Assignment 4 Write Up

Initial thoughts: This assignment was my favourite I've done so far, I had loads of motivation to sketch and so many ideas came to me to experiment with. I also really enjoyed the whole of this unit, and I think that helped a lot when it came to the end.

The assignment firstly asked me to research type foundries, being a type designer takes a whole new level of patience and would drive someone like me to insanity. This little research task was interesting as it exposed so many talented designers.

A type foundry is a company that designs and distributes typefaces, they are usually made up of many type designers that either work for the company or are freelance designers. 

Adobe: Adobe has their own type foundries, however, Typekit is a company started by Adobe that partners with the worlds leading type foundries to bring beautiful fonts. These include Studios and Typetogether

CanadaType: Canada Type is an independent type development studio based in Toronto, they have brought forth many best selling fonts that have to go on onto be featured in plenty of best selling publications. 

Red Rooster: Steve Jackman has over 30 years experience and is a type and graphic arts expert, he started Red Rooster foundry in 1990 with a team of highly skilled designers.

Show me.... To start this assignment I made a list of all the tasks I needed to complete, this is a way of keeping me on task and organised. The first step on this list was to sketch out possible ideas for a heading font. 

This was the first page of sketching I did, I started to sketch out a couple of ideas but realised I was sketching without any direction, although I did like these ideas as concepts I thought I needed some focus. I wrote down to the right some things I wanted to include. I knew that because this was a typeface magazine that I wanted the title to not be plain, I wanted it so have some flare and push some boundaries of a header and not just be a standard title written out. I wanted to create something really unique that has a meaning behind it or achieved a certain task. I wanted it to be both experimental and exciting.

I made a list of all the things I wanted to include in this cover and article.

1. Celebrate the beauty of type
2. The elegance and clarity of certain typefaces
3. The History of typefaces
4. Include things I've learnt during this unit
5. Chinese Letters
6. Use the typography puzzle section
7. Vernacular typography 
8. Anatomy
9. Fox
10. Motif

This was definitely an ambitious list now I've finished the assignment, however, I did use certain elements of the list so It worked as a focus tool. 

The next page of sketching was all to do with experimental lettering, I really liked the blackletter fonts from Gutenburg and wanted to put a modern twist on them. This tied nicely in with the history element of typefaces I wanted to include. Although it wasn't entirely practical it was technically the first typeface. I found a blackletter font, appropriately called Blackletter and then drew out each individual letter, I then took those letters and modernised them. I created more flowing curves and stripped back most of the sharp edges and replaced them with rounded edges. This changed the letters quite a bit but still kept the intense feel of Blackletter. I was really happy with how each letter came about and thought that together that they'd work as a header for my magazine. It would perfectly represent the idea of the history of fonts, what it would also achieve is being an exciting title, most magazines these days just have the title written out, now I know that branding is everything, for example, vogue, doesn't need an exciting header because its vogue and people will buy it regardless, but I wanted my magazine to be different, if its celebrating typefaces then I wanted to the header to be representative of that and to push boundaries and be experimental. I mocked up some of the letters in illustrator I was really pleased with how the turned out, I did my best to make sure they all were sized equally and had neat clean curves. 

I started this sketchbook page with the idea of taking my favourites parts of the blackletter font and implement them into a more modern font. However instantly I noticed that it looked too forced and didn't have a natural flow. I attempted as well to create more of a combined almost logo, I wanted to push together all the letters to create a flowing shape however the first attempt I forgot how to spell the word type and put the 'p' next to the 'T', my next attempt looked quite cool, I really liked the variation of the lower case e and thought it added a nice bit of contrast, however, It was the angle that made me scrap this idea. 

My next idea was to make the lowercase t as the focus of the cover, this is when the idea of blueprints and deconstructing a typeface came about. This was inspired by the puzzle exercise and how I had to trace the different elements of a letter to create a whole letter. I wanted to outline those different parts to give the idea of blueprints and how multiple transparent pieces are stacked on top of each other. I wanted to create a unique t as well so I started adjusting the letters I tried to make a more angled ascender inspired by the font 'Mont'. With the idea of blueprints in mind, I created a mockup of a potential cover, if the 't' was the focus then It had to be center stage, however I then had the struggle of deciding where the rest of the word was going to go, if it was going to be next to the t to go or maybe underneath. This was actually one of the designs I mocked up later on in photoshop. However I didn't end up choosing this design as for it to be effective it would have to be big, and that would take away from any of the content I wanted to put on the cover. 

