typography workbook ben gilpin level 4
My Letter
Postcard
Letters Book
This section of the digital book holds images and text about the first brief that was set for the term, which was to create a 3D letter that portrayed the meaning of a word.
This section of the digital book holds images and text from the second brief that was set for the term, this involved placing the 3D letter we had created onto a postcard.
2 - A brief introduction into what the brief is about. 5 - Mind map and the defiintion of the word im going to do. 9 - Inspirational images for what I am going to do. 17 - Initial designs for the letter that my partner and I am doing. 21 - Further design after my partner and mines first critique session. 27 - Typography selection for the final design for the letter. 31 - Final design for the project showing the final letter. 33 - Images showing the final letter from my partner and I.
37 - An introduction stating what the brief is about for the project. 39 - Designs for the postcard that my partner and I are going to make. 42 - Typography selection for the type to go on the postcard. 45 - Images showing the final and completed postcard.
This section of the digital book holds images and text from the third brief that was set for the term. This was a longer task which meant we took photos of letters seen in the landscape, then create a book to show off the photos we had taken. 48 - A introduction into what the brief would like us to create. 49 - Contact sheets form our Poole photography shoot. 57 - A collection of edited photos from the teams photo shoot. 61 - Thumbnails drawings of initial page layouts. 71 - Images showing of the complete and final book.
Workshops
Lectures
exhibition
Through out the term we attneded workshops that were of our choice which were specific to this terms main theme and in this section of the book you can see my notes and feelings on these workshops along with images of stuff that I had made in these workshops.
Through the tem we attened lectures that were specific to the terms main theme and in this section of the book you can see my notes and feelings on these lectures.
In the term we had to curate and put up a one day pop up exhibition of graphic design items that the students like, the section will show photos of the exhibition.
90 - A introduction into the lectures that I attended this term. 91 - Showing what I learnt in the notions of taste lecture I attened. 93 - Showing what I learnt in the propaganda lecture I attended. 95 - Showing what I learnt in the copyright act lecture I attended.
98 - An introduction into the brief set for our exhibition. 99 - Photos that show off the pop up exhibition that we curated.
78 - A brief introduction into what the section of the book holds. 79 - Looking into what I did in the first workshop. 83 - Looking into what I did in the second workshop. 85 - Looking into what I did in the third workshop.
My Letter
Visual Thinking
My Letter The function of typography is to communicate a message so that it effectively conveys and reinforces meaning. Our brief was related to the previous passage of text. We then worked in work in groups of two and were given an initial letter. Then based on the terminologies and glossaries contained within the brief develop a word that is related to the letter. Then produce a 3-Dimensional initial character that communicates the meaning of the word. The letter that my partner and I received after putting my hand in the hat was the letter C. When talking to our tutors we discovered that the final piece for our letter, had to follow one certain guideline and this was it was only allowed to be 150mm tall in height. When starting a new project my first instinct was to brainstorm as many words that I could think of that began with the letter C with my partner. You can find my brainstorm and word back of all the words that we came up with on the following page. With the task of choosing words we discovered it was harder than originally thought as the words we chose, my partner and I had to be able to relate the meaning of it to
graphic design or typography. Then after selecting only certain words from my word bank I brainstormed these further to smaller ideas that me and my partner could do to produce the letter C.
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Word Bank: Cool, Cloth Crazy, Card, Cardboard, C Crush, Compressed, Cold, Cat, Chicken, Calligraphy, Cook, Cake, Cone, Cushion Curves, Crayons, Curly, Cr Call, Calculator, Camera, Creativity, Culture, Chan Chocolate Condiments, Co
Visual Thinking
hes, Colour, Chair, Cord, Creation, Culture, Crash, , Clock, Classy, Cartoon, Carve, Circus, Cigar, Cola, n, Curl, Curls, Creature, ricket, Capture, Calories, Castle, Caddy, Clap, Cable, nce, Curning, Cabin, Corn, ondom, Coach, Cigarette.
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MIND MAP This mind map is on the words that my partner and I felt had the most potential, these words were highlighted in orange in the word bank on the previous page. Cardboard: packaging, letter shaped box, illustrations. Colour: rainbow, crayons, paint, printing colours. Curl: swash, hair, quilling, curly fries. Classy: gentlemen, cigar, top hat, suit, monopoly man. Calligraphy: curved font face, traditional typography.
Visual Thinking
Curl: form or cause to form into a curved or spiral shape. Oxford English Dictionary Definition
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QUilling images The photos that I selected I believe them to be inspirational images, they allow me to see what you can achieve with the technique of Quilling. When looking at the pictures closer I can see that with the technique of quilling you can create a variety of spirals, coils and curls which I believe will be an interesting way to portray the word that is curls.
The images I have chosen have come from a wide variety of designs and locations. By using the technique of quilling my partner believe we can portray the meaning of the word which we have selected. Justifying the colours will be hard.
Visual Thinking
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Cc Cc Georgia
The font face above is a serif based typeface, the serifs on this typeface I believe would emphasis the curls that would be found in the quilling. Due to the typeface looking elegant it would go well with the quills because they are small and delicate just like the serifs. With this typeface I think the problem that may arise is at the end of the letter C it will get lost amongst the curls if they are placed around it, While curls would get lost if they were placed inside it because its a thin typeface.
