Typography and Hypertextuality 2017

4th of Oct '17 - 25th of Oct '17 (Week 5 - Week 8)
Jaslyn Tjhai (0333039)
Typography and Hypertextuality
Project 1

LECTURES

Lecture/Tutorial 6: Type Expression

On the sixth week we were asked to show our process of the story book which is 'Mr. Babadook'. I showed mine but Mr. Vinod said I was still not there yet. Afterwards we were pretty much lazy to move around in class as Mr. Vinod together with Mr. Shamsul is going around and giving feedbacks. Because my work was still not good, I was asked to redo my work, Everyone was busy doing the story book in class. After the class there was a small workshop conducted by Mr. Vinod about photography which we were asked to take by Mr. Hafiz. We learned about the ISO, aperture, the shutter speed, etc.

Lecture/Tutorial 7: Understanding Letterforms

On the seventh week, Mr. Vinod started off the class with a lecture about understanding letterforms. Mr. Vinod said that the more detailed oriented we are the more we can understand and improve as a designer. When you are dealing with curves, the curve exceed the mean line. This is the kind of observation that we should have and we should act on it. When we are designing letters, we need to also see the letters together instead of just focusing on one letter. Phil Bane has a letterform where he only includes the crucial elements of the letterform and the rest is deleted; that’s one of the experiment he did. Examples of contrast, the most powerful dynamic in design, in letterform (Rudy Ruegg). By creating small and big letters you can create a contrast, use different typefaces, etc. to differentiate. After the lecture, Mr. Vinod and Mr. Shamsul went around again to check on our work. After giving each of us feedbacks and letting us rework, Mr. Shamsul explained to us about how animating our book works.

Lecture/Tutorial 8: Animation on Babadook

On the eighth week, Mr. Vinod and Mr. Shamsul started the class by calling out our names one by one to check and give each of us a feedback on our animation of Mr. Babadook. While checking others' works, Mr. Vinod told us to start using one of the selected fonts as reference and design our own fonts. After giving each of us a feedback, he explained about our second project briefly. An hour before class ends, he asked us to show him our sketches where he gave each of us a feedback. We were also told that when we design our fonts digitally we have to make sure that everything follows the requirements of letterforms.

INSTRUCTIONS

PROJECT 1

A Story Book: Mr. Babadook

Requirements:

Adobe InDesign CC 2017

Instructions:

1. Open InDesign and set all the format that's needed.
2. Start to design the layout and apply what you learn in type expression exercises to express the sentences in the story.
3. Animate each pages and export it in flash.
4. Print out the thumbnail of your book in an A4 paper for hardcopy portfolio
5. Print out the book Mr. Babadook.

I sketched out a few of the pages at first.

Fig. 1.a Sketch 1

Fig. 1.b Sketch 2

Fig. 1.c Thumbnails of Mr. Babadook

Fig. 1.d Page 1

Fig. 1.e Page 2-3

Fig. 1.f Page 4-5

Fig. 1.g Page 6-7

Fig. 1.h Page 8-9

Fig. 1.i Page 10-11

Fig. 1.j Page 12-13

Fig. 1.k Page 14-15

Fig. 1.l Page 16

Here's the printed booklet.

Fig. 1.m Front page

Fig. 1.n Pages 8-9

Fig. 1.o Back page

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0Bz9Gu5mhZFThUkZkQ1ZkaTVFNHM

FEEDBACK

Week 6

Mr. Vinod and Mr. Shamsul went around the class to check on our work on the story book. I was told that I still didn't get the hang of it yet where my work is still predictable and it didn't leave an impact on people so I was asked to redo my work which I did. After redoing my work, I showed it to Mr. Shamsul who said my work was better than before now. But the moment I showed it to Mr. Vinod, he said my work is still not there yet. He then sat down and tried to edit mine a little bit. After that he asked me to rework again.

Week 7

Mr. Vinod said that my work, moving from one page to another, has no connection. He also said I shouldn’t divide parts of the page as it creates too much contrast and it just disconnects everything else. He also said that some of my pages became as if they’re from a different book. I then reworked my book and Mr, Vinod said I just need to rearrange some of the layouts and I was told not to suddenly introduce the usage of condensed form when I never used them before on the first few pages. I was also asked to reduce the curviness of my work towards the end because there’s too much of it.

Week 8

Mr. Vinod and Mr. Shamsul looked at my work and was quite unsatisfied with it. I was told to fade one of the text on the first page as I faded out the title. A few animations were also too slow and I was told that my animations were very monotonous even though it can be considered appropriate. They then looked at my hardcopy of my thumbnail and I was told that I have the basic knowledge of alignment and contrast and that it's just the matter of applying it and how I arrange it. I was told that there's always room for improvement. Afterwards we began to work on out second project which is font design. When Mr. Vinod looked at the rough sketch of my font design, I was told that I need to explore more and find out what's the identity of my font before proceeding on other letters. I should first start with the basic letter such as 'o' as a lot of other letters will be based on letter 'o'. I was also asked to research about Phil Baines as he did something similar to what I'm planning to do.

