TYPOGRAPHY EXERCISE

27/03/18 - 24/04/18 ( Week 1 - week 5)

Chong Siong Loong Ron ( 0334452 )

Typography
Exercises

LECTURE NOTES

Lecture 1 : Briefing

27/03/2018 - Week 1

The class started with a brief on this particular class and module and the assignments overview. After the briefing of the module information Mr Vinod explain to us about e-protfolio that we were required to create our own blogspot site to document all of our artwork & projects though out the whole degree. Mr Vinod show us some examples of the e-portfolio and list out the details about what supposed to post on our blogspot, things to prepare for the nest class, what software is required in this subject, before the lecture about typography starts.

Typography is enhancing, creating a message and constructing letter forms are essentially what typography is. Typography itself has three different forms, which are presentation, composition and communication. Wikipedia states that typography is now more than ever practiced by everyone who arranges words, letters, numbers and symbols for publication, display or distribution.

Important terminology in typography:

Font : The process of creating a typeface
Typeface : The weight of a family
Type family : Typeface design that vary form a basic style of alphabets

He then gave instructions for our first calligraphy exercise.He also showed us examples from the previous intake so that we had a better idea of what to do. Before dismissal, everyone had to research on round hand, blackletter and uncial and choose one hand to practice for our next calligraphy exercise.

Lecture 2 : Introduction to Typography
03/04/18 - Week 2

In today's class Mr Vinod showed us a demonstration of calligraphy. We began by practice a lot on the horizontal, vertical, and circular stroke on the rough gird paper to find

In today's class Mr Vinod showed us a demonstration of calligraphy. We began by practice a lot on the horizontal, vertical and circular stroke on the rough grid paper to find the flow of it and to be comfortable with the calligraphy pen, after all the practice we have to final piece where we were required to submit , just a few hours of practice I saw the difference between my first and my final work which feels kind of satisfying.

Lecture 3 : History of typography
10/04/18 - Week 3

We were learning about typography development and timeline before starting the lecture, Mr Vinod told us that generally, typography books in the library were written in Western perspective and to get a more holistic perspective, we need to look it up ourselves.

Development & Timeline :
the lecture then started with the early letterform development: Phoenician to Roman. Phoenician was the basic of letterforms today, its the illustration on caves walls and isn't easy to understand because Phoenician was based on how certain things have certain sounds.
Phoenician then evolved to the early greek to early latin to modern latin ; the other end is it evolved to early Aramaic to Nabatean to early Arabic.

the greeks then changed the direction of writing, which was called 'boustrophedon' , it meant that the lines of text read alternately from right to left and left to right , they also change the orientation of the letterforms. the greeks used dots rather than spaces , the dots are later used as punctuations.

Lecture 4
17/04/18 - Week 4

No lecture. but we have to show our work of last week to our lecturer. After that we need to work on our next assignment,which by creating a few letterform for our name that embodies our personality.

Lecture 5
24/04/18 - Week 5

Today Mr Vinod revised with us on the format of our e-portfolio. we must divide the portfolio into 5 parts that is lecture notes, instructions, feedbacks, reflections and further readings. Mr Vinod also said each picture we must put a captions and figure number. Moreover, he told us that our type expression have to be arranged in squares (80mm x 80mm) and to be arranged with the gap of 15 mm in between.The caption have to be in Helvetica font and the type expressions has to be printed out.

INSTRUCTION

1.1 Exercise instruction from Typography module information booklet

Exercise

Calligraphy ( week 1 - week 3 )

3/4/18

We had to familiarise ourself with our tools and also for us to get used to the simple exercise such as horizontal, vertical and circular strokes. Before we choosing and doing the hand that we have chosen

2.1 Circular, vertical and horizontal line

2.2 Circular, vertical and horizontal line

2.3 Circular, vertical and horizontal line

2.4 Final Circular, vertical and horizontal line

Lettering ( week 3 )

10/4/18

Now we had to choose one hand to practice for the next exercise, so I have chosen " The Moderns " after trying a few hand , I felt " The Moderns "came the most nature to me.

2.5 The Moderns hand reference

Figure 2.6 Letter A-L

Figure 2.7 Letter M-X

Figure 2.8 Letter Y-Z

Now we have to choose a quote to practice. the quote I have chosen is " difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations "

Figure 2.9 Practicing for the quotes execrise

Figure 2.9 1st Attempt for quotes exercise

Figure 2.10 2nd Attempt for quotes exercise

Figure 2.11 Final Attempt for quotes exercise

Figure 2.12 First Attempt for quotes exercise in plain A4 paper

Figure 2.13 Second Attempt for quotes exercise in plain A4 paper

Figure 2.14 Third Attempt for quotes exercise in plain A4 paper

Figure 2.15 Fourth Attempt for quotes exercise in plain A4 paper

Figure 2.16 Fifth Attempt for quotes exercise in plain A4 paper

Figure 2.17 Final Attempt for quotes exercise in plain A4 paper

Lettering ( week 4-5 )

17/4/18

The first exercise to type expression is to draw some letters of our name(s) that could express a personality within ourselves.

Figure 3.1 Type expression on my name

From there, I choose one letterform and made it in Illustrator.

