Typography- Task 3B: Type Design and Communication

on

6/6/2022- 20/6/2022 / Week 11 - Week 13
Chuah Kwai Pin / 0348376
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University 
Task 3B: Type Design and Communication 

LECTURES:


INSTRUCTIONS:



Task 3B: Type Design and Communication

To do:
Express typographically a social message, greeting or the like that is relevant to the campus community at Taylor's University or society at large.

1. Research lettering
2. Read task brief in Module Info
3. Select greeting
4. Sketch out 5 options
5. 512 pixel size of final artwork
6. Design lettering with only B&W first
7. Once approved, introduce Taylor's colour ( Red, White & Black)
8. Only flat tones allowed, no gradients
9. Use the Taylor's mark in the sticker

Students are not allowed to use existing typefaces directly since this is a lettering exercise. However, using an existing typeface and modifying it is allowed.

1) Visual Research
To start off, I went onto Pinterest to find some interesting lettering designs. From the lettering arts I have found, most of them focused only on the lettering itself and had little to no graphical elements. 

Fig. 1.1 Visual Research 1, Week 11 (6/6/22)

Fig. 1.2 Visual Research 2, Week 11 (6/6/22)

Fig. 1.3 Visual Research 3, Week 11 (6/6/22)


Fig. 1.4 Visual Research 4, Week 11 (6/6/22)

2) Sketches
My chosen greeting was "Have A Good Day!". Since it is not a celebration nor a festival, I was worried that I will not be able to express it well enough. However, I just sketched out whatever I had in mine that could work and then later on focus on its details and lettering.

Fig. 2.1 Sketch 1, Week 11 (6/6/22)

After the feedback session given on Week 10, I realised that I did not really fulfil the lettering part of the exercise but focused more on the idea and stacking arrangement instead. Hence, I made another 5 more sketches with varying letterings that can express the greeting well.
Fig. 2.2 Sketch 2, Week 11 (10/6/22)

3) Digitisation
Once I have done my sketches, I moved on to the digitisation part. For my new sketches, since I have not received feedback for that, I have digitised a few of them just to see which one can work or might not work.

Fig. 3.1 B&W Digitisation of some sketches, Week 11 (10/6/22)

Fig. 3.2 Experiment with colours, Week 11 (10/6/22)

After Week 12's Feedback
During the feedback session given, Mr. Vinod suggested altering the edges of the Taylor's Mark by giving the edges a little wave so it does not look too rigid.

Fig. 4.1 Altering Taylor's Mark, Week 12 (13/6/22)

I then proceeded to further develop my 2 selected ideas. We were only limited to 3 main colours, red, black and white but we could incorporate different shades of those colours as well. 

Fig. 4.2 First attempt and digitisation and colouring, Week 11 (10/6/22)
Fig. 4.3 Second attempt at digitisation and colouring, Week 12 (13/6/22)

I gave a white background space to the first idea and replaced the black and white Taylor's mark to the altered one. For the second idea, I tried to maximize the given white space as much as possible and curved the ending stroke of the letter "y" into a heart do that it can take up the remaining space at the bottom as well. 

After comparing the two ideas, I felt that the first idea had more potential because it had lesser white space and I like the thumbs up element used to replace the letter "d". Hence, I chose to focus on that idea and tried to add some flat tone highlights to make it pop out. I replaced the solid red colour into another 2 shades that look more pink so that it is not too jarring.

Fig. 4.4 Further developing idea 1, Week 12 (13/6/22)

Fig. 4.5 Giving 2 shades of red to "good", Week 12 (13/6/22)

I sectioned the letters using a line, curvature tool and divide path and then recoloured them into the 2 shades of red. I felt that using these 2 shades made it more interesting and fun rather than just sticking to 1 shade. Since "good" is the only word that is coloured, more emphasis is given to it therefore it plays an important role in bringing out the goodness of this greeting.

Fig. 4.6 Importing sticker png to Telegram, Week 12 (13/6/22)

After finalising my sticker, I searched online for a way to add my sticker into Telegram. That was when I found out about StickerBot which provided me a list of commands through text for me to follow. When I tried to upload my png file, it told me that it is not 512 x 512px in dimension. I had to open up Adobe Photoshop and readjust it so that it fits.

Fig. 4.7 Testing out sticker, Week 12 (13/6/22)

Once the sticker was added into my sticker pack, I tested it out on my friend and the outcome turned out pretty good. There were no problems with the white background. At first I was afraid it will look too pixelated or it might appear too small after resizing it on Photoshop, but it was all good.

