Advanced Typography - Task 3: Type Exploration & Application

on
19/06/2024 - 23/07/2024 / Week 9 - Week 14
Joey Lok Wai San / 0350857
Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media 
Task 3: Type Exploration & Application

TABLE OF CONTENTS


INSTRUCTIONS

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cCzqflwT6NvbTAEatqyIiA5lEIOiAcOM/preview


TASK 3: Type Exploration & Application

For this task, we have three directions to choose from:
  1. Font creation for problem-solving: Create a font that is intended to solve a larger problem or is meant to be part of a solution in the area of your interest.
  2. Exploration of existing letterforms: Explore the use of an existing letterform in an area of interest, identify areas that could be improved upon, and explore possible solutions that may add value to the existing letterform/lettering. 
  3. Experiment: For your idea to qualify as an experiment it must be novel and unique — working with material that might be 3-dimensional, digitally augmented, edible, unusual, typographic music video or fine art. 
The end result of this task should be a completely generated font (.ttf) with applications.


Idea Proposal
From the beginning of the semester, we were already introduced to this assignment. This gave me quite some to think of ideas on what font I wanted to do. I have opted for the first option, which is to design a font to solve a problem. I presented four font design ideas:
  1. Idea 1: Duck Typeface
    The inflatable duck occasionally makes an appearance on the lake, as well as appearances on any Taylor’s related media and events. There are also a lot of videos on TikTok/Insta featuring ducks. The aim is to create a Taylor’s University brand identity. Experimenting with how duck elements (such as feathers, and bill shapes) can be incorporated. Use shapes and aesthetics associated with them

  2. Idea 2: ‘Bridgerton’ Typeface
    Bridgerton revolves around romance, high society, and scandal in Regency-era England - while the book typeface may reflect that, the TV show fails to. The series’ typeface is too plain and does not represent the story whatsoever. The aim is to create a more readable version of the book typeface, match the regency-era theme, or have a classy design to show high society 

  3. Idea 3: ‘Percy Jackson’ Typeface
    ‘Percy Jackson & the Olympians’ is available through multiple mediums such as book, movie, TV series, etc. The book is all about the theme of ancient Greek mythology. Some versions of typefaces in book covers, and posters are usually too generic and not expressive of the mythological themes. The aim is to create a typeface that reflects the theme of ancient Greek mythology.  

  4. Idea 4: Readable Calligraphy Typeface - Expansion of Typography Typeface
    An expansion of my font from 'Typography' module. "Corsair Sabre", which also means "Pirate Sword" - corsair is another term for pirate and sabre for a sword. The features of the design remind me of a sword, with straight lines and curved sharp edges of a sword. Calligraphy fonts are often cursive, making them hard to read occasionally. There is a lack of digital fonts that combine the characteristics of traditional calligraphy with the readbility modern fonts. The goal is to design a typeface that incorporates the unique characteristics of square-tip calligraphy pen strokes while ensuring readability.
Mr. Vinod approved all the ideas and suggested I choose whichever one I wanted. Initially, I was going to develop the duck typeface but later decided it would be too much work and too little time.

Ultimately, I chose the last idea, which involves expanding my font from the 'Typography' module, 'Corsair Sabre'. I had the foundation and basic shapes already and just had to develop the remaining characters. 

Click here for the link to Task 3: Idea Proposals!


Fig. 1.1 Idea Proposal, Week 9 (19/06/2024)


Fig. 2.1 Final Type Design and Communication "Corsair Sabre", Week 9 (20/06/2024)

Sketches
I did some rough sketches for the remaining characters. I used the same square-tip calligraphy pen and pen-stroke direction. For the first sketch, I roughly wrote out all the letterforms and numerals on a piece of paper. The letterforms were all over the place since I sketched it without any guides, and without following the x-height, cap height, ascender and descender line.  


Fig. 2.2 Sketch #1, Week 9 (22/06/2024)

For the second sketch, I followed the grids and placed all the uppercase, lowercase, numerals and punctuations on a baseline. This is a lot neater and easier to refer to as a reference when digitizing. When writing the characters, I followed the same writing style as I did in the Typography module. This ensures consistency with the new letterforms and developed letterforms (A E T K G R I Y M P N).


Fig. 2.3 Sketch #2, Week 9 (22/06/2024)


Digitisation of Letterforms
After sketching out all the letterforms, I brought them into Adobe Illustrator to start digitizing them. I used the same method as I did to design the initial letterforms of 'Corsair Sabre'. 

