Typography Task 3b: 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 3b: Type Design & Communication

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LECTURES

All lectures completed in Task 1 - Exercise 1 & 2

- Sticker size = 512 × 512 px, 72 ppi, RGB

- Include Taylor's logo 

- Only use typeface from the 10 given

- Minor graphical elements or visuals are allowed

- Create a simple animation using after effects

For submission:

1. BW option (2048px)

2. Colour option (2048px)

3. PDF of (BW & Colour)

4. Gif Sticker Animation (1024/ 800px)

5. Screen Grab

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INSTRUCTIONS

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19ThhjWJEoQlex2CcOUNdx_hRh6efYYxD/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

Task 3b: Type design & communication

We are asked to create a holiday greeting sticker using the 10 typeface given since the start of this module, with an additional requirement of implementing a Taylor's University Logo in the sticker. The sticker will then be imported to telegram which would be an actual usable sticker. Finally, we were tasked to create an animation correlating to our theme using Adobe After Effects.

I choose Christmas to be my holiday theme for my sticker as it is the next big festivity, and also closest to the date of this assignment. Christmas lexical field is usually ice, snow, white, blue, red, green. I got my idea from gathering ideas of what the festive is about. 

I then created sketches to help me start working on the sticker.

Fig 1.1: Sketch

I roughly create a digital sketch of what i could digitalize in Adobe Illustrator using an iPad app called Autodesk Sketchbook.

I then proceed to digitalize my sketch in Adobe Illustrator. I played with several examples from my sketch and found a good font which will complement the festive. I also got colors which i like that also fits well with Christmas, aside from the usual white, red, green scheme. 

I added snow effects on top of the text to give a better illustrative context of the festive.

Fig 1.2: initial digitalization

I then added the taylors logo.

Fig 1.3: illustration with the logo

After this progress, i then remembered our requirement to fully maximize the square grid to take full advantage of the telegram sticker dimension. 

I created this illustration

Fig 1.4: santa illustration

I then continued to upload this sticker to telegram as i am happy with the final design.

I found tutorials on how to create our own telegram sticker from a guide.

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-telegram-stickers

This is the final png file imported telegram.

Testing in telegram.

Fig 1.5: sticker in telegram

After showing Mr.Vinod this design, he complimented the design and visual illustration, but he mentioned that the whole sticker is filled with too much illustration and the typography aspect wasn't shown. Secondly, he commented on my choice of typeface as i used "grand-hotel" and not the 10 typeface given as i forgot that requirement. Mr Vinod also gave me some ideas to reduce the illustration.

I then came up with this design

Fig 1.6: second attempt

Mr Vinod suggested me to do a reflection of the text to create an ice reflection. Mr Charles then added on to balance the snow for the text. The typeface I used is Garamond as it have similar characteristics as my previous font and would look good with my snow effect. 

This is the final PNG

Fig 1.7: Final png2

I then imported my png file to telegram as stickers.

Fig 1.8: Sticker 2 in Telegram 

I then continued to animating my sticker for the final part of this project.

Fig 1.9: animating final in after effects

Gif 1.1: sticker animation

Final Task 3b: Type Design & Communication

Fig 2.1: Final BW png

Fig 2.2: Final Colored png

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1diD0lrDtcqFx7L4prKdLSDiQl1AYfxra/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

Gif 1.2: Final animation

Fig 2.3: Final screenshot

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v3-ZCzoVO3CdK9kdG5h8omwOl20hrpV6/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

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FEEDBACK

Week 11

General Feedback:

Always try to remember what the briefing was. Listen to what everything has been said so that your directions will always be clear. Avoid the use of too much Graphical elements. If you are using graphical elements, ensure that it takes up only 15% of the design. 

Specific Feedback: -

Week 12

General Feedback: 

If using photoshop, use 2048px x 2048px canvas size.

Specific Feedback:

Wrong typeface, not from the 10 given. Too big of an illustration, typographical elements not shown enough.

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REFLECTION

Experience

I had more fun doing this task as it has less rules and not as restricted as the first 2 tasks. It feels like i have my own freedom in doing this task. Another point is, this part of the task requires us to create a sticker to telegram, i find it interesting to know how things are done.

Observations

I found that in the middle of the design process, i realized how important it is to do a thorough research about the topic of the project, for instance i choose christmas to be my festive for the sticker. It is important to note that researching a plethora of lexical field surrounding christmas will be beneficial for the design process.

Findings

I found that when creating stickers, the size of 512x512 is clear enough to be viewed in smartphones, although while designing it may look bad. I found that due to this low resolution, the file size would be smaller and will be way easier to load.