Advanced Typography | Task 1 : Exercises

22.04.25 - 14.05.25 / week 1 - week 4
Subhana Salim / 0375936
Advanced Typography/ Bachelor's of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 1 : Exercises

1. Lectures

2. Instructions

3. Task 1 : Exercise 1 : Typographic Systems

4. Task 2 : Exercise 2 : Type & Play

5. Feedback

6. Reflection

7. Further Reading

LECTURES

WEEK 1 :

Lecture : AdTypo_1_Typographic Systems

A. Types of Typographic Systems

1. Axial : All elements are organized to the left or right of a single axis

2. Radial : All elements are extended from a point of focus

3. Dilatational : All elements expand from a central point in a circular fashion

4. Random : Elements appear to have no specific pattern or relationship

5. Grid : a system of vertical and horizontal divisions

6. Modular : A series of non-objective elements that are constructed in as a standardized units.

7. Transitional : An informal system of layered banding

8. Bilateral : All text is arranged symmetrically on a single axis

Figure 1.1 Typographic Systems

WEEK 2 :

Lecture : AdTypo_2 _Typographic Composition

A. Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds suggest that a space can be divided into 3 columns or 3 rows. And the intersecting lines are used as a guide to place the points of interest, within a given space.

1.2 Rule of Thirds

B. Grid System

Grid System was formed as the result of grid compositional structure of Letter Press Printing. This was further enhanced by the Swiss (Modernist) style of typography.

1.3 Grid System

C. Modernist Era

During the Modernist era Typographic Systems explored chaos, randomness, and asymmetry. This led to rise of typographic systems such as asymmetry, random, repetitio, dilatational, radial, etc.

1.4 Post Modernist Era

D. Environmental Grid

This system is based on the exploration of an existing structure or numerous structures combines. An extraction of crucial lines both curved and straight are forms. The designer then organizes his information around this super structure, which includes non objective elements to create a unique and exciting mixture of texture and visual stimuli.

1.5 Environmental Grid

E. Form and Movement

This system is based on the exploration of an existing grid systems. This system requires the placement of a form (irrespective of what it is)on a page many pages creates movement.

1.6 Form and Movement

WEEK 3 :

Lecture : AdTypo_3 _Context&Creativity

1. Introduction

The first mechanically produced letterforms were design to directly imitate handwriting. The shape and line of hand drawn letterforms are influenced by the tools a and materials that are used to make them. Like the sharpened bones, charcoal sticks, plant stems, brushes, feather and steel pens.

1.7 Evolution of the Latin Alphabet

2. Different systems of writing is as follows

a. Cuneiform (3000 B.C.E.)

Earliest form of writing that is used in a number of languages, Its wedge form is a result of pressing the blunt end of a reed stylus into wet clay tablets.

b. Hieroglyphics (2613-2160 B.C.E.)

Egyptian writing system is a mixture of both rebus and phonetic characters- the first link to a future alphabetic system

c. Early Greek (5th Century. B.C.E)

Phoenicians developed a phonetic alphabet consisting of 22 letters. This Phoenician system was later adopted by the Greek who added the necessary vowels. Greeks was often reading a format known as boustrophedon or as the ox plows. One row would read left to right and then switch from right to left.

d. Roman Uncials (4th century)

Greek lettering was later adopted by the romans. Their letter forms were becoming more rounded, the curved form allowed for less strokes and could be written faster.

e. English Half Uncials (8th century)

English uncials evolved into a more slanted and condensed form

f. Emperor Charlemagne (8th century)

After the fall of the roman empire resulted in a general illiteracy and a breakdown of handwriting into diverse regional styles

g. Carolingian Minuscule

A court school was established under the direction of Alcuin of York. During Charlemagne's patronage, a new script with standardized language emerged to unify communication between the various regions of the expanding European empire.

h. Black Letter (12-15 Century)

The Gothic letter form emerged during this time which was associated with the Italians.

i. The Italian Renaissance

Humanist scholars in Italy tried to revive the ancient Greek and roman culture and admired the Carolingian script and called the letterforms under a new name 'Antica'.

f. Movable Type (11-14 Century)

Movable type was introduced in the 1000-1100 CE . The innovation was pioneered in China but achieved in Korea, where they established a foundry to cast movable type in bronze.

