24/10/2023- 07/11/2023 (Week 5-Week 7)
Lizzie Tanaka
(0362065)
Typography | BDCM | Taylor's University
Task 2: Type Formatting
LECTURES
Week 6: Typo_5_Understanding
For week 6, I watched the Typo_5_Understanding lecture where Mr Vinod explained to us about understanding letterforms and how it's constructed.
Understanding Letterforms
- The 'A' below may look symmetrical but it actually isn't symmetrical on the arcs. Many letterforms are optically adjusted.
Fig 1.1 Asymmetry in A
- Uppercase letterforms are usually designed to appear symmetrical. Such as the 'A' in Univers below, the weight of the left and right stem is different. Most type designers do this to achieve an internally harmonious yet individually expressive letterforms.
Fig 1.2 'A' in Univers
- Below is another example of how seemingly similar typeface can have differences when looked at carefully. Left is the Helvetica lowercase 'a' and right is Univers lowercase 'a'. It's clear that the stems finish differently and how the bowls meet the stem also differs.
Fig 1.3 Lowercase 'a' comparison (Helvetica vs Univers)
Mr Vinod also explained that one of the most common beginner mistakes is adding too much character to one letterform, making it too decorative. It's important to focus on 1 character first, making sure that it is applicable to all letterforms.
Maintaining x-height
- Curved strokes such as these letters below require optical adjustment to make it optically symmetrical. The curved strokes has to exceed the median line (top line) or sink below the baseline. This is so that the letters look like they are the same size.
Fig 1.4 Maintaining x-height
Counterforms
- Knowing and understanding the counterform/negative space outside the letterform is important so that we can set our type correctly and achieve readability for users.
- A tip is to examine in detail how each letterform is constructed, based on an existing typeface.
Fig 1.5 Counterform (black areas)
Contrast
A basic principle of design that is also applied in typography. There are many possibilities to create contrast.
Fig 1.6 Contrast
Week 7: Typo_6_Screen and Print
1. Typography in mediums
> Used to be considered 'living' when they are on paper
> Evolution made typography available in form of screens as well
2. Print vs Screen
> Type for print was first made for long reading time. Type designers are required to make sure their typeface has high readability and have smooth results. Few examples of a good execution of this are Garamond, Caslon, and Baskerville with their elegant aesthetic and readability.
> Type for screen is designed solely for reading on screen mediums with enhanced readability and performance. These types usually have their characteristics such as taller x-heights, open counters, heavier thin strokes, wider letters, and more. Type on screen includes being used in environments such as e-books.
3. Hyperlink
> Defined as a word/image that when clicked, jumps to a new document/section within the same document. These are commonly found across websites, normally with a blue colored text and underlined.
4. Font size for screens
> 16px sized text on screen mediums is equal to the size of a text printed on paper. This is set for our default reading distance, around 10pt when we read books. When reading at arm's length, the size needs to be at least 12pts (print) = 16px (screen).
5. Web Safe Fonts
> Pre installed fonts are in each device, based on their operating system such as Windows or Google android. These fonts are different across devices, depending on their system. If a designer chooses a font that isn't installed in the device's system, a default font will be chosen such as Times New Roman.
> Web safe fonts are basically fonts that are available on all systems: Open Sans, Times New Roman, Courier, Courier New, Georgia, Verdana, Garamond, and Palatino.
6. Pixels differences between devices
> Text on screens differ in proportions as well since they have different pixel amounts. A 100px size on our laptop is a different size with 100px on a big 60' HD TV.
Static vs Motion
a. Static typography
> Minimal characteristics to express words and phrases. Traditional characteristics does a very little job on expressing more complicated properties, such as a bold or italic font. Examples of static typography include billboards, posters, flyers, etc.
b. Motion typography
> This lets typographers and designers be more kinetic with their letterforms and typefaces. Motion types are commonly found on movies where they animate the text. TV companies and brand identities usually have their own motion types.
INSTRUCTIONS
For Task 2, we are instructed to make a 200x200mm 2 page editorial spread
in Adobe InDesign, with provided text content. The goal is to combine type
expression and text formatting into one spread. To express the headline, we
are allowed to use Adobe Illustrator.
Task 2: Type Formatting
A. Research
I first began by researching what I had in mind in Pinterest. I wanted to
highlight the word 'build.' I thought of messily stacking the letters,
inspired by the image on the right. I also thought of the use of shapes,
especially squares and rectangles to resemble a building.