Mercury Text G1
The font face above is a serif based typeface, the serifs on this typeface I believe would emphasis the curls that would be found in the quilling. Due to the typeface looking elegant it would go well with the quills because they are small and delicate just like the serifs. With this typeface I believe I may get problems such as at the top and bottom the body of the typeface becomes quite thin. This may cause the typeface to get lost in and amongst the quills.
Typeface In the next few pages I have laid out the letter I am doing in a range of typefaces that I believe would be legible and easy to see the letter. In the typeface I will be looking for one that has a serif as I believe the curves in the serif would emphasis the curls and coils that would be seen in the quilling. I believe having a counter with a consistent curve would help in making the crowd that my partner and I are trying to portray more clear. However if I use a typeface that has a more angular serif on it, the angular typeface would contrast against the curls of the quilling paper which would make the letter stand out from the page. Making the typeface stand out from the page is beneficial as it makes it more legible allowing people to read the letter easier. Thus in turn making it easier for people to try identify the word my partner and I have chosen.
Visual Thinking
Cc Cc Cc Minion Pro
The font-face above is a serif based typeface, the serifs on this typeface I believe would emphasis the curls that would be found in the quilling due the curve that lines the inside of the serifs that are on the letter. The way the serifs both point into wards the counter of the letter, If it is looked at the wrong angle the typeface could be misconstrued at the letter U and this would be a major flaw to the design.
Medici Script
The font-face above is a serif based typeface, that has a medium slant to it. The serifs on this typeface are very minimal and hang down only a little bit into the counter of the letters typeface. Due to the serifs on the typeface being very minimal, they will be lost instantly in the design’s that I have in mind. This is a problem and limits the typeface very much.
Melior LT
The typeface has a more bold straight line feature to it compared to the rest of it, of the other typefaces chosen on this page. The straight lined look of the typeface would suit the design well as compared to the curls from lots of quills it would make the letter stand out really easily and make it easily legible for people to read. The way the serifs are both equal length and that both point into wards the counter of the letter, If it is looked at the wrong angle the typeface could be misconstrued at the letter U and this would be a major flaw to the design.
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Cc Cc Cc Advert Light
This typeface is a sans serif based font-face, the body of the font has a similar width all the way around. Due to the typeface not having a serif and it being modern it may be lost in the quilling and could be hard to tell what letter it actually is.
ICT Leawood IT
This font-face looks like a more modern serif based typeface due to the angle on the serif and it not having a curve in it like older serif typefaces. The angle that is in the serif of the typeface could be very beneficial as it contrast the curls and coils found in the quilling that would surround the typeface. Due to it contrasting it would make the typeface easier to read and more legible as it would stand out from the blank background.
Monotype Modern
This is a modern representation of a old style serif based typeface. The curve that is found in the serif of the typeface emphasis the curls and coils that are displayed in quilling around the letter. The problem with using this typeface is that at the top and bottom of the types body it is thin. Because of this it would get lost in all the quilling.
Visual Thinking
Cc Cc Cc Myanmar MN
This typeface is a sans serif based font-face, the body of the font has a similar width all the way around only getting thinner at the top and bottom as the counter gets bigger. Due to the typeface not having a serif and it being modern it may be lost in the quilling and could be hard to tell what letter it actually is. But it is beneficial because the curve in the counter is very consistent, just like the curve found in the coils and curls.
Bodoni MT Std
This typeface is a sans serif based font-face, the curve which is found in the serif of the typeface emphasis the curls and coils that are displayed in quilling around the letter. The beneficial thing about this letter is the curve in the counter is very consistent, just like the curve found in the coils and curls. Also the angle that is in the serif of the typeface could be very beneficial as it contrast the curls and coils found in the quilling that would surround the typeface.
ICT Usherwood LT
This typeface is a sans serif based font face, it looks like a more modern serif based typeface due to the angle on the serif and it not having a curve in it like older serif typefaces. The beneficial thing about this letter is the curve in the counter is very consistent, just like the curve found in the coils and curls.
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Initial design After looking at my research photos and selecting the font that I am going to use the next atep is to actually design the letter my partner and I are going to do. In the designs we are going to draw up as many layouts as we can think of. The designs that we are drawing up incoporate the font we have chosen with quilling paper. The typeface we selected is called Bodoni MT Std, we chose it becasue I felt the curves in the serifs tied in with the curls from the quilling paper meaning that the serifs emphasis the quils. I feel looking at the pages of designs that the designs with the quils located outside of the shape
are better because the shape of the letter is not lost making it easier to identify the letter. Whereas when the designs have the quills inside them the shape of the letter is lost a bit as I feel people will concentrate on the quils more than the shape that they create. The two pages that are shown are just a few of my many sketches as I tried to draw up ideas on how to layout the letter. In the design my partner and I are looking for a design that is simplistic and not over complicated, one that makes the letter stands out, easy to read and makes the word curl easy to figure out.
Visual Thinking
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INITIAL IMAGES The image that is found on the previous page shows which design my partner and I decided to go with for our letter. Our first step in the process was to make a net that resembled the typeface that we were going to use which was Bodoni MTD St. We chose this typeface because it The composition to the right shows our initial final piece, we used more quills and faded the colours outwards from light to dark colour.
