Advanced Typography - Task 3 / Type Exploration & Application
11/06/25 - 15/07/25 (Week 8 - Week 13)
Anggia Tsani Rachmadiyanti, (0368487)Advanced Typography GCD61004 / Bachelor in Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 3 / Type Exploration & Application
CONTENT LIST:
LECTURE NOTES
All Lecture Notes Refer to Task 1 Blog
INSTRUCTIONS
Week 8 - Instructions
In task 3, we were instructed to create a font based on the three
options given:
1. Create a New Font: Design a font that solves a problem or contributes to a solution in your area of interest (graphic design, animation, etc.). Deliverable: a complete font (.ttf) with applications.
2. Improve an Existing Letterform: Study an existing letterform, identify improvements, and create a new version. Deliverable: a complete font (.ttf) with applications.
3. Experiment: Conduct a unique experiment with typography (e.g., 3D materials, digital augmentation, edible materials, etc.). Deliverable: defined by the student.
Our final product should be a complete generated font (.ttf) with applications.
(Week 8 - Research)
- From the options given, we were instructed to present a
proposal consisting of our ideas related to the topic. Below
is my proposal presentation:
(Fig. 1.1) Task 3 Final Project Proposal canva by Anggia Tsani.R, week 8 (11/6/2025)
(Fig. 1.2) Final Proposal slides (PDF) by Anggia Tsani.R,
week 8 (11/6/2025)
I had 3 ideas relating to a problem, on my proposal slides
which were:
- “Indonesian Batik Font” – Typeface Inspired by Traditional Batik
- Implementing traditional “Aksara Jawa” (Javanese script) to a modern font for Indonesia’s traditional signages and tourists areas.
- Creating a typeface for Rocky Mountain Eco-Tourism
(Week 9)
Sketches & Ideation:
After presenting on week 9, I decided to go with the Batik Font. We had to lready finish the Uppercase letters in week 10. Before sketching out the ideas, I did a research on some of the famous Batik motifs/pattern:
(Fig. 2.1) Batik Motifs and patterns research, week 9
(19/6/2025)
WEEK 9 - 1st Idea Sketch:
In week 9 I started sketching out my first idea for the batik font
and did a digital sketch on procreate in my Ipad, while trying to
implement the Batik motifs into the letters, based on my researches
above.
(Fig. 2.2) 1st sketch draft, week 9 (19/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.3) More sketch draft on grid paper, week 9
(19/6/2025)
WEEK 9 - 2nd Idea Sketch:
However, when I showed Mr. Vinod in class, he said it looks ok, but
from far it doesn't really look "elegant" enough and the letter "Q" is
weird. I was not satisfied too witht his first draft idea, so I made a
new fresh sketch for my 2nd batik letterforms design idea. I used a
grid paper to work on it so that the sizes of all the uppercase
letters are consistent.
(Fig. 2.4) 2nd idea sketch, week 9 (19/6/2025)
WEEK 9 - Transferring the rough sketch to Ipad Digital sketch on
Procreate:
So that I could easily edit small details of my rough paper sketch
from above and easily undo/redo, I traced and transferred the rough
sketch (Fig. 2.4) on Procreate, where I started creating all the
Uppercase letters using guide lines.
I decided that finding a reference font would be good, so as a
small guide, I used the font "Cameo Sweet Gothic" as my guide when I
did my batik letters in procreate.
(Fig. 2.5) Digital sketch process on Ipad Procreate, week 9
(20/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.6) Reference font "Cameo sweet gothic", week 9
(20/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.7) digital sketch process on ipad, week 9
(20/6/2025)
Uppercase Process In Illustrator:
After finishing my digital sketch on Procreate and I am more
confident with my letter design, I moved and started constructing each
of the uppercase letters one by one on Adobe Illustrator, using the
pen and curve tool. I used grids, guides and baseline guides on my
artboards to keep all the letters consistent, as Mr Vinod always
reminded us to since it is a really important step when constructing
fonts.
