Typography-Task Exercise 3 Type design and communication (font design)

 November.12.2023

12/Nov/2023-18/Dec/2023 Week9-Week13

Lin Chenyi/0367008/Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media

Typography/Taylors University

Task

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Lecture summary

Week 7:

In class, Hsin introduced us to the expectations and guidelines for this new project and explained the follow-up work content. Mr. Vinod introduced us to the types of pens used for sketching lettering and provided some sample videos for us to watch after class to start drawing letters.

Research

X height

X-height defines the height of all lowercase letters of a given font. The term's name comes from the letter "x" used as a unit of measurement.

The larger the x-height, the more white space the font utilizes, making the font clearer even at small font sizes. For example, Helvetica set to 8pts still remains clear and unique.

Falling line

The descender is the part of the lowercase letter that extends below the baseline. The letters g, j, q, p, y and sometimes f all have such a "tail", with the lowest part marked by an invisible line - the descending line.

If the descending lines are too long, they can intersect with the ascending lines of the next row of letters. Fix this problem by finding synonyms that don't have ascending or descending order or adjusting the line spacing.

Choose a preferred font from the 10 fonts provided. Use the following letters H, O, G, B to analyze the letter in detail.

I chose Gill Sans as the deconstructed font.

Fig 1.1 Hoge deconstruct

Letter "H": The thickness of the lines on both sides remains the same, with a slight tapering of the lines on the inner crossbar.

 Letter "o": The thickness of the line is exactly the same as perpendicular to the two axes, forming a perfect circle.

Letter "g": The line thickness of the "g" circled above and below is the same, and gradually becomes thinner in the middle part.

Letter "b": The straight line is the same thickness as the letter "H", with thick edges and thinner wrapping lines.

Fig 1.2 Gill Sans Deconstruction

Fig 1.3 Gill Sans Deconstruction

2.1 Sketch of letters

Our task was to create 9 different sketches using 3 different types of pens, I used a flat pen, a pointed brush and a round tip brush and all three pens produced different strokes.

Fig 2.1.1Pointed flat brush sketch

Fig 2.1.2 Artline Pointed flat brush sketch

I chose a font that I liked better for the extended design, tried the glyph for the first time, I personally prefer a flat nib, and I continued writing the rest of the words in this style (o, l, e, d, s, n, c, h, t, i, g and, . # )

Fig 2.1.3 First time trying font painting

Ms. Hsin thinks that my letter E lacks variety and is about the same thickness. The letter N should have thinner lines on both sides, otherwise it will look very thick. The bottom of the letter T should be thinner and add a small node. Let the whole style be unified.

Fig 2.1.4 Font painting after the second correction

2.2 Text digitization
After correcting the font, I digitized the letters above.

Fig 2.2.1 text digitization

In my first draft, there were a lot of lines that were inconsistent in the typeface. Little attention was paid to small details.

After one correction, I made the line of the letter D smoother.

Fig 2.2.2 letter D

The transition from coarse to fine is smoother.

Fig 2.2.3 letter D

Digitization of the text after the second revision

Fig 2.2.4 text digitization

Fig 2.2.5 No grid

This week we continue to improve the fonts we designed, and the lady asked us to download the software Fontlab 7.

After the professor's guidance, I corrected the letters step by step.

The design of the letter is not quite consistent with the rest of the letters overall. I made some changes. Based on the overlap of the letter O, I made the edges less square and more rounded.

Fig 2.2.6 Draft changes about letter D

Letter S: It needs to be roughly the same arc as the letter O. I first used the pen tool to draw a square S path, adjusted the line size to 6pt, added outline points, and finally used the smoothing tool to smooth the edges.

Fig 2.2.7 Draft changes about letter S

The outer contours of the letters D and S are at the same height as the letter O, and they are basically the same when overlapped. I need to make draft changes to subsequent letters based on the letter O.

Fig 2.2.8 Similarities of Letters

The first letter N I designed was too thick. I corrected the thickness of the lines and made some adjustments by cutting and contouring the edges at both ends of the middle line of the middle letter N.

Fig 2.2.9 Draft changes about letter N

Letter draft design：

      

 Fig 2.2.10 Draft changes final effect

2.3 Development of fonts in FontLab 7

After completing the digital font, we need to import the font from Adobe Illustrator into FontLab 7 to process its kerning and spacing. At the beginning I aligned the spacing of my draft. Each letter is adjusted to the appropriate distance to ensure that each letter spacing and spacing look appropriate to the naked eye without excessive white space.

Fig 2.3.1 Kerning

Fig 2.3.1 Kerning

Based on the letter spacing of the letters O and H, start adjusting the spacing of other letters to the appropriate width.

Fig 2.3.2 Kerning

I adjusted the width of all letters to be about the same width. When I imported the letter S into Fontlab 7, I found that the lines were not very smooth. I made some arc changes to make the lines and curves look more beautiful.

Fig 2.3.3 Kerning draft

After adjusting the kerning in the first version, I found that there was too much space between the letters S and N, and that the space between S and D was too tight. I took out the letter S alone and compared it with the spacing of other letters, and found that I should The value on the left side of the S spacing is adjusted to be about 5 larger than the one on the right side.

