Typography: Week 2

27/1/2016 (Week 2)

JOSHUA LOW WAI PENG (UIU 300 414 734)

Typography

Lecture:

On the third week of class, we started off by presenting the task that we had done for week 1. The purpose of presenting and explaining to everyone about the concept of the alphabet created is to gain feedback from Mr.Vinod and fellow classmate. “there is no right or wrong, as we have different perception towards everything we see” said Mr.vinod. Next, he teaches us about the anatomy of alphabets. We were then given the guidance and thoughts in redo-ing, creating a new alphabet using the asecender line, cap line, mean line, base line, and also the descender line. After that, Mr.vinod did a small activity using Pictionary, which students have to guess the words that are drawn out. Using the iPad to draw was not quite a success at first because of the tilting screen and it annoys all of us in the classroom. Lastly we went on by using the old skol method which is writing on the whiteboard. Before the class was about to end, Mr.vinod explained and assigned us with the second task.

Task 2 (15%): Type Design
You are to design a number of alphabets and punctuations, as determined by the teacher. You will begin by sketching and exploring a minimum of 3 options.

The sketches of the alphabets are to be submitted on A4 graph paper for selection. As always, you will understand, analyse and reflect on the knowledge acquired during the allotted weeks for the task in your ePortfolio.

Starting with the letter “o” design a string of alphabets of similar characteristics. The subsequent letters must spell your name and therefore the characteristics of the letters must represent your personality.

Read or view the teaching material below to understand:

How to design your own typeface
So you want to create a font
The Ultimate Guide on How to Create a Font

There are many more resources out there you may read, please do if you have the time.

Research:
i kick started my research by searching and having the insight of the history of fonts to get the idea of how did fonts evolves, from the time where Johann Gutenberg created a font in Gothic style in order to have fastening the progress in printing, up to the new era where post script by Adobe that consist of Type-1 and Type-3 fonts, starts to dominate. the website also provided me the insight of how fonts are developed, the measuring of the fonts,how its formed into a font and so forth. Different people have different types of font style with their own x-height. Also, in the early 90's, Adobe offered postscript to both Apple and Microsoft but both companies is reluctant to let each other to take control over a vital part of their operating system. both companies did not even want to pay the stiff royalties that Adobe has demanded. realizing they are stuck in the same situation, they decided to join forces. Hence, Apple will be the one to provide font technology and Microsoft will be the one coming up with an imaging technology which is similar to postscript. Besides that, i found out through a website point out that people misinterpret a font and a typeface. To clarify, a font is what u will be using, and a typeface is what you see/observe. but as time evolves, professionals suggest that both the term "font" and "typeface" can be used interchangeably.
source 1: http://www.prepressure.com/fonts/basics/history
source 2: https://www.vletter.com/help/font-faq/all-about-fonts.html
source 3: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3028971/whats-the-difference-between-a-font-and-a-typeface

other research:upon the learning process of the fonts, i googled up some of the fonts that is used in certain product.

The gaming gear company "Razer" uses a font which is unique because, on each alphabet, there is a straight line in between that kind of make the alphabet out of alignment.

another gaming gear company "Roccat" also features a unique design. A gap between each letter gradually expand till the end of the last alphabet. it also features a squarey font.

the logo of a company "herschel" that produces bag, has more curvy and continuity strokes which also make it simple, nice and easy to be read.

Font progression:

these are the few i came out with, hopefully there is still more ideas to come in creating the letter "O" as requested by Mr. Vinod.

i created few of this font which looks like it is out of place, not align according to my personality. the reason behind creating font that is either not aligned properly or square-ish is because, i do no like to follow orders and doing the same thing like others, I'm more of a person that likes to go beyond or do things differently in my own way. that is how you express yourself. on the other hand, the square-ish type show the side of me which i not only want to do thing my way, but i want to finish it in a perfect matter.

Experience:
Learning about different fonts allows me to gain more knowledge about origin of different fonts. in each fonts lies a different message that it would like to bring forth. i was able to draft out some of my own fonts and might put it into use. it may be another challenging task for me to pull through, but in each time during the learning process i pick up skills to think, draw, create something out of nothing.

Observation:
I still find myself not satisfy with the draft outcome because it wasn't drawn nicely.(kill me please). i think that is the cause of wanting to finishing something in a perfect way. i tried to draw lines by free hand and the out come was better than i expected it to be.

