T&H Week 1 - Week 4 Exercises
28/3/17 - 25/4/17, Week 1 - Week 5
Kamal Afiq [0330643]
Typography and Hypertextuality
Exercises
Lecture 1: Introduction
Mr Vinod and Mr. Shamsul started off by asking us what we think typography is. The general consensus was that typography was essentially the art of text, and how text could be made into art and deliver a message. They walked us through the module outline and showed us examples of previous students' portfolios. We would be mainly delving into the world of calligraphy and type.
Our first task was to get together into groups and research a particular calligraphic hand. My group chose Gothic textura quadrata. A classical, 13th century Black Letter font developed in Germania, mainly used for inscriptions and stained glass.
Lecture 2: Calligraphy
For the first 2 hours of the session, we were given a run down over what typography is. Typography is essentially the style and appearance of printer matter. It can be used to deliver messages, decorate, and organizations an individual "identity". Many companies and organisations like Volvo and Team Fortress 2 have in-house fonts, or fonts specially created for them to further strengthen their own identity.
In the beginning calligraphy essentially led to lettering, which then led to typography. Typography has accepted rules and norms, which most typographers generally follow.
In the past typography was the task of several specialized individuals, but these days it is often the job of just one. This has led to a decline in quality since it is something which everyone can now do. Simplicity, speed and lower costs are often favored over quality.
Lecture 3: The history of typography
In the first hour of the session, we were given a lecture over the history of typography, and the various terms or Lexicon involved in the discipline of typography. For most of the lecture we went over the anatomy of letterforms.
Lecture 4: The development of typography
For the lecture part of the tutorial, Mr. Vinod lectured us on the development of typography. To sum up the points he gave us:
The exercises are as follows:
Calligraphy: You will choose a calligraphic hand (Round Hand, Black Letter, Uncial). You will complete the prescribed exercises (vertical lines, horizontal lines, circular lines and letters a–z). Upon completion of the prescribed exercises, you shall write a small 3 or 4 line passage/poem. You have 2 weeks for this exercise; it is to be done in class and at home. (2 weeks).
Lettering: Draw out the letters of your name (first name or nick-name). Try to capture your personality or character in the design of the letters. Using the appropriate software, animate the drawn out letters while ensuring the animated gif stays withing the character and personality. (1 week).
Type Expression: You will be given 6 words to compose and express. You will be given a set of typefaces to work with. Through iteration, use the appropriate typeface and compose the letters in a manner that allows meaning of the word to become visible. (1 week).
Requirements
To complete and to showcase mastery in the exercises prescribed in its various forms over the 13-week period. This process is repeated for all 8 weeks. The work is compiled logically and chronologically in an A3 clear sheet folder and documented on the students’ eportfolio.
Submission
For the next 4 hours, we focused on learning to write a certain calligraphic hand individually. My personal choice was Gothic textura quadrata, and my my was it a chore. I used an Artline 3.0mm to do the work. In the beginning I was quite lost, because the font I chose was a Fraktur font and required quite some getting used to the style. Eventually I found a guide online on how to write out black letter scripts, and it turns out I should start by creating the vertical lines first, then the diagonal lines, and then the flourishes last. I don't really have a steady hand when it comes to writing out something repetitively, so it took a while before I got used to drawing lines over and over again. The previous exercise came in really useful. I used 3-4 sheets as rough papers for practice, then I did the final ones on separate sheets.
The most difficult letter for me was without a doubt 'a'; after all the first step is normally the hardest. After a while the task became easier with each passing letter, as they eventually became a mix of different stroke combinations. I'm definitely gonna need to practice writing these letters again, but this was without a doubt an enlightening (and bloody exhausting) experience.
I started to practice writing out full words using the hand I've learnt. I used a mix of English and German words to practice writing out as many different letters as possible. I then settled on using three words for the final piece."Herausforderung", "Gemeutlichkeit", and "Panzerkampfwagen"; challenge, comfiness and tank, my favorite vehicle. I felt that because the words were long, they satisfied the requirements for the task.