Fig 2.1 Research (24/10/2023)
B. Sketches
Sketch #1
For the first layout I sketched, I thought about stacking the letters of
'build on' with Futura Extra Bold Condensed and using a thin sans serif
condensed for 'a code to' and 'and live by' which will go across the
headline page. I also thought of an alternative for the 'and live by' in
which I will tilt it a little. For the text layout, I wanted to do an
effective and simple layout with the first 2 paragraphs on the left side
and the rest on the right area until the bottom margin. I planned to use
Futura Book for the text.
Fig 2.2 Sketch layout 1 (25/10/2023)
Sketch #2
For the second sketch idea, I wanted the headline to still focus on
'build on', so I planned to make it look neatly stacked. With this, I
wanted the rest to use the same font weight in Futura Extra Bold
Condensed and make the 'and live by' cross the other page. As for the
text layout, I thought of something simple as well, to align the top and
bottom part of each column or do a similar one to the first
sketch.
Fig 2.3 Sketch layout 2 (25/10/2023)
Sketch #3
On the last sketch I did, I tried to incorporate shapes into my
headline. Still using the same font, I wanted the 'build on' to be
inside a 3D box. The 'a code to' would be placed above it and the 'and
live by' would also align vertically. For the text layout, I tried to
experiment more so I thought of using up 4 columns for the first
paragraph, and then putting the rest in 2 columns. Another alternative
I thought of was using the last short paragraph of the text center
aligned at the very bottom.
Fig 2.4 Sketch layout 3 (25/10/2023)
B. Digitization Process
I began with following my sketch and used Futura Extra Bold Condensed
for the 'build on'. However, I felt like the 'on' was too plain and it
was overall very flat. I decided to change the 'on' to Futura Extra
Bold. As for the rest, I used ITC Garamond in Light Condensed and
adjusted the tracking for 'and live by.' I arranged the letters as if
they are tumbling and stacking on each other.
Fig 3.1 Digitizing headline #1 (25/10/2023)
With this being done, I placed the Illustrator file to my Indesign
document and immediately placed my text according to my sketch. I
thought that my text layout looked too simple and plain. I decided to
explore my choices. The first alternative was to align the two text
fields horizontally. Another alternative I thought was to push the
left text field to the top margin and the other to the bottom margin.
The main struggle was that the 'live by' shouldn't be too close with
the left text field. There was also quite a lot of text to fit in the
space. At the end, I chose the third text layout as it has a balanced
white space around it.
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Fig 3.2 Exploring text layouts (25/10/2023)
I also decided to try the alternative, which was the tilted 'and
live by' but with a black background. I actually ended up being sure that this was going to be my final result so I began the
kerning and fixing the ragging and widows. The kerned texts are the
ones I also used in the next layouts.
Fig 3.3 Alternative headline #1 and color (25/10/2023)
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Fig 3.4 Widows and rough ragging (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.5 After kerning to fix the widows and ragging (1/2)
(25/10/2023)
Fig 3.6 After kerning to fix widows and ragging (2/2) (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.7 Color blocking for layout #1.1 (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.8 Color blocking for layout #1.2 (25/10/2023)
Layout #2
Immediately after digitizing 'build' from my sketch, I noticed that it
is difficult to read as 'build' so I tried other arrangements and
didn't continue this version and moved on to try other
alternatives.
Fig 3.9 First attempt on digitalizing headline #2 (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.10 Attempts on digitalizing headline #2 (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.10 is my 4 other attempts on digitalizing the headline.
01: I didn't end up liking the first one as all the
placements were very random and it all looks unplanned and messy.
Again, the 'build' is kind of hard to read as 'build', it looks
confusing.
02: The second one was the same to me, it didn't read
as 'build' at all and I was just trying too hard to make
everything look neat without considering the audiences' direction
of reading. I thought it was clever to rotate the 'I' and make the
'L' and 'D' look like their stacked on top of it. With this
headline, it's important to highlight the relationship between the
word 'build' and 'on' as well as the space to put the rest of the
headline.
03: Finally, I decided to go for a different
direction. This time, I rotated a lowercase 'i' and filled the gap
with 'a code to'. In order to highlight the relationship between
'build' and 'on', I decided to stack them on top of each other. I
put the 'and live by' at the right end of the headline page with
right alignment. However, I also thought that it was a little
confusing to read the headline at once since I highlighted the
'build on' so people would read it first before the 'a code to.'