3. Oldest writing of different cultural context

a. Middle Eastern Alphabet

Phoenician letters use sound represented in letters, possibly influenced by the Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Hieratic Scripts

b. The evolution of Chinese script

Oracle bone, seal script, clerical script, traditional and simplified scripts

c. Oldest writing in Indian subcontinent

the Indus Valley Civilization (3500-2000 BCE)script , is yet undeciphered and seems to have been somewhat logo-syllabic in nature.
The Brahmi script (450-350 BCE) emerged after Indus script. All modern Indian and southeast and east Asia scripts are derived from Brahmi.

d. Oldest writing in Southeast Asia

Oldest the writing script in Southeast Asia were Indian scripts such as Pallava, south Indian script for writing Sanskrit or Tamil. There were other Indian scripts using along with this like the Malay Archipelago and Pra-nagari
Indonesia's most historical script : Kawi a script used to communicate with other kingdoms. Many of Indonesia's historical writing systems have been assimilated into the Peninsula Malay communities

e. Jawi

It is an Arabic based alphabet that spread in south and south east Asia, specifically among the middle and upper class in the trading ports as a result of traders engaging in missionary works. Eventually a huge part of Malay and Indonesian scripts were written in Jawi.

4. Multi Script Typefaces:-

Coined by Muthu Nedumaran, being produced to cater to situations where the written matter is communicated in vernacular or vernacular and Latin scripts.
Murasu.com by programmer and typographer Muthu Nedumaran is a programming language used to encode different vernacular writing systems
Huruf is a local group of graphic designers are among the prominent organizations digitizing and revitalizing typefaces in Malaysia
EK Type and Indian Type Foundry developed several vernacular typefaces in India.

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 1 : Exercises
In this task we are required to complete various exercises to help gain theoretical and practical knowledge in Advanced Typography. There are two exercises to this assignment, which are :-
1) Typographic Systems:- This exercise requires us to make one typographic poster for each typographic system, (i.e Radial, Dilatational, Bilateral, Axial, Random, Grid, Modular, Transitional) with the text provided in the MIB.

2) Type and Play:- This exercise requires us to make new type out the patterns found in the image we selected. After this we use the finished type on the initial image to make a poster.

TASK 1 : EXCERCISES

EXERCISE 1 : TYPOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS

Process

I began working on the first assignment which was due by week 2. I first started out by reading through the lecture notes and the book 'Typographic Systems by Kimberly Elam' get a good idea on the differences of each Typographic System.

Then I began the sketching process, I did on my sketchbook with a pencil. I made 6 six variations for each typographic system, through which I will take my favorite one and improve it further.

Figure 2.1 Rough Sketches (Week 2, 24/04/2025)

After choosing a design per type, I began digitizing the designs into Adobe InDesign. I created different variations for each Typographic system.

Dilational :

Figure 2.2 Iterations for Dilatational System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Radial:

Figure 2.3 Iterations for Radial System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Bilateral:

Figure 2.4 Iterations for Bilateral System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Grid:

Figure 2.5 Iterations for Grid System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Modular:

Figure 2.6 Iterations for Modular System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Transitional:

Figure 2.7 Iterations for Transitional System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Random:

Figure 2.8 Iterations for Random System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Axial :

Figure 2.9 Iterations for Axial System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

I finally decided to settle with these designs.

Figure 2.9 Final compilation of Typographic System (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Final Outcome

Figure 3.1 Axial System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.2 Radial System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.3 Modular System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.4 Grid System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.5 Transitional System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.6 Bilateral System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.7 Random System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.8 Dilatational System Final (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.9 Typographic System Final (JPEG) (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

Figure 3.10 Typographic System Final (With Grids) (Week 2, 26/04/2025)

TASK 1 : EXCERCISES

EXERCISE 2 : TYPE & PLAY

Process (Making Letterform)

I started the assignment with going to Pinterest and finding images to trace. I found images of coral and bark, which I liked the pattern of. I ended up tracing 3 images and choose which my favorite pattern is.

Figure 4.1 Outlines of the images (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

I ended up going with the pattern of this image. I tried to extract the letters E, U, P, H, Y, L, I, A. to spell the words EUPHYLLIA which is another name for aa type of coral.

Figure 4.2 Process work of the Letter Forms (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

After extracting the letters, I tried to smoothen the shapes. But I wasn't satisfied with the final result as it wasn't looking coral enough so I decided to redo it.

Figure 4.3 Refining the Letter forms (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

This time I decided to retrace some elements in the sketch to add more of the coral elements and tried to extract letters from the sketch again.

Figure 4.4 Redoing the process of making the letter forms (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

After the second extracting of the letters, I began the refining of the letters again.

Figure 4.5 Redoing of Refining the Letter forms (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

After Mr. Vinod reviewed my work, I made some edits to my final font again. I added more of the coral texture into the font.

