19/Oct/2022 - 23/Nov/2022 (Week 8 - Week 13)
Kim MinJoon (0353248)
Bachelor
of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / GCD61004 / Taylor's University
Final
Project
Instructions
Tasks
Task 3: Type Exploration and Application
For the final project, we were told to make a choice between 3 separate instructions;
1 creating an entire font with final applications from an area of interest such as graphic design, animation, etc.
2 being a complete typeface as well with final applications, but by having an original typeface already done and expanding that typeface to an entire font for the project.
3, was by experimenting with a unique element that makes the typeface that is made special from the others. This one however, the end result couldbe defined by the student.
Research
For this project, I wanted to go with the 2nd option of being able to expand an original typeface to an entire font as it sounded a little bit more fun than the other choices. heh.
I first started out by going through different magazines and movie posters. There were many different unique ones with unique fonts but when I searched them up, it appeared that someone either made them from the design or the design used the font that was originally made. I was struggling quite a bit to find a good poster to use but while scrolling through google images, I found a website which had pretty interesting posters that could give me some ideas.
I thought that the star wars - return of the Jedi (1984) poster and the Solaris (1972) poster had pretty fascinating fonts that I could work with, but unfortunately, they were already made and I couldn't use them.
Fonts that was used for Solaris - here
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| Figure 1.1: Return of the Jedi (19.10.2022) |
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| Figure 1.2: Solaris (19.10.2022) |
After looking around some more, I pretty much gave up on movie posters. So, I started to look more into Album covers as were everyone in the class. As a Korean, I thought about looking at Korean album covers, basically KPOP covers as they had a lot of interesting typefaces that doesn't seem like normal fonts and is used quite often in the recent trending covers.
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| Figure 1.3: IVE - After Like (19.10.2022) |
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| Figure 1.4: Treasure - Second step/chapter one (19.10.2022) |
However, even if it was a safe route, I decided to abandon my country and go to more western as I've seen too many people replicating KPOP album covers in the class. As I searched my Spotify playlist, I found a good one and decided to stick with it.
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| Figure 1.5: Dan Auerbach - Keep it hid (19.10.2022) |
The one that I decided on was an album by Dan Auerbach and the typeface that was used for his name had a similar structure as the Solaris poster and I thought that it was very fun to look at.
First I tried to find if there are any fonts that were the same as the font that was used for the album. Luckily, I couldn't find one that was identical so I went ahead and started my tracing on Adobe Illustrator.
There were 9 letters given on the album already, so with the same principles it had, I made different versions of the other letters that came to mind.
I took the strokes that was used for making some of the letters like B, D, E, H and the rounded semi circles used for creating letters like C and D, and compiled them together to form the other letters so that they would have consistency in their strokes.
The letter N however, was different than the other letters as it wasn't in the same of an N, but the white space that it had between the letter followed through the middle part of the N and that really made me want to create something like that. M didn't really go as planned and Mr. Vinod told me to switch it. Since Mr. Vinod told me to change the design of the M, I probably should have swapped out the W as well but I wanted to keep it so I didn't. I really liked how the Z came out as it does have the same style of the letter N, its just rotating it 90 degrees.
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| Figure 2.1: Uppercase letter making (24.10.2022) |
I thought that the letters needed to have the same width (pretty stupid of me to think that) so what I did after I made the letters, I made a square that covers the original letters and used that square to resize the other letters. Then I realized that this idea was not going to work so I scrapped it after looking at other fonts.
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| Figure 2.2: Box method - scrapped (24.10.2022) |
I showed Mr. Vinod the work of the capital letters and told me some of the things that I could do to make it look better and readable. The letter 'S' needed some change as the upper half of the letter was too similar in size as the bottom half. The bottom half was needed to be bigger so I changed the size after the suggestion.
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| Figure 2.3: Letter 'S' before edit (24.10.2022) |
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| Figure 2.4: Letter 'S' after edit (24.10.2022) |
For the creation of the capital letters, I kind of winged it hoping for the best and what I didn't consider was the size of the white spacing that went across each letter. I had to redo each letter by creating a bar in illustrator to act as a ruler or a reference so that the objects can snap onto the bar.
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| Figure 2.5: Reference Bar for white space (24.10.2022) |
After the correction of the white spaces, I went and tested the typeface out by creating some words to make sure they were readable. I especially tested out the ones that had more than 1 version to check which one was more easier to read and have the similar style as the original letters.