For this page I was experimenting with a more classic serif style, I really liked the letterforms I created here, especially the T, I found I nice stem where the top was very thin, this gave me the idea of making the head serif titled as if it was balancing on top. In the y I also included the gothic terminal from the Blackletter font it almost resembles a devil tail. I experimented with various stem thicknesses as well to give a more authentic serif feel. On the topic of authenticity, I also had the idea of using an original type press as my inspiration, I would have the individual letters as blocks and embossed to make them look 3 dimensional. I then had the idea of going further and having the word type flipped horizontally as it would be on the actual type press. This was one of the designs I drew up on paper and illustrated. 

Ultimately I turned this idea down straight away, I liked how the letters came out but what I felt was they weren't consistent, it didn't look like one typeface it looked as if I had created 4 different letters and stuck them together. This was my first attempt at creating my own font so I was really happy with the result, If anything it made me appreciate the craft a whole lot more because this was a challenging task, I followed what I had learnt in the unit and drew out all the construction lines on paper and again in illustrator to ensure the font lined up, I then played around with the kerning. But the more I do look at it I do think it looks better than what I thought initially, that might have been down to the stress, because I can tell you now I was very stressed creating this font, it took a long time.

This page had vernacular typography in mind, I had this really cool idea of drawing the title of each issue on a different object, this would mix up the space available each issue and force the style to be different, it would still read the same but the environment I would have to work in would alter the shape. I also had the idea of creating a banner with the word type on, as I was drawing it out I liked the idea of the banner cutting the letters off as if the word was too big, it gave the whole header a cool flow and the banner and header played off each other nicely. At the bottom I was experimenting with having the word Type on a road sign and on the top it was wrapped around a bottle.

I drew out the bold typeface I created on the banner along with a lowercase version that would go onto be my final choice but for now I was focused on this bold version as I really liked how it looked on the banner and it did tick a couple of boxes, it may not have been the most exciting font but the way I utilised it, made it more experimental and unique.

These were the two final banners, if I was going to choose any, it would be the top one. I added some shading to the banner to give it some more depth and darkened the back two panels to give it further shading. I changed the colour of the word 'type' to white so it merged in with the background, I just think this gave it some extra flare and made it appear less flat and 2d. It can also be implemented on any colour background, and the banner is made of 2 block colours and can easily be changed to fit the colour palette of an issue. You can see as well I experimented with flipping the word to resembled a type press.

This was the last page of sketching I did for the header and it is actually my final design, it started with drawing from the deconstructed 't'. I took that idea and developed it further. I wasnt just deconstructing a font because it looked good, there was a deeper meaning behind it. I wanted to celebrate the artists behind typefaces. This unit has taught me so much about the type and how talented the people who create them are. Often they can be overlooked by non-designers who use them every day. My idea sprouted from transparent blueprints, In films often when they are showing the layout of a bank, for example, there would be multiple transparent layers stacked on top of each other to show the different levels. My choice of blue and red came from artists I follow on Instagram and artists in general, they often use these two colours when sketching out an idea as it gives a sense of depth and allows the artist to differentiate from different elements as they aren't just one colour which is usually grey. Also, the use of a barcode came about as I wanted to further highlight the idea that typefaces are products created by an actual person, they didn't just appear on computers there's a lot of time and effort put into them. This was just an extra element that gave it a bit more style.

Another thing I wanted to do with this style is label all the different parts of the font, firstly this ties in with the anatomy of a typeface, secondly it highlights all the different parts that go into a font and hopefully will make the reader appreciate how an artist utilises these components and the effort it takes, lastly they use these labels on blueprints as well as crime scenes when they lay out evidence. It all ties in with the theme of deconstruction and if I'm going to the effort of highlighting all the parts of a font I might as well label them. It also makes the title seem more exciting and experimental.

This was how my own typeface came out after I used illustrator to create it, I really didn't like the look, because it was a lowercase font there were a lot more curves which were hard to balance out in illustrator and make look consistent, I tried to use as many shapes as possible, The 'p' for example, I built it out of a rectangle and circle, so that flows the nicest. Out of the 3 versions I created myself this is my least favourite and because I was using this in my final designs I decided instead I would use the typeface this was styled upon to create the title, I was adding a lot more elements to the font itself, so I'm not relying on it entirely, plus I have created the font itself.

This was the first version, it uses two basic colours which I created overlying two strokes in photoshop to make it appear like the different parts were highlighted using different colours. I liked how this turned out, but it was quite basic and it felt like it was lacking something.

This was the next stage in its evolution, I added construction lines to the header to play on the idea of how the font is made and celebrating the craft. I also added the labels I mentioned, such as counter and stem and also went as far to put in kerning and the size of the font. I also put in the barcode, the numbers 1455 and 1470 also have meanings, 1455 was when Gutenberg invented movable time and 1470 was when Nicolas Jenson invented the more practical Roman Type. 