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further design After showing the design that my partner and I thought would be our final piece to my tutors in a critique session, we gained criticism about the piece. However from our tutors we got feedback on how to improve our piece and make it more legible and how to tie the meaning in more with graphic design and typography. The feedback that my partner and I received was, that the curls need to be bigger as they get lost as the character was to big and the box for it was to tall and needed to be the same height as the quilling paper. Further feedback I received was
Work on th the let that I needed to work on the integrity of the letter form as that is the main part of the brief. I can achieve this by changing the typeface, to possible one where the serif doesn’t drop below the baseline of the letter. I got told to look at san serif typefaces or a font that involves a swash in the letterform because the curl in the swash would emphasis the curly coils in the quilling paper. When reading my feedback I found it to be very beneficial as I believed the character got lost in the amount of curls on the page and needed to be bigger or a similar size of the curls.
Visual Thinking
he integrity of tter form as that is the main part Typeface In the next few pages I have laid out the letter I am doing in a range of typefaces that I have swashes attached to there body. All the typefaces that I am going to show on the next pages vary from sans serif to serif based typefaces, however they will all have one similarity and that is they will all have swashes attached to the body of the letter. I will be studying typefaces that contain swashes due to my feedback from my critique session. By having a swash attached to the letters typeface, the curls found in the swash with emphasis the curls and coils in the quilling making the word easier to figure out.
Cc Cc Lighthouse Personal Use
The typeface found above is a sans serif based typeface, what I like about this font is the letter has a large swash attached to the letter. Looking closely at this typeface I can see there are certain disadvantages to using it, these are that where the swash ends it makes the letter look like an e. This makes it hard to see the actual letter we are trying to create which would make it hard for people to try understand our word.
Impregenable Personal Use Only
The typeface found above is a sans serif based typeface, what I like about this font is the letter has a large swash attached to the letter which would emphasis the curls that could be seen in the quilling paper around the letter. The problem with this typeface is at the final of the letter it becomes very thin and I believe that it would get lost in and amongst the quills.
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Cc
Intrigue Script Personal Use
The typeface above has a swash at both ends of the body of the letter, this is very beneficial as the letter would not get lost in amongst the quills whereas other fonts may. However I feel that due to this font being oblique that it would be hard to tell what letter it is when surrounded by quills.
Cc Channel
The typeface found above is a sans serif based typeface, what I like about this font is the letter has a large swash attached to the letter which would emphasis the curls that could be seen in the quilling paper around the letter. The curve found in the counter is consistent all the way around which is beneficial to the design of my letter. I feel due the letter having a thin body at the top that section may get lost in and amongst the quills.
C c Admiration Pains
The bad things about using this typeface is the swash at the finial of the letter is very long and takes away from actual shape of the letter making it hard to tell what letter it actually is. However the benefits of this font include the body is thick all the way around meaning that the letter would be seen, when surrounded by quills and curls.
Visual Thinking
C c CcC c Recorda Script Personal Use Only
The typeface found above is a sans serif based typeface, what I like about this font is the letter has a large swash attached to the letter which would emphasis the curls that could be seen in the quilling paper around the letter. A large flaw with this typeface is the body is very thin all the way around so you would struggle to pick out the letter when it surrounded.
Vivaldi
The typeface found above is a sans serif based typeface, what I like about this font is the letter has a large swash attached to the letter. Looking closely at this typeface I can see there are certain disadvantages to using it, these are that where the swash enters the counter of the letter it makes the letter look like an e. This makes it hard to see the actual letter we are trying to create which would make it hard for people to try understand our word.
Kaufmann LT
The typeface found above is a sans serif based typeface, what I like about this font is the letter has a smaller swash attached to the letter compared to the other typefaces seen on this page. The problem with this typefaces is similar to others that where the swash enters the counter of the letter c, it creates the effect that you are looking at the letter e not the letter c.
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Second design After taking in the information that my partner and I received from our previous critique we went on to create the designs shown in the images on these pages. I prefer the typeface as I feel it is more legible as it stands out from the page, but I prefer the colours of the curls from our previous design. These designs are our second designs for the project and I feel the are improvements that still need to be made.
The images to your right show us trying our idea our with a curly font that contains a swash. The font name is called Channel, the problem with this design is I think the curls in the design leave to much negative space allowing you to see to much of the white background.
I think they need to be more closely packed together than this design to stop lots of negative space seeping through. I believe by using a typeface with a swash in it ties the curls together with the typeface making the word we are trying to get across more obvious.
Visual Thinking
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Type fa final Design After taking our second design into our next critique session we received further feedback on how to improve the letter. Out of our two previous designs I felt our first design was better as it was more visually appealing drawing people into take a look at the letter. Advice that I got from my tutorial is to try a larger more angular, bolder typeface as the curls in the quilling paper will stand out more from the page. A font face that I got recommended was Rockwell Bold as it had a thick width.
Further advice that I received is to try using different height paper when doing the quilling because when photographs are taken the different heights in the quills will create an interesting shadows as the light is shone over it
from a close distance. In my next design I am going to try and take this all into consideration when creating the letter. I believe I must try to make the quills be a similar size to the letter so lots of negative space isn’t seen.
Visual Thinking
face Typeface In the next few pages I have laid out the letter I am doing in a large range of bolder thicker typefaces. In this section you will see that all the typefaces I have chosen to look at have a large bold typeface with a thick body. Some contain serifs where as others are more modern and don’t have serifs. By using a larger typeface I am trying to make it easier for the letter to stand out from the page. This will because I would like it to be more legible, I will also use a larger typeface as then if I have big curls that surround the letter they wont look out of place.