(Fig. 2.9) Letters construction on Illustrator, week 9
(20/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.10) Letters construction on Illustrator, week 9
(20/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.11) Letters construction on Illustrator, week 9
(21/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.12) Letters construction on Illustrator, week 9
(21/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.13) Letters construction on Illustrator (outlines
view), week 9 (21/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.14) Letters construction on Illustrator with guide
grids, week 9 (21/6/2025)
(Fig. 2.15) Letters construction on Illustrator, week 9
(21/6/2025)
(Week 10-11)
Lowercase, Numbers, Symbols:
In week 11 I continued working on the lowercase, numbers and
symbols/punctuations on Illustrator. Here I had to be really
detailed with the alignments, so I used a lot of line guides
to build the letters one by one, making sure the height,
curves and weight of strokes are consistent.
(Fig. 3.1) Screengrab, Lowercase process on Illustrator, week
10 (28/6/2025)
(Fig. 3.2) Screengrab, smoothing curvatures on Illustrator,
week 10 (28/6/2025)
(Fig. 3.3) Screengrab, process on Illustrator, week 11
(1/7/2025)
The symbols were quite tough to make as I had to often
move it next to the uppercase and lowercase letters,
making sure it fits properly, well structured and built.
To help me with the measurement, I typed out sample
references of the symbols and letters to guide me further
on what height should the symbols/punctuations be compared
to the letters. I noticed that in existing fonts, there
are gaps below the uppercase letters when it is put into
brackets. I thought that it was a problem, but Mr. Vinod
say it is meant to be like that, so I followed it.
(Fig. 3.4) Screengrab, symbols process on Illustrator, week
11 (2/7/2025)
(Fig. 3.5) Screengrab, symbols and numbers process on
Illustrator, week 11 (2/7/2025)
(Fig. 3.6) Screengrab, finished numerals process on
Illustrator, week 11 (2/7/2025)
In class, sir showed us how the numbers are a tiny bit shorter
in height when placed next to the uppercase letters, so
afterwards I used guide lines and reduced the height of my
numbers a little bit compared to the upper case letters.
(Fig. 3.7) Screengrab, reducing height of the numbers
compared to uppercase, week 11 (2/7/2025)
(Fig. 3.8) Screengrab, finished process on illustrator, week 11
(3/7/2025)
(Fig. 3.9) Screengrab, finished outline view on illustrator,
week 11 (3/7/2025)
(Week 12-13)
Generating Font using FontLab7:
In week 11 to week 12 I worked on generating my vector fonts
on Illustrator to FontLab7. Before I start, I downloaded this
side-bearing chart reference to guide me later on.
.jpeg)
.png)
(Fig. 4.1) Sidebearing measurement guide chart, week
11 (4/7/2025)
I then measured the height of the Cap Height,
X-Height, and Descender height of all the letterforms
from the baseline, so it would be easy for me to
import it in Fontlab later on. I made sure the
artboards are 1000px tall.
(Fig. 4.2) Height measurement, Illustrator, week
11 (5/7/2025)
I started putting the letterforms and
symbols/numbers one by one into Fontlab, while
adjusting the kerning and sidebearing size as
well. While doing that, I repeatedly open the
typing test view to check whether the sizes of
the kernings are correctly adjusted.
(Fig. 4.3) Putting letterforms into FontLab7,
week 11 (5/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.4) Adjusting sidebearings of letters,
week 11 (5/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.5) Metric view of sidebearings of
letters, week 11 (5/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.6) Metric view of sidebearings of letters,
week 11 (5/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.7) Testing typing the fonts, week 11
(5/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.8) Testing typing the fonts, week 11
(5/7/2025)
Once I was done with finalising the sidebearing
of all the letterforms, numbers and symbols, I
exported the font as OTF file.
(Fig. 4.9) Testing typing the fonts, week 11
(5/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.10) Testing typing the fonts, week 11
(5/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.11) Installing the fonts to mac, week
12 (7/7/2025)
(Fig. 4.12) Final screengrab of typeface in
Fontlab, week 12 (7/7/2025)
Font Presentation Process:
We had to create 5 square sized font presentations
(each 1024 x 1024 px, 300ppi) in Illustrator. At first I
chose a brown colour palette and experimented several
layouts and design ideas.