The final piece was made by writing out the initial text on grid paper, then using my tablet as a make-shift lightbox to trace the text onto actual white paper. The final result was kind of messy, as my calligraphic pen's nib was blunt, so I wasn't wholly satisfied with the final result.
Lettering
Our exercise in class was to create our own logotype using our own names. I gave the letters of my name very jagged and rough edges to reflect my clumsy and messy demeanor. Subtly however I used various guidelines to align various parts of the letters, giving them a very subtle sense of order and pleasant aesthetic. I then digitized my final chosen design in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool.
Because the letters in my logotype were quite jagged and appeared rock-lick, I thought it would be a cool idea to make it look as if my name was being carved out of a rock. It took about 10 or 11 artboards to create all the individual frames, which I then ported over to Photoshop to turn into a GIF.
After I was done, the animation seemed more like a fade than a name being carved out of a rock. Mr. Vinod suggested that I change the animation so that the rock is carved out left and right, so as to remove the appearance of the fade.
Type expression
Our next exercise was to create a logotype from the above 6 words, and manipulate the letters so that they conveyed the messages the individual words had. We weren't allowed to manipulate the proportions of the letters, however we were allowed to rotate, flip and scale the letters proportionally. First we drew out our general ideas for how the logotypes would look on paper, then we digitized the ideas using typefaces from Adobe's Font Folio. Below are my initial concepts for the logotypes.
For Kick, I arranged the letterforms i such a way that it looked like the K was kicking a ball (C) into a goal (K) using its foot (I). For Jump, the letters u and m look like they're jumping down a cliff; illustrated by the letters J and P. For Sleep, all the letters look like they have fallen down, as if they were sleeping. For Hunt, I separated the letter T from the others and angled them, to make it look like the letters were chasing each other. For Throw, I made it so that it looked like the letter T was throwing the other letters. For Fart, I repeated the letter T to mimic the sound of a fart.
I then proceeded to digitize the logotypes using Illustrator. I used the fonts Futura, Impact, Meridian, Minister, Helvetica LT and Garamond to illustrate the words Kick, Jump, Sleep, Hunt, Throw and Fart respectively.
Our next exercise was to then animate on of the 6 logotypes we have created.
I chose to animate the word hunt by animation the letters, making it so that they would chase each other into the screen. I created about 22 artboards in illustrator, then altered the position of each letter frame by frame to create the movement of the animation. I then exported the finished artboard frames into Photoshop, where I then compiled the frames into the timeline and exported the entire thing as a GIF.
The original artboards/frames used to create the GIF in Illustrator.
My first draft of the animation was quite sloppy, as the animation appeared jagged. Mr. Vinod saw my work, and suggested that I simplify the animation a bit, since I had too many complex movements happening in such a short time making the action difficult to understand. I remedied this by making all the letters just 'walk' from the same side of the screen.
Lettering Exercise
Mr. Vinod seemed quite pleased with my logotype animation. He said the type of animation I chose worked well with the shape of my logotype's letters, since both center around the idea of being jagged and rocky. Initially I had the name being carved from left to right, but he said I should make the carving alternate from both directions, to give it a more hand-made feel. He said the final animation was fine so it seems he was satisfied with my final animation.
Type Expression Exercise
My first draft of the animation was quite sloppy, as the animation appeared jagged. Mr. Vinod saw my work, and suggested that I simplify the animation a bit, since I had too many complex movements happening in such a short time making the action difficult to understand. I remedied this by making all the letters just 'walk' from the same side of the screen. Mr. Vinod then further suggested that I make it so that the letters all chase each other onto the screen and off, so as to create a perfect loop. After I had completed the final draft of my type expression, he appeared to be quite satisfied with the final result.
I took some time in Week 4 to visit the library and loaned a book called 'The Complete Typographer' by Will Hill to read up on the topic of Typography.
