Typography - Task 2: Typographic Exploration & Communication

09.05.2023 - 23.05.2023 / Week 06 - Week 08
Ilhan Rayan bin Khairul Anwar / 0361205
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 2 - Typographic Exploration & Communication

---

LECTURES

Refer to Task 1

---

INSTRUCTIONS

TASK 2 / Typographic Exploration & Communication

"In this task you will be asked to express typographically the content provided in a 2-page editorial spread (200mm x 200mm per page). Choose 1 from the 3 text options provided. No images are allowed. However, some very minor graphical elements, i.e. line, shade, etc. might be allowed."

Initial Process

After doing some basic research on how editorial spreads are designed, I created three simple designs that I thought could work for my design.

Figure 1.1: Quick Layout Designs, Week 6 (8/5/23)

I personally liked my third layout as it fit the whole "unite" and "better world" idea that I wanted to convey. Using this, I experimented on Adobe Illustrator to try and recreate this sketch. For my typeface I decided to go with ITC New Baskerville Std (Bold) as the design of the typeface felt strong and grounded, which suited my united ideas.

Originally I wanted to distort the text and curve it into a circular shape, however when I did a quick experiment on Procreate just to get a better idea, it ended up looking more oval-shaped that what I intended. After that, I researched on YouTube how to wrap text in a circular pattern and figured out how to recreate it on Adobe Illustrator. By using the Type on a Path tool from the Type tool on a circle that I had created, I was able to type on that circle and create the effect I wanted.

Figure 1.2: Unite Graphic Element Production, Week 6 (8/5/23)

The text was originally set to be typed on the baseline of the circle, which I did not like as it felt too wide so I changed the path alignment to Center, which created a much nicer effect.

Figure 1.3: Updated Graphical Element, Week 6 (8/5/23)

Now that I was happy with what me design looked like, I moved onto designing the editorial spread itself. I didn't want my text to be fully aligned with each column so I chose to create an angled effect using the text boxes. I also knew I wanted the headlines to be more prominent in their appearance so I increased their pt size to allow for them to stand out more.

Figure 1.4: Editorial Spread Editing, Week 6 (9/5/23)

After sorting out the text and tidying up the sheet, I submitted the design seen in Figure 1.5 as my first submission for my design.

Figure 1.5: Editorial Spread First Submission, Week 6 (9/5/23)

When I showed my editorial spread to Mr. Vinod, he said that it's good, but it's not great. The main feedback that he told me was that memorability was an important factor in determining if the design is good or not. He also told me that the two pieces are not visually connected together, which makes them appear as two separate islands. The last piece of advice was that the letterspacing for the body text is too small and may be hard to read.

After going over his advice, I made adjustments to my design, the first of which was to connect the graphical element and the editorial text.

Figure 1.6: Editorial Spread Updated Design, Week 6 (9/5/23)

Figure 1.7: Editorial Spread Boxes, Week 6 (10/5/23)

I followed Mr. Vinod's advice and created boxes around my text to see how I manage my white space and I've noticed that my text is quite cramped and that there isn't much flow with it either. To try and counteract this, I decided to rotate my graphic element by about 37 degrees to try and create a sense of flow with my design.

Figure 1.8: Angled Graphical Element, Week 6 (13/5/23)

While I do like that there is a bit more flow with the design with the UNITE acting as a sort of ramp that leads into the headline at the top, the overall editorial feels less connected together in my opinion. However one change that I did make that I will add to my original design from Figure 2.6 is to align the top headline to the left and the ending line at the bottom to the right. I decided to also increase the pt size of the headline to 25pt from 20pt as to remove the orphan from the headline as well as to give the headline more prominence. In the end I decided to stick with with my original design while including the small changes that I made when I was attempting the new design.

FINAL Editorial Spread

Margins: 12.77 mm
Gutter: 5 mm

HEAD
Font: ITC New Baskerville Std

BODY
Font: ITC New Baskerville Std
Type Size: 10 pt
Leading: 10 pt
Paragraph spacing: 9 pt
Characters per-line: 31
Alignment: Align Left

Figure 2.1: Final Editorial Spread, Week 7 (18/5/23)

Figure 2.2: Final Editorial Spread PDF, Week 7 (18/5/23)

Figure 2.3: Final Editorial Spread Guidelines, Week 7 (18/5/23)

Figure 2.4: Final Editorial Spread Guidelines PDF, Week 7 (18/5/23)

---

FEEDBACK

Week 6

General Feedback: Just because it looks good visually, doesn’t mean it is good. It has to have meaning behind its placement. You must maintain the line length of the body text in order to prevent people from thinking the text is separate. Short line length can create unevenness the space between text. People will look at something at face value first before actually reading it. The use of Bodoni for body text is a bad idea due to the contrast of the letterform. Do not rework and redesign at the same time. Focus on the expression first so that it is more memorable and expresses the meaning of the world better. Once you are done with that, you can fix the layout of the text to see how it sits on the spread and where you want to place it. Make sure people read the headline first. The placement of the body text is in relation to the headline.

Specific Feedback: It’s good, but it’s not great. Memorability is an important factor in determining whether if the design is good or not. The two pieces are also not connected visually which makes them two separate islands, try to find a way to have the graphic element connect into the other section. Use the questions provided for Task 1 Exercise 2 to review if it’s good or not. The letterspacing for the body text is too small and may be hard to read.

Week 7

We were submitting our finalised design for the editorial spread for him to check just to see how it is. He didn't give much general or specific feedback.

Week 8

Independent Study Week

---

REFLECTION

Experience

I personally enjoyed that we had to combine aspects from Exercises 1 and 2 from Task 1 in this project as we had to create both the graphical element and editorial spread while also sticking to the guidelines and rules of typography.

Observations

It was interesting seeing the work of my peers as they all had such unique ideas that were definitely better than what I came up with. It was also helpful to see what other students had done for the same text that I did as I gained a better understanding of what kind of ideas we can come up with.

Findings

This task taught me that readability of a piece of work has to be one of the most important aspects as if a person is unable to read it at a glance then the work is not good. Another important aspect that I learned from this is that memorability is crucial in drawing in people's attention and keeping it.