(Fig. 5.1) font presentation process in
illustrator, week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.2) font presentation process in
illustrator, week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.3) font presentation first
draft, week 12 (9/7/2025)
In week 12, Mr Vinod told me to change the colour
palette. Don't make it just brown as it looks dull. He
advised me to add red or blue in the colour scheme
since there are alot of batiks which has red and blue
colour as well. I then chose this as my final colour
palette to work on the presentation:
(Fig. 5.4) New colour palette for font
presentation, week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.5) Font presentation process,
week 12 (9/7/2025)
FINAL FONT PRESENTATIONS:
(Fig. 5.6) Font presentation colour palette,
week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.7) Font presentation 1, week 12
(9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.8) Font presentation 2, week 12
(9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.9) Font presentation 3, week 12
(9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.10) Font presentation 4, week 12
(9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.11) Font presentation 5, week 12
(9/7/2025)
(Fig. 5.12) Font presentation 6, week 12
(9/7/2025)
Font Application Process:
For the Font Application, we had to do 5 square format
based on our original intention, PLUS to submit and do
the application for the
Honor Talents
'Standby' Category Design Competition. I chose the
Theme: "Cultural Prosperity Celebration" as it is the
closest one relating to the Batik font I did. I planned
to work on the theme design for Mid-Autumn Festival as
it closely related to the "MegaMendung" clouds motif I
put in my Batik font earlier.
The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the full moon,
family reunion, and abundance, which are all seen in the
sky, and naturally, clouds are always part of that
celestial scene. Traditionally, people gaze at the moon
through the drifting clouds, making clouds a quiet yet
poetic part of the festival imagery.
In the Mid-Autumn night sky, people look to the full
moon, clouds float by, soft, serene, and ever-present.
Just like the Megamendung motif, these clouds carry
meaning: they drift between generations, blending
tradition with modern design. In this moment, under one
sky, cultures unite.
The Megamendung batik pattern is a symbolic
representation of clouds in Javanese culture, often
conveying peace, patience, and blessing — values that
align beautifully with the festival’s message of
gratitude, togetherness, and hope.
(Fig. 6.1) Honor standby category, week 12
(10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.2) Honor standby chosen cultural theme,
week 12 (10/7/2025)
a) Font Application Process for original
intention:
We had to create 5 square sized font applications
(each 1024 x 1024 px, 300ppi) in Illustrator, based on
the original intention of the font we are doing. Since
I did the Batik font, I chose to apply the font on
text on Indonesian cultural festivals & museum
posters/displays, tickets, signages, banners and
tourist brochures. I downloaded the free mockup PSD
files from mockupdesign.com and unblast.
This is my colour palette for my font
applications:
(Fig. 6.3) Font application colour palette,
week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.4) Font application experimenting in
photoshop, week 12 (10/7/2025)
I first chose festival and show ticket for a
traditional and cultural event since my first intention
was to solve a problem where many traditional cultural
festivals across Java, posters, banners and promotional
visuals often suffer from:
- Overuse of Generic Fonts - Arial, Impact, or overly
decorative fonts not rooted in tradition and
culture.
- Boring and not attractive to viewers.
- Visual Mismatch - The type doesn’t reflect the
richness of Javanese heritage
- Lack of Unifying Identity - Festival seems
disconnected due to inconsistent typography.
Applying the font on ticket design and event wristband
for a traditional festival is a good idea since the font
i've made has a batik motif on it which reflects to
Javanese and Indonesian tradition and culture.
I did several applications to experiment the font on
many different forms and objects in Photoshop:
(Fig. 6.5) Font application ticket design
process in photoshop, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.6) Font application event wristband process in photoshop, week 12
(10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.7) Font application event wristband result, week 12 (10/7/2025)
I also applied my Batik font on a museum tourist and
visitor's brochure for the title and subheadings display
font...