04 (chosen): I decided to put the lowercase 'i' as a
bridge between the 'U' and 'L' and put the 'a code to' on top of
it. For me, this version made it look like the letters are
building blocks. I also rotated the words a little.
Once I am done with the headline, I moved to Indesign. I decided to
not do the basic layouts I sketched out initially for this headline
and immediately did the layout I had in mind for the third sketch.
However, looking at it, I thought it looked way to packed. There was
an excess white space that was too contrasting with the layout of
the text.
Fig 3.11 First text layout for headline #2 (25/10/2023)
I decided to use the alternative of the last sketch, and to
balance the white space, I put the majority of the text in the
middle and the last short paragraph on the bottom. The last
paragraph seemed like a closing statement to me, so I decided to
highlight it by putting it separated at the bottom area.
Fig 3.11 Alternative text layout for headline #2.1 (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.12 Color blocking for layout #2.1 (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.13 Inverted color for headline #2.2 (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.14 Color blocking for layout #2.2 inverted (25/10/2023)
The process of kerning to eliminate widows and soften the ragging
is done in my first layout. After some time, I thought that the
text layout looks strange because only the last paragraph is
center aligned while the rest is left aligned. Since I liked the
white on black background more, I tried out a more simple
layout.
Fig 3.15 Layout change for #2.1 (26/10/2023)
.png)
Fig 3.16 Color blocking for #2.1 layout change (26/10/2023)
I ended up liking this simpler layout better as the neatness of it
complements the sort of messy headline.
Layout 3
For the last layout, it was rather a quick attempt and finalizing.
It didn't require as much detail to the previous headlines. I
thought this was a unique take on highlighting the 'build on' by
making them look like 3D blocks. I like how everything is neatly
aligned. I also ended up using a more basic text layout (already
kerned from the first layout exploration), pushing the left text
field to the top margin and the other to the bottom margin.
Fig 3.17 Layout 3 digitization (25/10/2023)
Fig 3.18 Color blocking for layout 3 (25/10/2023)
Week 6 Feedback
After considering the feedbacks given, I decided to make the first sentence of each paragraph in Futura Std Heavy to create some sort of subheading. I thought that using this technique will enhance the readability. However, the text layout also changed since it requires more space.
Fig 3.19 Subheadings (W6 31/10/2023)
The spacing between the subheadings and the body text looks strange since it has the same value to the paragraph spacing. Ms Hsin Yin then helped me to change it so that the distance between the body text and the subheading is equal to the leading instead of the paragraph spacing by pressing shift and enter.
Fig 3.20 After modifying the spacing of subheading and body text (31/10/2023)
Ms Hsin also suggested other ideas to enhance layout #2.1. The first idea was to make it more rigid and put them in strict grids so that the positive and negative is balanced. We will then put the 'and live by' inside the hollow center between 'build' and 'on'. However, the issue with this is that the 'ON' is imbalanced. The 'N' will stick with the 'L' but the 'O' and the 'U' will have quite a huge gap. To balance this, I tried to optically adjust the 'ON' by not putting it exactly according to the grid.
Fig 3.21 Alternative idea to layout #2.1 (31/10/2023)
After consulting again with Ms Hsin, another idea was suggested to fit the 'ON' under the horizontal 'i' to pack the words up. The 'and live by' would be under the 'build on' as if reflecting the 'a code to.' For this idea to work, I had to manually condense and resize the letterforms again so that it will fit inside the grid. With this idea, the issue was that the sequence of words was confusing and it doesn't read as 'build on' at first glance. Ms Hsin then suggested that the 'ON' and 'and live by' should be in gray to create contrast.
Fig 3.22 Alternative idea (2) to layout #2.1 (31/10/2023)
Fig 3.23 Alternative idea (2) with different colors (31/10/2023)
With the title finalized, I headed back to InDesign to combine it with the current text layout. I also refined a little more for the ragging. 
Fig 3.24 Fixing the ragging on layout #2.1 (31/10/2023)
C. Final Results
After many considerations, I decided to go with layout #2.1
(white on black headline).
