Typography task 2
7/4/2023 - 7/7/2023 Week 1 - Week 16
Wong Kai Xin / 0353027
Typography / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / The Design School
Task 2 - Typographic Exploration & Communication (Text Formatting and Expression)
LECTURES
All lectures completed in Task 1 - Exercise 1 & 2
Week 6 : Typography Task 2 Demo
In this video, a step by step tutorial is done by Mr Vinod on our task 2 exercise.
INSTRUCTIONS
For Task 2, we were required to do text formatting on the provided text ( pick one from the three given ) without any use of images. It is expected that we expressed the words in the headline using either the help of Adobe Illustrator or stick with InDesign.
CLASS SUMMARY
Week 6 :
We had a long feedback session which guided us on how to improve our text
formatting task.
Week 7 :
Today we learned to find fonts from google fonts and font share as we were
briefed on Task 3.
How we view text visually different for example, the number "8" has a smaller
circle on the top as we view things on top as bigger. What seems the same
might not be the same. Those are all design decisions when the designer is
crafting the font.
EXERCISES
Week 6 : 
Fig 1.1 Layout sketches 12/5/2023
Fig 1.2 Layout 1 12/5/2023
After I was done, I realised it was way too complex, leading to a possibility of lost of focus to readers when attempting to read text. While I was doing this, I had too many ideas in my mind, which resulted in a messy layout as I was too greedy with ideas. I learned to only focus on expressing one word for the best result.
Fig 2.3 Layout 2 before feedback 19/5/2023
Fig 2.4 Layout 3 before feedback 19/5/2023
Fig 2.5 Layout 2 after feedback 19/5/2023
Fig 2.6 Layout 3 after feedback 19/5/2023
After letting Mr Vinod look at my layouts, he said overall it looks fine, but just be careful with the alignment and spacing on the text and headline. Also, the for the placement of the letters "V" and "I" has to be adjusted to match.
I was torn between both layouts as I liked both, but I eventually went with Layout 3 as I think it looks more unique and Layout 2 looked too simple in my opinion.
Block layout
Fig 2.7 Block layout of Layout 2 23/5/2023
Fig 2.8 Block layout of Layout 3 23/5/2023
- Hidden characters
Fig 3.1 Hidden characters 25/5/2023
- Details
- Font: Univers LT Std 53 Extended
- Type size: 240-500 pt
- Tracking: -20
Sub-head:
- Font: Futura Std Light Oblique
- Type size: 50 pt
- Leading: 60
Body:
- Font: Univers LT Std 45 Light
- Type size: 40 pt
- Leading: 36
- Paragraph spacing: 60 pt
- Characters per line: 54-59
- Alignment: Left justified
Margins: 28.346 pt top, left, right, bottom
Columns: 4
Gutter: 14.173 pt
Fig 3.2 Final layout ( JPEG ) 25/5/2023
Fig 3.3 Final version of layout ( PDF ) 25/5/2023
Fig 3.4 Final version of layout with grids and margin ( PDF ) 25/5/2023
FEEDBACK
Week 6 :
General feedback: When using justify text use 7mm instead of 5 mm, be careful with the hyphenation
Specific feedback:
headline is too complex, pick one word to express instead of three. Apply paragraph facing. Leading has to be increased.
Week 7 :
Specific feedback:
Angle of the word visualise needs some amendments ( "v" and "isualise" don't match ). Be careful with spacing of words after applying alignment. Placement of "visualise" and "a better world"could be aligned.
REFLECTIONS
Experience
This task didn't start well for me and I was quite discouraged after the first feedback session. I was too hasty while coming out with the first layout, which resulted in an outburst of unorganized ideas. But I know that I shouldn't feel that way as everyone makes mistakes so they could improve. For this task, I put in a lot of thought in the feedback from not only Mr Vinod, but also my friends who helped me with giving their own thoughts on the layouts on how it could be improved. Despite it being challenging, it was a very knowledgable task that helped me learn to utilize the big space given to come up with a reader-friendly text.
Observations
Alignment can really make a difference as to how neat your work looks. If something is misaligned, it could be disturbing the reader's focus and eventually ruin the reading flow. Spacing as well, between words have to be done properly to avoid huge gaps between words.
Findings
I found a lot of features on InDesign that I didn't know of for example creating a spread, paragraph spacing settings and etc. I also realised the importance of applying cross alignment in such a big space, which makes your overall layout a hundred times better. Not only that, I discovered that Univers might be my favourite font out of the ten classic fonts as it looks really neat and tidy, but not congested. It goes well with most texts in my opinion.
FUTHER READING
Fig 4.1 Typography Referenced (2012)
referenced by Jason Tselentis, Allan Haley, Richard Poulin, Tony Seddon, Gerry Leonidas, Ina Saltz, Kathryn Henderson, Tyler Alterman
The Golden Section
In Western cultures, the golden section refers to this ratio between two numbers: 1:1.618. It has also been represented as a:b = b:(a+b).
- used since ancient times.
- said to create harmonious relationships between graphic elements placed on the page
- used for the express purpose of generating printed formats for books, posters, and brochures.
Fig 4.2 Process of creating the golden section
Text Type
Recommended text type fonts for reading are for example Caslon, Bembo, and Garamond.
These three work well for
large areas of book text.
Times New Roman was
designed in the twentieth
century to function as a newspaper typeface, and
is appropriate for book text as well. Clear-
face, Centaur,
and Sabon also have
clear readability.
Reading direction and scanning
Western cultures tend to read from left to right, Readers will start from the upper left-hand corner of formats. From there, readers scan left to right, diagonally down to the next
line, and back again from left to right. This Z-shaped scanning pattern often occurs when reading text
type
Fig 4.3 Reading direction and scanning
The Grid
- tool that allows a designer to create com-
positions with some semblance
of unity and variety
Designers create their own grid system using columns or modules. The number of modules, columns, and rows is not clearly or definitively set, but during a grid’s creation, designers should consider at least these elements of the project:
• media
• format
• use
• image size
• typographic scope
• word count
• expandability
A traditional-looking and perfect- bound book could benefit from single left- and right-page columns to make text flow easily. With magazines, it’s important to know where the gutter (the center margin) sits and how much the paper will creep toward the binding’s center. And website grids often take on a flexible and dynamic nature, with their hierarchical structures allowing modules to morph in shape when viewed on screens of different sizes, for example, a large computer monitor or a phone’s small screen.
Fig 4.4 Anatomy of a Grid
White space
- compositional
areas that do not include text, image, or graphic elements
- tones down layout with many graphical elements
- allows the reader an opportunity to focus on the element or elements that demand the most attention
Fig 4.5 Example of how white space is used
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