REFLECTION

Experience

On the sixth week, I was quite frustrated as I don't have any inspiration to do the story book project. I tried to arrange the alignment and layout and etc. but somehow I just couldn't get the hang of it. On the seventh week, I finally got the hang of doing the book project and I just kept on giving my best even though it is tough and sometimes I don’t fully understand a few things. On the eighth week, I finally manage to animate my work. Overall this project was very frustrating and difficult.

Observation

On the sixth week, I observe that I was having a hard time trying to understand why a layout was put this way, why the kerning matters, etc. On the seventh week, I observed that I should have a consistent style in doing my work instead of trying too hard to make every page seem interesting which then disconnects everything. On the eighth week, I observed that I'm too scared to be daring and express what I wanted to apply on this project.

Findings

On the sixth week, I found that I still don't really understand how to express the story book. I also found that I really needed to read some books in order to learn more and have a better understanding on typography. On the seventh week, I found that having consistency in designing is really important as it really shows what kind of style your work is. On the eighth week, I found that this project really requires you to explore and be creative.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Week 7

Typespaces: typography in three dimensional spaces by Basheer Graphic Books

Fig. 3.a Front and Back cover of the book

I choose this book, Typespaces: typography in three dimensional spaces by Basheer Graphic Books, as my next book. The books basically shows a variety of typographical works that are combined or fused together with architecture which is very interesting.  The book shows the work of different artists as well as some brief explanation about the work that they did. When I was reading the book and looking through the pages, I found a few works that caught my attention. The first one was on page 36 of the book.

Fig. 3.b Page 36 of the book

This page caught my attention because of the name 'Paula Scher'. I searched a little about her before so I'm curious to find out what it's about. So the building is basically a school building that wanted to project a warmer personality but with limited budget for renovation. The school therefore turned to Paula Scher for some 'renovation'. Paula managed to cover the buildings with bold and spirited typography which gave the building a more attractive and fun look.

The second work that I found interesting was on page 134 of the book.

Fig. 3.c Page 134 of the book

Fig. 3.d More works by the artist

The works shown on this page is quite interesting as the materials used seems to be a long strand of something. From the book, the name of this work is 'The Window of the Time' which was commissioned by Mark Fairwhale to create window installations for 67 shops in China.

Another work that caught my attention is on page 138, where it shows some letter that seem to be buried half into the walls or somehow surfaced from the wall.

Fig. 3.e Page 138 of the book

The name of the work is 'Off the Wall-Type' by Martine Mathijsen. This project is a concept for a wall typeface where the letter seems to appear from the wall. This kind of project can be used as displays in shops and events.

So basically this book shows a series of works by different artist where they use typography on architecture to show something or to somehow change the look of the architecture to give it a different mood or feel to it.

Week 8

Typography Sketch Books by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico

Fig. 4.a Front and back cover of the book

Fig. 4.c One of the page from the book

The book that I chose to read for week 8 is Typography Sketch Books by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico where the book consists of a collection of font design done by different artists as well as some brief explanation about the artists. I chose this book because starting this week, we will be working on our second project which is to make our own font design so this book can actually be a reference/inspiration. While reading the books, there are a few fonts that I found somewhat interesting.

The first one is this very decorative font by Tom Schamp. Tom Schamp is an illustrator from Brussels, Belgium, where he had a particular interest in hand-lettering. For him, the most important element is spontaneity. He did all his sketches without any feeling of reluctance and shame.

Fig. 4.b Tom Schamp's font design and sketches

Another font that caught my attention is this one. I forgot to take a picture of the artist but his fonts are very interesting where he used a lot of lines for a letter. I wonder how he determine how many lines are suitable for each letter and the arrangements of the lines.

Another thing I found from the book that was kind of similar to what I was planning to do for my font design was a design done by Pierre di Sciullo where his letters contains black dots as if the black dots are the ones connecting the lines to form a letter.

Fig. 4.d Font design by Pierre di Sciullo

He's a designer from Montreuil, France and he owns a website containing his own works. He's also someone who takes pride in simplicity.

Another work that was quite interesting was a work by Rodrigo Xavier Cavazos. He's a principal of a type foundry in San Fransisco and an instructor in typeface design at California College of Arts. In this work of his, it's as if he's trying to give a ceiling or a ground for the letters so they either have a flat top or a flat bottom of the letter. There are also slight curves that were given to the letters.

Fig. 4.e Font design by Rodrigo Xavier Cavazos

So overall this book is a collection of font designs by different designers and illustrators and a brief introduction of who these artists are. It's definitely a book that I would recommend if you're looking for some font design inspirations.