Advanced Typography - Project 1
23/9/2019 - 7/10/2019 (Week 5-Week 7)
Chan Qian Hui (033447)
Advanced Typography
Project 1 : The Troublemakers Manifesto Colloquium - Collateral
LECTURE NOTES
Lecture 5 : Typographic Perception & Organization
23/9/2019 (week 5)
Today we had a lecture given by my classmates on typographic perception & organization. A few key points from the lecture are how contrast can be achieved by different size,weight, form, structure and colour. Then we learnt about gestalt psychology and layout such as gestalt laws of grouping - proximity, similarity, closure, continuation, common region and pragnanz. We also learnt how to create layouts in design by using spacing, grids, bullets and number lists. Not just that, we also learnt about how to create visual hierarchy and compositions.
Lecture 6 : Typographic Composition
30/9/2019 (week 6)
Today it was me and my group mates who were in charge of preparing the lecture for the class. We talked about typographic compositions. We talked about environmental composition, environmental grids and alternate methods. Few key points about our topic is that environmental composition uses type as structure to visually represent the text in a way that goes beyond page composition. Environmental grids uses lines and shapes from a physical site to be used as a grid for placement of typography while Alternate methods uses type as alignment edges and points.
Lecture 7 : Typography in Different Mediums
7/10/2019 (week 7)
This week's lecture is conducted by my classmates as well. This weeks topic covers about typography in different mediums such as static typography, kinetic typography, environmental typography, virtual and augmented reality. Static typography is typography which does not move such as print typography, screen typography while kinetic typography is the art of moving type such as fluid typography, motion typography. With the advancement of technology, augmented reality and virtual reality have also became new mediums for typography to be placed with.
INSTRUCTION
PROJECT 1 : THE TROUBLEMAKERS MANIFESTO COLLOQUIUM - COLLATERAL
For our very first project, we were tasked to develop our own key-artwork or signature artwork that will be used across the different collateral such as posters, t-shirt, sticker and etc. The title which we were given is called The Troublemakers Manifesto : A Design Colloquium
Work Progress:
Before I started my artwork, I broke down the words of the topic "The Troublemakers Manifesto" and try to analyze and understand it as much as possible before moving on to working on my project.
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| Fig 1.0 Mindmap of analysis for title |
For this artwork, I initially wanted to use a religious figure as a symbolic sign and then adding a few elements like brush to add the designer factors. The type of typeface which I chose is "Mustarsuma" which really fits the troublemaker theme.
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| Fig 1.1 Attempt 1 |
After getting feedback from Mr Vinod, he told me to change the figure into something else that still fits "savior". Thus I chose superman as my new photo element in my artwork.
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| Fig 1.2 Attempt 2 |
After looking through at my artwork, I thought that it didn't really showcase the message troublemakers manifesto, so I tried to change my artwork completely.
This time, I used the illustration of a arm, a head and a heart as my photo elements. I combined them together in a posture which replicates our country's independence declaration posture. I used the heart which represents passion and a pen which represents designers. The typeface I chose for this artwork is "Masterplan".
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| Fig 1.3 Attempt 3 |
I personally didn't really liked the typeface used as I really like the previous typeface which I chose so I decided to combine them together as a comparison.
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| Fig 1.4 Attempt 4 |
After showing to Mr Vinod, he told me to use back the same typeface from fig 1.2 and to discard the pen. He also told me to make the heart smaller in the head or even remove it from the artwork. Then my artwork would be done. Below is my completed artwork.
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| Fig 1.5 Final Project 1 Key Artwork |
FEEDBACK
Week 5 :
General Feedback :
Mr Vinod said that when we refine our letters, we should not forget the initial characteristics which we want to implement in the letters. We should have a core element or characteristics of the image which we dissected from and maintain it throughout the process of refining our letters. Refining the letters means we should either add or minus elements from the dissected letters, but we should not remove the initial characteristics.
Specific Feedback :
For my letters, Mr Vinod said the grey part can be changed into white outlines and thicken it to create a better effect. I should also take note that since the effect is not very thick, when the font size becomes smaller, the effect won't be obvious so it limits the minimum font size for my letters.
For the type and image, Mr Vinod commented that the words at the bottom does not really need distortion. It could be kept straight and fade up to create contrast with the title as the title is already distorted. Overall, Mr Vinod said he likes it.
Week 6 :
General Feedback :
Mr Vinod asked us whether if we understand the term "troublemaker manifesto". He also stated that we need to come up with several ideas to end up with a good idea, not just stick to one only. In a design process, we should always start with a accurate understanding of the topic, then we either mind map the ideas or have conversations with people which you have chemistry with to brainstorm more ideas. Mr Vinod also said we should think of how to represent designers, change or something that could symbolize design.