Figure 4.6 Final Letter form (Week 4, 08/05/2025)

Process (Making Poster)

I first imported the image into photoshop

Figure 5.1 importing image into photoshop (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

I added hue saturation adjustment layer and increase the saturation of the colors and reduced the lightness.

Figure 5.2 adjusting the colors of the image (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

Then I imported the text into the final image and positioned it.

Figure 5.3 placing the text on the image (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

I changed the color of the text to white.

Figure 5.4 adjusting the colors of the image (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

I then added secondary text and placed it around the image.

Figure 5.5 adding secondary text (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

I later went in and made more variations for the movie poster.

Figure 5.6 movie poster variations (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

After week 4 feedback, he reviewed my poster and to readjust the poster alignment.

Final Outcome

Figure 6.1 Image extraction (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

Figure 6.2 Overall Process (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

Figure 6.3 Reference font (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

Figure 6.4 Extracted Letterforms (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

Figure 6.5 Final refined font (Week 4, 08/05/2025)

Figure 6.6 Comparison between Extracted forms and the Final refined font (Week 3- Week 4, 03/05/2025 - 08/05/2025)

Figure 6.7 Final PDF compilation of Task 2 (Week 3, 03/05/2025)

Figure 6.8 Final Poster PNG (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

Figure 6.9 Final Poster PDF (Week 4, 13/05/2025)

FEEDBACK

Week 1 :

General Feedback :

Week 1, was Briefing week. Mr. Vinod detailed through what is required to do by this week and what we are required to bring by next week. He also started with explaining through the MIB, so we would familiar ourselves with the tasks that will be required of us during this semester. We also were assigned our first task to us. We had to first watch the lecture videos as instructed to help with this.

Specific Feedback :

No specific Feedback was given during week 1

Week 2 :

General Feedback:

Week 2, was focused on reviewing the task assigned during week 1. Mr. Vinod requested submit our 8 typographic system types in Facebook, through which he will give personalized feedback. From the reviewing he gave us general feedback about how we should organize our work.

Mr. Vinod also started with the briefing of assignment 2, which is due in week 3.

Specific Feedback:

Mr. Vinod said to tone down my graphic elements and use of colors as it is too distracting. He also said that the checkered pattern I had in the radial system must be changed.

Week 3:

General Feedback:

Week 3 was focused on reviewing our letterforms of for exercise 2 task 1. One of the main criticisms he gave was to make the letterforms to be thick and consistent in weight length as well as making sure the letterforms hold the essential characteristics of the original image.

Specific Feedback:

When Mr. Vinod looked at my work, he did say my font is passable, however it doesn't retain the original characters of the original image. He told me to go into the final font and edit in its core characteristics.

Week 4

General Feedback :

Week 4, The first half of the class he gave us critique on our week 3 poster. One of the main critiques he gave was to center the text and make it the focus. He also asked us to make sure our text and image was legible and visible. after taking a 30 minute break he began briefing us about task 2, where we have to make a work mark. He told that the word mark we make must represent our bran and we must make a mind map to help flush our ideas out.

Specific Feedback :

He critiqued my poster. I gave him several variations of the poster design and he chose the one with the centered text with 3 letters in each row. However the text is slanted and he asked me to center it.

REFLECTIONS

Experience

My overall experience with task 1 was stressful and hectic. I was given 2 exercises each had weekly deadlines. Mr. Vinod spend the start of each week focusing on giving us personalized feedback on our work, were we had to post our final assignment on the Facebook post as requested. Then he would assign the next week's work, and we would spend the rest of the class working on it. I would often ask my neighbors for advice and critiques for my work to get a second opinion. I assume this is a helpful for my creative journey. Mr. Vinod during this time may also come to our desks to review our work.

Observation

I observed that Mr. Vinod is very particular and strict about the standards of quality of our design work. This is really helpful in pushing us to work hard and make our best work. Mr. Vinod also sometimes plays music in class which motivates me to work a little bit more. I would say personally that Mr. Vinod has seemingly good taste in music, which is convenient for me. The working atmosphere of my fellow classmates is another factor that helps me focus on my work.

Findings

I find that I struggle with time management skills as I seemingly spend too much time working on my design assignment than is required. However I may be slow, I find that I also try my best to makes several sketches or iterations so my best works becomes finalized. I find that a working atmosphere with Mr. Vinod to supervise us actually keeps me accountable. I am less inclined to be distracted by other things. Deadlines actually keeps me focused and productive.

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Subhana Salim (0375936)