TYPEFACE DESIGN PROCESS JOURNAL NURJANNAH SUHAIMI
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CONTENTS 1 RESEARCH
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7 9 11
MIND MAP TYPEFACE DESIGN THEMATIC RESEARCH
2 DRAFTS
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CHOOSING THE STYLE DIGITIZING & LETTER CONSTRUCTION
3 FINAL DESIGN
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RESEARCH table of contents MIND MAP TYPEFACE RESEARCH THEMATIC RESEARCH
7 9 11
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MIND MAP Music is explored through the influence of old school rock and roll from the 60s to the present. Here, it is clear that my interests lie in the roughness of British rock. As mind maps are not as effective for me when visualizing my concept, a visual moodboard was created for the thematic research.
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THEMATIC RESEARCH
The lithograph / letterpress effect that was used to make posters in the past. •
Rough edges
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Sans serif
• Thick, Bold font •
Hairstyles
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Printing mistakes
• Making display typefaces into text typefaces
Sans Serifs
Condensed
Serifs
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Grotesque They are characterized by low contrast, an average slope and even widths. Grotesque fonts often have a simple, geometric appearancecame from the Italian word ‘grottesco’, meaning ‘belonging to the cave’.
Neo-Grotesque They are based on the later Grotesques and take the design of the sans-serif to a new level with their careful construction and aesthetics. They are much more refined than the Grotesques, during which period type designers were still feeling their way around the new style.
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TYPEFACE RESEARCH
From today’s perspective, it may be surprising to know that these sans serifs were considered pretty renegade for their time. They were called ‘grotesque’ because they were seen as quite ugly and obnoxious compared to their more ornate predecessors. Grotesques are usually geometric in design with simple letter forms and fairly even stroke weights and they are also often bolder and can be used as display type. People like the informal warmth of a slightly imperfect grotesque and at the same time these type styles can appear so elegant and sharp. It’s also a font style that is adaptable through time and can appear vintage or very of the moment, depending on how it’s applied.
Seven Line Grotesque: Heavy weight sans serif designed by William Thorowgood.
LL Circular: Designed by Swiss designer Laurenz brunner.
Brandon Groteque: Leans towards grotesque than neo-grotesque.
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Pressbox Combo Font: Designed by the vintage Type Company.
Retjeh: Designed by Musan Co.
Univers: Designed by Adrian Frutiger.
CA Mystery Girl: Designed by Cape Arcona Type Foundry
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TYPEFACE DESIGN PLAN
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DRAFTS table of contents
CHOOSING THE STYLES DIGITIZING AND LETTER CONSTRUCTION
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CHOOSING THE STYLES
The diffeent styles were inspired by the typefaces, printing techniques, mistakes, and images in old gig posters.
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Printing Mistakes: Inspired by the printing mistakes of the letterpress technique when making posters.
Led Zepplin: Inspired by the “Led Zepplin” typeface found in the led Zepplin Poster. The bells and whistles are strong in this one.
3 HELP!: Inspired by the typeface in the Beatles “HELP!” poster.
Led Zepplin Poster
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Blondie Poster
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Sharpie univers: I used a broken sharpie to colour into the Univers typeface to give it a grunge effect.
Lohn Jennon: Inspired by John lennon’s long, wavy hair.
6 Bootleg: Inspired by the Beatles poster, I added bootlegs to the univers typeface to give it a dynamic shape.
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Reverse Bootleg: Similar as number 6 but the opposite.
8 Bellsleeves and bootlegs: Inspired by the beatles poster, I added wide angles at the top and bottom of the Univers typeface. This was the chosen typeface to work on.
Portrait of John Lennon
Beatles poster
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DIGITIZING & LETTER CONSTRUCTION Here, it will show the process of the typeface from paper to screen, to it’s final design.
Bold Weight: When digitizing the drawn typeface, it came out to look as if it was from the bold weight.
Regular Weight: This is the second trial of digitizing the typeface, making it from the regular weight.
Designing the other letters: After designing a more uniformed weight, I drew te other typefaces according to the bellsleevs and bellbottoms style.