As I was creating this header I highlighted the word type and inside the highlighted section it changed the colours, I liked this negative look so I decided I would mock up a version that included those colours just for style purposes, although it would mean that I am both physically and metaphorically highlighting the importance and skill of type designers.

This was my final choice, I wanted to add more detail to the word type as it looks kind of basic, this is when I overlayed multiple versions of the word to resembled the transparent layers I referenced earlier. Also after feedback from my Dad, he said the construction lines where too thick, so I adjusted their size and also the colour, this way they resembled the construction lines I actually used in photoshop to create this header.

The next task was to think about what I was going to include in my magazine cover, I wanted to create some typographic illustrations and that would be the centrepieces of my cover.

I first wrote out a couple of quotes what I wanted to implement into these illustrations, this would also keep me focused on the imagery as well. My main quote was 'There is an artist behind every font', this really kept with my theme of celebrating the artistry and skill of designers by keeping that in peoples mind. To achieve this I had the idea of overlaying the words on someones face, I also had the idea of a having the word 'Font' in big bold letters and the silhouette of an artist literally behind it with their hands holding on to the word. The next quote was 'Type is art' my first idea was to have these words implemented into a painting. This is a medium of art almost everyone thinks of when they think of art. I thought that this way of combining the two would make people consider type as actual art which it is. I then merged these two ideas together by having a figure behind a canvas.

Another idea I had was to have 3 pieces of art hung on a wall to resemble an art gallery, the two on the ends will be paintings and the middle will be a painting of the words 'Typefaces are art" and then have the silhouette of a woman overlooking them as if she was in an art gallery.

This was the final design I came up with, I used the font Venetian as it is a really elegant handwritten font, I then used the free transform tool to stretch out the text so they followed the shape of the two heads.

My next task was to research magazine cover styles:

Some of the standout elements I liked of these covers I chose was firstly the border around the page, this is a really unique way of framing whats inside and adding an extra layer to add more depth to the cover. The other thing was the use of underlines to separate text, this isn't a feature unique to design magazines but it was something I wanted to add.

Now I had the typographic illustration I could begin to design my cover, I played around with different layout ideas, I also experimented with the placement of the title, a couple of these ideas have the title in the middle, as well as towards the bottom, this was supposed to resemble a diary that would've been used by an engineer, even when sketching I knew that these wouldn't work as I would have to work the illustration around the title and there wouldn't be enough room. I experimented with having the illustration behind the text because both were largely black, It didn't look right. 

This was my final cover design, as you can see I went with the black border around the outside of the cover this not only allowed me to frame my cover nicely but also add the blue and red subtly and so they weren't intruding on the cover. The fonts I chose to use on the cover were 'Mont' and 'Helvetica' I used Helvetica Regular and light to add some contrast between the subheaders and the descriptions. I think the white background and black font does look slightly basic however I've filled most of the white space so It's still quite basic but isn't sparse, everything Is filled in a way that it doesn't appear overcrowded but still full. I've mixed in the red and blue again on the cover, I've chosen specific words inside the subheaders to highlight in red and I've made the underlines in blue. They work really well to break up the text and to work on how it flows.

I then had to write out my articles, this was quite an easy task, I had all these ideas and they came to me quite fast.

What makes type so interesting: Type is one of the most important elements of graphic design and one that often goes overlooked by non-designers. The thing I find most fascinating and interesting about typefaces is the fact that they are hand designed and created by a person. They’ve thought about each individual letter, the weight and size, spacing, the type of font, how readable it will be and the situation it will be used in. There is a lot more to it than that but that's just skimming the surface. My favourite font is called ‘Mont’ it is a font you can download online and isn’t available on basic packages but I discovered it when completing this unit. It isn’t anything extraordinary, it’s basic sans serif font, however, the letterforms have been changed ever so slightly, the M is slightly more angled, the overall height of the letters is smaller than most fonts. When compared to something like Helvetica, the letters are thicker and more rounded, some of the letters change entirely like the lowercase ’t’ for example which has an angled terminal. I think this is what makes type so interesting is that the slightest alteration to a letterform will completely change the font itself and that's what makes it original to that designer. Max Miedinger designed one of the most widely used fonts in existence, Helvetica. One font has become so widely used because of its readability and style, it's a beautiful font that looks fantastic in any size and colour. It works very well on websites and is suited for corporate usage. It was so popular that a whole font was designed just to copy it, that font is Arial. Another thing I find so interesting about typefaces are the different types. In the 1400’s Guttenburg invented movable typefaces which gave the world access to a cheaper way of producing the written word, before this all type was produced by hand, he also invented Blackletter which is a very intense and gothic typeface but not incredibly practical. He was followed by Nicolas Jenson who invented Roman type, due to is readability it caught on quickly. Sans Serif fonts are classified as a typeface without ‘serifs’. Serifs are the parts on letterforms that extend out. This type of font was very popular on computer screens, as in a lower resolution often serifs weren’t readable. Handwritten letters have always been popular, in Vernacular typography, specific letters are created, this is another thing I find so interesting is that we know the basic ways of creating letters, and so we can stretch and customise those parameters to interact with one another, as a designer you can create beautiful calligraphy of a specific word and that exact creation is unique to that word because of how the letters form together. Specific typography like this can be seen in Murals and one-off signs. It is a unique production that won’t be seen anywhere else.

