Typography Task 3a: Type Design & Communication

15-10-21 - 29-10-21 (Week 8 - Week 10)
Darren Liga / 0351480
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 3a: Type Design & Communication

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LECTURES

All lectures completed in Task 1 - Exercise 1 & 2

Tutorial from youtube playlist:

Fig 1.1: Lecture Playlist tutorial for task 3

In this recorded tutorial, Mr Vinod taught us on how to construct our typeface using illustrator in detail. From the height of the x-height in points to the ascender and descender. Theres a total of 5 recorded tutorials in which i watched 3 of those main ones as i use fontlab 7 instead of calligrapher. The second and third video explains in detail for the steps needed to import the vector file from illustrator to fontlab 7.

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INSTRUCTION

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Task 3a: Type design & communication

We were required to create a series of letter: 

a i m e p y t g d o b ! , .  

as Mr Vinod said: "You will endeavour to create a typeface that has the hallmarks of a good typeface; subtlety, character, presence, legibility and readability."

To start. my task 3 assignment, i searched google and several other resources such as pinterest to get ideas on my font. From the start i had an idea of what i wanted already which i sketched.

Fig 2.1: sketches

I did several rough sketches to get an idea of what i wanted to digitalize. I then decided to go with my second line of sketch having a circular minimalist typeface. I would like to design somewhat of a sans serif minimalist typeface as i prefer sans serif over serifs.

I then proceeded to digitalize the letters in Adobe Ilustrator

Fig 2.2: digitalization

Whole line of letters:

Fig 2.3: lineup of letters

I base my typeface while referring to 1 of the 10 typeface given for task 1 and 2 which is futura to give the ideas and benchmark on what letter is xheight length, and which has an ascender and descender.

Fig 2.4: reference

After week 9's feedback session, mr vinod mentioned several times that the letter "m" should roughly be 1.5x the width of letter "o". He also mentioned that my typeface looked to simple which having inconsistent spacing between the gaps of the circle and line for my typeface.

I then wanted to create a subtract type font like jaapokki-subtract

Fig 2.5: jaapokki-subtract

I then tried doing the subtract effect on my own font to further enhance the minimalism i would like to achieve for this font.

Fig 2.6: digitalization subtract font

Fig 2.7: line up of subtract font family

i then decided to use this font as my final as i am satisfied with the overall structure.

After this process, i watched the next 2 lecture videos on exporting the illustrator vector to fontlab7.

Process of exporting vector artwork to fontlab 7:

Fig 3.1: exporting vector 

After watching the tutorial video, almost all the steps were done smoothly although i suffer from a problem. The letter "o" was filled in on the inside in fontlab7. I did all the steps necessary from the recorded tutorial. Since i used a stroke to maintain a consistent width of fonts throughout the typeface, i had to outline the path as mentioned in the tutorial. I then followed by using the pathfinder tool to unite the path. i used the ruler to create a nre 0,0 guide before every letter i copy and paste to fontlab7. The problem i face was the letter "o" was filled in on the inside in fontlab7 although i did more than 10 trial and errors in illustrator with the pathfinder tool. see fig 2.7, letter "o" is not filled in.

I then fixed this problem by editing the letter in fontlab7 itself using the inverse fill tool (f + alt).

Fig 3.2: filled in "o" in fontlab7

After the issue has been solved, i continued to do the kerning from the tutorial. i opened the metrics tab and changed the value for each of the letters.

Fig 3.3: kerning

I then exported the font as a ttf file to install to my computer. I then played with my font in illustrator for the next part of the task.

Fig 3.4: testing the font

I named my font "edernal" which doesnt really have any meaning, i just came up with the name randomly which i believe most font also get their name from.

Final Task 3

Fig 4.1: Final edernal-regular

Fig 4.2: Final Layout text

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FEEDBACK

General:

Mr vinod gave repetitive feedback regarding the consistency of weight and the the letter "m" should be around 1.5x wider than the letter "o" pr others of the same width.

Specific Feedback:

Mr Vinod mentioned that my font looks to simple and the consistency of the space in between my circle and the line is inconsistent across the font. My letter m is also not wide enough.

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REFLECTION

Experience

My overall experience when starting to design my own font was a bit overwhelming at first. The thought of creating a new font from scratch seems so professional and i at first it is a very hard thing to do. But then due to the guide posted by Mr Vinod, the whole methodology is strait-forward and easy to follow. My hardest part was thinking for an original font design from a plethora of fonts available in the web.

I suffered a slight hiccup in the process of exporting my vector artwork to fontlab7 as my letter "o" was filled in no matter how many trial and errors were made in illustrator. I then tried finding ways on how to deal with my issue online and tried messing with the buildin font editor in fontlab7 instead of tweaking non-stop in Adobe Illustrator.

Observation

I Observed that throughout this task, the main purpose of the task is to learn how typeface is used to get a deeper basic on typography. Due to this exercise, i achieved a new milestone of creating a new .ttf file by myself. I Observed the details put in the 10 typefaces given for task 1 and task 2 and why Mr Vinod even mentioned that those 10 typefaces have lasted for generations and generations which could may be described as "the perfect typeface".

Findings

I found that designing a whole font family is a long and hard process to perfect. Luckily for us, and also due to the tight deadline we were only asked to design 14 letters including the comma and period. Secondly, i also find that due to this task, i can finally see the art in typography and i started to observe my surroundings even more and analyzing the typeface used.

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FURTHER READING

Fig 5.1: I.D.E.A.S Computer Typography Basics

I read several parts of this ebook given in the facebook typography group to help me get several knowledge regarding this task that i may have missed and/or not discussed.

The most important basic of a typeface such as font categories, special styles, character and word spacing, and etc, is discussed in this book.

The different font categories include:

- serifs

- san serifs

- mono-spaced

- display

- script

- text

- dingbats

The different font styles:

- plain

- italic

- bold

- bold italic

The different font families:

- plain (or roman)

- italic (usually for serifs), oblique (for san serifs)

- bold, bold italic or bold oblique

The different font weights (order of lightest to heaviest)

- Extra light, ultra thin or extrathin

- Thin or light

- Roman or Book

- Medium or Regular

- Demi bold or Semi bold

- Bold

- Heavy, Extra bold, black or super bold

Fig 5.2: various weights and styles

The part which benefited me the most is this page

Fig 5.3: identifying a font

All the height of the font is explained thoroughly which i forgot. The x-height, ascender, descender, cap height and etc..

The individual parts of a font is also present in this page which helped me identify parts of the font while designing.