Cc Cc Rockwell STD Bold
This typeface is a modern serif based typeface. The benefits I believe of using this typeface are that it has a large, bold, a thick body meaning that the letter would be easy to distinguish in and amongst the quilling paper. While the finial is thick at the end so that will not get lost. However I can find disadvantages to the font and that is the finial curls around a lot so it may make the letter look like the letter o as it comes close to the serif at the top.
Helvetica (TT) Bold
This typeface is a modern sans serif based typeface. The counter of the letter has a very consistent curve which will emphasis the curls and coils from the quilling paper. The disadvantages of this typeface are that the counter is very enclosed which could misconstrue people to think the character with the letter o that has a large x height.
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Cc Cc Cc Champion HTF Heavyweight
This typeface is a modern sans serif based typeface. The benefit of this typeface is that it has a large thick body. However the counter of the letter is very small, plus the counter is nearly fully enclosed which makes the character look like the letter c.
Code Bold
The typeface shown is a sans serif based font with a small x height for the letters. The counter of the letter has a very consistent curve which will emphasis the curls and coils from the quilling paper. But with this typeface the disadvantage to using it would be that as the counter is nearly fully enclosed it could misconstrue people into thinking the letter is the letter o and not the letter c, this would then be a bad selection in font.
Helvetica (TT) Bold
This typeface is a modern sans serif based typeface. The counter of the letter has a very consistent curve which will emphasis the curls and coils from the quilling paper. The disadvantages of this typeface are that the counter is very enclosed which could misconstrue people to think the character with the letter o that has a large x height.
Visual Thinking
Cc Cc C c Bebas Neue
This typeface has a very large x height which could be beneficial as it creates a large counter in the letter. This would allow us to fill it with large amounts of quills to help emphasis the word my partner and I are trying to get across. But the problem I feel with this typeface is the letter isn’t as curved as it might be in other typefaces. So when the letter is surrounded by quilling paper it could be hard to actually see what the letter is on the page.
Bambi Bold
This typeface is a modern serif based typeface. The counter of the letter has a very consistent curve which will emphasis the curls and coils from the quilling paper as they are placed inside the counter of the letter. However on the letter c where the serifs drop into the counter and where it drops below the baseline it makes the letter look like a sideways u. I believe a font with serif that doesn’t drop below the baseline is best suited.
Serif Black
This typeface is a modern sans serif based typeface. The letter has a large x height with an elongated counter which would allow me to fill it with lots of quilling paper. Although the counter is big the finial of the letter doesn’t curl up meaning the letter doesn’t look like a conventional c. This means people would struggle to see it is the letter c, when it is surrounded by quilling paper.
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Final Design On the next page over you will be able to see mine and my partners final design in the process of creating our letter. In the design we have used the typeface known as Rockwell Bold because it has a thick wide body, while we have also taken features from our first design by using certain colours and not sticking to a single colour which we did in our second design. Where we used the colour red all throughout the design.
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Final Images The images show the final design that my partner and I went with in creating our letter for the project. This image shows my final character for the visual thinking project. I find the typeface is clear so it is easy to see what letter we have done. I believe the colours help in showing the character is related to typography and graphic design. I have chosen to use the colours; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. I have decided to use these 4 colours as they are the 4 colours that are found in CYMK printing, which is the standard style of printing from a digital printer.
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This collection of photographs are close up’s and crops of my final letter.
Visual Thinking
Postcard
Visual Thinking
My Postcard After completing the letter with my partner, the next stage in the brief was to take this letter we had created and put it use by placing it on a postcard. The next step for my partner and I was to use the letter that we had created. We did this by placing it on an everyday object, this object is known as a postcard. The brief told us we had to lay out the postcard so that it had a photo of our letter and text stating how our letter can be related to the graphic design or typography.
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the layout Over the next couple of pages you can see all the postcard designs that I have created. Which next I will then place my finished letter on to. In this design I need to incorporate an image of the final letter that I produced and a brief piece of text that is about 40 words long, the text needs to show how the word my partner and I are trying to convey can be linked back to a graphic design or a typography term.
Visual Thinking
The images on these two pages show screenshots of my designs for the postcard. Design 1 : Bottom on left page. Design 2 : Top on right page. Design 3 : Middle on right page. Design 4 : Bottom on right page.
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Type selection
Visual Thinking
Typeface The typefaces that you will be shown, are going to be used as the font for the text that will be on the postcard. After speaking to my tutor about typefaces, my partner and I have used a very rounded typeface with a small x height for the letter we created and our tutor suggested to use a typeface that contrasts this. The typeface that we are looking for is an angular font, with a small x height and a thin body. This typeface would then contrast the font that my partner and I used on the letter that we created.
Aa Aa
Rockwell STD Light Abadi MT Std The typeface that is highlighted above is the lightweight font version of the font that we created our letter around. The advantages of this font is it has a small x height and the distinctive serifs will allow people to link the character we created with the text that will be on the postcard. However when looking at the font closer a very minor problem can be found and that is that the font has a smooth face and isn’t angular meaning it wont contrast.
With this typeface you can see that it is smooth but it has a touch of being angular in it. Which is beneficial as it will contrast against the smoother font face used in creating out letter. The typeface also has a small x height which means that it is more legible and easier to read. But I can see a major flaw with this typeface and that is that the serifs attached to the letters are curved which means it will not contrast as much as I’d like with the photo.