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| Figure 2.6: Experimenting with letterforms #1 (30.10.2022) |
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| Figure 2.7: Experimenting with letterforms #2 (30.10.2022) |
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| Figure 2.8: Experimenting with letterforms #3 (30.10.2022) |
I figured that the lowercase letters should have the similar effect as the capital letters have. Although the capital letters had more rough edges, and more turning points, lowercase letters didn't really have the same principles as them. I thought about just copy pasting every capital letter and just shrinking them to match, but it just felt like cheating. So I started making the lowercase letters as close to the capital letters in terms of style.
As there needs to be consistency within the typeface, I used the same strategy I used for the capital letters by using the same stroke and compiling them to make a new letter. However, I hated that the lowercase letters looked so fat and ugly. I had to change either the stroke thickness or the white space between the letters. I tried changing the stroke thickness, but then the gap looked awfully big. So I just changed both of them, but not too little that it wouldn't make a difference and not too much so that it would cause inconsistency. Just enough to make the capital letters and the lowercase letters sit well together.
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| Figure 3.1: letter 'a' and 'b' with a new reference bar (09.11.2022) |
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| Figure 3.2: Letter 'n' before edit (09.11.2022) |
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| Figure 3.3: Letter 'n' after edit (09.11.2022) |
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| Figure 3.4: Letter 'b' before edit (09.11.2022) |
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| Figure 3.5: Letter 'b' after edit (09.11.2022) |
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| Figure 3.6: Letter 'a' before edit (09.11.2022) |
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| Figure 3.7: Letter 'a' after edit (09.11.2022) |
Some of the figures above were some of the readjustments made. Either they were redone to make the letter be more like the shape of the actual letter or it was inconsistent.
After, I thought that the letter like 'b' was looking really weird even after I changed the size and everything. So I figured that it was the middle guide line that the round shape of the b was connecting to. The round semicircle was too stretched out in my opinion and it was too lengthy and not really balanced. So I changed the guideline a little bit lower, and changed every single of the lowercase letter as well. Then, in my point of view, it looked a lot better.
Numbers
As for the numbers, it was pretty easy since it pretty much had the same principles and shape as the capital letters. and although I could've made some of the numbers or the letters have a gap between them individually, I thought that it was better to make some of them not have it as it would create some uniqueness to each of them.
For the 6 and 9, although it would've been easier to make them the same and rotate them 180 degrees, and call it finished, I didn't quite want that. I wanted the most similar objects visually to have a different design. Maybe it was for the purpose of irony but I just wanted them to be different from each other.
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| Figure 4.1: Number 6 (16.11.2022) |
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| Figure 4.2: Number 9 (16.11.2022) |
Symbols
Lastly, the symbols. I found that doing the symbols were pretty straight forward as well, since they were needed to have the same shape as what a regular symbol should have, if not it wouldn't really be clear on what they are so I just took that and just started making them.
Some of the symbols were made pretty much given reference from fonts like arial, myriad pro and etc. They gave how the symbols' shape should look like and the scale of them next to a letter.
For some symbols however, I wanted to implement the style from the creation of the letters by giving them a white gap between the objects. I did this to some of them because I didn't want it to look too messy with the visual change.
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| Figure 5.1: Number sign / Hashtag before white space (16.11.2022) |
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| Figure 5.2: Number sign / Hashtag after white space (16.11.2022) |
For symbols like the dollar sign "$", I could've just copy pasted the letter S and just gave it a stick in the middle but to make it different, I rounded the edges of the triangle to make the S of the $ look more.. well, an S.
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| Figure 5.3: Dollar sign before edit (16.11.2022) |
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| Figure 5.4: Dollar sign after edit (16.11.2022) |
Adjustments
After making the symbols, I created a new artboard with the width of a 1000 and made the length be a far as possible. This way, I could easily copy and paste the letters into FontLab and it wouldn't distort the size of the letters and it would import them as how they are in Illustrator.
I first made a block that was 700 px in width and put it on the side. I did this to make sure that when I resize the capital letters, it would snap onto the top and the bottom of the bar and ensure that everything is at 700 px in width. However, I had a predicament where letters like the lowercase h, j, p, q were poking out of the required width of 700 px of capital letters. This was the most frustrating part for me.
So I just gathered the ones that was IN the measurement of 700 px, and pasted them in the new artboard. I resized them and they looked fine. I did some adjustments again to make sure they were all the same height. Then, I imported the letters that were poking out of the baseline or the cap-height. I took the uppercase and the lowercase of that letter and resized them with the help of the 700 px bar that I had made earlier. Then finally, with the last adjustments again, I only had to import them into FontLab.
