TYPOGRAPHY - PROJECT 2

24.10.2018 (Week 9 - Week 10 )
Rausha Aminath (0337000)
Typography
Project 2 

---

LECTURES

Lecture 9:

We were briefed on our project 2 and guidelines were given on how to design our font.  We started by studying the development of one letter by our own chosen typeface from the 10 that were provided to us. And then moved on to designing our own font and then digitalized it.
Our font can either be a serif or a Sen serif as well. It should be between regular to bold.

---

INSTRUCTIONS

 


PROJECT 2 | WEEK 9

Our project 2 began with a brief guideline to the rules of font designing and the process we need to go through to complete the work. We started by studying the development of one letter of our choosing.  I chose the letter R from my first name and studied the letter design.

Fig 1.0 Study of the letter R (Univers Lt - Bold)

After the study of the letter R I discovered although there are some diagonal lines most of the construction of the letters were made from straight lines and circles. I studied the small little bends and differences. I noticed that the line on the left top and bottom has different width, which was quiet interesting for me.

After the study we were asked  to start sketching our own font after choosing one of the fonts from the type families we were given as a reference. We were supposed to create three letters.
I chose Univers Bold and used it as a reference. It is a Sans-serif font, I wanted to add serif to a similar design. Therefor I studied types of Serifs and which would best suit and looks good.

Fig 1.1 Reference for Study of Serifs

Fig 1.2 Sketch of My font

Fig 1.3 Development Process

Fig 1.4 Development Process 

Fig 1.5 Outline along with the Serif Reference Photo

Fig 1.6 Serif I used as a reference while adding Serif

Fig 1.7 First Attempt at font design

Mr.Vinod said the letters look okay but to fix the top curved area of the letter R, as it looked too wide.

Fig 1.8 Final Letter R

Fig 1.9 Final Letter A

Fig 1.10 Final Letter U

Fig 1.11 Final outcome of Project 2: Font Design

Fig 1.12 Font Creation Process on Fontlab (A)

Fig 1.13 Font Creation Process on Fontlab (R)

Fig 1.14 Final Font Created on Fontlab (U)

---

FEEDBACK

Week 9: | 24.10.2018
Specific Feedback: Mr.Vinod looked at my first sketch and told me to research more on the different types of serifs and then to choose a serif that suits my design. After he looked at my serif he said to digitalize and from the digitalized design he noticed that the curve on top of the R was a bit too wide and asked to make it narrower. He said my font design looked okay.


REFLECTIONS

EXPERIENCE

Week 9:
I was able to work well in class since the workload was not much and we were given enough time and the class was not rushed as previous classes.

OBSERVATIONS

Week 9:
I noticed that everyone was having a fairly good class as we had enough time to work on our type.

FINDINGS


Week 9:
I realized that research work is very useful and helpful. Reading about Typography is very important.

---

FURTHER READINGS

Anatomy of a Typeface by Alexander Lawson
Week 9

Book Cover

Chapter 29: Futura - and the Geometric Sans - Serif

The types that Americans called gothic and and European called grotesque were the first serifless letters to achieve popularity as printing types. And their popularity have not decreased while there are dips in the curves and styles as time flew by. It is a typographic requirement in the commercial printing now. The specimen books of the nineteenth century was brimming with these fonts, however it took a setback when in the mid-twenties when a German school of Design introduced an approach to structuring serifless letters that captured the imagination of the younger Typographic designers. The font was Futura.

In Germany there was a movement before the World war led by Jakob Erbar to discard the conventional Ideas in Typography, which took place after the war with some fruitful theories related to Architecture. Function and form became the keyword and the focus was to eliminate the Victorian 'gingerbread' decoration on buildings and substitute a pure line. Applied to type this could only result in clean sans-serif characters. And what could be more appropriate than constructing these characters with compass and straight lines. Geometric sans-serif was introduced as the timing of this san-serif experiment coincided with a period many typographers consider diplorable.

The first design to emerge from this philosophy was 'the new typography', by Jakob Erbar. However, Futura followed and it captured the imagination of typographers worldwide and thus robbed its predecessor of its claim to being 'the first'. Futura was created by Paul Renner.