Advanced Typography - Project 1

7/05/19 - 14/05/19 (Week 6 - 7)
Azmina Fathima Haris (0337113)
Advanced Typography 
Project 1

LECTURES 

Lecture 6: Finding Inspiration - Typeface Design 
Week 6 (7/05/19)

Today's lecture, which was conducted by Helen's group was on finding inspiration and why it's important for a designer.



Lecture 7: Typeface Anatomy
Week 7 (14/05/19)

This week's lecture was on designing type and focused on things to consider when designing a typeface and also the various parts of a letterform.



INSTRUCTIONS



Project 1: Key artwork  

For our first part of the project, we were asked to work on the key artwork - which is a combination of the title and a visual element that describes the concept and what the colloquium is about. Initially, I felt I had quite a few ideas but then as I went through the brief over again multiple times, I felt they wouldn't work.

I found this photo of statue of an angel and felt it would be interesting if I "defaced" that with a brush effect. This could represent challenging what is traditional or what is established. I wrote the title with the same brush effect.

Fig. 1.1 initial attempt

After Mr. Vinod suggested I do something that relates more to Asian culture, I looked into asian art, especially those with animals as they are often symbolic in culture. I chose to go with a tiger or a dragon. The tiger is an animal that represents a lot of countries in Asia, including Malaysia and India, and this I created in a Chinese paper cut style, with the dynamite representing change of some sort. The dragon I did in a similar style as my previous key art, based on the poster below.

Fig. 1.2 Reference #1

Fig. 1.3 Reference #2

Fig. 1.4 Attempt 2

Fig. 1.5 Attempt 3

I was told to work on the third one a bit more and to combine the head of the dragon with a naga statue and to do the text in a similar way, showing a clean cut. 

Fig. 1.6 Attempt 4

Fig. 1.7 Final work

FEEDBACK 

Week 6 

General feedback: Mr. Vinod remarked that there is a marginal improvement in our work this semester compared to our first. He also told us we should be to class on time as these small habits we pick up can also affect our work and how diligent we are. We were instructed to start working on creating our key artwork for project 1 and to work on the exercises later when we have spare time. Specific feedback: Both Mr. Vinod and Mr. Shamsul said the first part of the exercise was fine but I could work on improving the image interplay exercise later when I have time between projects. My blog was also complete and up to date.

Week 7

General feedback: Mr. Vinod said that our work would improve and we would get better ideas if we read more. He also said we should stop aping Western culture in our work and look around us more for better ideas.
Specific feedback: Both Mr. Vinod and Mr. Shamsul said that the words "trouble maker" looked fine but "manifesto" could use some work. They felt the bigger problem was with the image - they felt we were all referring to Western culture too much in our work and didn't consider Malaysia, or even Southeast Asia as inspiration instead for a figure or a symbol to be challenged. I was asked to research more about that and find a better image to work with.

REFLECTION 

EXPERIENCES

Week 6: This class was relaxed as we just worked on our blogs and I focused on updating my further reading. I had a feeling this would be one of the few classes like that before we started our projects.

Week 7: I felt I was really unproductive this class - I did think of possible ideas for my concept but I couldn't make it solid enough to sketch drafts or actually start working on.

OBSERVATIONS

Week 6: I can't begin to compare how different this semester's first project against last semester's. I was struggling to understand the instructions and what was expected of us. But this time around, I feel like I have a better understanding of not only our assignment, but also of how to incorporate our knowledge from the exercises into this.

Week 7: This project in particular felt very intimidating - creating the key art is not just a standalone project but would affect how the next assignment would turn out as well.

FINDINGS

Week 6: I felt like I could have worked on the tiger a bit further as I really liked the idea but since there were lots of other who were also using a tiger, I decided to go with the dragon.

Week 7: It was clear how much we surrounded ourself with Western culture - we struggled to come up with ideas entered around Asia.

FURTHER READING

Lessons in Typography by Jim Krause
Multiword Presentations - Emphasis Strategies 



This chapter spoke about placing emphasis on logos and how it can be done. The key is to create something that catches the viewers attention and also delivers the primary message. The following strategies were discussed to place more emphasis. The eye is drawn first to the bold central word and this works by showing contrast in colour and weight. The second is by varying the sizes of text in the design that can also add excitement and energy to the design. This helps play up the importance of one word over the rest.







Typography Essentials: 100 Principles for Working with Type
The Letter 



This chapter covered adding various details to letterforms. This can help the design look more interesting and can also help convey the message. However, it may interfere with the legibility of text, and these details should be added in moderation so that the text is still comfortable to read. These letterform details are created as OTFs and allow the designer to further customise the details.
These effects can help capture the spirit and meaning of the text - they could include hand drawn lettering, modified typography and distorted forms.