(Fig. 6.8) Font application process on
museum brochure, week 12 (10/7/2025)
Apart from that, I tried to apply it on museum banners,
gallery and festival signages and posters as well:
(Fig. 6.9) Font application process on
signages, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.10) Font application process
on signages, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.11) Font application process
on bus stop posters for cultural event, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.12) Font application experimenting on lanyard card, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.13) Font application experimenting on banner, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.14) Font application experimenting on invitation cards, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 6.15) Font application
process on arts showcase banner, week 12 (10/7/2025)
Final Font Applications Design:
(Fig. 7.1) Font application 1, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 7.2) Font application
2, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 7.3) Font application
3, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 7.4) Font
application 4, week 12 (10/7/2025)
(Fig. 7.5) Font
application 5, week 12 (10/7/2025)
b) Font Application Process for Honor Standby
Design:
We had to submit 4 works for the Standby category
which are:
1) Clock display design
2) A personalized signature design
3) Overall visual design
4) Short animation of the clock display
Dimension: 6000*3000PX, Format: JPG, Color Mode: RGB,
Size: ≤20M
.jpg)
(Fig. 8.1) Honor
contest standby submission
requirements, week 12 (12/7/2025)
REFERENCES & INSPIRATIONS:
(Fig. 8.2) visual references &
inspirations, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 8.3) visual references &
inspirations, week 12 (12/7/2025)
My idea was to make a purple, blue-ish theme for the
overall standby look since I chose the theme
"Cultural-Prosperity" - Mid-Autumn Festival. My
MegaMendung font already has clouds pattern in it. To
add on, I wanted to add rabbits, lanterns, clouds and
moon as the elements in the design
illustration.
RESEARCH:
🌕 Moon -
- Symbol of reunion and harmony
- Represents completeness and prosperity
- Central icon of the festival
- Companion of the Moon Goddess, Chang’e
- Symbol of purity, kindness, and selflessness
- Often associated with making elixirs on the moon
- Represent light, guidance, and hope
- Symbolize prosperity and the wish for a bright future
- Used to light the way for family reunion and celebration
- Add mystical, dreamy atmosphere
- Symbol of transition and connection between earth and heaven
- Represent blessings from the sky
I then started working on the standby clock design in
Illustrator:
(Fig. 8.4) Standby clock design process, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 8.5) Standby clock design process, week 12 (12/7/2025)
I used the pen tool to create the graphic elements and objects.
For the moon, I applied the glow effect:
(Fig. 8.6) Standby clock design adding the moon
process, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 8.7) Standby clock design illustration
process, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 8.8) Standby clock design first
draft, week 12 (12/7/2025)
For my first draft, I thought the contrast wasn't that strong,
so I decided on changing the background darker.
(Fig. 8.9) Putting the design in the PSD
template for Honor, week 12 (12/7/2025)
I did the design for another display as well which says "Good
Evening" with the 'evening' created using my original batik
font.
(Fig. 8.10) Putting the second display
design in the PSD template, week 12 (12/7/2025)
Lastly, I exported the illustrator file to After Effects to
create the slight animation on some of the objects to showcase
"time" more using movements. For this, I moved the moon
up and down fo rthe floating animation, swaying of the 2
lanterns on top as it depicts the clock ticking, and the ":"
colons in the middle which are the mooncakes to be rotating
continuously, imitating the movement of the original clock. To
do all these effects I used keyframes and the rotation and
scale tool.
(Fig. 8.11) Animating the Honor
standby in After effects, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 8.12) Animating the Honor
standby in After effects, week 12 (12/7/2025)
FINAL HONOR STANDBY DESIGN:
(Fig. 9.1) Final Honor Clock Standby
Design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 9.2) Final Honor Personalised
Standby Design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 9.3) Final Honor Overall Visual
Design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 9.4) Final Honor Clock
Standby MP4 animation, week 12 (12/7/2025)
Design Elaboration Write - Up PDF of my work for Honor
Submission:
(Fig. 9.5) Final Honor Design
Elaboration of my Standby Design,
PDF, week 12 (12/7/2025)
Unfortunately, on week 13, when many of us were about to submit,
we realised that the submission entry form didn't have the
choice to submit the Standby category for Honor, so for the sake
of trying :), I tried submitting the design using the Watch
category...