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Aa Aa Aa Helvetica (TT)
The typeface above is a new sans serif based typeface that has a smooth body and a small x height, these factors add up to making it a very easy and legible font to read. Although the body of the font is very smooth the counter of the letter is very angular with would contrast with the smooth typeface of the letter. The issue with the font in question is that it doesn’t seem to have much of an angular body so it wont contrast against the letter.
ITC Garamond LT
This typeface is a serif based font that has a tall x height, as the font has a tall x height this allows it to be more angular as the letters curve. This ties in with what my partner and I are looking for in a typeface. However due to the font having an overly large x height it can make the smaller text hard to read as it is less legible than one with a smaller x height.
Trade Gothic
The tall x height and thin body of the font both add together to create a typeface that has a angular look about it. As the typeface is a sans serif based font it contrasts with the smooth body serif based font that was used on the letter that my partner and I created. Looking at the font I can also see that due to the light body weight it makes the text easy to read as it is legible and does not strain the eyes of the reader when it is being read.
Visual Thinking
Final Design The image above is showing the final design for the postcard that I am going to create, I feel the design is simplistic. I have chose to use this design as my final design for the postcard I am going to create. This is because the image is large enough to to show all the detail that is in the letter, while the text is tucked away in the corner so that you can see it but then it isnt taken for the main feature of the postcard. The typeface That I have chosen to use is Trade Gothic because It has a tall x height and a thin body whcih create a typeface with an angular look about it. Because th font is sans serif based it
will contrast against the large serif found in the letter that is int he photograph on the postcard. By using this font as well it is legible and can be clearly read. What I also like about this design is that the text aligns with the bottom of the letter, this makes it look professional and not as if the pieces had been dropped in random places on the postcard. The image size is appropriate as well I believe, I believe this because if the image was any bigger it would look as if the letter was falling off the edge of the postcard.
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Finished The photograph on the next page is showing a hand with the finished and final postcard that I have produced. Looking at the photo I feel a better photograph could have been taken to show of the good layout of the postcard. I feel that this postcard has worked out best and that it shows of the detail of the letter very well which draws people in to take a closer look at it.
Visual Thinking
Letters in The landscape Book
Visual Thinking
Letters in the landscape Book The brief for this topic was to create a book that showed vernacular letterforms that mapped the landscape - a lexicon of urban typography. Our first step was to vist the town of Poole where we collected and photographed a variety of letters that we could see in the landscape. After collecting a range of urban typography we were then briefied about creating a book to display our work. The next step was to bring our photos into in indesign and create the book With my group of 4, when in Poole we collected a large range of venicular typography ranging from literal representations of the letter to extreme abstract collections of certain letters. While doing out photo-shoot in Poole my team and I had to remember to collect enough photos so that we had at least one for each letter in the alphabet. While creating our book, my team and I had to create it to certain specifications. These included our page sizes which had to be 190mm x 190mm excluding our bleed and slug width. The colours of our photos had to be 4 colour as they were to be saved as CYMK and in the format of tif. This allowed the photographs to be printed in the right format when
the book came to be printed. After my team and I had printed our book the next step was to trim the pages of the book and perfect bind the book. You can see all the steps that I have explained in the next section of this book with photos of the final book that we created to finish the section of the book off.
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Venicular Letterform photo Contact Sheets.
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Photo editing On the past few pages you have seen the contact sheets that I have created, they are showing the original photos of vernicular letterforms that my team and I shot. The next step in the process of creating our book is for me to take the photographs into the adobe Photoshop and select the photos that are the best and tweak the images to make them look better. By tweaking the photo I may adjust the brightness, colours and even sharpen the photographs in order for them to look better. In the next few pages of this book you will see some of the photos in which I edited, then to end it off further contact sheets that will show all of the photographs that were edited. Below some images I will state what I have changed about the photograph that’s in question. In the process of editing the photographs, each individual photo will take a different amount of time to edit due to the state of what the original photograph is in. I will not be changing the size of any of the photographs unless they are cropped down. This is because when I import my TIF files into adobe InDesign at the end of the process I can change the frame size of the photograph then to the size that I
would it to be. When going on the create the final book the frame size will depend on the amount of photographs that I would like to place on a single page, plus the layout of these photos will cause the frame size to change as I move the images about to best suit the layout of the page. The only image size that I do actually know for definite is if I decide to use the photograph for a full size page or a double page spread as I already know the page dimensions. On the next few pages you will find the edited photo’s If I decide to use the image for a full by my team and page the photo size will be 190mm I, to then go in x 190mm. It will be 190mm x 380mm our book. for a double page spread.
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Edits This page is showing cropped close up’s of a few of the photographs that I have edited in the process of making the book with my team. Below each cropped close up of the photograph you will find a small written description of how I have edited the photo that is shown above the block of text. In the description I will also mention the tools that I used on Adobe Photoshop in the process of editing the photograph. These tools ranged from just adjusting the brightness or contrast to erasing out hole letters with the cloning tool. On the pages that follow you will find contact sheets that show all the photographs that were edited.
With this photo I edited it by changing the brightness first before I went on to change the levels and tweaked with the colours to make the red stand out more.
In editing this photograph I went about it by erasing marks that could be seen around the letter, The original was very dark and this was changed by playing with the brightness and levels to make the background brighter which in turn made the character stand out more.
During the process of editing this image I changed the levels to get rid of the reflection from the glass. Then I adjusted the colours so that there was more of a difference between the two shades of purple in the background of the letter.