Specific feedback :
For artwork A, Mr Vinod said I should change the saviour into someone else, but the choice of typeface was good.For artwork B, Mr Vinod said I used good elements as the hand represent fight, the heart represent passion and the eye represent vision or visual communication. Mr Vinod said I could use fist, heart and eyes as there is a saying that designers need to use the head, heart and hand. I could also use primary colours to support it.
Week 7 :
General Feedback :
Mr Vinod told the class to go to the facebook page of Troublemakers Manifesto in order to understand more about the event. He also said to voice out any opinions to the class representatives.
Specific Feedback :
Mr Vinod told me to remove the heart artwork or make it smaller. He also told me to remove the pen as well and everything looks better. He said to find other design elements which could be included instead of a pen. The hand which was disjointed made it quite interesting. He also told me to add texture manually to the fonts and overall I am about to complete.
REFLECTION
Week 5
- Experience - For this week, I was quite glad that my exercises were completed in time and had few small adjustments to make only. This allowed me to take time to focus on my project one. I was quite shocked in the beginning when I first found out we are using the same title as our seniors. I didn't really like it because I knew many of us including me were going to get influenced by our seniors artwork. I was actually quite looking forward to using our first exercise titles as our project 1 title since we already took time to work with the title and content in different systems and sort of getting comfortable with it.
- Observation - I found out that most of my classmates were really good and took a lot of efforts into their exercises. Some had 5 to 6 stages of refining their text which really amazed me. I also found out that all of my classmates became really good at creating fonts and each had a really distinct characteristics to it. I also realized that since there was so many people in the class Mr Vinod took some time to check through our work and over time the feedback became shorter to save time.
- Findings - I found out that I was slightly irritated because I spent quite some time looking through our seniors work and analyzing their work more instead of taking time to explore the meaning of the title. Due to this, I realized the area of my exploration became narrower and I ended up focusing on thinking how to work better than the benchmark given than properly analyzing the title and the message that I wish to convey.
Week 6
- Experience - I was quite happy because I was taking my time exploring around with the image and text. I tried to approach different ways to bring in the meaning of troublemakers and manifesto into the artwork. I was also quite worried in the beginning that I would end up referring to seniors work to arrange my elements but I kept insisting not to.
- Observation - Not to my surprise, plenty of my classmates referred to our seniors work, which end up in using similar images such as skulls. I also realized that many of us are still not so comfortable with mixing image and type, some may have really good images but the words doesn't seem to blend well together. So in the end most of my classmates wanted to change their images used for project 1 after the feedback session.
- Findings - I found out that I was quite hesitant when it comes to decision-making. I couldn't decide on one image which I really liked and suitable for my project 1. Besides that I realized I was also influenced in the beginning which made me think that using skull for project 1 would look better than other images which I found. But after I looked through and compare, I realized I was just purely influenced by senior's work.
Week 7 :
- Experience - For this week I was relieved because one of my artworks were approved by Mr Vinod with only minor changes. I didn't actually liked the artwork Mr Vinod chose and I also didn't understood completely why he chose that artwork. But after reviewing the artwork a few days later and relating it to the topic troublemakers manifesto : A design colloquium, I came to understand why.
- Observation - I realized that the reason why I actually preferred the artwork that Mr Vinod chose was actually the choice of typeface. I really liked the typeface which not just had a punk vibe to it but also fits the theme troublemakers. After forcing that typeface and my artwork, I observed that it didn't fit well and was quite messy.
- Findings - I found out that although some typeface may look really pretty on it's own. It is more important for it to work well with out artwork than forcing them together which will end up in a mess. I also learnt that as a designer, our main job is to actually convey the message, not just making something look pretty.
FURTHER READING
Typography, Referenced: A Comprehensive Visual Guide to the Language, History, and Practice of Typography by Jason Tselentis, Allan Haley, Richard Poulin, Tony Seddon, Gerry Leonidas, Ina Saltz, Kathryn Henderson, Tyler Alterman
23/9/2019 - 7/10/2019 (Week 5-7)
Typography, Referenced is the covers every aspect of typography that any design student, professional designer, or design aficionado needs to know today.
The book is really effective as it consists of thousands of illustrated examples of contemporary usage in design, historical developments from Greek lapidary letters to the movie Helvetica, landmark designs turning single letters into typefaces, definitions of essential type-specific language, terms, ideas, principles, and processes, ways technology has influenced and advanced type, the future of type on the web, mobile devices, tablets, and beyond.
In short, Typography, Referenced is the ultimate source of typographic information and inspiration, documenting and chronicling the full scope of essential typographic knowledge and design from the beginnings of movable type to the present "golden age" of typography.
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