Typography- Task 2: Typographic Expression and Communication

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25/4/2022- 16/5/2022 / Week 5 - Week 8
Chuah Kwai Pin / 0348376
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 2: Typographic Exploration and Communication

LECTURES:

Week 6: Typography- Screen & Print

1. Past Vs. Present Typography

Past: Typography viewed as living only when it reached paper. Once a publication was edited, typeset and printed, it was done

Present: Exists on a multitude of screens. Our experience of typography today changes based on how the page is rendered because typesetting happens in browser.

2. Print Type Vs. Screen Type

Type for Print:

  • Good Typefaces: Caslon, Garamond, Baskerville
  • Characteristics: elegant and intellectual, high readable at small font size
  • Versatile, easy-to-digest classic typeface
Type for Screen:
  • Typefaces optimized and often modified to enhance readability and performance
  • Taller x-height (reduced ascenders & descenders), wider letterforms, etc.
  • Typefaces made for screen: Verdana, Georgia
  • Important adjustment: more open spacing, improve character recognition
3. Hyperlink / link 
Word, phrase or image that you can click on to jump to a new document, new section within current document.

4. Font size for screen
  • 16-pixel text on screen is about same size as text printed in a book or magazine
  • Books (reading a few inches away) usually at 10 points
  • Books (reading at arms length) ideally at 12 points
5. System fonts for screen / Web Safe Fonts
  • Each device comes with its own pre-installed font selection (based on operating system)
  • Example of fonts: Open Sans, Lato, Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Times, Courier, Courier New, Verdana, Georgia, Palatino, Garamond
6. Static Vs. Motion

Static typography
  • Minimal characteristics in expressing words
  • Traditional characteristics such as bold and italic offer only a fraction of the expressive potential of dynamic properties.
Motion typography
  • "Dramatize" type, for letterforms to become "fluid" and "kinetic"
  • Overlaid onto music videos and advertisements, set in motion following rhythm of soundtrack
  • On-screen typography more expressive

INSTRUCTIONS:


Task 2: Text Formatting and Expression

To do:
Create a 2-page editorial spread (200x200) using only type & minor graphical elements such as line and shades, etc. No images or colour allowed. We are to use Adobe InDesign to typographically express and compose the text, and Adobe Illustrator for the headline is allowed.

1) Visual Research

Before I began with my layout and headline sketches, I quickly scrolled through Pinterest for some layout inspirations that fits my chosen editorial text.

Fig. 1.1 Various headline and layout inspirations, Week 6 (8/5/22)

2. Sketches

I digitally sketched out some of the ideas that I had for the headline. I wanted to emphasise on "Follow The Code" which was why I sketched it larger compared to "Do Good Be Good". 


Fig. 2.1 First sketch of Headline, Week 6 (8/5/22)

Fig. 2.2 Second sketch of Headline, Week 6 (8/5/22)

Fig. 2.3 Third sketch of Headline, Week 6 (8/5/22)


Looking at my sketches, I liked the third one as it appears more interesting than the previous 2. Hence, I attempted my first type expression and layout with my third idea.

3. Layout progress

Fig. 3.1 Type expression for Headline, Week 6 (8/5/22)

Fig. 3.2 Aligning and adjusting minor details, Week 6 (8/5/22) 


Fig. 3.3 Text layout in 3 columns and 2 columns, Week 6 (8/5/22)


Fig. 3.4 Draft Layout 1, Week 6 (8/5/22)


Fig. 3.5 Draft Layout 2, Week 6 (8/5/22)


After Week 7's Feedback

Based on the feedback given, I have made some minor changed and adjustments to the layout and the stroke thickness of the letters.

Changes: Fixed the stroke thickness of "F" and elongated the letter "C"

Fig. 3.6 Edited Draft Layout, Week 7 (9/5/22)

Fig. 3.7 Edited Draft Layout 2, Week 7 (9/5/22)

Fig. 3.8 Edited Draft Layout 3, Week 7 (9/5/22)
  
New layout idea: The body texts are spread across two pages to allow more reading space. The type expression itself highlights on the word "Follow" where viewers are required to follow the black lines to see the "code". Part of the body text has been isolated from its main body text to express the line "Have you veered off course". A bar code has also been added to further emphasise on the word "code".