With this photo the first step was to crop it down to get just the letter F. Then I adjusted the brightness to make the yellow and red brighter meaning they would pop more when looked at. Next I adjusted the levels to make the background colour, which is red more of a single colour as to get rid of the white reflections from the cameras flash as it went off when the photograph was taken.
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The first step in the process of editing this photo was to adjust the photo colours to make the background all a similar tone of red. Then I used the clone tool to get rid of extra letters that I did not want to be shown in the final photo. After I adjusted the brightness to make the white foreground of the letter stand out as it was slightly grey and this made it look dirty.
With this photo I started by cropping the photograph to have just the wood around the hole to get rid of any background to the photo. Then using the cloning tool on Photoshop I erased out and marks or dents in the wood to make the surrounding area look nicer.
I started by cropping out any unwanted excessive areas around the main feature of the photo, this was to make people concentrate more on the actual letter. Then I adjusted the brightness and contrast to get rid of lots of reflections on the metal handle and to make the background colour blue stand out more as it looked as if it had faded.
Because most of the colours in this image are similar to each other I began by adjusting the levels of the image so there was a larger variant in the mid tones of the blacks and greys in the photo. Then I went about adjusting the photographs contrast as to make the black in the letter stand out more making the letter more legible and clearer to read.
In editing this photograph I went about it by changing the brightness and contrast to make more of a distinguishable difference between the two colours of the areas of the wall covered and not covered by shadow. I then cropped the image to make the letter more distinguishable as this image is showing a fairly abstract version of the letter L.
The first step in this photo was to change the brightness to make the white cleaner and to have fewer shadows shown on it. I then used to cloning tool to get rid of any marks on the photograph. The last step was to use the levels tool to make the port hole very dark to show no reflections from the camera.
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INitial Design Over the next few pages you will find thumbnail designs of the layouts I would like to use in the pages of the book I am going to create. The thumbnails are just rough pen drawings that I hope to implement. With the page designs a key is needed to show what is on the page. A box with a cross through it means an image is to go there. While a plain box with nothing in it is a area meant for text.
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Digital design From here onwards you will see the actual pages that I will create for the book, the pages will be displayed digitally and not as drawings. The pages for the book are going to be created in Adobe InDesign. I will be showing the final pages, as they would look in the book. Then following that I will have photos of the final bound book.
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layout The double page spreads that you can see on the other page are the final layouts that my team and I have agreed on. Throughout our book we have a wide range of layouts along with good quality photographs. What I believe makes our book interesting to look at and makes it stand out more from other peoples books is our varied layout. We haven’t kept the layout of our photos the same through out the book, we have varied it which makes each page different and interesting to look at. This is why I believe our book is interesting to look at because other books have kept to a conventional layout of using one big image then a small image on the next page, although we have kept to a sequence we have interesting layouts. I believe that my team and I have used the page to the best of our ability.
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Final Photo’s The photographs on the next few pages show of the final book that my team and I had made for this project.
In the photographs I had taken of the book it captures it from as many angles as possible. By looking at the photographs you will be able to see the binding of the book, the covering and there were also a few photos taken of my favourite layouts on the double page spreads that my team and I had made .
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Workshops
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Workshops This section of the book you will see what workshops I participated in this term and the final outcomes that I made in each individual workshop. The 3 workshops that I participated in where Risograph Printing, Fukuro Toji - Japanese Book Binding and Mein Gott Gutenberg has gone digital. I will give a brief description about what each workshop was about and the small briefs that we got set in each workshop.
I chose these 3 workshops as I believed they would be most relevant to my studies and would give me the most skills that I could use in graphic design. My favourite workshop out of the 3 was risograph printing as I enjoyed the brief that was set for the topic. In all 3 workshops I learnt new skills and techniques that will be very beneficial to my studies, the workshop which I felt was most useful was the Mein Gott Guttenberg has gone digital. This is because letterpress is an out dated technique but it can be brought into the 21st century by creating a digital version of it, this still means we can create interesting pieces with it.
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Traditi an o Workshop one This was the first workshop that I participated in, the basis of the workshop was to teach us how to use digital letterpress on a computer program called LetterMPress.
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When speaking to the tutor of the workshop for the day he highlighted that traditional letterpress was an out dated technique. By digitalizing this technique he said that the process is quicker to setup, cleaner, easier to adjust if you see mistakes. While he also says by using the digital technique you can easily create duplicates of your work a lot quicker than on a traditional letter press. We started the workshop by playing around with the different fonts and setting them up in a variety of layouts. I over laid letters, then I played with the currning of the letters to create effects. Then after learning the computer program and having a few trials playing around with it we were set a mini hour long brief. This was to create something that
we could eventually use, a logo or something to do with our name so that we could personalise it. I started this brief by doing my initials in a typeface with a large x height and then placing the word designs underneath it in a smaller typeface. I then framed this all by placing it in a circle. You can see the logo which I created to the right. Then images on the other page show me incorporating the logo I created into business card and a background for a computer. After this we got set a long brief for the rest of the afternoon for the workshop, The brief was to create a piece that showed of a quote by John Perry Barlow. You can see more on that brief on the following pages.
ional letterpress is outdated technique.
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Brief The final brief for this workshop was to create an A3 poster that showed a quote by John Perry Barlow about cyberspace. In my design I decided to layout the quote in a square and then separate the name of the person who said the quote. This is shown by my design on the right where I have separated the two pieces of information with parallel lines. I like my design however if I was to do it again I would place it on a different coloured background to make the text stand out more.
