Typography - Task 1 : Exercises
27/09/2024
23.9.2024-28.10.2024/week1- week6
YANG YANG/0363575
Typorgraphy/Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task1:Exercise1 & 2 Lectures
INSTRUCTIONS
Figure 1.1: Instructions
LECTURE
Week 1 ： Typography: Development / Timeline
The first lecture serves as a door opener into the discipline, exploring the development of typography and its history, which covers a period of 500 years, from the shallowest to the deepest. The video highlights the limitations of the discipline from a Western perspective, while calling attention to the contributions and achievements of Asia and other regions in the field of typography. The evolution of typography is closely related to early writing tools and materials, while changes in letterforms reflect the influence of different cultures and technologies. I was struck by this idea when I first heard about it, and then I thought about how it is true, for example, that the evolution of the oracle bone, its form and presentation are inevitably related to the materials it is made of. In addition, the lecture touched on how Gutenberg's invention of the printing press revolutionised the way books were produced, thus facilitating the dissemination of knowledge.
Figure 2.1 : words
Finally, in the video, the lecturer encourages students to emphasise local design in their research in order to enrich the global body of knowledge.
Week 1 : Typography: Text Tracking: Kerning and Letterspacing
In this lecture, the lecturer first explained some textual content, such as how to format text, what to look for, and so on. Kerning is one of the first things you learn about typography. Kerning is the automatic adjustment of space between letters, often mistakenly referred to as letter spacing. This process of adding and removing spaces in a word or sentence is called "spacing", and many people confuse the concept and meaning of the two, which is hard to notice for a beginner like me, or someone who has never been familiar with the details involved.
Figure 3.1 : Kerning and Letterspacing
After this, the lecturer started more substantial practical operations based on the concepts just described, and at the same time also introduced and compared the difference between the use of Illustrator and InDesign two software feelings. The tutor gave us a brief introduction to the basic operation of InDesign and how to modify the word spacing.
Figure 3.2 : layout
Next Mr Vinod explained text formatting. Among the different types of text formatting, one is left-aligned, which is very close to the handwriting habit and look and feel, so it is the most suitable font layout for reading. But this type of layout mode is every line from the same point to start, but the end of the different positions, so the right side of the text will have a kind of untidy feeling, the right edge is that kind of jagged look. And the format of centre-aligned can be a good solution to this problem, this format brings a sense of symmetry to the content, so that the two ends of the line of equal value and importance. It also looks more balanced and aesthetically pleasing. In this lesson I learnt to turn areas of text into shapes, so that I can see and understand the graphic composition of the text more clearly.
Figure 3.4 : Formatting
In addition to the knowledge of these concepts, practice and testing is also very important, whether the size of the font is appropriate and whether the depth of the font can be well rendered, these are the need to preview in advance, in some cases it is these small details can make a big difference to the perception.
Figure 3.5 : laying out
In this class the lecturer mainly explains how to indicate the paragraph, the lecturer mentioned in the classroom, the spacing between each line of text in the ideal case should be between 12 and 12.5, and sometimes can be up to 13, in this case the use of space segmentation can basically achieve the text alignment, the visual effect of the more beautiful results.
Figure 4.1 : Text
At the same time, the lecturer also answered us the difference between line spacing and word spacing, line spacing takes into account the baseline, so the distance from the baseline of one line to the rising part and falling part of another line. What you see is the line spacing, and the calculation of line spacing is from the descending part of one line to the descending part of another line, which is counted as line spacing. In typography, the word ‘leading’ should be used formally. In contrast, there are several ways to adjust paragraph spacing. The first is to use ‘paragraph symbols’ to indicate paragraph spacing; the second is simply to use the space between paragraphs.
The lecturer then mentioned two types of typographical patterns that should never appear in future business lists, which are ‘orphans’ and ‘widows,’ so what exactly do these two terms mean? A ‘widow's row’ is a line of text that is left alone at the end of a paragraph, and usually at the beginning of a new column, while an ‘orphan's row’ is a line of text that can be seen on the right side of the page and on the left side of the page. The word ‘random’ is left-aligned, which makes the meaning of the text incoherent.
Figure 4.2 : What cannot do
If you want to extract important information in a large paragraph. Then how to highlight that information? The first way is to highlight it in italics, while the other is to bold the text, and also, if you are doing colour printing, consider highlighting or changing the colour of the font.
Figure 4.3 : highlighting
To summarise this lesson I have learnt that the use of word spacing, word spacing and line spacing is crucial to the readability of typography, and that reasonable adjustments can effectively enhance the visual effect of the text is also one of the keys to enhancing the visual effect of the text. Lonely lines and widows are a taboo in typography, we should avoid these problems by adjusting the text column width and line spacing to achieve a more beautiful effect and more fluent reading senses. Different formatting can be applied when highlighting text, such as italics or bold, in order to highlight key information and enhance the hierarchy of the text. The hierarchical structure of the text should be clear. Appropriate use of bold fonts, etc. can help readers to quickly identify the importance of the information, avoid confusion and also improve the efficiency of reading. The most important thing is that typography is not only about aesthetics, but also affects the clarity and effectiveness of information conveyed, which is why we need to pay attention to every detail when designing typography.
Week 4 : Typo_2_Basic
The instructor began this session by explaining with pictures, the various typographic terms related to letterforms. They discuss the concepts of an apex (the top section of a letter like A where diagonal stems intersect), a vertex (the opposite, as in the case of a V), arms (short strokes off the stem), ascenders (strokes that exceed the median line), and descenders (anything below the baseline).
At the same time he explains in a very clear and easy to understand manner upon terms like beak, bob, ball, bracket, crossbar, crotch, and M and n spaces. M space is a gap between words, while n space is half the width of an M. The speaker encourages viewers to refer to the actual lecture PowerPoint for a more detailed explanation.