Fig 3.25 Task 2 Final - PDF without guides (31/10/2023)
Fig 3.26 Task 2 - JPEG without guides (31/10/2023)
HEAD (Build)
Font/s: Futura Std Extra Bold Condensed
Type Size/s: 251pt
Leading: 253,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 253,5pt
Font/s: Futura Std Extra Bold Condensed
Type Size/s: 251pt
Leading: 253,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 253,5pt
HEAD (On)
Font/s: Futura Std Extra Bold Condensed
Type Size/s: 185pt
Leading: 187,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 187,5pt
Type Size/s: 185pt
Leading: 187,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 187,5pt
HEAD (i)
Font/s: Futura Std Extra Bold Condensed
Type Size/s: 240pt
Leading: 242,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 242,5pt
Type Size/s: 240pt
Leading: 242,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 242,5pt
HEAD (A Code To & And Live By)
Font/s: Futura Std Extra Bold Condensed
Type Size/s: 34,5pt
Leading: 37pt
Paragraph spacing: 37pt
Type Size/s: 34,5pt
Leading: 37pt
Paragraph spacing: 37pt
BODY
Font/s: Futura Std Book & Heavy (Subheadings)
Type Size/s: 9pt
Leading: 11,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 11,5pt
Characters per-line: around 55-65
Alignment: Left alignment
Font/s: Futura Std Book & Heavy (Subheadings)
Type Size/s: 9pt
Leading: 11,5pt
Paragraph spacing: 11,5pt
Characters per-line: around 55-65
Alignment: Left alignment
Margins: 10mm top, 10mm left + 10mm right + 10mm bottom
Columns: 4
Gutter: 5mm
Columns: 4
Gutter: 5mm
FEEDBACKS
Week 6
General feedback: Adding a subheading by changing font weight to a heavier one (categorizing each paragraph) can be effective in increasing readability. Do not use italics for all the text
Specific feedback: Make the subheading and the body text as if they are a paragraph, not a different paragraph. Other ideas suggested include making the headline more rigid in grids, and then putting the 'ON' under the 'i', and change the color to gray to contrast the words.
Week 7
General feedback: Do not use italics for all the text
General feedback: Do not use italics for all the text
Specific feedback:
REFLECTIONS
Experience: Throughout task 2, I learned to combine my skills I used in task 1 which was text expression and text formatting. It was more of a fun project because I get to experiment with different text layouts and try out many variations of type expressions according to my ideas.
Observation: I observed that it's important to keep the readability of the title (type expression). The readability should also complement the interesting idea. I observed that while I ideated several ideas, when it is digitalized, not all of them are readable and will only confuse people.
Findings: When doing task 2, I find that text formatting is equally important to type expression in the title. I find that most of the time, we spend more time refining the title to make it look interesting but the text layout itself is uninteresting and inefficient to read, making people also lazy to read through the content.
FURTHER READING
Week 6:
Fig 4.1 Typographic Design: Form Communication' by Rob Carter (6th Edition)
Fig 4.2 Week 6 Reading pg. 54-55
A. SIZE
It is difficult to pinpoint what exact size each type should be used, it is mostly based on comparative judgements and guidelines cannot replace a type designer's trained eye for typographic details. Smaller type reduces visibility by affecting word recognitions while larger type will force the reader to group words into sections instead of as a whole. A legible size is 9-12 pt. However, this also differs between typefaces due to the different x-height.
Type sizes more than 12pt require more fixation pauses which is when our eye stops on a line during reading, perceiving the meaning of grouped words. Lesser fixation pauses means better reading efficiency and comprehension. Reading audience is also important to consider, children and elderly require larger sized texts.
B. LINE LENGTH
Too short or too long line length will tire the reader's eye. Too much energy is wasted to read long lines and it is hard to find the next line. A shorter line requires the eye to change lines way too often. When working on 9-12 pt size text type, a maximum of 10-12 words (60-70 characters) per line is still acceptable.
C.INTERLINE SPACING
Proper interline spacing brings the eye to naturally move from one line to the next. Too wide of an interline spacing will make it harder to find the next line. As column measure increases, the interline spacing should increase. Typefaces with bigger x-heights require more interline spacing. Sometimes, optical adjustments in display types are needed when interline spacing seems inconsistent due to the descenders and ascenders. With type sizes of 9-12 pt, 1-4 points of interline spacing can be added between lines.
D. WEIGHT
Too light makes it difficult to differentiate from the background while a typeface that is too heavy can lose its pattern of counterforms. Median weights are most legible.
Weights can be used to provide contrast and clarity between titles, headlines, subheadings, and more. Heavier or lighter weights emphasize an information over the other. Extreme thick and thin strokes within letterforms can make reading more difficult. Thin strokes are not as visible
Character Width: Shape and size of page or column affect the selection of character width. A condensed typeface may be chosen for a narrower page or column. Though it is generally harder to read.
Italic and obliques: Extreme italic slant may slow the reading process but it can be effective when emphasizing a word.
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