Advanced Typography / Task 3
23/11/2024- 2/1/2024 (week 8-week 14)
ZHANG HANYUAN/0363727/Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media
Advanced Typography/Taylors University
Task 3/Type exploration & Application
INSTRUCTION
Task 3-Type exploration & Application
week 9
Proposal
For Task 3, we were tasked with developing a typeface based on one of three approaches:
- Design a typeface that aims to solve a broader problem or contribute to a solution within your area of interest.
- Investigate and explore current letterforms related to your area of interest.
- Create an experimental design.
We were then asked to submit a proposal outlining our ideas for our chosen approach.
Here is the introduction to my proposal:
Fig.1.1 Proposal (November 17, 2024)
After talking to Vinod sir in class, I chose the second extension of IDEA 1 font.
Visual Research
My goal was to design a cyber-themed font. I drew inspiration from similar fonts online, understanding their glyph structure and stroke thickness. I merged and combined the elements of inspiration into a computer for digital optimization. This method allowed me to combine creativity with precision to create a refined final work, which is also a creative method I have always been eager to try.
fig.1.2 Inspirational pictures
Digitalization
Before AI digitization, I noticed that the elements of the fonts in my inspiration were very diverse. They were all in the cyber style, but showed different element styles (eg. futuristic style, glitch style). Then I intercepted different elements from them, spliced them, and merged them into new fonts.
fig.1.3 Geometric and irregular shaped elements
Then I used the Line Segment Tool to draw a lot of lines to frame the spelled out fonts, and finally used the Shape Generator to connect them to make the final new font.
fig.1.4 New font for connection
week 10
This week Mr. Vinod asked us to make the 26 uppercase letters.
First I made the A in Adobe Illustrator, referring to the elements in the inspiration, then extracted the diamond and trapezoid elements in the box, and then made the G, and then integrated them into each letter step by step.
I also added guides and grids so that I could better control the size and thickness of all the uppercase letters.
These are the original 26 capital letters. In class, Mr. Vinod thought my font was too small and wanted to put it on a 1000pt*1000pt drawing board.
fig.1.6 Wrong (random artboard size)
1000pt*1000pt drawing board.
fig.1.7
fig.1.8
week 11
This week, Vinod sir asked us to write 26 lower case letters, numbers and all punctuation marks.
Then use the same method to create the font using the straight line segment tool.
fig.1.9 Font creation process
fig.1.10 Initial attempts
Mr. Vinod thought that my numbers did not need to be changed, and that my lowercase letters were still too small and needed to be lengthened.
fig.1.11 Adjust lowercase letter size
During the class, Vinod sir felt that the elements and appearance of the capital letters I wrote were different from the lowercase letters and needed to be expressed in the same style, as he preferred the appearance of the lowercase letters.
First attempt after modification
This is the final combination of uppercase and lowercase.
fig.1.13 Final combination (uppercase and lowercase)
This is the final number and all punctuation.
fig.1.14 Final combination （number and all punctuation）
Font Lab Process:
After finishing all the letters, I started working in Font lab 8.I imported all the letters into fontlab.I named this font cyber.
fig.1.15 Screenshot of Fontlab
When I did the margin adjustments I noticed that some of the letters were in a weird position and the overall feeling was loose, then I realised that the reason was that I had forgotten to adjust the height of some of the letters, resulting in some letters being lower at the top than others.
fig.1.16 Resizing in fontlab
fig.1.17 Adjust margins in fontlab
After I adjusted and tested all the letters in the font lab, I typed in all the upper and lower case letters as well as the numbers. Checked the height and margins.
fig.1.18
I did try typing in some words to test the font.
fig.1.19
Then I exported the font through Font Lab.
fig.1.20 Font Information
Week 12
This week, Mr. Vinod asked to complete all the tasks in task 3.
Font Presentation and ApplicationAfter exporting the font, I started creating a rendering of the font, looking for inspiration for the color scheme on COLOUR HUNT.
fig.1.21 Color Plate
This color scheme ensures the overall beauty and readability of the font.
For Font Presentation, I made some background designs and used sentences composed of letters to display them, and for Application, I made some extended designs to be used in subsequent product applications.
fig.1.22 Five font representations and five font applications designs
Final Result
Download fonts here:
Font
fig.1.23 All fonts
Font Presentation
fig.1.24 uppercase
fig..1.25 lowercase
fig.1.26 number
fig.1.27 symbol
fig.1.28 Group sentences
Font Application
fig.1.29 Application1 Subway billboards
fig.1.30 Application2 Mug
fig.1.31 Application3 Three boxes
fig.1.32 Application4 Signs
fig.1.33 Application5 Sports sweatshirt
fig.1.34 Font Presentation and Application PDF
Feedback
Week 9
General Feedback:
Submit your proposal for Task 3 to Mr. Vinod this week.
Week 10
Specific feedback：Mr. Vinod thought that my capital letters were too small, about the same size as the lowercase letters. Mr. Vinod suggested that I adjust the drawing board to 1000pt x 1000pt, and let me use three auxiliary lines on the drawing board to define the capital letters. Top line (top line), middle line (x-height line) and bottom line (Baseline).
General Feedback: The artboard size should be 1000pt x 1000pt, with the width and height of capital letters around 200mm.
Week 11
General Feedback：
The font still needs to be adjusted.
Specific Feedback：
Vinod sir suggested that I re-do the 26 capital letters with lowercase look, adjust the letters and finalize the size of different letters.
Week 12
General Feedback:
Complete Task 3 by next week.
Experience
This project was my first time creating a complete font, and it was a brand new experience. Throughout the process, I encountered many challenges and difficulties, but it also gave me the opportunity to grow. I am really grateful for this experience, which allowed me to understand the process of designing a complete font.
Observation
This complete font making allowed me to observe many new things about fonts, which is different from the simple making of a few letters in the first semester. This complete font requires us to observe and adjust the size and position of each letter, as well as the margins when they are paired.
Finding
This time, I realized that making a great font requires a lot of experimentation and adjustments, and font making can be a very long and exhausting process. At first I thought making a font was a very simple task, but when I actually did it, I realized how difficult it was.
Further reading:
Garamond (1500–1567) was the most distinguished type designer of his time, perhaps of the entire Renaissance period. A true typographic innovator, he was instrumental in the adoption of Roman typeface designs in France as a replacement for the commonly used Gothic, or blackletter , fonts. In 1530, his fi rst Roman type appeared in Paraphrais in Elgantiarum Libros Laurentii Vallae. He also was one of the fi rst type designers to create obliqued capitals to complement an italic lowercase.
fig.1.35 Gran Jon font
In the mid- and late-1970s, ITC released Korinna and Galliard. The former was based on a turn-of-the-century Berthold design updated and revived by Benguiat. Matthew Carter designed the latter— based on a sixteenth-century design by Robert Granjon —for Linotype , but later licensed it to ITC in 1982. In between these two releases, IBM introduced the IBM 3800, the fi rst commercially available laser printer for use with its mainframes.
fig.1.36 ITC Korinna,ITC galliard
In 2000 and 2001, Agfa purchased the ITC type library and created Agfa Monotype, a merger of Agfa Typographic Systems and Monotype Typography. The Gotham typeface family, by Tobias Frere-Jones, was released.
fig.1.37 Gotham Font
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