Typography | Task 2 - Typographic Exploration and Communication

September 25, 2021

Typography | Task 2 - Typographic Exploration and Communication

22nd September 2021 - 13th October 2021 / Week 5 - 8
Name: Isaac Yaw Wai Zac (0343197)
Course: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
Module: Typography // Mr. Vinod & Mr. Charles
Task 2

LECTURES

All the notes which are needed for this task were documented under Task 1 | Exercises and can be found under this Link.

Week 5 / Introduction and Briefing to Task 2 (22nd September 2021)

Figure 1.1: Week 5's class session & briefing for task 2 exercise(s)

In week 5's class session, Mr. Vinod started the class with a very quick explanation of our final submission for the previous task (task 1 exercises 1 & 2) that was due on this day. Then, he showed us the video demonstration for us to complete task 2 which will be due in 3 weeks (week 8). While he was checking and marking all our individual e-portfolios, all of us were assigned to view the video on task 2 to get a better understanding of what we are needed to achieve and to kickstart the task.

Figure 1.2: Video tutorial/demonstration for task 2

Link

In the video provided to all of us, Mr. Vinod made an example showing how we can integrate our idea of using the title in creative ways with the help of a sketch.

Week 6 / Feedback and Review for Task 2 (29th September 2021)

Figure 1.3: Week 6's class session & consultation for task 2 exercise(s)

In this week's class session, we started the class with an interactive question and answer session. Then we proceeded with a more detailed explanation of what to be expected in the upcoming week when we submit the final work for task 2. All the detailed requirements and rubrics are documented down below in the 'EXERCISE' section. Then we proceeded with the consultation session where all of us will give feedback and comments on our peers' progress on task 2.

Week 7 / Marking for Task 2 and briefing for Task 3A (6th October 2021)

Figure 1.4: Week 7's class session & briefing or task 3A

In this week's class session, we started off with a very detailed briefing and explanation about the upcoming task (Task 3A) in which we would be using a new software to develop our own set of fonts which should be available to be downloaded and used by other users. Then, we proceeded with the marking of Task 2 (Typographic Exploration and Communication)

INSTRUCTIONS

Typography Module Information Booklet (MIB)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XBs_JKa9S2trYPF_pTKXAhdb4ESEJFbK/view?usp=sharing

EXERCISE

Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication (Text Formatting and Expression)

Choosing Text (out of 3 options) and doing Layout Research

In this task, we were given a set of texts to choose from which were posted on the Facebook page under the Typography group. (Link) Out of all the 3 given options, I went with option number 2 because it is a more general text/topic that is very interesting compared to the other 2 which are more factual and is less interesting in my opinion. After further research and in-depth reading, I found out that text option number 2 has a more description and strong layout structure because of having 5 paragraphs, each with its own head-sentence and some having ending quotes which can allow me to play around with many different interesting text layouts.

Figure 3.1: Task 2 text options

Link

To start off with the text formatting research for the selected text option (option 2), I found out that the title, (Be Good, Do Good, Follow The Code) has a keyword that is 'CODE'. Then, I proceeded to research online such as on Pinterest to get some ideas or things that I can utilise with the help of simple graphical elements. After undergoing some visual research, I come across that the word 'CODE' can be integrated or represented by barcodes by using thick and thin lines. Other than that, I can use binary codes to fill up the negative spaces or utilise them whenever necessary. For the layout research, I have gathered some examples and inspirations as shown down below in Figures 3.3 and 3.4. These are just some examples because I have to use my own ideas and creativity to create my own layout.

Figure 3.2: Visual research inspiration for the selected topic/title (as of 22nd September)

Figure 3.3: Text layout exploration & inspiration research (as of 22nd September 2021)

Figure 3.4: Text layout exploration & inspiration research (as of 22nd September 2021)

We are assigned to use the knowledge of typography to integrate the text selected in a creative way in which there are no images used for this task. however, we are allowed to use very minute and minor graphical elements such as line, and shade. We have to create a 2-page editorial sheet that is 200x200 pix on each page with the help of the Adobe InDesign software. We can use the Adobe Illustrator software at first to create the type expression for the headline of the text. Some of the more detailed rubrics and requirements of the blog and final submission were written down below:

(blog/e-portfolio)

1. layout research

2. sketches

3. digital progression

4. JPG submission in the format of (300dpi, grayscale, max quality)

5. PDF submission embedded

(final submission)

1. font size within the range of 8-12 points

2. line length of (55-65/50-60 characters)

3. text leading of (2, 2.5, 3 points larger than the font size)

4. proper/good ragging for left alignment and rivers for left justification

5. proper cross alignment

6. no widows/orphans

Figure 3.5: Sketch layouts for the title/headline type expression (as of 22nd September 2021)

Link

Figure 3.6: Video progress for the title using Adobe Illustrator software (as of 25th September 2021)

Figure 3.7: Layouts #1, #2, & #3 for title/headline (as of 25th September 2021)