How a typeface is constructed: Different letters are made up of different shapes, whether you’re creating a Sans Serif or Serif font each letter has a unique shape and way of producing it. When deconstructing letterforms you can see the individual elements that go into creating a letter, this is the first step in creating your own font. You need to consider the style first. This is very prevalent in Serif fonts, for example, an uppercase A has a crossbar, how high is that crossbar going to be?, how long are the serifs on the stems of the letter going to be? how thick are the stems themselves? These are all questions a designer considers. To make the font uniform you need to be able to replicate that on all the letters, having varying thickness and weights to letters will make the font look ugly and inconsistent, a truly beautiful font has these things mapped out, it can usually take fully trained team months to complete a font. There is also spacing to consider, adjusting the kerning of letters is a skill in itself, because of all the different letter combinations in words, the spacing needs to be considered for all of them. The most important thing to consider when crafting a font is readability, if the counters inside letters are too small for example, when you have the font in a smaller point, then the reader is going to struggle to differentiate letters. Now its nice to talk about beautiful fonts but there are also fonts that are ugly, I like to split the term ugly font into two different categories, the first is poorly designed fonts, its hard to find fonts like this on the market, because they would never gain traction as almost anybody can spot a poorly designed font, this is more common on vernacular typography where the artist has produced their own unique lettering, its in situations like this where elements like kerning and letterforms can misconstrued the meaning. However, the other category is ‘over-used’ fonts. It isn’t that all of these fonts are inherently ‘bad’ although some of them are, its all down to them being over used. For example, Papyrus is hated worldwide, I think for its purpose the font isn’t that ugly, its inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, its become so overused in mediums such as signage and posters and that it is often considered tacky. However Papyrus is a purpose built font, its is designed and constructed with a certain usage in mind, these unique fonts should be kept in their own lane, and it is amateur designers that remove it from said lane. 

Question Marks: The question mark is a thing of mystery, its origin isn’t as black and white which is quite fitting to be honest. One of the best stories of how the question mark came about was in ancient Egyptian times where they worshipped cats. It is thought that the question mark is in the shape of a curious cats tail. Another more logical explanation is that it derived from the Latin word quaestio (‘question’). In the Middle Ages, scholars would write ‘quaestio’ at the end of a sentence to define it as a question, this was then shortened to qo and then eventually, the q was written on top of the o. Over time this then transformed into the modern question mark we know today. 

This was my article, I created a double page spread, the fonts I used was Helvetica Bold Oblique and Helvetica Regular for the body text and then Mont for the header of the articles. I feel like this article flows really nicely I adjusted the leading in photoshop to make the text more readable. I also added images and chunks of text to really break up the body text to both improve the flow and make sure it was aesthetically better, I always feel that too much text just looks overwhelming and would stop someone reading it. I also created another typographic illustration for the bottom right-hand corner, I prefer my cover one but I think this turned out nicely and is effective as in my opinion the message is clear.

This is a mockup of my cover and article

Final Opinions: I truly enjoyed this unit and especially the assignment, I feel like I've put the most time and effort into this assignment, this was mainly due to advice from my tutor that she wanted to see more development with my design work. Overall this assignment has really made me appreciate the work of type designers so much so I based my whole assignment on that fact. Making my own font was definitely a challenge for me but I feel like some of the ones I created myself worked quite well. My favourite thing I created during this assignment though was the typographic illustration for my cover, I think its very effective and looks cool. If I was going to do with assignment again I would want to implement different styles of text such as the Chinese calligraphy I created at the start.

Post Tutor feedback: After recieving feedback from my tutor I re did the front cover for my magazine, she suggested that the illustration I created didnt resemble two faces until I explained tha it was, so her suggestion was to create a version of it that uses a big blob of colour. She also gave me pointers on adjusting the leading and kerning of the sub headings which I did.