Findings:

 My freehand drawing is having some slight improvement as mentioned previously, i rely a lot on tools that is available. also i'm able to do things my own way for instants, using my own way to draw,create new patterns that is needed to accomplish the task given. 

Typography : Week 1

14/1/2016 (Week 1)
JOSHUA LOW WAI PENG (UIU 300 414 734)
Typography

Lecture: Basics and introduction of typography
 the first lecture session given by Mr. Vinod was about the general introduction of what typography is all about and also discussing the assignment outline with fellow students in the classroom. On that day itself, Mr. Vinod gave us our first task of assignment which is having the spare time to watch a 2 hour documentary on the history and the origin of alphabet. Also, students are required to design a 27^th letter and also write up a 250 word explanation behind the letter created.

Task 1 (5%): No 27.
Instructions: Your first task is to understand the written letter, its origins and evolution over time. You will complete viewing the following youtube video, understand, analyze and reflect on the knowledge in your e-Portfolio under the reflection tittle. Please view the sample e-portfolio to understand how to write your e-portfolio (and reflection).

After viewing the video and other videos of your own finding (please document the other videos you watched in your e-portfolio under the lecture title) design the 27th alphabet. You will present this new letter to the class and describe your thinking or reasoning for its introduction.

Please draw the final 27th letter on an A4 graph paper using black marker or ink. Ensure that the letter is centered within the A4 graph paper and does not exceed 7cm in height or width. Please document the entire process; research, explorations, trial and errors, thoughts and epiphanies in your e-portfolio.

Marking criteria: You will be judged on your creativity: the rationale (in writing 250 words) behind the 27th letter and the argument for its consideration. The aesthetic appeal of the shape of the letter and the process work behind the outcome. It’s visual and logical relevance when compared to the other 26 letters.

Main research:
 my primary source was following back or going back to the basics where all I take the 26 letters as my references. In the video that the lecturer provided, I notice that each letters was then simplified into a square box or half a square box to keep it tidy and in order. I also notice that the last few alphabets such as “W, X, Y, Z” does not have any curve patterns, hence I tried to follow so the continuity of the pattern is present.

Below are the sketches that i did before proceeding in choosing the final outcome.

             

top left- diagram 1
top right- diagram 2
bottom left- diagram 3
bottom right- diagram 4

Other research done:
I tried to think outside the box by referring and getting some inspiration from the alphabet used in the movie “The hobbit” created by J. R. R. TOLKIEN. The language he creates was referred to as the “Elvish” language. As you can see, the tolkien language's alphabet was also created using the same concept which is writing in the "box". some of the alphabets takes up half of the box, some occupied fully. it may seems easy to write one of these alphabets, but it may not be easy to understand and memories at first glance.

diagram 5 shows that the respective alphabet created by Tolkien to replace the roman letters.

Final outcome:

I chose this as my final 27^th letter design because with just a few strokes, you are able to write it out. It also stays within the concept of writing in a “box”. It was perfectly align and utilizing almost the full box. Reason of choosing this as my finalize letter is because of the patterns that maintain the continuity of the letter “Z” which did not have any curves in the letter itself. I tried to keep it as simple as possible so that the pattern can be easily recognized and to remember about it.  In terms of the pronunciation of the letter, I came out with term “zie”. When the pronunciation is being projected, it may start with the sounding of “Xha”. Maybe this can replace letters that starts from Z but has sounding like X”. For instants, ZIG-(xha)ag. This is by far a concept of what I’ve been trying to accomplish.

FEEDBACK:Joshua, your research was ok, could do with a little more, do look at Derry's eportfolio as an example. The letterforms you created in my opinion was to complicated with too many strokes. Your rationale underpinning the letter may be acceptable.

Reflection
Experience: it was very challenging to create the 27^th letter as we are already dealing with 26 letters since the day we are born. When creating a new letter, everything looks the same, or it shapes up really weird and you don’t really like it, this doesn’t really fall in place.

Observation: I never knew that thinking and creating a new letter will crack my head so hard in thinking and exploring different types of patterns and strokes because I have to keep in mind that it has to be simple, in the “box”, and pattern recognition is easy for people to remember. But once I drew the “right” one, I felt it suits the place as the 27^th letter. So, I went with the design that I finalize. It just feels right for me. Through the process of drawing and sketching out the letter, I notice that I like to draw things until I get it perfect, then only I will proceed to color the letter.

Findings: I found out that my brain storming method needs improving and also needs more broaden perspective and not just sticking on one side of the page. Also, i need to practice on sketching to further improve my free hand drawing and not relying on tools.