Fig. 3.9 New Draft Layout, Week 7 (9/5/22)
       
Difference: Change of position between the word "Code" and the isolated body text and barcode.

Fig. 3.10 New Draft Layout 2, Week 7 (9/5/22)


FINAL OUTCOMES:

Fig. 3.11 Task 2: Typographic Expression and Communication Final, Week 7 (9/5/22)


Font: Univers LT Std (Headline), Futura Std (body text)
Typeface: Univers LT Std (67 Bold Condensed), Futura Std (Bold, Medium and Heavy Oblique)
Font size:  135pt, 120 pt, 13 pt, 11 pt, 9pt
Leading: 12pt
Paragraph Spacing: 12pt
Average characters per line: 54 ~ 65
Alignment: Left-aligned
Margins: 12.7mm (top, left, right, bottom)
Columns: 2
Gutter (for columns): 5mm

FEEDBACK:
Week 7
Specific Feedback: Try to make the thickness of the stroke of letter "F" and "C" the same. The space above "C" can be filled by distorting the letter, maybe by elongating it slightly. Make sure to align the subtext with the body text and redjust the leading.
General Feedback: Can see what the type expression is trying to achieve following the headline. Not much problems in terms of layout. Can try to get inspiration from Paula Scher and have the text move a little by slanting it.

REFLECTIONS:
Experience
Working on this exercise allowed me to understand and get more familiar to doing type expressions and text formatting layout from our previous exercises. It was much easier to complete this task as we have already gotten used to doing the type expression in Adobe Illustrator and text formatting layout in Adobe InDesign. However, I also realised that there were some things that had to be done over Adobe Illustrator for the type expression, and it was my first time learning to import a file from Illustrator to InDesign. At first I was worried because the imported file seemed pixelated, but then I learned that I had to change the image properties to high quality. It was a good mistake for me to keep in mind for my future tasks and projects.

Observation
I have observed that even after watching the text formatting layout videos and doing the exercise in task 1, I still needed more practice as I have forgotten some rules that we had to follow. I rewatched the videos to refresh my memory and worked on my task 2 simultaneously, and in the end, I was able to experiment with different layouts on my own without the help of the videos anymore.

Findings
I realised that the type expressions we do have to reflect the contents of our text well while complementing the text layout that has been done. While doing this task, my biggest challenge was that I chose an editorial text that had a lot of characters compared to the other two. Initially, I chose the text because I had some good type expression ideas that I wanted to try. However, once I saw the length of the text, I had to redo the layout and type expression to make sure it was readable and not too cramped.

FURTHER READINGS:
Fig. 4.1 Letterforms: Typeface Design From Past To Future (2018)
  
Reference:
Samara, T (2018). Letterforms : Typeface Design From Past to
Future. Minneapolis : Rockport Publishers. 

Fig. 4.2 The Interrelationship of weight and width
Light and Dark (pg 116-117)

While working on this exercise, I found these 2 pages to be very helpful in making me understand the relationship between the weight and width of the characters. For example, when a character is more extended, the strokes become relatively heavier so that it appears to be the same weight as a more condensed counterpart. Vice versa, the more condensed a character, the lighter its strokes. It helped me understand why my type expression in my task 2 had different weights which prompted me to think of another way to solve my problem.


Fig. 4.3 Stroke Growth, Width, and Density
Light and Dark (pg 118- 119)

A continuation from the previous 2 pages, these 2 pages explains stroke growth, width and density of the characters. What I could observe is that the counters of the characters become smaller and more compressed when a character becomes heavier. While developing weight families, it is important to pay attention to the impact of weight and width variation on the overall spacing. This is because when the counters changes in size, so does the overall spacing within the characters.

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