TYPOGRAPHY - EXERCISE

29.08.2019
Joseph (336620)
Typography
Exercises

---

LECTURES

Lecture 1 : Introduction to Typography

We started the semester off with an introduction to the module and what to expect in the coming weeks. We are then expected to create a blogger account or an e-portfolio as people call it to insert or showcase our future projects and exercises throughout the semester, to make things easier for new semester students, a sample was given as a guideline for us to follow  Mr. Vinod has also inform us of the materials that is needed for the upcoming activities and task that is to be done before the next meeting or the next class - A4 graph papers and 3.0 Artline Drawing Pen. However before that, Mr. Vinod began with power pointed introduction to Typography.


Due to my undersstanding, typography is a step or procedure of  arranging type or processing data and printing from it, a way to make writings readable and eligible for looking and writing. Due to its course and journey of 500 years, it has change the way of making typography and creating typography from calligraphy to lettering, and to the term that we now know today which is typography.



Terminology

Font - "Foundry" the process of creation of a certain typeface.

Typeface - A individual part or a part of a typefamily

TypeFamily - A completed set of related typeface with similarities of characteristics.

---

Lecture 2: Basics /Describing Letterform
05.09.18 (Week 2)

We studied parts of certain letterforms.

Median - The imaginary line defining the x-height of letterforms.

Baseline - The imaginary line the visual base of letterforms.

X - Height -  The height in any typeface of the lowercase x.

Leg - Short stroke off the stem of the letterform.

Ligature - The character formed by the combination of 2 or more letterforms.

Link - The stroke that connects the bowl and the loop of a lowercase G.

Loop - In some typefaces, the bowl created in the descender of the lowercase G.

Serif - The right-angled or oblique foot at the end of the stroke.

Shoulder -  The curved stroke that is not part of a bowl.

Spine - The curved stem of the S.

Spur - The extension the articulates the junction of the curved and rectilinear stroke.

Stem - The significant vertical or oblique stroke.

Stress - The orientation of a letterform, indicated by the thin strokes in round forms.

Swash -  The flourish that extends the stroke of the letterform.

Tail - The curved diagonal stroke at the finish of certain letterforms.

Terminal - The self-contained finish of a stroke without a serif.

Uppercase Letters - Capital Letters.

Lowercase Letters - Minuscule Letters.

---

Lecture 3 

We continued doing our exercise with the hand that we've chosen.

Instruction

---

EXERCISES

Calligraphy 1 (Week 1)

This week 's exercise is using the Artline calligraphy pen 3.0 and draw horizontal, vertical and circular strokes. By practicing regularly, we are able to get used to draw with the pen even more.

Lines Practice Fig 1.1

My final work on lines Fig 1.2

Lines Practice Fig 1.3

Calligraphy Exercise ( Week 2 )
On week 2 we are suppose to pick and attempt to learn the writing styles. There were Chancery, Uncial, Blackletter, and Roundhand. I chose Chancery.

Chancery Hand Fig 1.4

Calligraphy ( Week 3 )

Practice Fig 1.5

This week exercise requires us to write phrases on a white paper using the writing styles that we chose.

Practice Fig 1.6

Fig 1.7 Final Outcome

That was my final outcome for my calligraphy exercise.



Lettering (Week 4)
This week's exercise is to create our own name that reflects our personality.

Fig 2.1

I thought about what is my personality when I did the lettering, at first I was trying to express patience at first, but then I looked at how disorganized and childish I am, so I made it childish instead.

Animated Lettering (Week 5)
In this week we animated our lettering that we created during week 4.

Fig 2.2 Lettering Expression - ( Childish )

So I created this animated lettering to show childishness through my animation.


Animated Type Expression (Week 6)
This week exercise is to create an expression of 6 words chosen by us, those words are sparkle, heavy, blur, rage, float, tall.

Fig 2.3 Type Expressions

I did another version of this because this wasn't approved and I did another one in the final week.

Fig 2.4 Reworked Version of Type Expressions

We are then required to animate one of the words, I chose sparkle to animate.

Fig 2.4

I also did another GIF for sparkles.

Text Formatting - Kerning and Letterspacing ( Week 7 )

For our next exercise, we were taught to use a new program called Adobe InDesign, in this exercise we were taught to format texts that are left aligned, right aligned, justified, and centered. We also had to do it using those 10 typefaces that Mr. Vinod gave us. This is what we did.

Fig 2.6 Centered Align

Fig 2.7 Justified.

Fig 2.8 Left Aligned

Fig 2.9 Right Aligned

Feedback 

Week 1 
My lines were very messy and imbalance, Mr. Vinod said that my lines needed much more improving.


Week 2
Mr. Shamsul mentioned that some of my Chancery letters were a bit off. Some were inconsistent. However Mr. Vinod that needed more control of the writing style.

Week 3
Mr. Vinod mentioned that I lacked total control of the Chancery writing style, he mentioned that I needed more practice to master this writing style.

Week 4
Mr. Shamsul said that my lettering did not reflect on what I was trying to reflect which is calm, Mr. Shamsul gave me some ideas as to how am I going to reflect calmness.

Week 5
Mr. Shamsul said that my animation didn't have to be complex, it just needed to be more simple like jumping up and down.

Week 6
On my first attempt Mr. Vinod said that I've failed to expressed anything at all on those words.

---

Reflections

---

Experiences


Week 1
I find it very fascinating learning about the history of Typography, although I'll admit that I fell asleep halfway through the class.

Week 2
It was interesting getting to learn how to write certain writing styles, it was very hard at first but nevertheless it was still fun learning how to write the writing styles.

Week 3
It was very difficult to get consistent writing and consistent space control in between those lines.

Week 4

I had a hard time figuring out what style of name should I be using to express my personality.

Week 5
It was annoying animating  the letters frame by frame.

Week 6
It was stressful making it work.




Observations

Week 1
It was quite hard doing all these things because most of the work are time consuming, I realized I needed to put in extra work if I were to keep up with the lessons.

Week 2
I noticed that maintaining a consistent writing is harder than expected.

Week 3
I observed that most people have trouble doing the lettering and writing those sentences.

Week 4
I observed that digitizing some of the letters are hard.

Week 5
I observed that animating the letters frame by frame was a lot of work.

Week 6
I noticed that I had a hard time doing those letters.

---

Findings 

Week 1
At the time when I was doing these assignments, I was horrible at just drawing and making straight lines. But then, I just got used to the writing and eventually find easier to make those lines.

Week 2
I found out that doing these writing took lots and lots and lots of practice, because I had a insanely hard time doing the writing.

Week 3
I find it very challenging doing Chancery however I got better at writing over time.

Week 4
I find that I'm paying attention into detail tracing the letters.

Week 5
I noticed that it was very stressful animating it frame by frame.

Week 6
I find it hard making those animation work.








FURTHER READINGS

What is good Typography

I found a website about typography and I thought it was interesting, it tells about what makes a good typography design good.

---

05.04.2019

Joseph (336620)

Typography

Exercises

---

Lectures

Lectures in Typography

We started week 1 with a brief introduction of the module and what typography is all about, after a brief introduction of the module we were then asked to make a wordpress blog, but since I'm retaking this semester I didn't have to make a wordpress blog for the module. We were being guided on some of the formats that are required for the blog, Mr. Shamsul and Mr. Vinod guided us on how to make the blog.