To start, I created the guidelines on a 1000pt x 1000pt artboard by following the tutorial video by Mr. Vinod below. Using the letters "Tyd" in Myriad Pro Regular, I created a 500pt x 500pt box to determine the x-height. The ascender line, descender line, cap line, median line, baseline, and x-height are subject to our design and can be bigger or smaller.

Average Measurements of 'Corsair Sabre':
      - Ascender: 730pt
      - Cap Height: 692pt
      - X-height Overshoot: 550pt
      - X-height: 500pt
      - Baseline: 0pt
      - Baseline Overshoot: -50pt
      - Descender: -226pt
      - Descender Overshoot: -250pt

Fig. 3.1 Guidelines, Week 9 (23/06/2024)

Fig. 3.2 'Typography Task 3A Typeface Construction' Tutorial, Week 9 (23/06/2024)

Stroke Design 
When sharpening the corners of the letters, I created two different edges (the first shape is the original). I decided to use the middle shape because I wanted a sharp design look. The thin strokes were also sharpened to match the other lines.


Fig. 3.3 Different Edges Process, Week 9 (23/06/2024)

When observing the letterforms I created in the past semester, I noticed the lines were not straight. It was in fact very crooked and slanted. To solve this issue, I put a rectangular shape underneath the lines and moved the anchor points in one straight line. The pictures below show the before and after adjustments.


Fig. 3.4 Straightening the thin strokes, Week 9 (23/06/2024)


Fig. 3.5 Straightening the thick strokes, Week 9 (23/06/2024)

Uppercase 
Once the strokes were adjusted, the main elements to build the letterforms were complete. I began digitizing the uppercase letterforms based on the sketches I made and using the shapes from the developed set of letterforms. Based on Mr. Vinod's general feedback, the first we should create was 'A', 'H', 'O' and 'N'.

Fig. 4.1 Digitisation 'A', 'H', 'O', 'N', Week 9 (24/06/2024)

Once these four letters were complete, I figured the next easiest letterform to make was 'L'. I used the horizontal and vertical strokes from the letter 'H' to build the letterform. The first variation on the left is very simple and basic. I then added more characteristics to the letterform by adding the curved edge and the tail. This follows the design of the letter 'E' in Fig. 2.1.


Fig. 4.2 Development of uppercase 'L', Week 10 (24/06/2024)

For the letter 'V', I started by combining the thin and thick strokes together. The design was alright but it felt like something was missing. I got inspired by the top of the letter 'A' in Fig. 2.1 and added the bump to the bottom of the letterform. 

Fig. 4.3 Development of uppercase 'V', Week 10 (28/06/2024)

The letter 'J' was a bit of a struggle to create now and down the line as well. I did not know how to make the curve work, so I spent quite some time messing around with the shape. Below is the process of experimentation with the shape. 


Fig. 4.4 Development of uppercase 'J', Week 10 (28/06/2024)

The picture below is the experimentation process of the letters 'D' and 'U'. When I traced the sketch initially, I could not get it to look smooth. I then decided to just freehand it and make the curve as I saw fit, following the shape of the letter 'O' in Fig, 4.1.


Fig. 4.5 Development of uppercase 'M', Week 10 (28/06/2024)


Fig. 4.6 Development of uppercase 'U', Week 10 (24/06/2024)

The rest of the uppercase letterforms were created using the horizontal and vertical strokes, and curved shapes from the developed letterforms. This is the initial outcome of the uppercase letterforms, submitted for feedback in Week 10. 


Fig. 4.7 Initial uppercase letterforms, Week 10 (26/06/2024)


Refinement (After Week 10 Feedback)
After receiving feedback from Mr. Vinod, I went back to redesigning the letterforms, especially the ones that needed work - S, J, K, Z, W, B. Due to the fact I did not follow a grid structure, the distance of my letters was not proportionate. This led me to redesign and resize most of the letters.

I created a grid to place all my letterforms on. I based the grid on the width of the thick strokes. The grid I created had horizontal lines, which I took out because I could just follow the guidelines I created. The width of the letterforms takes up 4 to 5 columns. 



Fig. 4.8 Creating a grid, Week 10 (27/06/2024)

Following the grid, I made the 'M' look like a skinny legend, and I applied this to the other letterforms that needed to be adjusted as well. 