(Fig. 9.6) Screenshot of
submitting the Honor design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 9.7) Screenshot of submitting the Honor design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 9.8) Screenshot of submitting the Honor design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 9.9) Screenshot of my approved Honor design, week 13 (16/7/2025)
(Fig. 9.10) Screenshot of my approved Honor design
email, week 13 (16/7/2025)
TASK 3 FINAL OUTCOME COMPILED :
Download My Batik MegaMendung font here:
-
TTF FILE
- OTF FILE
(Fig. 10.1) Final PDF of Batik MegaMendung Font, week 12
(7/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.2) FontLab Screengrab of Font, week 12 (7/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.3) Finalized Font in Illustrator, week 12 (7/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.4) Final font presentation 1, week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.5) Final font presentation 2, week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.6) Final font presentation 3, week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.7) Final font presentation 4, week 12 (9/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.8) Final font presentation 5, week 12
(9/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.9) Final font application 1, week 12
(12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.10) Final font application 2, week 12
(12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.11) Final font application 3, week 12
(12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.12) Final font application 4, week 12
(12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.13) Final font application 5, week 12
(12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.14) Final Honor Clock Standby, week 12
(12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.15) Final Honor Personalized
Signature Design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.16) Final Honor Overall Visual
Design, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.17) Final Honor Standby Clock MP4
animation, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.18) Final Honor Design Elaboration
writeup, PDF, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.19) Final Compiled Font
presentation, PDF, week 12 (12/7/2025)
(Fig. 10.20) Final Compiled Font
Application, PDF, week 12 (12/7/2025)
Type & Test The Font Here:
*Slight distortions to the font here in the tester box due to
blogger's settings. Please download the font to view the original precise and correct look of the
final font:
Feedbacks:
Week 9:
- General Feedback: Makesure to curate out overall blog design and posts in a good way,
because it is out design journey incase we want to go to other
universities or show people outside, it looks appealing. Your
portfolio shows your work ethic. Height of the artboard when
starting task 3 creating the typeface should be 1000pts.
- Specific Feedback: Mr vinod said my sketch for the Batik Uppercase font was okay
except letter Q. He also said that I can make the overall font more
elegant. For my 2nd proposal, "Aksara Jawa", Mr.Vinod said I have to
do more research on how the script actually works. I shouldn't make
the font exactly like the aksara but make the latin letters
compliment the aksara jawa. It doesn't or necessarily have to be
curvy too.
Week 10:
- General Feedback: When creating the lowercase letters makesure we make it besides the
uppercase. When doing the symbols and punctutions, makesure to refer
to an existing font so that we know the size, don't just blindly
construct it. Makesure that the height of the artboard is 1000
px.
- Specific Feedback: Sir said my batik so far is good and told me "continue working"
Week 11:
- General Feedback: Sir explained to us about the Honor competition and briefed us on our
next task which is to generate the font into fontlab. Afterwards we
have to do 3 applications and 5 presentations, showcasing our font. He
told us that the numbers are slightly shorter than the height of the
uppercase letters. He advised us to use a reference font and type out
a sample to guide us when constructing our symbols, and
punctuations.
- Specific Feedback: Sir said my work is alright and I can continue finishing constructing
my numbers and symbols. I asked him if the gap below the uppercase is
meant to be like that when placed in a bracket as shown in the sample,
and he said "yes, just follow that".
Week 12:
- General Feedback: Sir explained to us about the Honor competition and briefed us on
our next task which is to generate the font into fontlab. Afterwards
we have to do 3 applications and 5 presentations, showcasing our
font. He told us that the numbers are slightly shorter than the
height of the uppercase letters. He advised us to use a reference
font and type out a sample to guide us when constructing our
symbols, and punctuations.Mr Vinod talked and explained more and gave examples on how we
should do our font presentation. We must make sure it is simple, not
too decorative and actually presents the letters,
numbers and symbols in a good composed way. Don't focus on
designing, but more on simple and clear layout.
- Specific Feedback: Sir said I just continue working and he told me to change my colour
palette from just brown to adding blue and red to give more
contrast. Apart from that he said everything is good.
Week 13:
- General Feedback: For the time being, sir said we are unable to submit the Honor
standby for now since the category is not there in the submission
form. Mr Vinod said he is extending the due date for final task
until next week so if we have more improvements we want to make we
can refine it in this week.
- Specific Feedback: Mr vinod said everything looks good, however, for the
numerals font presentation he said to shift some of the
numbers abit to the right since it looks abit unbalanced. Other
than that, good to go.