After Week 13's Feedback
During the feedback session given, Mr. Vinod suggested to add a grey shadow that sits just below the words and try out the tonality used in "good" for the white background.

Fig. 5.1 Attempt on the grey tonality in the background, Week 13 (20/6/22)

Fig. 5.2 Attempt on adding grey shadow for the words, Week 13 (20/6/22)

After adding the new changes, I readjusted the size to 512 x 512px on Adobe Photoshop and then added the sticker using /addsticker command on StickerBot.

Fig. 5.3 Testing out sticker 2, Week 13 (20/6/22)

I then tested out the sticker again on my friend and I think this new version is better than my first attempt as it looks less flat and more eye-catching.

FINAL OUTCOMES:
Fig. 6.1 Final Digitisation B&W 1, Week 13 (21/6/22)


Fig. 6.2 Final Digitisation B&W 2, Week 13 (21/6/22)


Fig. 6.3 Final Digitisation Coloured, Week 13 (21/6/22)



Fig. 6.4 Final Task 3B- Type Design and Communication- PDF, Week 13 (21/6/22)

Fig. 6.5 Screenshot of sticker on Telegram, Week 13 (21/6/22)

Link for sticker pack: https://t.me/addstickers/TypoGoodDay

FEEDBACK:

Week 11
Specific Feedback: The stacking for #5 in Fig. 2.1 Sketch 1 is quite decent and can be experimented further.
General Feedback: Spend more time drawing out the lettering instead of just using the same brush and stroke thickness to draw.

Week 12
Specific Feedback: The second option with the thumbs up gives off a sense of goodness in it. The Taylor's Mark can be slightly altered to make the edges wavy. The fourth option with the calendar is a good idea, but the words "Good Day" has to maximise the space in the calendar.
General Feedback: Make sure to resize the sticker to 512 px and create an outline of 7pt around your sticker.

Week 13
Specific Feedback: Try to add a light shadow similar to the rest of the words and also incorporate the tonality of the word "good" to the white background using light grey and white.
General Feedback: Good job on the overall sticker.

REFLECTIONS:

Experience
This was my first time doing a lettering exercise and although it was a struggle at first, I was quite satisfied with the final outcome. Out all of the tasks we have done for this module, this exercise was the only one that required us to work on a small artboard (512x 512 px). It was a challenge to maximize the space as much as possible with just mainly lettering and minor illustrations.
Observation
While working on the lettering, I realised that the colours red, black and white are quite limiting. At first, I only tried with pure red, but when I found out that we could use shades of red, I attempted using 2 shades of pink. The tonality definitely made the overall sticker stand out more. After making the sticker in just black, white and 2 shades of pink, I still felt that it was a little flat. I then looked through existing lettering stickers and noticed that many of them had highlights or shadows applied to the words. I then tried it out on my own sticker, and surprisingly it looks more dynamic than before.
Finding
At first, I thought this task would be relatively easier compared to Task 2 and Task 3A because it did not have a lot guidelines to follow. However, when it comes to thinking about the lettering and minor illustrations, it was difficult to manage because we had to maximize as much of the space given in 512 x 512px. There was definitely a lot more to take into consideration, such as the artboard size in Adobe Illustrator not being accurate and we had to readjust it in Adobe Photoshop.

FURTHER READING:

Fig. 7.1 Letterforms: Typeface Design From Past To Future (2018)
Reference:
Samara, T (2018). Letterforms : Typeface Design From Past to
Future. Minneapolis : Rockport Publishers. 

Fig. 7.2 Digital Manipulation
New Tools, New Options

In these 2 pages, it explained and showed how letterforms can be manipulated using functions such as distortion or warping, some filter operations  or even just by selecting points or segments around a type form and moving them around. Some of the manipulations can also be achieved using transformations such as scaling, warping and shearing which can be found in editing softwares. I found the information here to be quite helpful for this lettering task as we were a given an option to use existing typefaces and modify them.

Fig. 7.3 Feelings Made Visual
Telling Stories

After reading through these 2 pages, I find that it is helpful for our lettering exercise as it explains how different letterforms gives out different impressions. For instance, as mentioned in page 186, the form language of a typeface is derived from the stroke-and-counter alteration, weight, width, and details which carries nonpictorial narrative. To give an example, impressions of elegance and romance usually have typeface styles that are lighter and more linear. Whereas bold and thick ones give an impression of aggressiveness and loudness. By understanding this, we can express our greeting better by making sure the lettering we have created gives off the intended impression when sending the sticker to others.
 

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