Advanced Typography

Posted by Jasmine Teoh May 21, 2019

Advanced Typography - Project 1

7/5/19 - 21/5/19 (Week 6 to Week 8)

Jasmine Teoh Lee Suan (0331993)

Advanced Typography
Project 1: Key Artwork for The Troublemakers Manifesto: A Design Colloquium

Instructions:

Module Information Booklet:

Lecture Notes:

Week 6 (7/5/19)

Today's lecture was about finding inspiration in typeface design. I took some notes as my friends were presenting on the topic.

Typeface Design

1. Inspiration Methods:

Oratorical Type - folding of paper
Black & White Ink Font - ink spreading
Dot Line Face Combination
Bodoni

2. Tips From the Top Floor - taking photographs of the objects around us

3. How to implement inspirations into design

Takes immense skill - sometimes designers
Deconstruct
Embrace imperfections
Inspired by everything around him - keep a list to all teh ideas
Look at art
Longevity of design - important

Our lecturers also gave some advice after the lecture:

Start seeing like this
Final project that has significance - interests you - functional but experimental - create something out of the world
Mentality to nurture your time - more diligent - better you will be
Deconstructed painting process

These are the slides made by our classmates who presented on this topic.

We also got a brief for project 1 and 2 by our lecturers. These are the notes I took down:

Project 1:

1. Suggest to create the artworks - photography - artwork

2. The conference seeks to provoke inner dialogue of one's beliefs and to create a new paradigm shift through alternative viewpoints.

3. Troublemakers often make others feel uncomfortable. They challenge the norm, they question establishments rules and the status quo. This tension is needed to break the monotony brought about by societal conformity to the diktats of those wielding influence (provoke change).

4. Showcase work:

Explain do what they do
Manifesto - forward looking
Development of idea is concept
Use the knowledge from typography
Communicating is most important - but must have creativity
Picture must be developed
Usually 50-50

5. Key artwork

Key word - Troublemakes
Informational content
8-12 font size

Project 2

Printing artwork
Slight variation in application process

Week 7 (14/5/19)

Today's lecture was about designing type. I took some notes as my friends were presenting on the topic.

Designing Type

1. Outline a Design Brief

2. Things to Consider

Ascender height
X-height
Cap height
Baseline
Descender height
Overshoot
Kerning - visually spaced correctly

3. Specifying target audience

4. Letter Constructions - Construction in squares, lines, circles

5. Anatomy of Type

Better understanding how type is created
Leg
Arm - horizontal stroke that doesn't connect to a stem
Stem and Arc of Stem
Shoulder
Ascender
Descender
Cross stroke

These are the slides made by our classmates who presented on this topic.

Project 1:

## This is the google document that contains all my research and inspiration sources on this key artwork project, also contains the original images I used for the previous key artworks. I decided to compile them here so that the blog post would be more focused on my development of key artwork and the ideas/rationale of my key artwork.

Week 6 (7/5/19)

#1st Attempt/ Idea: Monkeys

My first attempt for the key artwork was monkeys because I felt that monkeys were troublemakers through and through, disrupting people's lives and climbing into houses, but the reason they do it is because we humans destroy their natural habitat therefore they venture into our areas and cause trouble.

Figure 1.1 1st Attempt - Monkeys

Figure 1.2 1st Attempt - Monkeys

Figure 1.3 1st Attempt - Monkeys

Week 7 (14/5/19)

After getting feedback, I did more research on what troublemakers could imply, and found that there are troublemakers that cause trouble but for a good intention. I found that to be quite an interesting read up and gained inspiration from there. I decided to look at protestors for the rights of their kind, or for those causing "trouble" and commotion on the streets and in public to fight for their rights.

#2nd Attempt/ Idea: Sudanese Woman

I read up about an article on this Sudanese woman bravely standing up for her and the rights of other women in Sudan here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/09/inspiring-protester-khartoum-becomes-symbol-of-resistance-for-sudanese-women

Figure 2.1 2nd Attempt- Sudanese Woman

I felt like this idea wasn't strong enough and relatable towards the design colloquium we were making the key artwork for, besides it being some random woman that just decided to protest, so I went back to the drawing board again.