My overall strategy for text formatting

Step 1: Manipulate the grid system

Step 2: Choosing the right point size (8-12 points), font type

Step 3: Making sure each line length is between 55-65/50-60 (number of characters in a line)

Step 4: Placing columns/text boxes in a layout that is pleasing to be viewed by viewers

Step 5: Choose a fitting alignment for all texts and disabling the hyphenation whenever necessary

Step 6: Turning on baseline grid feature to allow cross alignment between columns/texts

Step 7: Making sure that the leading size of text matches with the baseline grids and the leading for titles can be increased to a multiple of 2, 3, and so on for leading consistency

Step 8: Look out for any rivers, widows, orphans that can be eliminated

Step 9: Undergoing kerning and tracking whenever necessary to allow smooth ragging to take place

Step 10: Look out for any negative spaces or distracting graphical elements that can be eliminated

Figure 3.8: Progress for text formatting in Adobe InDesign software - Layout #1

(as of 25th September 2021)

Link

Figure 3.9: Video progress for layout #2 (as of 26th September 2021)

Figure 3.10: Progress for text formatting in Adobe InDesign software - Layout #2

(as of 26th September 2021)

Link

Figure 3.11: Video progress to try out different layouts (#3 to #8)

(as of 30th September 2021)

In Figure 3.11, the video demonstrated my progress of trying many different other text layouts that I could potentially use for my final submission because this way allows me to experiment with many different compositions and learn to be more creative. All the layouts in full layouts and block layouts were documented down below.

Figure 3.12: Full layouts #1, #2, #3, & #4

(as of 30th September 2021)

Figure 3.13: Block layouts #1, #2, #3, & #4

(as of 30th September 2021)

Figure 3.14: Full layouts #5, #6, #7, & #8

(as of 30th September 2021)

Figure 3.15: Block layouts #5, #6, #7, & #8

(as of 30th September 2021)

Detailed View of Individual Layouts

Figure 3.16: layout #1 (as of 26th September 2021)

Fonts: Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Futura Std Extra Bold Oblique & Condensed (title)

Point Size: 9pt (text), 45pt (title), 57pt (title), 70pt (title), 140pt (title)

Leading: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 55 - 61 (2 columns per page)

Figure 3.17: layout #2 (as of 26th September 2021)

Fonts: Bembo Std Extra Bold Italic (top title)

Univers LT Std 45 Light Oblique (sub-headers)

Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Bembo Std Extra Bold Italic (bottom text)

Point Size: 34pt (top title)

12pt (sub-headers)

8pt (text)

14pt (bottom text)

Leading: 11pt (text)

22pt (bottom text)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 40 - 50 (3 columns per page)

Figure 3.18: layout #3 (as of 30th September 2021)

Fonts: Bembo Std Extra Bold Italic (top title)

Univers LT Std 65 Bold Oblique (main title)

Univers LT Std 45 Light Oblique (sub-headers)

Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Point Size: 34pt (top title)

48pt (main title)

12pt (sub-headers)

8pt (text)

Leading: 11pt (text)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 40 - 49 (3 columns per page)

Figure 3.19: layout #4 (as of 30th September 2021)

Fonts: Bembo Std Extra Bold Italic (small title)

Univers LT Std 65 Bold Oblique (main title)

Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Point Size: 18pt (small title)

48pt & 100pt (main title)

8pt (text)

Leading: 11pt (text)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 41 - 47 (3 columns per page)

Figure 3.20: layout #5 (as of 30th September 2021)

Fonts: Bembo Std Extra Bold Italic (top titles)

Univers LT Std 65 Bold Oblique (main titles)

Univers LT Std 45 Light Oblique (sub-headers)

Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Point Size: 34pt (top titles)

48pt (main titles)

12pt (sub-headers)

8pt (text)

Leading: 11pt (text)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 38 - 46 (3 columns per page)

Figure 3.21: layout #6 (as of 30th September 2021)

Fonts: Janson Text LT Std 75 Bold (small title)

Univers LT Std 65 Bold Oblique (main title)

Univers LT Std 45 Light Oblique (sub-headers)

Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Point Size: 27pt (small title)

150pt (main title)

12pt (sub-headers)

8pt (text)

Leading: 11pt (text)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 39 - 49 (3 columns per page)

Figure 3.22: layout #7 (as of 30th September 2021)

Fonts: Bembo Std Extra Bold Italic (top title)

Univers LT Std 65 Bold Oblique (main title)

Univers LT Std 45 Light Oblique (sub-headers)

Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Point Size: 31pt (top title)

72pt (main title)

12pt (sub-headers)

8pt (text)

Leading: 11pt (text)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 38 - 46 (3 columns per page)

Figure 3.23: layout #8 (as of 30th September 2021)

Fonts: Bodoni MT Black (top left titles)

Janson Text LT Std 75 Bold (top right titles)

Univers LT Std 65 Bold Oblique (main titles)

Univers LT Std 45 Light Oblique (sub-headers)

Univers LT Std 45 Light (text)

Univers LT Std 65 Bold Oblique (sub-text)

Point Size: 28pt (top left title)

27pt (top right titles)

48pt (main title)

12pt (sub-headers)

8pt (text)

8pt (sub-text)

Leading: 11pt (text)

22pt (sub-headers)

Paragraph Spacing: 11pt (text, subtext, and lead-in text)

Line Length: 38 - 47 (3 columns per page)

Selected Task 2 layout (layout #8)

After reviewing all the layout compositions #1 to #8 as shown in the above section, I have chosen layout #8 because it looks very well composed, in terms of font selections, use of graphical elements, good use of negative space, having a good visual hierarchy, and obeying all the text formatting rules. Figure 4.1 below shows the development process of the selected layout and from the very beginning stage of creating the typeface for the title.