Fig. 4.9 Refining uppercase 'M', Week 10 (28/06/2024)

Based on the feedback, I refined the letter 'B' so that the bottom shape connects to one line that joins to the top part. I refined the letter 'Z' so the top and bottom are not equal. I also added a flat edge to the letterform ends, to give it a unique characteristic. For the letter 'S', I made the stroke to be thicker at the centre rather than thinner.


Fig. 4.10 Refining uppercase 'B', Week 10 (28/06/2024)


Fig. 4.11 Refining uppercase 'Z', Week 10 (28/06/2024)


Fig. 4.12 Refining uppercase 'S', Week 10 (28/06/2024)

I created the remaining letterforms based on the feedback given by Mr. Vinod and based on the new grid. The letterforms look a lot more consistent now, especially in terms of width size.

Final Uppercase Letterforms

Fig. 4.13 Final uppercase letterforms, Week 10 (28/06/2024)


Lowercase
Moving on to the lowercase letterforms, I started by using thick strokes to build the letter shapes. I found this to be a lot more simple compared to the uppercase letterforms. The lowercase were more consistent and had a lot of similar characteristics to one another. While creating the lowercase letterforms, I found it to be much simpler since I followed the grids so the width of the letters was quite easy to adjust.


Fig. 5.1 Developing lowercase letterforms, Week 11 (01/07/2024)

The letterforms with a curve took more time to work on. For example, the lowercase 'b' did not look round enough and was very curved. To fix this, I rounded the curve parts more and made the stroke slightly thicker as well. I referred to the shape of the letter 'o' when designing this.


Fig. 5.2 Development of lowercase 'b', Week 11 (01/07/2024)

The letter 'c' initially looked very crooked and slanted. The first attempt also looked very compressed. To improve upon this, I referred to the shape of the letter 'o' and adjusted accordingly. I also gave the letterform a sharp end to resemble its uppercase form. Below is some variations of the letter 'c'.


Fig. 5.3 Development of lowercase 'c', Week 11 (01/07/2024)

For the curve shapes of the letters 'd' and 'g', I did not want to copy-paste the shape of the letter 'c' because that would just be lazy. The initial digitization on the left was very crooked, so I smoothened it out and used fewer anchor points to achieve a smoother look. 

Fig. 5.4 Development of lowercase 'g', Week 11 (01/07/2024)

Initially, when I created the letter 's', I thought it looked quite decent. I then remembered the feedback given by Mr. Vinod to work on the spine of the uppercase 'S' and make it thicker, which I applied to the lowercase form too. This made the letterform look a lot better and smoother. 


Fig. 5.5 Development of lowercase 's', Week 11 (01/07/2024)

The shape of the letters  'h', 'm', and 'n' was used for the letter 'u' since it had the same form. However, when I flipped the letter 'n' around to get the letter 'u', I realized the curve went over the descender line. To fix this, I made the degree of the curve less intense so that it would not go over the line. 


Fig. 5.6 Development of lowercase 'u', Week 11 (01/07/2024)

I had a lot of problems with both the uppercase and lowercase 'j'. At first, I thought the design was alright, however, Mr. Vinod said that the tail of the letter 'j' is too much, so there will be too much awkward spacing. I went back and forth between redesigning and importing into FontLab this letterform so many times.

Fig. 5.7 Development of lowercase 'j', Week 11 (01/07/2024)

Final Lowercase Letterforms

Fig. 5.8 Final lowercase letterforms, Week 11 (03/07/2024)

Numerals
After the uppercase and lowercase were done, I created the numbers using the strokes from the letters. I followed the grids while making the numbers - the width of the numbers takes up 4 to 5 columns. 

For the number '1', I made a few variations for it. One of them was just straight lines while the other I decided to curve to match the uppercase and lowercase shapes. I used the curved variations as it better suited the overall typeface.


Fig. 6.1 Development of numeral '1', Week 11 (04/07/2024)

The number '5' was made using the thick strokes from the letterforms and combining them with the curve shapes. The variation on the left is before refinement and the variation on the right is after refinement. I made the edges sharp to match the characteristics of the typeface.


Fig. 6.2 Development of numeral '5', Week 11 (04/07/2024)

The number '6' was another of the numerals that had a few variations. At first, the curve went above the x-height which made it look quite large. The middle variation is when the curve is below the x-height. The variation on the right is playing around with the thickness of the stroke where instead of leaving it off as a sharp end, I merged it with the main body of the number.