While the book primarily acts a type directory where people can look up and compare different typefaces of different categories, it also gives a short and concise history of early print technology and its development. The book focuses solely on printed typography, and as such doesn't touch much on the topic of hand-written calligraphy. Because I was quite time-constricted due to other responsibilities, I was only able have a quick read through the early history-oriented chapters and the Blackletter chapter of the book. I read the Blackletter chapter of the book in particular because I used a Blackletter hand for my assignment.
The book starts off by talking about how type has developed the past 500 years or so, and how it has evolved from a specialized discipline that spans a variety of expert craftsmen and machinery, to its evolution into a discipline that can be completed by a single person with access to word-processing software. The initial pages of the book talks into great detail about the first people to endeavor in the world of European typography; Gutenberg and his Bible and Baskerville's typographical innovations to name a few. The early forms of printed type were created through hand cut-punches, presses and laborious manual hand-composition of individual letter blocks. Gutenberg used wooden presses to create his famous 42-line bible, however the punches were lost to time, leading to differing opinions about the original number of characters cast for the bible.
New innovations in the 19th century such as the Linotype, Monotype and punch-cutting machines allowed printed type media to be created on a mass scale. With this however came a gradual decline in standards, which some designers such as William Morris and Eric Gill tried to combat by creating artistic yet-practical fonts such as Golden Type and Gill Sans. Stanley Morrison was also a major influence in the reform of typographic standards in the early 20th century and through his advisory comments on typographical practices. Offset Lithography, Photo-setting and the Digital Age further changed the fundamental nature of typography, giving the masses with access to word-processing technology the ability to dabble in the world of typography. While this is quite a short summary on the early development of type and print, it does summarize what I mainly took away from the book's opening chapters.
The Blackletter chapter was quite a short read, but gave me more of a historical insight into this particular breed of type. Blackletter is a condensed, angular and highly vertical typeface. The main families of Blackletter include: Textura, Rotunda, Schwabacher and Fraktur. It was mainly pioneered and used by Germania, and other smaller nations in which Germania (later to be called just Germany) had influence over. The styling of Blackletter were initially used for Germanic and central European bibles, however as time grew and more humanist styles of type replaced Blackletter's initial function, the typeface started to become a sort of national identity for the Germanic states. So much so that its dominant use in printed media lasted from the 1400s well into the early 1900s. Its use by the Nazis as a symbol of national pride and character was prominent in opening years of World War II. An edict abruptly reversed its use in posters, but the typeface has still left quite an impression on the public. Modern interpretations of Blackletter are often radical, experimental and orthodox.
This concludes my reading into The Complete Typographer so far. It gave me quite an insight into the early development of printed type and technology, and its large collections of typefaces will definitely have me coming back to this book for reference and further reading.
Kamal Afiq [0330643]
Typography and Hypertextuality
Exercises
Lecture Notes
Lecture 1: Introduction
Mr Vinod and Mr. Shamsul started off by asking us what we think typography is. The general consensus was that typography was essentially the art of text, and how text could be made into art and deliver a message. They walked us through the module outline and showed us examples of previous students' portfolios. We would be mainly delving into the world of calligraphy and type.
Our first task was to get together into groups and research a particular calligraphic hand. My group chose Gothic textura quadrata. A classical, 13th century Black Letter font developed in Germania, mainly used for inscriptions and stained glass.
Lecture 2: Calligraphy
For the first 2 hours of the session, we were given a run down over what typography is. Typography is essentially the style and appearance of printer matter. It can be used to deliver messages, decorate, and organizations an individual "identity". Many companies and organisations like Volvo and Team Fortress 2 have in-house fonts, or fonts specially created for them to further strengthen their own identity.
In the beginning calligraphy essentially led to lettering, which then led to typography. Typography has accepted rules and norms, which most typographers generally follow.
In the past typography was the task of several specialized individuals, but these days it is often the job of just one. This has led to a decline in quality since it is something which everyone can now do. Simplicity, speed and lower costs are often favored over quality.
- A font is an individual style of font: georgia regular, georgia bold
- A typeface is a family of fonts: georgia, helvetica, futura
- A typefamily consists of the many weights found inside a typeface: georgia light, georgia black.
