Typography // Project 2A

6/10/2020 - 19/10/20 / Week 8 - Week 9
Gan Shin Tung / 0346455
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Project 2A Font Design

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Lectures: 

Week 7 : Text Analysis

This week Mr.Vinod and Mr.Shamsul introduce us about text analysis and how letters were formed. Mr.Vinod mentioned that typeface designers usually start off with the letter 'O' and 'H'. By doing text analysis we can find out that the letters were given spaces that were even in different angles. So as the height, thickness and the width. These were all being calculated before the typefaces where created. 

Figure 1.1 Letter 'O' Analysis

Figure 1.2 Letter 'H' Analysis

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Instruction: 

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ez2ML9nFG0GGNpYCY1pdzvK1cVw7jh2F/preview" width="640" height="480"></iframe>

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TASK

Project 2A : Font Design

For this project we have to come out with our own font design. First I sketch out some ideas of my own on paper. 

Figure 1.3 Sketches of Font Design (8/10/20)

After getting feedback from Mr.Vinod he prefers option 3. For my own opinion I actually liked all my designs. However, he did mentioned that option 3 is his own preference, I could try option 4 or 7. In the end I decided to work on 3 as I think 4 and 7 is more common to be seen. 

Figure 1.4 First Draft Font Design JPEG (12/10/20)

Figure 1.5 Final Font Design JPEG (13/10/20)

Figure 1.6 Final Font Design PDF (13/10/20)

Figure 1.7 Grids & Margins and Letters Merging (15/10/20)

Mr.Vinod suggested us to use a new software called FontLab7. This allows us to make our fonts more precise and it's a newer software. 

Figure 1.8 All Letters keyed in (19/10/20)

Figure 1.9 Spacing and Kerning (19/10/20)

Figure 2.0 Letter Forms Individually Spaced (19/10/20)

Figure 2.1 First Draft Poster Design JPEG(20/9/20)

Figure 2.2 Final Poster Design JPEG (20/10/2020)

Figure 2.3 Final Poster Design PDF (20/10/2020)

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Reflection:

Week 8: I put a lot of effort and patience doing the letter forms in Ai Illustrator. I zoom in one by one and checked the alignment between letters. I also measure the thickness of each letters so that they are the same. It was not easy, I respect people who invented type fonts.

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Feedback:

Week 8: 

Specific Feedback: Mr.Shamsul commented that my work was not bad however I need to fix my letter y and t. Others is fine. Mr.Vinod also mentioned that I should study the typefaces of letter forms in order to improve my letters.

Week 9 : 

Specific Feedback : Mr.Vinod point out that the instagram design is creative but not recommended to use it. Also there is typo on the type god. He also mentioned make use of the spaces and make the letters bigger so that it catches the eyes of the audience. Overall it was an excellent job, the punctuation symbols were done nicely.

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Further Reading:

History of Calligraphy

https://www.tmcnet.com/topics/articles/2019/09/24/443342-history-calligraphy.htm

The first human that had the idea of starting to write probably thought, right away, about how to make this new skill pleasant to the eye. Humans love beautiful, aesthetically pleasing things, and of course, this new art that engages the eye so much should also be as beautiful, lovely, as enticing to the eye as possible. Since the canvas to use was so small, the characters had to be written slightly slanted to be able to fit them all, which might be what gave origin to the cursive script. After this, it started to be used more often, in a more mainstream way during the 7th Century after Christ also in China, where Buddhist monks started copying manuscripts. The Qur'an started to be written in an increasingly elaborate and ornate way, and excerpts of the book with a beautiful, elaborate calligraphy started to be used in other art forms: clothing, paper, tiles, carpets, stone, jewelry... this love of calligraphy ended up creating two major styles: Kufic, the oldest and most flashy style, and Naskh, the smaller, more ornate style. Islamic calligraphy has continued evolving and evolving and didn't lose any popularity, to the point «calligraffiti», a mix of calligraphy and graffiti is a highly regarded art form in a lot of Islamic countries nowadays.When it comes to Western calligraphy, after the Romans, reading got taken from the masses again, and it became a sign of nobility.