Fig. 6.3 Development of numeral '6', Week 11 (04/07/2024)

Final Numerals

Fig. 6.4 Final numerals, Week 11 (04/07/2024)

Punctuation
I used the basic shapes from my letters to create the punctuations. For instance, I used the vertical strokes from my letterforms for the exclamation point. For the #, I tilted the vertical strokes a little. Since I already had some of the punctuations . , ! # completed, I just made a few more. I watched and read about creating punctuation through this link. 
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRjdPtSjz5K/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Fig. 6.5 Punctuations process, Week 11 (05/07/2024)

Final Punctuations


Fig. 6.6 Final punctuations, Week 11 (05/07/2024)


FontLab
Once the letterforms, numerals and punctuations were completed, I started to generate the font. Initially, I wanted to use FontLab 7 but my free trial expired (I thought deleting the app would work but nope it does not renew your license). Then I tried to use FontForge but honestly, it kind of sucks and I had a hard time using it. 

After some consideration, I decided to try my luck using FontLab 8. I found that it is exactly the same as FontLab 7 and I did not notice any major changes from the two. I could also save and export the font so I took that as a win. The method of importing each individual character in Typography was a bit tedious. I also had some trouble when importing as it would not stay within the grid. I went to YouTube and found a simpler method where you can import all the letters from Adobe Illustrator to FontLab using the sketchboard. When the fonts were imported, I adjusted all the left and right bearings to 50 following the same tutorial below. 


Fig. 7.1 Adobe Illustrator to FontLab Tutorial, Week 12 (08/07/2024) 


Fig. 7.2 Imported Letterforms into FontLab, Week 12 (08/07/2024) 

Once all the letterforms were imported, I began kerning the letters individually using the metrics window. Since I am a very lazy person, I wanted to find an easier method to kern all the letters at once.

"To automatically kern pairs, open the Pairs and Phrases panel. In the Pairs mode, select multiple pairs with Shift and click on the 'diamond' button in the upper right corner. FontLab automatically generates kerning for the selected pairs according to the settings on the Preferences > Curve Conversion page."

Fig. 7.3 Automatic Kerning Outcome, Week 12 (10/07/2024) 

However, the automatic kerning is quite poor and there are a lot of wide spaces between the letterforms still. Sadly, I had to admit defeat and adjust the sidebearings individually following the guidelines provided by Mr. Vinod, as shown below. 

Fig. 7.4 Left and Right Sidebearing Measurement, Week 12 (10/07/2024) 

This is the process of kerning all the individual letters. I started by kerning the alphabet in order, followed by using some generated phrases from FontLab and on and on. After the individual kerning was completed, I exported the font and went on to the next step of the assignment. 


Fig. 7.5 Kerning Lowercase, Week 12 (10/07/2024) 


Fig. 7.6 Kerning Uppercase, Week 12 (10/07/2024) 

Fig. 7.7 Kerning Process, Week 12 (10/07/2024) 


Font Presentation
The next part of this task is to create five font presentations and font applications. We were required to stick to a colour palette. Looking at the example provided by Mr. Vinod, I decided to go with using 3 colours only. The colour scheme I just was black, white, and gold. I wanted the font to be displayed in an ancient style due to its aesthetics. 


Fig. 8.1 Font Presentation Process, Week 12 (13/07/2024) 

In Fig. 8.2, the design on the left looked way too dull compared to the rest of the font presentation's colour palette. To improve this, I adjusted the colours of the background to be a lighter gold that looked more beige. 


Fig. 8.2 Colour Adjustment for Font Presentation, Week 12 (13/07/2024) 

For the font presentation, we could choose to feature certain letters of our font or display the entire typeface. I chose to do both because why not and because it adds some variety to the presentations. Some presentations had just a few letters on display, some had the entire typeface laid out in order while some had paragraphs of text. I wanted to try assembling the letters in a way that they all fit together as shown in Fig. 8.3.


Fig. 8.3 Assembling Letters, Week 12 (13/07/2024) 

For bodies of text, I wanted to highlight keywords to stand out in the presentation. I also added a background to give it a rustic, ancient look to match the gold theme better. This also adds some texture to the design so it does not look too dull.


Fig. 8.4 Displaying Typeface, Week 12 (13/07/2024) 

These are the final outcomes of the font presentation. I am quite satisfied with them, it's not my best work but I'm still happy with the way it looks.








