1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
The module has encouraged me to develop skills in hierarchy, using point size, weight, typeface choice, leading and colour. The module opened my eyes to an extent of where by I know how to make those decisions with an audience in mind rather than making decisions purely on aesthetics. Negative leading was something I didn't really understand until I tried to read some of my own work and sure to say I will always print out rough proofs before moving ahead with my decision making.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
My type diary was my main form of research outside the taught sessions and I wish I had engaged with it more throughout the module. In the end I spent the easter break working in it and it turned out to be something I thought I had to do than something I wanted to use as a tool for development. This was my biggest mistake of the module. I didn't have much of an idea where to take it, as the subject of typography is so broad, I just did not have a starting point and I allowed other modules to take over. The taught sessions, however, allowed me to develop my skills in certain areas and I ended up taking some of those skills further and applying it to things I collected that had type on them.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I felt that the pieces I created always were strong aesthetically and I felt I kept that even though I had all these constraints on how to create maximum readability and having a certain audience in mind. For example, the allotment leaflets I did were a good example of my attempt to refine my layout skills as my first attempt did not hit the requirements of maximum readability for that audience. I felt it helped doing multiple versions with different arrangements so I could pick the best one for the task.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
As I had picked up on before, the type diary became more of sidetrack rather than something that drove my learning. I am disappointed with that, but I also could not have done much more with it in the time. I don't want to blame my other studies as everyone had the same ammount of work to do. Perhaps it was my time management.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. Devote more time to type diary.
2. Never again rely on aesthetics to push my layouts.
3. Delve deeper into one area of typography, rather than try to cover everything.
4. Develop my own typefaces
5. Use serif typefaces more as they are better for long pieces of text.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
Attendance 5
Punctuality 5
Motivation 5
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 3
Typography: End of Module Self Evaluation
More finals for Type
Changed my mind as you would guess. I've been tinkering again with the layout and by paying attention to detail and making the layout generally more exciting. I probably won't submit the coloured ones as I don't think it will be well recieved, however the one version might be a winner.
Final Project: Type module
Graham gave us one final task to round off the module. The task was to create two A3 spreads with the copy and images and create differing layouts. One of which would be featured in an academic journal, and the other would feature in a graphic design magazine.
I have learnt a great deal about how about hierarchy, layout, colour as well which typefaces are suited to the audience and the tone you want to create. All of that boils down to these final layouts, and to be honest it makes my decision making much more informed even if it is a lot to think about. As I use typography more and more, I believe I will be able to come to decisions much quicker than I did before and I will know what I have done is appropriate (no negative leading, a sense of hierarchy, appropriate margins, gutters and the appropriate typeface and pt size).
Here is the layout I created for an academic journal. Because the article has a lot of copy I decided to get rid of the paragraph breaks and use 3character indents for every new paragraph. This allows me to use the space more effectively and knock up both the point size and leading for better readability. I have gone for just a two column grid layout on this as the copy is the focus but to ensure I could fit all the copy on the pages I needed to break it up into a collumned structure.
I used a sans serif typeface to make it easier to read and I used a typeface with a fairly small x height. The introduction has a tiny bit more leading to ease the reader in before getting stuck into the main body sections.
The images are deemed insignificant for this article so I referenced them at the bottom and made the images as small as possible as not to detract from the text. On this article I included a photo of the writer as I thought he fit with the ideology of the target audience. He looks quite intellectual as well.
The next spread for a graphic design magazine is presented in a much more light hearted fashion, which was a challenge because of the large amount of copy there was. I wanted the pages to look less busy than the previous one and fill some of that space with the imagery.
In the end I had allow the imagery to bleed off the pages as it would not have fit. The main thing was to make the article look interesting to read and judging by the first spread, I did that.
I went for a sans serif typeface as not to get the reader thinking this article would be too interlectual and to fit in with the rest of the pages in this makebelieve magazine. The type is a little larger than the last spread and I wanted to split the paragraphs again, but there was not enough room to do so. Instead I increased the leading as much as I could to allow the reader to scan the copy.
I also split up the paragraphs by inserting the images in certain places to spur the reader on to read further. The images would be deemed more important in this article.
I have also included a range of spreads I worked on and then moved on because they were not working for me.
Type: Compliment Slip
This is the outstanding compliment slip I developed for the typography module. I did the same for this as I did for letterhead. I have applied the same design approach to the compliment slip to see how it works. I am sure it will have to be developed later but for now I know my hierarchy works from my business card.
Type: Letterhead
I have been looking at how my business card could look when applied to a letterhead. I don't think I will ever need to use a letter head but it is better to have one than not.
Typography task - colour
Today's session was based on colour work and creating layouts that give a certain meaning and intent just from the sort of colour we work with. Darker shades of colour giving an intense meaning to type choice, weight, leading and point size, where as light shades can give the impression that the font is light or leading is larger than normal. I designed some colour layouts with different words in mind such as intense, relaxed and creative.
Business card for typography module
Graham asked us to create a business card for this weeks session based on our new and prior knowledge and to apply that with our ideas and layout skills. I wanted to give a few different versions just so people could pick their favourite or give me some ideas on what was more appropriate.
He also asked us to create an 8 page booklet based on the body copy provided. I seemed a little too easy to do so perhaps I did it wrong. I filled 7 pages and didnt use negative leading so I was happy with it.
Type Session 6
Back to the type module and trying discover what point size, leading, weight and typeface best works for legibility and ease of reading. Our group found that 8pt on 14.1pt leading was the easiest to digest. We also found the regular serif, Times New Roman, to be the easiest to read. The leading created ample negative space for the text to flow.
Type Session 5
The fifth installment started with the task of creating this leaflet. I started out and designed this which I liked initially but still didn't cut it when it came to understanding type and layout. The text on the 'allotments' article was deemed unreadable, and the alignment was a little off.
So I went away, and worked on another version and this seems to read much better.
Type session 4
This week we are again looking at hierarchy and considering a single image. My first effort was wide of the mark as the image had far too much emphasis. The reader would be drawn to the image and the copy would become redundant.
Type session 3
Good type session again, and this week I am back on with type hierarchy and manipulating type to fit within a flyer design. This is the front and back to the flyer and it was printed and critiqued by Nicola before I made some alterations to it.
Type Session 2
Straight back into the type module and this week I am looking at the attributes of a certain typeface, in my case Clarendon light standard. I firstly used three words to describe my chosen typeface. I tried to think in terms of its history as well as its physical attributes.
The next thing I did was to decide on a type of animal that describes the typeface. Again I thought about it in terms of physical attributes.
Lastly, I then thought of a job title that best describes the typeface. Oddly, the similar attributes could be assigned in different ways. There is no way an elephant is representative of a Gymnast but strength and elegance is something that a gymnast has.
I then moved on to look at a press advertisement with restricted work areas of 30mm by 60mm. My first attempt was ok but the type hierarchy was all wrong which meant the relevant information was not getting to the person quick enough. I revised my layout and including a type hierarchy that worked.
Typography Module
Highly enjoyable start to a module. Thankfully its not as overbearing as the other things I have going on at the minute. In this session we were introduce to type anatomy but in much more depth than I have ever known. I had no idea of the analysis involved but I was happy with the way the session went.
These a few patterns I created in quark xpress to help me get to grips with the letterforms of a certain typeface (not font).
