Ng Ming De 0335594 (Final Project)

16/6/20 - 7/7/20 (Week 10 - Week 13)
Ng Ming De (0335594)
Advanced Typography (GCD61004)
Final Project

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Instructions 

FINAL PROJECT
Week 11

For our final project, we have to make a typeface that provides a solution to an existing problem. The problem is up to our own observation, so I wanted to continue with the rice typeface I had done in my Type & Image exercise.

Here is my Ideation:

Figure 1.1 Slides

Referring to my work from the exercise, I analysed the strokes that makes it distinctive.

Figure 1.2 Analysing

So, I began to do the rest of the alphabets based on basmati rice.

Figure 1.3 Process ; Adobe Illustrator

Figure 1.4 Process ; Adobe Illustrator

Figure 1.5 Process ; Adobe Illustrator

Figure 1.6 Process ; Adobe Illustrator

Figure 1.7 Process ; Adobe Illustrator ( Full layout)

Here are the Final Alphabets and Punctuations:

Figure  2.1 Final Alphabets & Punctuations

Week 12

After showing my work to Mr Vinod, he said I could go on for my application, so I went on to pasting it into my fontlab and kerning it.

Figure 3.1 Fontlab & Kerning

Adding all of my fonts into fontlab.

Figure 3.2 Fontlab & Kerning

Then I tried typing out a sentence to see how the fonts look like.

Fig 3.3 Fontlab & Kerning

Figure 3.4 Fontlab & Kerning

Figure 3.5 Fontlab & Kerning

Figure 4.1 Application ; Trial

Then, I tried to use it with my comics, needless to say I still need to work on the kerning a little more.

Week 13

So after I've done my kerning, Mr Vinod told me to work more on my speech bubbles or thought bubbles as the trial one looks so weird and ugly.

Figure 4.2 Application ; Comic 1

Figure 4.3 Application ; Comic 2.1

Figure 4.4 Application ; Comic 2.2

FINAL SUBMISSION:

Figure 5.1 Rice font ; Compiled

Figure 5.2 Rice Font ; Application 1

Figure 5.3 Rice Font ; Application 2.1

Figure 5.4 Rice Font ; Application 2.2

Figure 5.5 Rice Font ; PDF

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Feedback

Week 11
Specific Feedback:
Work on maintaining the structure of my fonts so that it is consistent. Mr Vinod said that my rice font can be considered as a handwriting font that was inspired by rice and I could apply it to my comics as part of my collateral.

Week 12
Specific Feedback:

My fonts are overall consistent; Mr Vinod said maybe I could add numbers and more punctuations and if I wanna make my life harder, do lowercase for all alphabets

Week 13

Specific Feedback:

Work on the speech bubble or thought bubble instead of the illustration, work more on the kerning. 

Week 14 

Specific Feedback:

Work on the speech bubble, refer to Maus, Persepolis and graphic novels in general. My speech bubble is too thin, try to work without the illustrations first only then apply the illustration.

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Reflection

Experience :
Week 10
Class this week was less hectic because many of us are almost there with our Project 1 & 2.

Week 11
Honestly, when Mr Vinod said that we're supposed to have started our final project earlier, he wasn't wrong. Designing a typeface that is legible and consistent is quite hard and here's to hoping I can do it :')

Week 12

This week everyone is still designing their fonts, some better than others.

Week 13
I really enjoy looking at the works of other students and seeing their creative process sprout when doing the assignments, sometimes gives me motivation to push myself even harder.

Observations :
Week 10
Apparently, many people's blogs are not constantly updated :O

Week 11
I see that many people are still at the beginning stages, they have not started digitizing their font as they wanted to get approval from Mr Vinod on their ideas.

Week 12
There are some people who are"far far away" from the intended timeframe so they have to work fast.

Week 13

The styles of speech bubbles in comics are very unique depending on the artist as each comic artist has their own way of drawing the speech bubbles.

Findings :
Week 10
I find out that Mr Vinod and Mr Shamsul get excited when a student mentions they are going for graphic design next semester. Hah, have fun. I'll just be the otaku I am at Entertainment Design.

Week 11
Everyone's ideas for their font design is quite interesting.

Week 12
I see that the key in this project is to work fast and have an understanding of the anatomy of typography as well as analysing the anatomy of each alphabets which definitely helped me in creating consistent alphabets for my project.

Week 13

It is best to start by planning out the placement of the speech bubbles rather than the illustration as the speech bubbles are the form of communication, this will thus makes it easier to adjust the size of the illustration if needed.

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Further Reading

Visual Study - The Adventures of Tintin & The Smurfs

The Adventures of Tintin ; Comic 

When I was young, my mom liked Tintin and she introduced it to me. I've noticed that Tintin has its own unique way of drawing its speech bubbles, noticeable by the indent on the corners of the speech bubble as well as a lightning styled tail to indicate a style and direction to whom the character is speaking. I've also noticed that the speech bubbles are always behind the character's head in certain panels which might counter any negative space within the comic.

In contrast to Tintin, I've always loved The Smurfs and my comic's speech bubbles are inspired by them.

The Smurfs ; Comic

As for The Smurfs, the speech bubbles the shapes are more organic and oval in style, followed by a sharp and sometimes curved tail. The speech bubbles also have thick-thin strokes which aids in visual hierarchy when the reader reads the comic.