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| Figure 6.1: Width reference bar and letter 'A' (18.11.2022) |
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| Figure 6.2: New artboard and resizing of letters (18.11.2022) |
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| Figure 6.3: Resizing of symbols (18.11.2022) |
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| Figure 6.4: Referencing width off of a bar (18.11.2022) |
FontLabs
In FontLabs, I switched on the setting where objects from Illustrator will be imported originally at its position. I also used the setting of keeping the artwork size the same so that it wouldn't make any readjustments to my typeface.
I first began to import my uppercase letters as they were the easiest and everything went smoothly. Then when I got to the lowercase letters, some were in need of readjustment of position as they were sitting on the baseline. The letters like q, p were needed to be dragged down so that they were lowered below the baseline. The adjustments were made for all of them and the same went for the symbols as well. The numbers were breezed through as they were pretty much the same as the capital letters.
When I got to the kerning part however, it was horrible. I started kerning every gaps I saw by reducing them and when I thought that it was alright, it wasn't. I have forgotten to reduce the letter size that is automatically done when importing the letters. SO, I REDID THEM. I started by reducing the size of them and what I didn't consider was that I had already adjusted the kerning so when I tried typing some words, all of the letters were clumped up together. Of course, I then redid the kerning again, and since there were too much words and combination, I just randomly smashed down on my keyboard so that I could just adjust them from there.
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| Figure 7.1: Kerning mistake (18.11.2022) |
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| Figure 7.2: Kerning Final (18.11.2022) |
After kerning and readjusting for the last time, I exported it and gave it the name Maxata.
Application
Now after finalizing the font, it was time to apply it to back up my reasoning of creating the font. When I was making the font, I thought that the original design for it was very minimalistic and interesting to look at. It wasn't something that could be used to reading but it was definitely something that could be used for gathering attention with its style. Since I looked up similar fonts, and how they were used, I wanted this font to be used in a similar manner as well by applying it to something like a graphic design that is tacky and modern.
So with that, I searched up a gradient background that I could work with and eventually landed on a very colorful rainbow one.
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| Figure 8.1: Gradient background found (19.11.2022) |
From what I have heard from Mr Vinod's reviewing session, he said to not put too much time on the application as it wouldn't matter too much as long as it is showing how the application is being implemented.
I then figured that I was going to do a poster for something. And since it was vibrant and colorful I thought about a rave or a concert poster. I started adding in letters and as I searched up about poster banners and such, I made a advertising poster for an upcoming concert event, happening in Taylor's University on 1991. I don't really know what I was going with but I don't really it mattered too much because I just wanted to show that the numbers were made as well.
In the end I added some bubbles and lines to fill out some empty space and got the result of it being like a budget music talent show or something.
I applied the same thing for other applications but most of them relating to album covers.
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| Figure 8.2: Album cover progress #1 |
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| Figure 8.3: Album cover progress #2 |
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| Figure 8.4: Album cover progress #3 |
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| Figure 8.5: Album cover progress #4 |
Results
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| Figure 8.2: Final application #1 (19.11.2022) |
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| Figure 8.2: Final application #2 (19.11.2022) |
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| Figure 8.2: Final application #3 (19.11.2022) |
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| Figure 8.2: Final application #4 (19.11.2022) |
Figure 8.3: Final application - PDF (19.11.2022)
Font download - here
Feedback
Week 10: The fonts need some work, some letters needs readjustments and try to make more alternatives to bring out a better outcome.
Week 11: The letterforms need to be completed soon, as I need to start applying them to different elements. Some letters needs more work as it does not have any resemblance to the letter and the typeface needs to be completed.
Week 12: The Application shouldn't be taken too much time to make. Images can be found on the internet that is in the requirements of the purpose of the making.
Reflections
Experience
As for the experience, I think I gained a lot from this final task, as it was the hardest and the most thought out progress out of all of the other ones in my opinion. However it was still very enjoyable seeing my typeface and my design be created step by step. I think I did pretty okay but I know that there were still things that I could've done better like making some letters.
Observations
For this task, I think I was a lot more vigilant than the other projects as there were way too many assignments piling up left and right and I just felt like I just wanted to get this done as fast as possible. But this was planned out pretty well and I think I went through creating this blog a lot faster than before so that's a plus.
Findings
While doing the project, I kept on taking screen shots and labeled them number by number so I do not lose track of which came first and which came next. This really helped me out when making the blog for the project since I did say that I was going to make improvements on making sure I took screenshots in my last advanced typography blog.
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