Fig. 8.5 Final Font Presentations, Week 13 (16/07/2024) 


Font Application
In the final part, we are required to create five font applications, similar to that in Task 2. Since this font is meant to be a readable calligraphy font, my initial idea is to create applications that would use this font. For example, an old letter that would be written in calligraphy type and would be difficult to read. A few other ideas I had were a history website, a book about calligraphy, a poster and a ticket to a calligraphy writing event. 

Font Application #1 - Letter
I have been getting quite invested in love letters for some time now so I thought it would be a fun idea to use one of Shakespeare's poems and make the page look like it was written by him. To do this, I found a collateral of old paper and added the poem as well as his signature onto it.


Fig. 9.1 Font Application - Letter, Week 13 (16/07/2024) 

Font Application #2 - Book
The next application I wanted to do was a book. I found a collateral online and added my design on top of it. Initially, I just went with a white and grey option but came to my senses and realized how dull it looked. I fixed that by adding the colour palette to my design.

 
Fig. 9.2 Font Application - Book Attempt, Week 13 (16/07/2024) 

After staring at this design for a while, I still did not like it that much. I made another attempt by adding a gold shine to the book cover. I experimented with making all the text lowercase form and changed the font colour for a better hierarchy of information, rather than having all the text be black.


Fig. 9.3 Font Application - Book, Week 13 (16/07/2024) 

Font Application #3 - Ticket
The next thing I moved on to was creating a ticket for a calligraphy workshop. I tried and failed to do this quite a number of times, and after all the trials, it was still the ugliest thing I've done. I blame the broken AC in class which made me sweat all my braincells away. I called it a day and just asked Mr. Vinod for feedback on my font application ideas. 


Fig. 9.4 Font Application - Ticket Attempt, Week 13 (16/07/2024) 

After receiving feedback from Mr. Vinod on my font application ideas, he said that the ideas get the task done but it's quite boring. He suggested doing something more interesting like a game that would use the font, or something related to my specialization. I scrapped a few of my ideas and decided to develop a website and a few games using the font.

Font Application #4 - Website
I chose a history website called Ancient History.org. To replace the current text on the website, I went into Photoshop and did some magic. This took quite a while to remove the text and add my own font since I forgot how to use Photoshop. 


Fig. 9.5 Removing Website Text and Adding Font, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 


Fig. 9.6 Font Application - Website, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 

Font Application #5, 6, 7 - Game
I chose three games to create the font application for Telepath Tactics Liberated, Tomb Raider, and Empires the Rise. When looking at these game posters, I noticed that they all had swords, which is what my font is called. 'Corsair Sabre' literally translates to a pirate's sword, which I was inspired by the sharp nature of the strokes.


Fig. 9.7 Removing Text in Adobe Photoshop, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 

Fig. 9.8 Font Application - Game #1, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 

The next game I wanted to do was Tomb Raider, which was one of the first games I have ever played. The game relates to the ancient idea I was going with since part of the storyline is about searching for lost artefacts. Again, I found a poster with a sword, and the design of it more or less matched the sharp ends of my font so I just went ahead and used that. 


Fig. 9.9 Adding Font into Poster, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 

The font colour blended in too much with the background, so I darkened the image in order to make the font stand out. I matched the font colour with parts of the poster. 

 
Fig. 9.10 Font Application - Game #2, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 

The last game I thought of was about empire-building and conquest. I found a poster where they used swords in a battle and decided to just take inspiration from the original image of text design, where the first letter of every word is bigger than the rest. I played around with the text layout to find the best version.


Fig. 9.11 Font Application - Game #3, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 

Font Application - Additional
I did a few additional font applications, one on a movie poster and the other on a game poster. As usual, I chose the images that had swords and sharp edges. The designs were alright but I did not want to use them, they were just there existing as additional backup. 


Fig. 9.12 Font Application - Movie Poster, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 


Fig. 9.13 Font Application - Game Poster, Week 13 (18/07/2024) 


Final Task 3: Type Exploration & Application

Download font link: Corsair Sabre 


Fig. 10.1 Corsair Sabre, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.2 Font Presentation 1, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.3 Font Presentation 2, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.4 Font Presentation 3, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.5 Font Presentation 4, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.6 Font Presentation 5, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.7 Font Presentation 6, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.8 Font Application 1 - Letter, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.9 Font Application 2 - Book, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.10 Font Application 3 - Website, Week 14 (21/07/2024)


Fig. 10.11 Font Application 4 - Game, Week 14 (21/07/2024)

Fig. 10.12 Font Application 5 - Game, Week 14 (21/07/2024)

FEEDBACK

WEEK 9
General Feedback
-There should be a minimum of 3 ideas proposed with research and purpose to support each idea.
- When starting the task, use proper guidelines and structure to determine the proportions of the font. 