#3rd Attempt/ Idea: Social protestors with masks and smoke bombs

I liked the idea of protestors using gas masks and smoke bombs to carry out demonstrations at first, so I started working on my key artwork with the idea that these people rebel against the government and break the rules to achieve something great, which was kind of like designers who break the rules of design and think outside of the box, who aren't afraid to challenge the status quo in order to bring in great creations and results in design.

Figure 3.1 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.2 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.3 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.4 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.5 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.6 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.7 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.8 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.9 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.10 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.11 3rd Attempt

Figure 3.12 3rd Attempt

Week 8 (21/5/19)

#4th Attempt/ Idea: Vendetta Masks

After feedback was given, I focused on the vendetta mask only and started working on the type interplay, but it was really not easy for me to incorporate the type with a round mask.

Figure 4.1 4th Attempt

Figure 4.2 4th Attempt

Figure 4.3 4th Attempt

Figure 4.4 4th Attempt

Figure 4.5 4th Attempt

I felt so lost with this one and I decided to break free from the protestant mask / vendetta mask concept as I was stuck in the mud and had no idea how to progress. I also really didn't like what I was doing after I did it, therefore I decided to look at the whole thing again with a fresh start.

Week 9 (28/5/19)

#5th Attempt/ Idea: Graffiti Artists

So here's my 5th try on my key artwork, and I honestly liked this idea way more than the previous ones. I feel like I was going somewhere finally.

Figure 5.1 5th Attempt

Figure 5.2 5th Attempt

Figure 5.3 5th Attempt

Figure 5.4 5th Attempt

Figure 5.5 5th Attempt

Figure 5.6 5th Attempt

Figure 5.7 5th Attempt

Figure 5.8 5th Attempt

Figure 5.9 5th Attempt

Figure 5.10 5th Attempt

Figure 5.11 5th Attempt

#6th Attempt/ Idea: Troublemaker Devil

Again, after feedback, whilst I was working on the interplay of the 5th attempt, I instead deleted the whole graffiti artist and the spray can, leaving the devil horns in the letter O. The lecturers said that I didn't need those extra graphics as my element was there already, and I just needed to arrange the composition better, adding some details here and there.

Figure 6.1 6th Attempt

Figure 6.2 6th Attempt

Figure 6.3 6th Attempt

Figure 6.4 6th Attempt

Figure 6.5 6th Attempt

Figure 6.6 6th Attempt

Figure 6.7 6th Attempt

Figure 6.8 6th Attempt

Figure 6.9 6th Attempt

Figure 6.10 6th Attempt

Figure 6.11 6th Attempt

Figure 6.12 6th Attempt

Figure 6.13 6th Attempt

FINAL KEY ARTWORK:

Figure 7.1 Final Key Artwork

Theme/Idea behind the key artwork:

The name 'Satan' (the troublemaker in Hebrew) is also known as the devil. People admire the devil for his shrewd intelligence and rebellion against God, an authority who asked him to go against his own beliefs. In the design world, 'rules' of design have been set, and sometimes, to create something extraordinary, we have to go beyond these rules and boundaries to get to that stage, even if it's going against the rules set for years and years. If that is what you believe in, go ahead and become a troublemaker and rebel against the rule of design, just like how the devil did to the rules of God.

In my key artwork, I've incorporated the essence of the devil into the word 'Troublemaker', with the letter 'O' as the devil's head, adding on the devil horns to it, and the letter 'S' as the tail. I gave the key artwork a printed texture, where the context is that the artwork has been printed out on a surface, like some sort of manifesto. The letters in the key artwork have an effect on them to be made to look uncomfortable and unsettling, as that is what troublemakers make others feel.