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The image that is on the right is the tour poster that I created for a band called Swim Deep, this was made from the risograph printing workshop that I attended.
Workshop Two This was the second workshop that I went to, I learnt how to risograph print and what it is about. The technique behind risograph printing is basic but you getting interesting prints.
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Risograph printing is a fairly modern technique, so the technology is fairly simple to use. It is a style of printing digitally but instead of colours getting over laid such as when a document is printed via a cmyk printer. Risograph printing is when one colour is printed at a time out of a large coloured ink drum. The sheet of paper is then placed back into the in tray, the ink drum is then changed to another colour and the second colour is printed. Risograph printing allows you to make large quantities of a single document very quickly. With this technique you can create some
very pieces, this is because as each colour is printed the document may not lineup as well with the previous times its printed so you may get colours overlapping. After being taught how to use the risograph printer and being shown what colours where available for the workshop class to use, we got set a mini brief. The brief was to create a gig poster for a band and print it using the technique we were shown. With the technique there were certain limitations that applied due to the technique, these were we could print no larger than A3, and we were only allowed to use 3 colours otherwise the technique would take to long. The band that I decided to create a tour poster for was Swim Deep. I took inspiration from one of there single covers, I used a similar image and colours to it. However with the colours I got inspiration from Roy Lichtenstein with his coloured dots and this is what I did with my colours as I blended them from one side of the page to the other. To the right you can see my design for the tour poster for Swim Deep.
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Workshop three At the third workshop that I attended the class learnt about traditional 4 hole Japanese book binding, this technique is very similar to Korean 5 hole book binding.
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This technique centuries old and the western version of the technique has been adapted from the traditional Japanese version. In the workshop we were going to be taught how to bind a book in this fashion. With the traditional technique the holes in the pages would be made using a needle to pierce the page. However with the class wanting to get through this step quickly the holes were made in the page with a drill. After having the holes in place the next step was to put the front (which had a fold in it) and back cover on the book. Then once this was in place the only step
left was to fully bind the book. This was done by getting a needle and threading it with a piece of string that was six times the length of the side we were going to bind. Before the binding could begin the thread had to be waxed with a block of bee’s wax. Then closely following instructions we fed the needle and thread through the holes in the page in a specific way as that would bind the book. Each time the needle was thread through the pages that thread had to be pulled tight as for there to be little slack in the binding of the book as this would cause the pages to all move about. Once the book was bound through every hole the last step was to tie the string of and cut it so that it couldn’t be seen. The photos to the right show the process of the book being made and bound. While the photos on the following pages show the complete and finished book.
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These two images are showing the final complete and fully bound book that I created in the workshop that I attended that was focused on traditional Japanese book binding.
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Lectures
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Lectures During this term we had to go to and attend 3 lectures of our choice, when choosing my lectures I chose one done by viscom and two my graphic design course. The 3 lectures that I attended where; The Power of Persuasion - Propaganda meanings, methods and messages by Kirstin Hardie. Ooh, aah, mmm, Notions of Taste, Ascetic Judgement and Consumer by Kirstin Hardie. While the final lecture I went to was called Rip Off V Witty Repartee by a visual communication tutor. Over the next few pages you will see that I have created a page about each page showing what I learnt from the lecture, my notes I made in the lectures and most off if the lecture was beneficial.
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Lecture one The first lecture that I attended was Ooh, aah, mmm: Notions of Taste, Aesthetic Judgement and Consumer on the 20th January 2014 by Kirstin Hardie in lecture theatre UH001. This lecture began with the students being told we are looking at the design and not the function of an item. That the design of an item can meaning different things to different people, such as one person could think the item should belong at home where as others make think its and interesting piece of art ad the item may belong in the Tate Gallery. Our attention was brought to this by Kirstin pointing out is it due to our world being saturated with things that we don’t need. Because the amount of items out there in the world where some have had the design put above the function, this makes them pieces of art in one person opinion. With certain brands meaning different things to different people, cultural preferences have come to light with certain cultures becoming associated with certain brands and visa versa. The lecture theatre Kirstin used and example to prove the link between was told this is certain cultures and certain brands. She showed that due to the fact this was seen in the London riot’s as large amounts of what the brand people who were rioting were photographed wearing is associated Adidas clothing. This created a link between rioters and with, such as if the Adidas clothing label, which Adidas did not want as it it is associated made their brand look bad. with mass consumption then the brand is linked with capitalism. The link between brands and cultural preferences can also been seen with the links of brands and the market of status as certain brands get linked with certain class statuses. Such as the brand Rolex is linked with a much higher class status. In the lecture we were taught that because our culture runs very fast it can be hard to judge design.
How do we judge DESIGN subjectivly or objectivly?
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kitsch: art, objects or design considered to be in poor taste. English Oxford Dictionary definition of kitsch. In the lecture Kirstin taught us that there are certain factors that you need to look towards when judging design. These are: ergonomics, use, size, handling, storage, recycling, shape, colour and style. Due to the post modernism world that we are being brought up in, factors such as style, shape and colour are becoming more prioritised than other factors such as use and ergonomics. This is because we want our stuff to look nice and interesting and would prefer this compared to the modernist approach where the object would be simple, plain and straight forward as it would be designed for just the function it is meant to be used for. The modernist era had an approach to design where the function came first and the looks came afterwards, this meant the design was plain as it was not the priority like the post modernism era.