Figure 3.2 Digital version of the chosen letterform: SIMPLICITY

Figure 3.3 Screenshot of the animation progress

Figure 3.3 Animated version of the letterform; SIMPLICITY

Figure 3.4 First attempt to text expression

Figure 3.5 Final attempt to text expression

Figure 3.6 Screenshot of the animated process

Figure 3.7 First attempt of animated text expression; LOUD

Figure 3.8 Screenshot of the second animated process

Figure 3.9 Second attempt of animated text expression; STRESS

Figure 4.0 Screenshot of the Final animated process

Figure 4.1 Final attempt of animated text expression; STRESS

Exercise

Calligraphy ( week 1 - week 3 )

Before we choose a hand to practice on, we were required to do vertical, horizontal and circular strokes practices to get used to holding the calligraphy pen

Lettering ( week 4 )

To draw out the letters of your name. Try to capture your personality or character in the design of the letters. We need to animate the drawn out letter while ensuring the animated gif stays within the character and personality

Type expression (week 5 )

We are given 6 words to compose and express. We will be given a set of typeface to work with. Thought iteration, use the appropriate typeface and compose the letter in a manner that allows meaning of the word to become visible.

FEEDBACK

Week 2

Specific Feedback : Mr Vinod advised me to hold my pen at the correct angle and make sure I must sit up straight. talking about the practice horizontal lines and vertical lines are well spaces but Mr Vinod said that my lines are a little shaky, I was also told that my circles were too small and the circles are supposed to fit the grid box

Week 3
Specific Feedback : Mr Vinod commented on my A-Z calligraphy he said overall its good and clean and he said that I need more practice to make it excellent, my spacing for the vertical lines n horizontal lines is good but on the circular exercise is not so good, need to improve on my circular strokes. To rate the overall from the scale of 1-5 , I got 3 out of 5 . Next on my quote exercise, Mr Vinod said I have to space my words out nicely and the words must be in the middle of the paper.

Mr Shamsul commented on my blog, he said overall good but there are some technical problems and some of my text is not consistent.

General Feedback : Whenever we write our ID, Name and Date never write it with pen , always write it with pencil . we have to draw an "X" on our grid paper to get the middle point so we can centralised our quote. We need to be mindful of how much space there is on the right side of the paper than we will align the quotes on the left side.

Week 4

Specific Feedback : Mr Vinod commented on my final quote written on the white A4 paper , he said there are room to be improved and my strokes is a little shaky compared to the exercise on the grid paper but to rate my work on scale on 5 I will get 2- 2.5. Blog is up to date. I have to have to draw lines on the plain paper to get a guide for myself so the strokes will be consistent. Next we had to show our own character lettering. I did mine is a minimalist style. Mr Vinod said my style is simple but yet interesting.

Mr Shamsul commented saying on my name and he said the words must have a smooth strokes if not it will not give a pleasant look to the draw.

General Feedback : On the plain A4 paper we have to write the name behind because the front part works as a whole so we can't write it in front. To those that have to redo the final work we have to add in a up case letter. Mr Vinod feels that we do not how to express or explain on our design

Week 5

Specific Feedback : Over all my type expression some was not very expressive " DEAD , STRESS , DRUNK " Mr Vinod said my dead I don't need the R.I.P. work there just put the dead work vertical , my stress type expression is not very stress n the shadow does not help to make it stress , my drunk type expression does not give a drunk feel it gives a direction from the D to K n it brings your eye out of the art work. After fixing the few n it was approved than after that the quick type expression I was told by Mr Vinod to remove the small k be hide the word.

General Feedback : We was told to categorise up n put our blog on a hierarchy from Lecture, Instructions, Reflection, Further reading all the title must be consistent and our picture must be taken with a good lighting and we have to keep the picture at a consistent colour. For the type expression we have to express the word and not just express the animation.

REFLECTION

Experience

Week 2
I had a hard time holding the calligraphy pen in a accurate / comfortable position. But after awhile of practicing the line practice exercise, I began to get comfortable with it.

Week 3
After a week of practice, my strokes for my Calligraphy became smoother and less shaky, after I found the correct way or comfortable way to hold the pen I tent to calligraph much more faster n smoother

Week 4
My practice on the gird paper is much more consistent and is much more easier to control the size of my strokes compared my practice on the a4 paper.

Week 5
Type expression is not very easy because we have to express the meaning in the word n after we succeeded we have to apply the animated version of the type expression.

Observations

Week 2

I realised that my horizontal and vertical strokes is much more better than my circular strokes. My spacing between the lines as not very accurate and I had a hard time doing the circular strokes.

Week 3

I realised my strokes was much more smoother and neater compared to last week, after practicing a lot I tent to find calligraphy is not that hard after all , we have to be determined and hard working to practice because practice makes prefect.

Week 4
I realised my strokes / practice on the plain white a4 paper is not so neat and consistent compared the one I did in the grid paper.

Week 5
After doing the 6 words on type expression, my observation is that is the difficulty to express the meaning the word is.

Findings

Week 2
I noticed that when our hand and paper must be on a accurate position if not our horizontal and vertical lines will be slanting.

Week 3
I noticed that after a lot of practice I got the accurate way to hold the pen and my paper didn't slant off. My quote exercise is more much satisfying than the A-Z.

Week 4
I started writing my quotes on the plain A4 paper n I found it much more harder to write compared to the grid paper because on the plain paper I don't have lines nor grid lines to give me a for my strokes. I will definitely practice more to make it prefect.

Week 5
On my 1st attempt I though I already expressed enough the words meaning , after getting the feedback of Mr Vinod I saw the few error he talk about n after that I have to modify the type expression words.