Lecture 3: The history of typography
In the first hour of the session, we were given a lecture over the history of typography, and the various terms or Lexicon involved in the discipline of typography. For most of the lecture we went over the anatomy of letterforms.
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| The anatomy of type |
Lecture 4: The development of typography
For the lecture part of the tutorial, Mr. Vinod lectured us on the development of typography. To sum up the points he gave us:
- Uppercase letters evolved from simple stone carvings, evident from straight lines and circles.
- All western alphabets originated from the Phoenicians. They were the first to associate sounds with letters.
- The Greeks changed the direction of writing, while the Romans made a tool for writing from a reed brush, giving letterforms thick and thin strokes, which eventually lead to serifs.
- Romans started compressed letters in the form of rustic capitals. Smaller capitals eventually
- lead to lowercase letters with the beginning of Uncial.
- Charlemagne, unifier of christian Europe standardized writing and calligraphy. Priests, scribes and monks were to write using standardized letterforms.
- After the age of Charlemagne, the north of Europe developed 'Black Letter' while the south developed rounder 'Rotunda', known as humanist script.
- Development of typography passed hands between the Venetians, Dutch, English and Baskerville's innovations.
- Typography has developed in response to technology, commercial needs and esthethic trends.
Instructions
Exercises
- Calligraphy
- Lettering
- Type Expression
Lettering: Draw out the letters of your name (first name or nick-name). Try to capture your personality or character in the design of the letters. Using the appropriate software, animate the drawn out letters while ensuring the animated gif stays withing the character and personality. (1 week).
Type Expression: You will be given 6 words to compose and express. You will be given a set of typefaces to work with. Through iteration, use the appropriate typeface and compose the letters in a manner that allows meaning of the word to become visible. (1 week).
Requirements
To complete and to showcase mastery in the exercises prescribed in its various forms over the 13-week period. This process is repeated for all 8 weeks. The work is compiled logically and chronologically in an A3 clear sheet folder and documented on the students’ eportfolio.
Submission
- Exercises to be documented in an A4 Clear Sheet folder, logically and chronologically. The works must be labelled and dated.
- Eportfolio posts at the end of the assessment task labelled and dated, with images captured well and in good light in so that the works are pleasing to the eye and legible.
- An appreciation and understanding for the evolution of Typography.
- An appreciation of the skills sets and mental discipline required in Typography.
- To develop the necessary technical skills and sensibilities for typographic communication.
Work Processes
Our first task was to get together into groups and research a particular calligraphic hand. My group chose Gothic textura quadrata. A classical, 13th century Black Letter font developed in Germania, mainly used for inscriptions and stained glass. The next exercise was to practice drawing out strokes using calligraphic pens on graph paper, making sure to keep the thickness of the strokes consistent throughout.
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| Straight line strokes for practicing hand-control over a calligraphic pen. |
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| The entire alphabet written in Gothic Textura Quadrata. |
The most difficult letter for me was without a doubt 'a'; after all the first step is normally the hardest. After a while the task became easier with each passing letter, as they eventually became a mix of different stroke combinations. I'm definitely gonna need to practice writing these letters again, but this was without a doubt an enlightening (and bloody exhausting) experience.
I started to practice writing out full words using the hand I've learnt. I used a mix of English and German words to practice writing out as many different letters as possible. I then settled on using three words for the final piece."Herausforderung", "Gemeutlichkeit", and "Panzerkampfwagen"; challenge, comfiness and tank, my favorite vehicle. I felt that because the words were long, they satisfied the requirements for the task.
 |
| Practice words written out on graph paper. |
The final piece was made by writing out the initial text on grid paper, then using my tablet as a make-shift lightbox to trace the text onto actual white paper. The final result was kind of messy, as my calligraphic pen's nib was blunt, so I wasn't wholly satisfied with the final result.
 |
| Final submission for calligraphy exercise. |
Lettering
Our exercise in class was to create our own logotype using our own names. I gave the letters of my name very jagged and rough edges to reflect my clumsy and messy demeanor. Subtly however I used various guidelines to align various parts of the letters, giving them a very subtle sense of order and pleasant aesthetic. I then digitized my final chosen design in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool.