I got taught in the lecture about kitsch which was the total opposite to the modernist approach. Kirstin told the lecture theatre that kitsch item were designed for visual pleasure, they are novelty items that are humerus, cheap and non functional. Again it is a persons opinion on how they feel about kitsch items, as some people may think its superficial, vulgar and just another souvenir. Where others may love the fact that t is another souvenir. The image on the right hand side is a famous piece of kitsch art by an artist called Vladimir Tretchikoff. The piece of art is called Blue Faced Chinese Girl.
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Lecture two The next lecture that I attended was The Power of Persuasion: Propaganda meaning method and messages on the 27th January 2014 by Kirstin Hardie in Lecture Theatre UH001.
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The lecture started off by the class being addressed by Kirstin telling us about what propaganda is and the meaning behind it, how it persuades people. We were told that propaganda is organised promotion of information to assist or damage the cause of a government or movement, this was the first and best example of what I felt propaganda work was. But there were further
what propaganda is and these are rumour for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution. Allegations spread deliberately to harm a movement or organisation. Those examples helped us understand what the meaning of propaganda is. But Kirstin then when on to tell us that you can get propaganda to support a cause as well as propaganda to damage a cause. As using propaganda is such a large tool in persuasion, the question was brought to the attention of the class if there should be censorship on propaganda or laws to control which can be shown. My response to this question is why put a law on something that is fighting against something such as the law, by doing that it is just another way for the government to keep people in control and limit what we are able to see meaning the piece is useless.
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In the lecture we were told that there are 3 forms of propaganda. These are black, white and grey propaganda. Black propaganda is where it comes from a source that cannot be identified, meaning the source could have just made up lies. This type of propaganda was used by people like Hitler and Stalin as it was just big lies. While grey propaganda means there are some facts in the information but the source can be unreliable. However white propaganda is the best because it comes from a reliable source as the facts can be evidenced. Black propaganda is sometimes regarded as false flag, this is because the lies can be fed from the government through sources to scare the public people and keep them in control. The images on this page are famous pieces of propaganda that Kirstin brought to our attention.
I thought this lecture was very beneficial as I helped me gain a further understanding of the meaning and different types of propaganda. The lecture taught me that there not to believe every piece of propaganda that you look at as it may have been constructed from lies. Such as what Hitler and Stalin did with there pieces of propaganda work. I also learnt that pieces of work can be created to help fight against a cause and to help a cause such as what the Shepard Fairy’s Obama Hope poster is doing as it fights to help support Obama in his presidential campaign.
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Lecture three The final lecture that I attended was Rip Off V Witty Repartee which was on the 10th February 2014 by a visual communication tutor in Lecture Theatre UH001. This was my 3rd and final lecture and it was about copyright and plagiarism laws. The lecture went into what as a designer you could get away with, if you has completely ripped off some one or if you had done a witty repartee where you did a cross representation of subjects. In the lecture we were told that the engravers copyright act came into action in the 1735 and this was the first time something had been put in place to protect a persons work. Our lecturer highlighted what the copyright laws actually covers. It is a law to protect your ownership as an artist, It covers a person if the product there idea is expressed in is copied or stolen. The copyright law does not cover ideas and information in themselves, so it does not cover intellectual property theft. This means it allows products of creative human activity to be preferentially exploited
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As a designer our lecturer said it is hard to control your ideas because they are material as ideas are absorbed and changed. You just need to now when to stop and if you are ripping off another designer. I felt this lecture was very beneficial because it taught use information that is beneficial in any field of work. It showed me what a complete rip off is and what playing of another designers idea to help inspire me is like. The lecturer showed us a great deal on what exactly the copyright act covers and what it doesn’t and that it doesn’t cover ideas only the form that the idea is represented in.
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I felt that this lecture was very important in the large scheme of everything because knowing about the copyright act and knowing if im stealing someone’s work or addapting it is beneficial because it will help me from not getting in trouble because I would know if im in the right or wrong due to the lecture.
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exhibition During the this term the students had to plan, curate and put up a one day pop up exhibiition that was dedicated to our love of graphics related items. The exhibition would be named For the Love of Graphics, each student had to put an item that would be displayed in the exhibition. A group of 5 students became the main body of the team that would curate, plan and build the exhibition from the ground up, these 5 people were; Ali Koh, Sophie Taylor, Josh Wainwright, Nina Labartkava and myself. We started to plan the exhibition by the door as they came in. After by finding out what object or piece drawing up our floor plan the team that every student was going to came in the saturday before the submit for the exhibtion. Then after exhibtion to tidy the room and set we had this list sorted this allowed it up. With only a few items being us to see how much wall space handed to us at this point we was needed, how many tables and set these up while hoping more plinths we would need to display all students would give us more items the students items. By calculating in the early morning of the opening this we were then able to draw up of the exhibition. I feel the exhibition a floor plan, was a huge when designing Although the exhibition was a success, we had the floor plan success judjing by the amount of a well flowing the team and I people who came through the door exhibtion that decided to go but it could have been better if the had lots of items for a one that whole class got involoved as some in it to show of flowed well with student from the class didn’t. the students and lots of space also my love for for people to pass each other. But graphic design. I believe the team we also wanted a floor plan that who were involoved in making the made people walk to the far side of exhibtiion were very successful in it. the exhibition, this was to make the This was shown by the large number viewers have a look at everything of visiters that we had come through and not the first few items located the door.
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