Figure 5.1 : Arm
All these different terms that I had never known before, and I didn't even know that each of them had an exact professional name until the lecturer explained them, were very new and beneficial to me.
Figure 5.2 : Uppercase & Lowercase
The lecturer told us about the lasting value of a well-designed typeface, some of which have even been in use for centuries. These fonts are considered successful expressions for reading and writing, and their subtle characteristics make them versatile. The speaker here suggests that beginners just starting out in typography use these nine specific fonts primarily as a basis for developing their skills. Limiting choices at the beginning of the typographic journey allows for focused learning and effective communication of information through the selection of appropriate fonts; after all, the choice of fonts should complement the message, not detract from it, and if the fonts themselves are too strong in their presence or too stylised, they have the potential to weaken some of the producer's perceptions of the typographic design, and take away some of the viewer's attention from the content of the message to be read.
Figure 5.43: Fornt
- Task1:Exercise - Type Expression
Figure 6.1 : Final
FEEDBACK: After discussing with my teacher and the advice he gave me, I was able to distinguish more clearly the boundaries of emotions that can be expressed by fonts, e.g. shaking and trembling are very similar in the way they can be expressed, and if the font effect is expressed as ‘trembling’, it will be easier to get closer to the word ‘fear’. For example, shaking and trembling are very similar in the way they can be expressed, whereas if the effect is ‘trembling’, it is more likely to be related to ‘fear’, which has less to do with shaking, and therefore it is very difficult for me to distinguish this borderline.
REFLECTIONS: In this assignment I was better able to understand how to be all about the meaning of a word, varying the shape of the font through literal meanings, and being able to develop different variations within the same meaning. This has benefited me greatly.
FEEDBACK：After discussing with Ms.Vitiyaa and her advice, I realised that a good typeface design doesn't have to be complicated and luxurious, on the contrary, the simpler the design, the more it can test the designer's understanding and use of vocabulary and the typeface itself, I streamlined and selected a few representatives from the original design.
REFLECTIONS：In this assignment, I selected my favourite designs from the previous drafts and upgraded them. After actually importing the fixed fonts, I deepened my understanding of the morphing of the fonts and came up with new design ideas, which I found very novel and at the same time enriched my concepts of the design itself.
Figure 6.3 : Animation
FEEDBACK：After discussing with my teacher, I also made small animations for each of my other designs, but in terms of effect and perception chose a design that conveyed the meaning of the words and was presented in a simple and easy-to-understand way as my final work.
REFLECTIONS：In this practical exercise we tried to use the previously designed fonts to create small animations to match them, which were concise and clear while at the same time matching the meaning of the words themselves and the style of the design, and on top of that we also had to learn how to use the appropriate software to create the small animations, which was undoubtedly a very challenging practical activity.
- Task1:Exercise - Kerning & Tracking
Figure 7.1 : My name
Figure 7.2 : Layout
FEEDBACK：After discussing with my teacher, I also made small animations for each of my other designs, but in terms of effect and perception chose a design that conveyed the meaning of the words and was presented in a simple and easy-to-understand way as my final work.
REFLECTIONS：In the production of this work, I initially understood the basic use of InDesign software and the basic concepts of typography, and to implement them, the use of different fonts to express the same content, the effect can be presented very different. This was a novelty and a great benefit to me.
Process:
Figure 7.3 : data
Figure 7.4 : font parameter
Figure 7.5 : Different Layout Production
Final:
Figure 8.1 : Final
Figure 8.2 : formatting
Figure 8.3 : Final
FEEDBACK：According to the teacher's suggestion and discussion, I changed the original Margins in order to make the layout more concise and good-looking, and put the headings, which were originally on the left side, closer to the text, so that the focus of the layout could be more united and concentrated, and it would be easier for the readers to focus on the content.
REFLECTIONS：In this practical process, I have a deeper understanding of typography, but also realised that typography is not a completely rigid formula, only in the fixed format to find the unfixed changes and creativity can be considered the real use of the understanding of this skill, it is very worthwhile to reflect on, but also in the aftermath of this homework, the concepts that I benefited from, and I hope that in the future in the process of the practice of I will also remember this and apply it to produce more self-designed work.
FURTHUR READING : A Type Primer_2nd Ed_by John Kane_1
Figure 9.1 : Front page
English typography is different from Chinese typography. In ancient Chinese, vertical columns were very common, and even vertical text layout was the initial state of Chinese typography, because in ancient China, text was for a long time stored on bamboo slips instead of paper, and on a strip of bamboo, it was obvious that vertical columns were easier to read. Moreover, each character in Chinese can represent a meaning in itself, which is different from the concept of words made up of letters in English, so if the English language is rigidly applied to vertical typography, it will look very strange and incoherent.
Figure 9.2 : Chinese
Figure 9.3 : wrong typo
But English also has the correct vertical layout, often in a word for a unit of layout, so that it can express the meaning of the word itself, but also to change the direction of the layout, in many magazines will appear on the cover of such a layout, can increase the richness of the layout.
Figure 9.4 : vertical version
Even for the same word, different fonts will show different moods and visual effects, and the styles that can be expressed will also show completely opposite effects. Rounded and obtuse fonts can express styles that show completely opposite effects, and rounded and obtuse fonts can make the styles that the images are intended to express more childish and softer, while oblique fonts will make the text appear more formal and gorgeous!
Figure 9.5 : different font
Even the layout of fonts can present different visual effects. Before reading this book, I hadn't realised that words alone have such a rich and distinctive expression, and that different combinations and permutations of characters can accurately and interestingly present the meaning of vocabulary.
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