 |
| Early concept sketches for lettering exercise. |
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| Digitized lettering. |
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Artboard frames for the lettering animation. |
After I was done, the animation seemed more like a fade than a name being carved out of a rock. Mr. Vinod suggested that I change the animation so that the rock is carved out left and right, so as to remove the appearance of the fade.
 |
| First draft for lettering animation. One-sided carving, looks more like a fade than a carving. |
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| Final draft for lettering animation. |
Type expression
Our next exercise was to create a logotype from the above 6 words, and manipulate the letters so that they conveyed the messages the individual words had. We weren't allowed to manipulate the proportions of the letters, however we were allowed to rotate, flip and scale the letters proportionally. First we drew out our general ideas for how the logotypes would look on paper, then we digitized the ideas using typefaces from Adobe's Font Folio. Below are my initial concepts for the logotypes.
 |
| Initial concepts for type expression exercises. |
For Kick, I arranged the letterforms i such a way that it looked like the K was kicking a ball (C) into a goal (K) using its foot (I). For Jump, the letters u and m look like they're jumping down a cliff; illustrated by the letters J and P. For Sleep, all the letters look like they have fallen down, as if they were sleeping. For Hunt, I separated the letter T from the others and angled them, to make it look like the letters were chasing each other. For Throw, I made it so that it looked like the letter T was throwing the other letters. For Fart, I repeated the letter T to mimic the sound of a fart.
I then proceeded to digitize the logotypes using Illustrator. I used the fonts Futura, Impact, Meridian, Minister, Helvetica LT and Garamond to illustrate the words Kick, Jump, Sleep, Hunt, Throw and Fart respectively.
 |
| The completed type expressions. |
I chose to animate the word hunt by animation the letters, making it so that they would chase each other into the screen. I created about 22 artboards in illustrator, then altered the position of each letter frame by frame to create the movement of the animation. I then exported the finished artboard frames into Photoshop, where I then compiled the frames into the timeline and exported the entire thing as a GIF.
 |
| The original artboards/frames used to create the GIF in Illustrator. |
The original artboards/frames used to create the GIF in Illustrator.
My first draft of the animation was quite sloppy, as the animation appeared jagged. Mr. Vinod saw my work, and suggested that I simplify the animation a bit, since I had too many complex movements happening in such a short time making the action difficult to understand. I remedied this by making all the letters just 'walk' from the same side of the screen.
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| First draft. Movement is too jagged, confusing. |
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| Second draft. Movement is less confusing, still jagged. |
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| Third draft submission. |
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| Fourth draft submission. Extended animation, letters chase to the other side. |
Final Submissions
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| Calligraphy submission. |
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| Digitized lettering submission. |
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| Lettering submission. |
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| Type expression submission. |
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| Type expression submission. |
Feedback
Calligraphy Exercise
During this session, Mr. Vinod gave me feedback on my exercise submission. While it appears I have improved since I began, I need to work more on having control over my hand while I do the strokes as they appeared quite jagged. He said I've gotten down the general form of the letters, its just that I need to further improve my control when doing the calligraphy.
During this session, Mr. Vinod gave me feedback on my exercise submission. While it appears I have improved since I began, I need to work more on having control over my hand while I do the strokes as they appeared quite jagged. He said I've gotten down the general form of the letters, its just that I need to further improve my control when doing the calligraphy.
Lettering Exercise
Mr. Vinod seemed quite pleased with my logotype animation. He said the type of animation I chose worked well with the shape of my logotype's letters, since both center around the idea of being jagged and rocky. Initially I had the name being carved from left to right, but he said I should make the carving alternate from both directions, to give it a more hand-made feel. He said the final animation was fine so it seems he was satisfied with my final animation.