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More alphabets: Created more designs for the typeface
50pt
40pt
30pt
20pt
10pt
Testing the sizes: Size comparison of my typeface to see if it would work at it’s smallest size (10pt). While it works, the details are more visible at 20pt, which would be the smallest size my typeface can go without losing the deisgn detial.
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normal
added notch
extra notch
Final notch
Edited Design
Adding notches: I found that i needed to add deeper notches to the typefaces to give them more visual discrimination when zoomed out to smaller sizes.
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Editing Designs: As some of the designs looked to similar to Univers, I decided that I needed to redesign some of the alphabets, like R, G, and Q.
Testing the new designs: I liked out the capital R, G, and Q looked like when I used them in words, so I decided to keep it for the final typeface.
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Designing the other letters
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Designing the other letters: If you look closely, there are subtle differences between the first and second row of alphabets. The second row is the more updated design which is tested below.
Testing the new designs: I liked how the lowercase y looked with the new decender here. The E, F, and L also look better now when they are used in words.
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Designing the other letters
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Designing the other letters: I did not realize that the alphabets “S” and “s” looked a bit too bold here. The edited design will pbe designed later when creating the final design.
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Designing the number forms: I tried to design the bellsleeve and bellbottoms typeface according to the porpotions of the univers typeface (first column).
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Final Number Forms: This is the first draft of my number forms. However, the final design will be displayed in the type specimen.
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Designing the punctuations and symbols
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Final punctuations and symbols: This is the first draft of my number forms. However, the final design will be displayed in the type specimen.
Editing the letterforms: After putting all the letterforms together, i found that some of them did not fit in together with the rest. As such, I edited them accordingly.
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FINAL DESIGN
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REFERENCES 2020. [online] Available at: <https://society6.com/product/vintage-rock-concert-posters_posterw> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Catalog.monotype.com. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://catalog.monotype.com/type-style/sans-serif/ grotesque-sans> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Filmposters.com. 2020. Movie Posters, Lobby Cards, Vintage Movie Memorabilia - 1920S To Present @ Film Posters. [online] Available at: <https://www.filmposters.com/results. cfm?results=100&search=search&searchbox=&catid=139&title=&director=&star=&size_id=0&decade_ id=0&country=> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Fine Art America. 2020. Vintage Rock Concert Posters 6 By Andrew Fare. [online] Available at: <https:// fineartamerica.com/featured/vintage-rock-concert-posters-6-andrew-fare.html> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Pinterest. 2020. Pin By AndrĂŠ St Hilaire On Poster Love | Vintage Concert Posters, Concert Posters, Ozzy Osbourne. [online] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.at/pin/452541462541601073/> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Pinterest. 2020. Seattle Concert Posters | Vintage Concert Posters, Music Concert Posters, Concert Posters. [online] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.es/pin/523121312971913739/> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Pinterest. 2020. Vintage Concert Posters | Led Zeppelin Poster, Led Zeppelin Concert, Vintage Concert Posters. [online] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/160300067957260320/> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Rockmusicmemorabilia.com. 2020. Rock Music Memorabilia - Bath And Knebworth Festivals 1969 - 1979. [online] Available at: <https://www.rockmusicmemorabilia.com/productdetails.php?catid=3&pid=64> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Smashing Magazine. 2020. Making Sense Of Type Classification (Part 2) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Smashing Magazine. [online] Available at: <https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/06/making-sense-of-type-classification-part-2/> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Webuyconcertposters.com. 2020. Rare Rock And Roll Concert Posters Wanted | Beatles & Other Rock Valuation Experts. [online] Available at: <https://webuyconcertposters.com/> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Heritage Auctions. 2020. Strawberry Alarm Clock - Two Vintage Concert Posters, 1968 And | Lot #90138 | Heritage Auctions. [online] Available at: <https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/music-memorabilia/posters/ strawberry-alarm-clock-two-vintage-concert-posters-1968-and-1970-total-2-items-/a/7203-90138.s> [Accessed 20 October 2020]. Rockmusicmemorabilia.com. 2020. Rock Music Memorabilia - Bath And Knebworth Festivals 1969 - 1979. [online] Available at: <https://www.rockmusicmemorabilia.com/productdetails.php?catid=3&pid=64> [Accessed 20 October 2020].
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