Week 14:
General Feedback: Mr. Vinod checked all our final blogs
Specific Feedback: Mr vinod said "Good Job" to my work and he liked my batik font
TASK 3 OVERALL REFLECTION:
1) Experience -
- Overall, creating my own font from scratch was a challenging yet deeply rewarding journey. This has definitely been the most demanding and time-consuming project I’ve worked on so far. I initially underestimated how much effort would go into refining each of the Batik individual letterform. This whole process of creating a font from scratch demanded a lot of precision, especially when adjusting kerning, alignment, and consistency across the set. In contrast, designing the font presentations and applying them across different mediums was much more enjoyable for me. It still took time to settle on layouts and visuals I was happy with, but the creative process felt more fluid and satisfying. That said, my time management wasn’t as strong as I had hoped, and I often found myself rushing to meet weekly checkpoints. Despite the struggles, this project has given me a renewed appreciation for type design. I now understand how even the most “simple” fonts often require the most careful attention to detail. This project was a rewarding experience, as it allowed me to create a complete design piece entirely using my own skills, from crafting the font to presenting and applying it across different mediums. Each stage brought new learning opportunities, but also came with its own set of challenges. Lastly, what was abit more difficult was to use our font in the HONOR Standby Mode Contest design, which added another layer of challenge. Through the process, I developed not just technical skills, but also a stronger understanding of how fonts contribute to visual storytelling, cultural preservation, and user engagement. It reminded me that every letter we design has the potential to carry meaning far beyond its shape.
2) Observations -
- I've observed that making a font requires alot of details and precision as well as consuming a lot of time. Apart from that, I observed that cultural fonts carry emotional and visual weight such as the Batik font I've done. Many viewers associated the font immediately with heritage, storytelling, and identity, proving its impact. When used in modern contexts (like the HONOR standby screen), the font created a surprising fusion of tradition and technology, showing that cultural typography can live in digital spaces too. Typography is a powerful design tool that communicates more than just words, it can embody values, traditions, and even solve social problems by preserving culture through design. I realise that a font type is important especially when we are creating something that requires visual storytelling. Most of the time, display fonts should reflect on what the topic is which you want to convey.
3) Findings -
- Designing a typeface is not just about aesthetics, but also functionality. While my main goal was to reflect culture through design, I found that maintaining readability was equally important. Batik elements are intricate and symbolic, which made it difficult to incorporate without making the letters look overly decorative. Simplification became essential without losing meaning. Tools like Illustrator and FontLab each had their strengths: Illustrator gave me control over form, while FontLab helped with the technicality of font behavior and spacing. Applying the font to multiple design outputs forced me to consider context, scale, and contrast, for example, how the font behaves on a small product label versus a large event poster. Consistency was also the hardest part for me as I had to makesure the weight of the stem of fonts are the same in both lower and uppercase. I learnt that we should always use a grid and guide when constructing any typeface. I’ve come to realize that designing a typeface is far more complex than it appears in the final result. It demands a high level of patience and meticulous attention to detail to create a cohesive and effective design. Even the slightest flaw in a single letter can significantly disrupt the overall reading experience for the viewer.
FURTHER READING:
1) "Thinking With Type" - by Ellen Lupton
(Fig. 11.1) Thinking with Type book
by Ellen Lupton
This book is a foundational guide for typographic design. It
explores the anatomy of type, grids, layout systems, and how to use
type expressively and legibly in design. Lupton wrote alot on the
historical and cultural context of type and offers practical advice
for designers.What I learnt from the book is that typography is not
just about choosing fonts but about structuring visual language.
Grids, spacing, and hierarchy are as important as letterform
aesthetics. Every type decision affects how a message is perceived
and understood. Experimental typography can break rules, but it must
remain legible and purposeful.
2) "Designing Type" - by Karen Cheng
(Fig. 11.2) Designing Type book by Karen Cheng
This book dives deep into the process of designing typefaces,
focusing on the construction, proportions, and optical
corrections of individual characters. The book gave detailed
comparisons of serif and sans-serif styles and discusses common
pitfalls and solutions. What I've learned from this book is that
type design is highly iterative, meaning that letters are not
designed in isolation but as part of a cohesive system. Optical
adjustments (like stroke thickness and curve consistency) are
essential even if they defy geometry. Consistency in rhythm,
weight, and spacing creates harmony across the typeface. A small
flaw in a single glyph can disrupt the entire reading
experience.
Comments
Post a Comment