Typography Task 3 Exercises

Blogspot! :)

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2023-10-31 -  2023-12-19 (Week 7 - Week 13)

Jolin Ceria [Student ID 0363784]

Bachelor of Design and Creative Media in Taylor's University

Typography Task 3 (Type Design & Communication)

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Lecture Notes :D

Due to the absence of pre-recorded lectures for this task, there will be no records of pre-recorded lectures. 

Instructions! :0

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We're pasting this again (2) boys

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Task 3!

This task spans from week 7 to week 13; We were tasked to create/design a font. 

Phase 1: Sketching

We first started by sketching out some concepts for our fonts with the letters O, D, H, N and G using three different pens. I honestly struggled with this because I was not used to writing with something that wasn't erasable (So basically, most pens and markers). I still tried my best either way, and these were the sketches I ended up with. 

Fig 1.1 Sketches (Along with some attempts at writing the full set)

Fig 1.2 More sketches using brush #3

Fig 1.3 More sketches using brush #2

After some deliberation, I settled with sketch #6 for brush #3 in the first image. It had a bottom-heavy look, which I felt that I could work with. I then made some more sketches using the letters O, D, H, N, G, L, E, S, T, C, and I

Phase 2: Digitization

After sketching, I then proceeded to digitize my sketches. This was honestly the part where my motivation took the largest hit, as I had lost most of my progress during the process, in the end, I managed to pull through and complete it.

Fig 1.4 First digitization

Admittedly, I wasn't that satisfied with this one. It deviated a lot from the initial sketch I had and felt more lazily made. So, I decided to make another one, both for the sake of exploration and to try and follow said sketch more closely.

Fig 1.5 Second digitization

I liked this one better, although it was still inconsistent in some parts, I was okay with the result. But after further deliberation and through Ms. Hsin's suggestion, I decided to go with the first set of characters instead since she mentioned that it resembled a typeface more than the second one did.

Phase 3: Converting to font

After having my set of characters approved, I then created a font out of the characters I made. I then created a grayscale posted utilizing said characters. I decided to make some extra characters (Namely A, P and the apostrophe (')) because of the phrase I used; "IT ECHOES AND IT DOESN'T STOP" (Edgy, I know, I couldn't really think of anything). I made four options, one with plain text, and another three with some effects emphasizing echoing, in a sense. 

Fig 1.6 option 1 (Plain text)

Fig 1.7 option 2 (Downwards)

Fig 1.8 option 3 (Sideways)

Fig 1.9 option 4 (Diagonal)

I decided to submit option 2 (Sideways), since the effect was more subtle and it was more simplistic. I decided to name the font "Droopy", since it was sort of drooping down due to the bottom-heavy nature of the font.

Feedback :T

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Week 8:

→ Individual learning week

Week 9:

→ Establish a consistent baseline with the graph paper as a guide, especially with letters that have similar characteristics (i.e. Curved bottoms for letters with stresses); Label which characters with similar characteristics and such.

→ Try and label the sketches properly; This can be done by grouping and numbering them

→ Ensure there is proper lighting while sketching

Week 10:

→ Keep the punctuation mark's thickness from top to bottom; This is done to maintain consistency

→ Cover one side of the text while designing; You can do this with a piece of paper or your own fingers. It helps keeping a consistent thickness within multiple characters

(Note: I had accidentally undone most of my progress this week, so I couldn't get much proper feedback)

Week 11:

→ The thicknesses of some parts of the letters can be adjusted, but otherwise it looks fine. 

Week 12:

→ Due to my absence during this week, I did not receive any feedback.

Week 13:

→ Try to avoid relying too much on graphical elements; The poster was made with the purpose of promoting your typeface and it can be distracting and take attention away from the typeface itself.

→ Add less side bearings for letters with circular stems and more side bearings for letters with straight stems; This is done to implement consistent spacing between characters.

→ While making the poster, I was told to go for the one with a more subtle expression.

→ The thickness of some of the letters is kind of inconsistent

→ Initial typeface resembles a typeface better 

Reflections :v

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Experience
Well, this is awkward. Really awkward.

I remember just the previous task I was going on about doing my own work on time, but here I am; I'm just sitting here at 10.00 P.M. rushing to type everything. I don't really know if this is considered venting, but oh well.

Despite having some hiccups like forgetting to write feedback, everything felt like it was sort of going well for me for the first half of this task. But then, during week 10, I made an extremely grave mistake. I had forgotten to save my work just as I was about to be done and deleted most of my progress by reverting the document to a previous version. 

Despite managing to remake everything by week 11, I spiraled even harder and my mental health had basically plummeted the hardest it ever did within the past few months. I constantly felt awful about myself; I felt like a burden towards everyone around me and had a hard time simply doing things like asking for help. I also found myself feeling very, very dissatisfied with my work, this lead to me deciding to start over despite finishing during week 11. Even if I was being all lighthearted and making jokes about it, it was because I was worried that it wasn't good enough and I had deviated too far from my initial idea. 

I did manage to do it, but then during week 12, I had excruciating period cramps combined with a pretty bad stomach ache upon waking up. I couldn't bring myself to go to class that day due to the pain. At that time, I simply sat there and wondered if anything even mattered. If I couldn't get feedback, how would I know if I was good to go and put all my stuff in FontLab?

I ended up procrastinating. Everything, from assignments to the e-portfolio to the final project ended up slipping my mind. I honestly don't even feel motivated to make said project and a part of me wants to just get hit by a car and die or suffer from a coma or something, but I can't even do that because if I were to die, then it'll just make people around me feel like complete shit and the funeral costs are high as fuck and most of my family is not even in Malaysia, and if I were to live, the hospital bills would be high as fuck again, I'd definitely fail all my classes and have to restart the year (Or the semester, I don't know) and my parents would have to deal with more payments and shit. Neither outcomes are ideal so I guess I'll just have to push myself harder to do it. 

Maybe this is why I noticed that some people just fall off the face of the earth or something, even one of my friends who I have a class with in Digital Photography just disappeared and I don't really know what happened to her. I haven't contacted her, and I'm scared to do so.

I feel like I'm even procrastinating by writing this. I should probably stop, at this point this section is like 3/4 of the entire page and I'm not even joking. I just hope shit gets better for me.

Observation

I honestly don't know what to write here.

Findings
I'd realized that I burn out really easily, especially after making huge progress. I watched a video while I was feeling unwell about why artists never finish their work, and it stuck to me. 

A basic rundown of said video was that we tend to get excited when we consume new media and/or want to start a new project because our brain releases the dopamine to make said project, but then as we start to become desensitized to it, we end up losing motivation to finish at all due to the lack of dopamine.

I do hope I manage to deal with it, because I do know that I am a perpetual sketcher, you'd know if you looked into my laptop's files and my sketchbooks. I tend to gain new ideas only to scrap them later on because I forget them. Having ADHD is very unhelpful when it comes to this.