Advanced Typography - Final Project

23/06/20 - 14/07/20 (Week 11 - Week 14)
Jenani Raja Saker 0334331
Advanced Typography
Final Project

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INSTRUCTION

 

Final Project - Type Design

With the knowledge and experience gained, students should synthesise and apply the learning in the tasks to be mentioned, allow the knowledge gained guide and inform our decisions for the effective execution of the final project. Students could develop a font that is intended to solve a larger problem or meant to be part of a solution in the area of your interest be it graphic design, animation, new media or entertainment design or any other related area not necessarily reflecting your specialisation.

Otherwise, explore the use of typeface in our area of interest, understand its existing relationship, identify areas that could be improved upon, explore possible solutions or combinations that may add value to the existing typeface. To be effective you will need to study your area of interest, look at how type is used in the area and identify potential weaknesses or possible areas of further exploration. You can then attempt to provide a creative solution or add value to existing usage.

The end outcome could be a designed font and its application in the form or format that it is intending to provide a solution for, or an exploratory process that solves a problem or adds value to existing use. The work can manifest into any kind of format related to the issue being solved or explored: animation, 3d, print, ambient, projection, movie title or game title, use of different material etc.

Below is the work flow and my process which we will be diving into later:

1. Proposal of Ideas

2. Research

3. Initial Ideas (First Round)

4. Second Round Ideas

5. Back to Research

6. Third Exploration

7. Uppercase and Numerals

Proposal of Ideas

Throughout the course of 14 weeks, the final project had sort of been cooking at the back of my head and I had thought about certain fields I was passionate about and what I wanted to solve in that particular field. 

Here are some rough mind maps and brainstorming that I came up with in the previous weeks. 

Finally, I made my mind up about a few causes and listed them in a simple proposal below:

Mr. Vinod, later suggested me to work on the Taylor's Logo as well as their "slogan" key artwork which in all fairness was hideous. 

I decided to follow up on that, as I did it was something new. 

Figure 1. 01

Research

In this section of my research, I wanted to make something that incorporated lines, or a stencil, or modular type. 

These are some of the references I found and wanted to emulate. 

Figure 1. 02; Reference

Figure 1. 03; Reference

Figure 1. 04; Reference

Figure 1. 05; Reference

Figure 1. 06; Reference

Initial Ideas (First Round)

My lack of proper research showed in the way I had done my initial draft of the typeface. Being constricted by certain illness that I had at that point, below is my first measly attempt at the type.

Figure 1.07; First Attempt (lowercase)

Figure 1.08; First Attempt (Uppercase)

Figure 1.08; First Attempt (Type 2)

The idea was experimentative, but it was BADDD, for a couple of reasons (as guided by Mr. Vinod)

1. It was not readable

2. Not practical

Hence I began my second attempt of the typeface below : 

Figure 1.08; Second Attempt (TAYLOR'S)

This was once again a huge miss. I didn't grasp the meaning of decorative yet and Mr. Vinod asked to go really simple. And to go back to the research phase and look for multiple Universities in Germany, Holland, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, etc.

And that is exactly what I did. 

Figure 1.09; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.1; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.11; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.12; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.13; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.14; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.15; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.16; Research Pt. 2

Figure 1.17; Research Pt. 2

I finally got a clear picture as to what was expected and understood SIMPLE.

The typefaces of these Universities were simple and very modern. I wanted that for the Taylor's Logo. I wanted the logo to be bold and something that can be spotted from a far and had a lot of presence as well as modern (to show how adaptable Taylor's is). These were the four things that I was going for. 

I began my sketches below and digitising them:

Figure 1.18; Sketching

Figure 1.19; Digitizing (Version 1 & 2)

Figure 1.2; Digitizing (Version 3)

Figure 1.21; Fast Company Reference for ligature

Figure 1.22; Digitizing (Version 4)

Mr. Vinod liked the R of version 3, but had some issues with the O. He also asked me to refer to the ligatures of the Fast Company logo. 

I decided to go with the 3rd version and construct the full typeface. 

Below are some process photos:

Figure 1.22; Digitizing (Version 3, Process)

Figure 1.23; Digitizing (Version 3, Process)

Figure 1.24; Digitizing (Version 3, Process)

Figure 1.24; Digitizing (Version 3, Process)

Below are my full set of uppercase letterforms and numerals.

Figure 1.24; Full Uppercase 

Figure 1.24; TAYLOR'S (missing apostrophe) 

Here is the complete set of letterforms and numbers with punctuations.

Figure 1.25; Complete letters set 

Figure 1.26; FontLab 7

Below is the application for the Taylor's Font and Logo. I began by exploring placements, positions and color variations, and went with the one I felt looked best.

Figure 1.27; Exploring Placement Variants

FINAL ARTWORKS:

Figure 1.28;Final Taylor's Logo

Figure 1.29; Final Taylor's Submarks 

 

I decided to create submarks according to the Taylor's School as shown in Figure 1.29 as well as a key artwork. I also wanted to focus on the Design School, hence began creating collaterals related to the Design School.

Figure 1.30; Final Poster 1 for Taylors Design School featuring Architecture 

Figure 1.31; Final Poster 2 for Taylors Design School featuring Graphic Design 

Figure 1.32; Final Poster 2 for Taylors Design School featuring Fine Arts 

Figure 1.33; Compilation of Posters next to each other

Figure 1.34; Final Webpage for The Design School featuring the submark

Figure 1.35; Final Flag Banner for The Design School #1

Figure 1.36; Final Flag Banner for The Design School #2

Figure 1.37; Final Mockup of Poster

Figure 1.38; Final Mockup of Poster

Figure 1.38; Final Two-Page Brochure

Final PDF Compilation

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FEEDBACK

Week 13

Specific Feedback

Oh dear. Readability issues. It’s very experimental and a unique take ... but not practical. You still have until week 15... I’ve informed students in class. So there’s time. A little bit more. It is not meant to be used as text but for headlines ok.

Not logotype... the mark logotype includes the mark and type together. So you are creating a typeface that will work with the mark. Do that we can throw away that damn ugly stretched serif typeface they are presently using.

Not there yet. Your hunch is accurate re too decorative.

Try researching uni logo types out there and see what type of typefaces are used and how its used. So these might give you some idea as to what type of a character face would work best with the mark (& Taylor’s identity). Keep it very simple.

Week 14

Specific Feedback

I should fix the letterform M, it should be slightly thinner at the point of convergence. Ive also gotta fix the position of the mark of Taylors and try and experiment with it.Play around, then put it into Font Lab and try and create collaterals.

General Feedback

The Project requires us to have a separate segment of just the compilation of the Final Artworks for the lecturers to view it easily in a glance. 

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REFLECTION 
Experience
This was an extremely tough project for me especially due to my health conditions that were bad. It was so tough for me to have to balance so many modules with work piling up and it honestly, only made my condition worse. 


Observation
I observed that I did quite like branding, brand identity systems, and with my research, possibly brand strategy. It is probably something that I look forward to in my career. BUT, I do have to work alot in regards to my animation, something that I will work on during the holidays.



Findings

I found that I was able to do things quicker in one go in a day rather than breaking it into many parts in many days. I had to rely on many resources online to get work done. Honestly, I am not sure if Im right, but I honestly found out that nothing in the world is worth sacrificing health for. In our pursuit for perfectionism or success, many things one usually casts aside, but, health, is not something that I should at least. 

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