Figure 4.1: Overall progress of development of layout #8 (as of 30th September 2021)

Steps in developing the selected layout

Figure 4.2: (Step 1) Manipulate the grid system (3 columns)

Figure 4.3: (Step 2) Choosing the right point size & font (8pt | Univers LT Std 45 Light)

Figure 4.4: (Step 3) Using proper line length (Average of 45 characters because 3 columns were used)

Figure 4.5: (Step 4) Placing columns/text boxes in a layout that is pleasing to be viewed by viewers

Figure 4.6: (Step 5) Choose a fitting alignment for all texts and disabling the hyphenation whenever necessary (left alignment chosen | hyphenation off)

Figure 4.7: (Step 6) Turning on baseline grid feature to allow cross alignment between columns/texts

Figure 4.8: (Step 7) Making sure that the leading size of text matches with the baseline grids and the leading for titles can be increased to a multiple of 2, 3, and so on for leading consistency

(text leading size: 11pt | baseline grid leading size: 11)

Figure 4.9: Illustration of before (left) and after (right) undergoing changes with steps 8 & 9

(Step 8) Look out for any rivers, widows, orphans that can be eliminated

(Step 9) Undergoing kerning and tracking whenever necessary to allow smooth ragging to take place

(Step 10) Look out for any negative spaces or distracting graphical elements that can be eliminated

Final submission for Task 2: Typographic Exploration and Communication

Figure 5.1: Typography Task 2 submission 1 in jpg (2nd October 2021)

Link

Figure 5.2: Typography Task 2 submission 1 in pdf (2nd October 2021)

However, with the further slight changes based on the feedback given by Mr. Vinod, I made those changes and attached the final submission for task 2 in JPG and PDF down below.

Figure 5.3: Typography Task 2 final submission in jpg (6th October 2021)

Link

Figure 5.4: Typography Task 2 final submission in pdf (6th October 2021)

Duration overview:

Research - 1 hour

Sketches - 1 hour

Digitising - 8 hours

Kerning and Tracking - 5 hours

Documenting in Blogspot - 5 hours

Total - 20 hours

FEEDBACK

Week 6

General Feedback: In this week, Mr. Vinod and Mr. Charles started the class with an interactive session which was very helpful. Then, both the lecturers went through our progress on task 2 which was posted under the comment section of his latest post on Facebook.

Specific Feedback: The feedback given regarding my progress is that it was overall very nice and creative, and I met all the requirements under text formatting such as ragging, cross alignment, sizing and font selection. However, the layout o the lines to represent barcodes can be improved so that they would look more pleasing to be viewed. Other than that, the quotes that I placed at the bottom right can be better utilised so that they would not look lost or far apart from the rest of the text.

Week 7

General Feedback: - This week was relatively quiet in the class session because all our blogs were marked and Mr. Vinod urged all of us to view the provided videos on the next task, (Task 3A).

Specific Feedback: - The feedback given by Mr. Vinod on my final submission for task 2 is that it was overall a good layout with proper text formatting. However, there were a few elements that were distracting. They are the black 'barcode' lines, inconsistency of fonts in the title, and the alignment can be improved by using justified text alignment. After those comments, I made the necessary changes and documented them under my final submission above.

REFLECTION

Experience

Week 6 - In this new task, I felt very eager to play around with different compositions and layouts for the text formatting because this task is free for us to play around with different layouts. It was a challenging experience because this module is very new to me and I had to try out many different creative ideas to see whether they would look nice or not.

Week 7 - In the experience aspect, I get to explore and to master using both the software needed to complete task 2 (Adobe Illustrator & Adobe InDesign). I can finally say that I am not new to these softwares anymore and got to use them flexibly in future tasks.

Observation

Week 6 - From my observation, I saw that many of my seniors' work and also my peers' work and gave me the motivation to keep trying out different text layouts other than just doing the basic text formatting such as kerning, tracking, preventing widows and orphans, and font sizing.

Week 7 - After completing the task, I felt very appreciative of the work and creativity needed by all typographers and designers to create a page layout that is aesthetically pleasing and fitting for all viewers.

Findings

Week 6 - The research that I have done is by viewing my seniors' work to keep myself on track and it can serve as a guide so that I would not leave out any important information.

Week 7 - After completing the task, I learned a lot about text formatting and to get inspiration from seniors and my peers as this way, I get to widen my explorations so as to maintain constant motivation to complete this task and to prepare for the final submission.