Advanced Typography - Task 3: Type Exploration and Application

13/9/2023 - /10/2023 Week 8- Week 13
Ng Jia Ern 0363033
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 3 - Type Exploration and Application

CONTENT

1. Lectures
2. Instructions
Final Submission
3. Feedback
4. Reflection
5. Further Reading

LECTURES

Lectures [1] and [2] refer to Task 1

Lectures [3], [4] and [5] refer to Task 2

INSTRUCTIONS

Task 3: Key Artwork

Create 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.

End result: a complete generated font (.ttf) with applications.

Explore the use of an existing letterform in an 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 letterform / lettering.

End result: a complete generated font (.ttf) with applications.

Experiment. For your idea to qualify as an experiment it must be novel and unique — working with material that might be 3-dimensional, digitally augmented, edible, unusual, typographic

music video or fine art.

End result: defined by student.

To be effective you will need to study your selected area, look at how type is used in the area and identify potential weaknesses or possible areas of further exploration or experimentation. You

can then attempt to provide a creative solution or add value to an existing use.

The end outcome could be a designed font and its application in the form or format that it is intending to provide a solution to, or a designed font that adds value to an existing use, or an experimentative output that results in something novel and unique. The work can manifest into any kind of format related to the issue being solved or explored or experimented: animation, 3d, print, ambient, projection, movie title or game title, music video, use of different material etc.

Process:

1. Ideas - Proposal

1. Stencil Font

My first idea is doing a stencil font, that can be used when spraying paint on walls or other surfaces.

Problem Statement:

Stencil font design nowadays, many existing fonts appear overly deliberate and lack a sense of natural and coherent connections, particularly in the linking of letters. This problem primarily stems from the absence of letterform designs tailored to specific design needs and effective inter-letter connections. Stencil font design calls for a more organic flow to create letter connections that not only appear more harmonious but also work across diverse design contexts without constraints.

Solution Objectives:

Design a stencil font that offers organic, harmonious letter connections, ensuring suitability for various design projects.

2. Light painting typography

My second Idea is inspired by long-exposure light painting.

Problem Statement:

In the realm of visual communication, there is a need for innovative and captivating design elements that go beyond traditional typography. Current typographic approaches often lack the dynamism required to capture attention in today's visually saturated environment.

As a result, there is a demand for a visually compelling solution that seamlessly integrates typography with the captivating aesthetics of light painting.

In today's visual communication field, light painting typography is usually represented as an independent word in photographic works. It lacks a complete alphabet system and is difficult to apply to other works or media. This limits the wide application of light painting typography in creative design, brand communication and digital art. The current light painting typesetting technology lacks systematicness and versatility, and a solution is needed that can integrate this unique typesetting art into more different creative media and platforms.

One limitation of current light painting typography is that it usually uses a single colour and lacks the richness and variety of colours. This limitation of a single colour reduces the expressiveness and visual appeal of the design.

Solution Objectives:

1. Dynamic Design Innovation:

Develop a dynamic typographic solution that surpasses traditional constraints, introducing innovative and captivating design elements capable of thriving in the visually saturated modern environment.

2. Comprehensive Alphabet System:

Create a complete set of alphabets for light painting typography, enabling designers to construct versatile compositions applicable to various works and media beyond the constraints of single-word photography.

3. Multicolored Typography Technique:

Introduce a multicoloured approach to light painting typography, addressing the current limitation of single-colour usage. This enhancement will enrich visual expression, allowing for a broader range of applications in different scenarios and themes.

What is light painting?

Light painting is a term that describes photographic techniques of moving a light source while taking long-exposure photographs. Practised since the 1880s, the technique is used for both scientific and artistic purposes, as well as in commercial photography.

2. Testing - Learn how to shoot long exposure

First, I prepare all the materials and tools. Which are a DSLR camera, tripod, light stick, flashlight, and LED light.

Then I take a try to shoot light painting.

Camera settings:

I realise that the background is not enough dark.

So I increase the aperture to make it darker.

Camera settings：

Now the camera setting is ok. I tried to combine them into letters.

Halfway through, I realized that I hadn't captured the stroke shape I wanted.

3. Planing - strokes that I want

So, I re-planned the type of stroke I needed and shot it again.

4. Shooting

Camera Setting:

Unedited Strokes from Camera:

5. Edit the strokes

Edited Strokes:

I added colour filter for those strokes in Photoshop

6. Combine to alphabets

I use the Franklin Gothic Demi font as a reference for my letters

I assembled the strokes I edited one by one to form each letter, using the "lighten" blending mode to remove the black background and retain only the bright highlights.

While assembling the letters, I also fine-tuned the colours of the strokes to make them look harmonious.

And also use wrap, distort and skew tools in Photoshop to shape the stroke into the shape that I want.

And then it's repetition, just repeating the process until all 26 letters and numbers 0 to 9 are assembled.

On average, each letter requires 2-6 strokes.

A total of 141 strokes were used.

Final Outcomes:

I named it "NYX font"

7. Display and Applications

FEEDBACK

Week 13:
General Feedback:
Specific Feedback: -

Week 12:
General Feedback:
Specific Feedback: Keep the poster from being too complex; simplify it a bit, and can enlarge it to showcase details.

Week 11:
General Feedback:
Specific Feedback: Add movement to typography, consider adding some animations.

Week 10:
General Feedback: When designing each letter, you can work on both uppercase and lowercase letters together, simultaneously.
Specific Feedback: Don't make it too static; find ways to make the typography more interesting.

Week 9:
General Feedback:
Specific Feedback:-

Week 8:
Independent learning week

REFLECTION

I really enjoyed this assignment as it allowed for the freedom to choose a design direction and experiment. Being someone who enjoys hands-on activities and trying new things, I decided to explore long exposure light painting photography combined with typography to create my own font. When I first saw light painting, I was captivated by its beauty – the idea of creating art with light seemed magical, and the finished products had a futuristic and cool vibe. Additionally, I recently purchased a new camera and wanted to learn how to master it.

Initially unfamiliar with the camera, it took a few attempts to find the best camera settings. I went through three rounds of shooting. Although it was challenging, the process was incredibly enjoyable, and I had a great time. However, due to the extended timeline of this project and my involvement in other modules, coupled with the fact that the final product was captured with a camera, my files became scattered and disorganized. Therefore, when compiling the blog, finding the photos took a significant amount of time. Consequently, I realized that for future projects of similar duration, effective file management is crucial. Despite the tedious process of organizing files, it can save a considerable amount of time during the later stages.

Initially, when designing this font, I didn't have a specific application in mind. I was simply trying something new and having fun with experimentation. Consequently, during the font application stage, I felt a bit lost and unsure where the font could be applied. Therefore, I believe that the application aspect could have been better executed, and with more time, improvements could be made.

Additionally, I created an animation for the letters, simulating the situation when painting with light. I used After Effects for this, and it took me a considerable amount of time to figure out. Since the letters were composited from photos, I couldn't use stroke directly and had to manually adjust the keyframes for each stroke mask. However, midway through, I realized that completing the animation for all the letters would be too time-consuming. So, I stopped at a certain point, feeling that I had achieved the purpose of showcasing the effect.

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Ng Jia Ern (0363033)