Specific Feedback
- Idea 1 (Duck Typeface): Idea approved. Just make sure it is not too illustrative and is more structured while incorporating characteristics or features of ducks
- Idea 2 (‘Bridgerton’ Typeface): Idea approved. Just make sure it is not too stylized and research more on the era and the typefaces used. 
- Idea 3 ('Percy Jackson'): Idea approved. As a reference, do not use written Greek letterforms but the letterforms etched in stone.
- Idea 4 (Expansion of Typography Type): Idea approved. You can expand on your previous typeface. Make any changes if you want, but it is good already. Just need to develop the remaining characters. 

WEEK 10
General Feedback
- Be careful of the letters Z and S
- Use a grid structure, do not eyeball the proportions
- Ensure consistency in stroke width and proportions 

Specific Feedback
- Letter S: The spine of the S needs work. It should be thicker at the centre rather than thinner.
- Letter J: Don't allow the loop to go beyond a certain point
- Letter K: The upper and lower stroke should be equal distance
- Letter Z: The equal top and bottom causes optical problems 
- Letter W: It is not wide enough, just flipping the letter M is lazy. Increase the vertex
- Letter B: Doesn't need a triangular shape where the shapes connect. The bottom should be one line that joins the top part
- Use a grid structure - the distance is not proportionate 


Fig. 11.1 Week 10 Feedback Screenshot, Week 10 (26/06/2024)

WEEK 11
General Feedback
- Finish all the letterforms

Specific Feedback
- Extend the vertex of the letter W, it may look better

WEEK 12
General Feedback
- When importing into FontLab, the cap height should be set around 700px
- Use minimal colours for font presentation and application, you don't have to use all the letters

Specific Feedback
- The tail of the letter 'j' is too much, so there is awkward spacing
- Kern the letters and adjust the bearing, it should not take that long when following the guides provided
- The new method you're using looks more complicated but it works 

WEEK 13
General Feedback
- Finish font presentation and application

Specific Feedback
- Maintain a consistent colour palette for the font application
- The current font application ideas are kind of boring, try to apply them to your specialization (e.g. a relevant game that would use your font)


REFLECTION

Experience
My experience with this task has been quite a long one. It has haunted me since the time I first heard we had to create an entire font. I never thought I'd be able to go through with this, seeing how much effort it took to develop a few letters in the Typography module. I feel like there definitely wasn't enough time for me to develop an entire typeface, do the kerning, font presentation and application. Nevertheless, I am glad I managed to finish this final task. I also felt like I could have done better with it. If given more time, I wouldn't have chosen to do this font, instead, I would have done one of the other ideas instead. What's done is done, I'm just happy to have completed this task.

Observations
My observation with this task is that the tiny details are important. The angle of the curve, how intense the curve is, etc. are all important characteristics that make a font. I also observed the importance of creating the letterforms on a grid for consistency. Without the grid, the letterforms would look very messy and not similar to one another with different widths. When I created the letterforms without the grid, I could not see the issue until Mr. Vinod pointed it out how some letters were much larger than the other.  

Findings
I found that creating a typeface takes a lot of effort and patience. There is a lot of research that goes into designing a typeface, especially understanding the basics before designing one. Without research, there will be a lot of setbacks as there were when I was designing the letterforms without a grid. I also found that font presentation and application is a good way to look at your font and see what can be improved upon and whether your font achieved the goal you set. It is not an easy process to simply create a typeface, and I have a lot of respect for typeface designers. 

FURTHER READING

Fig. 12.1 "The Vignelli Canon on Design” by Massimo Vignelli

When reading this book, I found content that was relevant to the task at hand, which is all about typefaces.


Fig. 12.2 Timelessness, Page 72

Maintaining consistency in type sizes across a design project helps to get a cohesive look. Vignelli advocates for using a limited number of type sizes to establish a clear hierarchy.
It is also important to have proportional relationships between different type sizes to create a harmonious and balanced design. This can be done by using a modular grid.


Fig. 12.3 Visual Power, Page 24

A design should communicate the message effectively and leave a strong impression on the viewer. Using hierarchy and contrast effectively helps in guiding the viewer’s eye to the most important elements first. This can be achieved through varying sizes, weights, and styles of type. To further enhance visual power, the design can focus only on the essential parts of the design.

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