Figure 2.3.4 Second draft of kerning

After adjusting the kerning in the first version, I found that there was too much space between the letters S and N, and that the space between S and D was too tight. I took out the letter S alone and compared it with the spacing of other letters, and found that I should The value on the left side of the S spacing is adjusted to be about 5 larger than the one on the right side.

After final adjustments:

Fig2.3.5 Final draft of kerning

Final font design：https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mAI1f2ClPtS7a1P6uhPnZDHBvn2LB3YM/view?usp=drive_link

Fig2.3.6 Final "Serenity Regular" design jpg

Fig2.3.6 Final "linchenyii Regular" design pdf

3.Poster design:

Fig 3.1

Use your own fonts for final poster design：

Fig3.2 Poster 1

Fig3.3 Poster 2

Final poster design:

Fig 3.4 Final poster PDF

Fig 3.5 Final poster PDF

Fig 3.6 Poster PDF

Fig 3.7 Poster PDF

Feedback

Week 7：

General feedback: Things to note when drawing lettering, how to draw sample strokes.

Specific feedback: The teacher commented that most of the fonts in my paintings were similar and I didn’t pay enough attention to details. I made corrections in class.

Week 8: Review Week

Week 9：

General feedback: Remember to split into 3 art boards when digitizing letters, preserving the original strokes so you can easily change the letters if needed.

Specific feedback: After the teacher looked at my drawing (o, l, e, d, s, n, c, h, t, i, g, . #), he found that there were many deficiencies in my lines and many letters. If there is too little variation in thickness, it will be very thick and not enough, but the concept of the form of this letter is interesting.

Week 10 ：

General feedback: Keep all letters consistent with consistent strokes.

Specific feedback: For rounded glyphs, such as letters D, C, S, and G, the outer outlines need to be consistent with the letter O. The sharp edges of the letter N, which are too thick, need to be recovered and smoothed. height, the distance from the baseline is the same.

Week 11：

General feedback: Pay attention to importing the tracing points of Fontlab 7 letters to reflect the main tracing point curves.

Specific feedback: Pay attention to the space between letters, and set the letters H and O as the main comparison standards.

Week 12：

General feedback: Use the kerning adjustment standards given by the letters O and H, compare the spacing of other letters, and adjust to the appropriate spacing, which will look more beautiful.

Specific feedback: Reduce the spacing between the letter S and the letter O. There is too much white space.

Further reading

Font story

From Simon Garfield's best-selling popular science book Just My Type ("Font Story").

Find out what the function of a font is. Which is more important, readability or legibility? Can you use personal taste to judge the quality of a font? Discussions on these issues have never ceased. We learned that the famous font designer, typographer, and writer Beatrice Warde proposed a series of far-reaching font theories including "The Crystal Goblet" in the 1930s. She believes that printing should be invisible, and the best fonts should be created only for "communication", that is, it should spread opinions, thoughts, images, etc., and it should not attract attention itself, let alone be sought after. As avenues and demands for self-expression continue to increase, Garfield comments that her theory is based on a "xenophobia" mentality, arguing that she denies that "the typeface may itself be a message."

Legibility VS. Readability

William Addison Dwiggins, the originator of the term "graphic design" and a 20th-century American type design master, raised a question about typography in 1936.

The beginning of the Penguin font story: Gill Sans

To tell the story of penguins, the classic three-stage design of the Main Series may be inescapable from any aspect. Penguin’s early cover fonts certainly made a very “safe” choice. The most prominent author and title are printed in a very common yet very British font - Gill Sans. Gill Sans is one of the earliest sans serif fonts in the 20th century. It was designed in 1930 by Eric Gill, a master type design master, sculptor, and graphic designer. Due to its legibility and "neutral" qualities, this typeface is widely used in public institutions, advertisements, labels, etc. (Garfield points out that this feature is closely related to Eric Gill's own controversial artistic experiments and private life. An interesting contrast, Gill Sans is, in his words, "a curiously sexless font"). The font chosen for the logo "Penguin Books" is Bodoni extremely bold, but starting around 1948, "Penguin Books" also began to use Gill Sans on a large scale.

Preliminary

Using Type CorrectlyKurt H.Volk

The royal font of Mary Sue literature

  As a contemporary writer who is extremely good at describing how Cinderella brings sunshine to a fallen prince, Jojo Moyes has unsurprisingly earned the title of "Queen Mary Sue" with her astonishing creation speed and stable output. Most of her works are from a female perspective, and her cover design also strongly conveys this signal. In addition to the brightly colored cover background and the text that basically takes up the entire cover, the fonts with rounded, soft lines and large arcs are an element that cannot be ignored, such as in her famous works Me Before You ("Me Before You") and After You. Bookmania, and One Plus One use the Hoban font that emphasizes the contrast between thickness and thickness. Although the fonts used in several works are different, the similar layout design can still make people easily feel that they are all from the same author.

Bookmania font