ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY - PROJECT 1
See Zi Yi 0340094
Advanced Typography
Project 1
LECTURE
Week 5 (12/05/2020)
Today, Group 2 gave a lecture on the topic: Designing Type. This topic encompasses a few subtopics, namely:
1. Anatomy of type
2. The general process of designing type
3. How to think before drawing
4. Construction of components
5. Characteristics of a good type design
6. Different Processes & Approaches that 3 Different Designers ( John Baskerville, Stanley Morison, Tobias Frere - Jones) Go Through
- Specification
- Analysis
- Creation
- Form making
Below is the Google Slides:
INSTRUCTION
Project 1 - Key Artwork
Week 4 (05/05/2020)
For our Project 1, we are tasked to creatively and conceptually use visual and type in combination to create a key artwork (works like a logo) to be used in collateral for the subsequent task down the line (Project 2: collateral design). The focus here is to use visual elements, and or graphical elements and the title (type) in an experimentative, impactful and visually attractive manner. There are a few things we need to take note of:
- Create our key artwork on Adobe Illustrator, because this software is vector-based, hence the quality will remain the same even when the artwork is resized.
- We can use typefaces aside from the 10 typefaces provided.
As for our collaterals:
- Microsite and poster are a must.
- We need to have at least 4 collaterals.
- Speakers' names can be changed, but we have to follow the time, dates, and venue.As for our collaterals:
- Microsite and poster are a must.
- We need to have at least 4 collaterals.
To start with, I picked a title, which is The ABCs of: The Bauhaus and Design Theory and did a mindmap on this topic.
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| Fig. 1.1 Mindmap on The ABCs of: The Bauhaus and Design Theory |
After having some level of understanding on both topics I decided to work on The ABCs of: The Bauhaus and Design Theory because I am more interested in this topic and I want to explore more about it. Then, I came up with a few sketches on the topic and below are my sketches:
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| Fig. 1.2 Sketches #1 |
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| Fig. 1.3 Sketches #2 |
With the sketches, I digitized some of them and below are my first attempts:
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| Fig. 1.4 First attempt #1 Concept: Bauhaus emphasizes the visual aspects which are considered as fundamental. |
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| Fig. 1.5 First attempt #2 Concept: Bauhaus mainly incorporates geometry and the primary colours which are considered as fundamentals. |
Week 5 (12/05/2020)
However, the ideas I came up with don't seem to work. I wasn't getting the vibe yet hence I came up with new ideas. Below are my attempts:
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| Fig. 1.6 Second attempt #1 Concept: Bauhaus's design always plays with the fundamentals of design. |
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| Fig. 1.7 Second attempt #2.1 Concept: Minimalism with smart use of resources. |
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| Fig. 1.8 Second attempt #2.2 Concept: Minimalism with smart use of resources. |
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| Fig. 1.9 Second attempt #2.3 Concept: Minimalism with smart use of resources. |
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| Fig. 1.10 Second attempt #2.4 Concept: Minimalism with smart use of resources. |
After showing the lecturers what I have done, I was advised to continue working on Fig. 1.5. Below are some variations I made on my work during the second consultation session:
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| Fig. 1.11 First attempt #2.1 variations |
However, Mr Vinod reminded me to follow the sketch of the sketch he suggested during the earlier consultation session as I didn't refer to it. I made more amendments and here's what I got:
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| Fig. 1.12 First attempt #2.2 |
The lecturer advised me to keep all the letters in lower case. Here is what I got.
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| Fig. 1.12 First attempt #2.3 |
After showing him once again, Mr Vinod suggested me to make "the" and "of" the same size. He also asked me to attempt another version where the lines for the geometric shape is of different weights: 1/2 shapes only. This is just to see if this add a further dimension to my work. Below are my attempts:
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| Fig. 1.13 Variations for first attempt #2.4 |
I was told that no. 1 and 2 are alright and should move on Project 2 quickly.
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| Fig. 1.14 Chosen key artwork |
However, I realized I got the title wrong as I used the book title instead of the talk's title. Below is my final key artwork.
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| Fig. 1.14 Refined #1 |
I think there's too much going on in the key artwork thus I decided to take Mr Vinod's suggestion and just focus on the different thickness of the lines. Below is the final outcome for my key artwork.
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| Fig. 1.15 FINAL Key Artwork for Project 1 (JPEG) |
Fig. 1.16 FINAL Key Artwork for Project 1 (PDF)
FEEDBACK
Week 6 (19/05/2020):
General Feedback:
For Project 1, we should begin with sketching, then compose the key artwork in black and white. The reason for doing so is because we shouldn't get distracted by the colours at this stage, instead, focus on the form first. If the form is not working on black and white then it's probably won't look good in colour. Also, work from the text, then let it interplay with the image like how we did in the last exercise. It's a great key artwork because a lot of different forms can stem out from it. It should be simple enough and apply it to other aspects. What you compose need to reflect the chosen topic. It's the arrangement that is crucial when composing a key artwork.