Type Expression Exercise
My first draft of the animation was quite sloppy, as the animation appeared jagged. Mr. Vinod saw my work, and suggested that I simplify the animation a bit, since I had too many complex movements happening in such a short time making the action difficult to understand. I remedied this by making all the letters just 'walk' from the same side of the screen. Mr. Vinod then further suggested that I make it so that the letters all chase each other onto the screen and off, so as to create a perfect loop. After I had completed the final draft of my type expression, he appeared to be quite satisfied with the final result.
Reflections
Exercises (Week 1- Week 4) reflection
Throughout the first few weeks of the course, I had come to slowly understand what typography is and what it's about. I've known the basics of modern type, fonts and how to use them but I never really delved into the world of calligraphy before, and the exact history of how modern typography came to be. It's truly been quite an eye-opener because I feel like I've learnt already so much in a span of just 4 weeks how massive and in-depth the subject of typography and its history really is. I've never known things like the various parts of the individual letters, what typographical conventions were and what things like kerning and leading even mean. It's truly been an engaging experience so far and I'm sure the same will be for the next few months to come.
Further Reading
'The Complete Typographer' by Will HillI took some time in Week 4 to visit the library and loaned a book called 'The Complete Typographer' by Will Hill to read up on the topic of Typography.
While the book primarily acts a type directory where people can look up and compare different typefaces of different categories, it also gives a short and concise history of early print technology and its development. The book focuses solely on printed typography, and as such doesn't touch much on the topic of hand-written calligraphy. Because I was quite time-constricted due to other responsibilities, I was only able have a quick read through the early history-oriented chapters and the Blackletter chapter of the book. I read the Blackletter chapter of the book in particular because I used a Blackletter hand for my assignment.
 |
| The book; to prove I legit read this. |
The book starts off by talking about how type has developed the past 500 years or so, and how it has evolved from a specialized discipline that spans a variety of expert craftsmen and machinery, to its evolution into a discipline that can be completed by a single person with access to word-processing software. The initial pages of the book talks into great detail about the first people to endeavor in the world of European typography; Gutenberg and his Bible and Baskerville's typographical innovations to name a few. The early forms of printed type were created through hand cut-punches, presses and laborious manual hand-composition of individual letter blocks. Gutenberg used wooden presses to create his famous 42-line bible, however the punches were lost to time, leading to differing opinions about the original number of characters cast for the bible.
New innovations in the 19th century such as the Linotype, Monotype and punch-cutting machines allowed printed type media to be created on a mass scale. With this however came a gradual decline in standards, which some designers such as William Morris and Eric Gill tried to combat by creating artistic yet-practical fonts such as Golden Type and Gill Sans. Stanley Morrison was also a major influence in the reform of typographic standards in the early 20th century and through his advisory comments on typographical practices. Offset Lithography, Photo-setting and the Digital Age further changed the fundamental nature of typography, giving the masses with access to word-processing technology the ability to dabble in the world of typography. While this is quite a short summary on the early development of type and print, it does summarize what I mainly took away from the book's opening chapters.
The Blackletter chapter was quite a short read, but gave me more of a historical insight into this particular breed of type. Blackletter is a condensed, angular and highly vertical typeface. The main families of Blackletter include: Textura, Rotunda, Schwabacher and Fraktur. It was mainly pioneered and used by Germania, and other smaller nations in which Germania (later to be called just Germany) had influence over. The styling of Blackletter were initially used for Germanic and central European bibles, however as time grew and more humanist styles of type replaced Blackletter's initial function, the typeface started to become a sort of national identity for the Germanic states. So much so that its dominant use in printed media lasted from the 1400s well into the early 1900s. Its use by the Nazis as a symbol of national pride and character was prominent in opening years of World War II. An edict abruptly reversed its use in posters, but the typeface has still left quite an impression on the public. Modern interpretations of Blackletter are often radical, experimental and orthodox.
This concludes my reading into The Complete Typographer so far. It gave me quite an insight into the early development of printed type and technology, and its large collections of typefaces will definitely have me coming back to this book for reference and further reading.
References & Bibliography
- Brown, Jamin. "Technique - Gothic Textura Quadrata: An Alternate Ductus". The Pensive Pen. N.p., 2017. Web. 27 Apr. 201
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