I experimented on inverting the black and white in my key artwork as I made my collateral, and updated the black version of my key artwork:

Figure 7.1 Final Key Artwork (Black)

Feedback:

Week 6:
General Feedback: Overall we have improvement in our type compared to the last batch, our posters also have increment in improvement. We can work on the exercises if we want to, and show them our progress in the future. But our main focus is Project 1, and we should work on it and present our key artwork by next week. We will find it quicker to work on Exercise 1 as we'll be implementing what we've done in our exercises and our Sem 1 into this project.

Week 7:
Specific Feedback: The lecturers said that the images I chose to represent my key artwork, baby monkeys, are too cute to imply the message of troublemaker visually. They then suggested me to read up about green peace movement and get inspiration from banksy art.

General Feedback: We were reminded that we were given 2 weeks to make sure our key artwork works as we will only have another 1 week for collateral which contains a lot of procedures. We must be clear in our head what kind of troublemaker we're looking at, what does he do and what the event is about. We should also communicate creativity in key artwork. We were told to read more, more so that we'll understand the concept and meaning of troublemaker implied for this event. We should also identify the paraphernalia and use them as assets in our designs (like bands on the arms, masks smoke bombs etc).

Week 8:
Specific Feedback: I showed the lecturers my progress on the vendetta mask key artwork, which I didn't really like myself but I was stuck on it so I hoped for some feedback, and they told me to get rid of the smoke as it was not necessary. Mr Vinod said that if my concept was the vendetta mask then maybe I should focus on just that instead. I worked on the vendetta mask and the type interplay after that, and showed the lecturers once again but they said that the type interplay was not enough and showed me some posters with good interplay on our Typography Facebook group. I felt that this direction I was taking was leading me nowhere therefore I decided to rethink my concept and come out with another one.

Friday Feedback: I went to university again on Friday to consult with the lecturers on my new key artwork and the criticism given was that the spray cans made the key artwork look like it was for a graffiti event instead of a design seminar. As for other comments, Mr Vinod said that once again my interplay with type wasn't strong enough and that I could be more bold about it and experiment bigger instead of keeping it safe.

Week 9:
Specific Feedback: I showed the lecturers my progress on the graffiti artist key artwork and Mr Vinod suggested to take away the images of the graffiti artist and the spray cans, as I already have the concept in my type, which is the devil's horns and tail that symbolizes a troublemaker, I just needed to rearrange the composition and make better use of the space in between the letters. They also suggested for me to add minimal effects to the type so that it won't look too straight and neat. Mr Vinod showed me an example of this printed design and suggested for me to extract the texture effect of that print and transcribe it into my work, which I tried out.

Reflections:

Experience:
Week 7: I felt like I should have done more research before delving into the artwork and wasting time on it.
Week 8: I felt clueless and confused as I did the type interplay for my vendetta mask key artwork, I really didn't know what to do about it.

Observations:
Week 7: I could see that lots of my classmates had similar ideas for their key artworks.
Week 8: I noticed that there were other classmates who were stuck on their key artwork like me.

Findings:
Week 7: I realized that reading helps give inspiration and broaden our minds, also making us think more critically on whatever subject we're thinking of.
Week 8: I realized that when you're stuck on something, it's better to let it go and start anew than to spend time trying to fix it but get no progress out of it.

Further Reading:

1. The Effects of Font Type Choosing on Visual Perception and Visual Communication by İsmail Hakkı Nakilcioğlu

From this journal, I learned that visual communication is important as it enables us to communicate with people who speak different languages, even though it might be limited compared to actual languages themselves. Even so, graphic design exists to convey messages through images and icons, which makes messages easier and quick to understand, examples are symbols that can be understood universally.

I also learnt that each font has its distinct language and meaning to it. Some fonts are usually suitable with all kinds of writing and telling, some are only eligible to give certain messages. Moreover, some fonts are designed for writing whereas some are only of a decorative nature. The journal gives examples of different styles of font on one word, explaining how each font differs from each other in a perceptional point of view.