Specific Feedback:
Mr Vinod commented on my Fig. 1.5 and suggested that I can make the letters to fit inside a shape, for example, a triangle. He also sent me a link for my key artwork reference. For my second attempt, I was told to try to retain certain characteristics from my previous attempt Fig. 1.5. Besides, my "B" and "C" looks awkward with the counter space. Maybe I don't need to have shapes for my "ABC" and I have to refer to the sketch the lecturer did earlier to have an idea on how should I compose my key artwork.Week 7 (26/05/2020):
Specific Feedback on Facebook:
1. Try all in lowercase.
2. Make the & of dame size.
3. You can also try one version where the lines (for the geometric shape) is of different weights: 1/2 shapes only. Just to see if this add a further dimension.
4. Once done move on to Project 2.
Specific Feedback on Facebook:
1. I think lines with diff thickness seem alright. If colour lines should be in colour and not fill and only primary colours. Colour affiliation with the Bauhaus.
2. 1,2.
3. You need to move on. And complete collateral by now.
4. Because I think the form is there so, you can start thinking of how you can create your poster with this key art and how to create variation in use.
5. As in the examples given.
Week 8 (02/06/2020)
General Feedback:
1. Test out our key artwork on someone else to check its legibility.
2. Only minor variations should be introduced for our Project 2: Collaterals.
3. Breaking down the information into bits for the microsite is not advisable.
4. Look into the variations, and how it has changed from the original key artwork to different variations.
5. The poster sets the tone of the key artwork and should be in A2. The larger the poster, the more impactful it is. A2 = 16pt.
6. Remember that it's an event, hence anything related to an event can be considered as your collateral.
7. Analyze good layout design. What is the text aligning to? Where's the balance of it? Learn from it but don't copy it entirely.
Specific Feedback:
1. This is fine.
REFLECTION
Experience
Week 6 (19/05/2020); Honestly speaking, I am pretty demotivated with the feedback given on my attempts on ket artwork. It seems as if I need to work extra hard to get to where I want to be. Just like Mr Vinod used to tell me, everyone has different timing, and maybe I just tend to take a longer time as compared to others. But I know I have to quickly pick myself up and be resilience enough to go through all this; Week 7 (26/05/2020); No class as it's Hari Raya holiday; Week 8 (02/06/2020): We tried out a new way to receive feedback which is through posting our work under the lecturer's Facebook post. This is way more efficient and time-saving as compared to having everyone to share their screens.
Observation
Week 6 (19/05/2020); Some of my friends are really quick at grasping the requirement of the task at hand, they can do it the night before and get their work approved on the next day, but I know I am not one of them. Some others have come up with a great variety, worked hard, but still got their work rejected. It's interesting to see how different my classmates' working style are; Week 7 (26/05/2020);
No class as it's Hari Raya holiday; Week 8 (02/06/2020): Some of the key artwork ideas tend to be repetitive and it seems that people are running out of ideas. Mr Vinod also mentioned that it's tiring to look at similar artwork over and over again. I guess more exploration is required to come up with a unique piece of an idea.
Week 6 (19/05/2020); I find that I still can't grasp the essence of Bauhaus movement yet and still need to do more research on it, as well as to analyse my friends' key artworks which have gotten approved by the lecturers. Observe, analyse, repeat; Week 7 (26/05/2020); No class as it's Hari Raya holiday; Week 8 (02/06/2020): Experimenting with poster layout can be very fun and frustrating, as we will need to go through a lot of trial and errors to get a nice and interesting layout, but it's fun when we get to implement what we have learnt in the previous exercises.
FURTHER READING
Week 8 (02/06/2020)
Book title - White Space is Not Your Enemy
Author - Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen
Author - Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen
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| Fig. 5.1 Book cover |
Aside from explaining about 'white space', another of my takeaway from this book is the brainstorming techniques to stimulate creativity. The first technique is fluent thinking. In the late 1960s and early '70s, Frank Williams and Bob Eberle, a couple of educators interested in stimulating creativity in schoolchildren, described "fluent thinking" as a way to generate many ideas quickly. The main objective of this technique is to focus on the quantity of the ideas instead of the quality of it.
The second technique is SCAMPER. This is an acronym and each letter stands for one thinking technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse. So SCAMPER is a collection of these various techniques and a person can choose to use one or all of the seven methods for ideas generation. The third technique is Cubing. It refers to the six sides of a cube, which symbolizes thinking out of the box. The six sides are: describe it, analyze it, compare it, associate it, apply it, argue for or against it.
The second technique is SCAMPER. This is an acronym and each letter stands for one thinking technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse. So SCAMPER is a collection of these various techniques and a person can choose to use one or all of the seven methods for ideas generation. The third technique is Cubing. It refers to the six sides of a cube, which symbolizes thinking out of the box. The six sides are: describe it, analyze it, compare it, associate it, apply it, argue for or against it.
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