look too tight and close together hence easier for the viewer to see the different letters as well as the design.

Findings:

In this task, I have learned that it is possible to create a typeface using Illustartor. Moreover, I discovered a new application that is Fontlab 7. Enjoyed my progress on learning to use Fontlab 7 and the many new tools that I was not used to.