Advanced Typography - Task 3
29/05/2023 - 07/07/2023 // (Week 9 - Week 14)
Denise Anjali // 0342430
Advanced Typography // Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Task 3: Type Exploration & Application
LECTURES
Week 1-4: Link to blog post
Week 5: Link to blog post
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 3 : Type Exploration & Application
Type Exploration
Given the 3 methods of type exploration we could explore, we had to come up with several idea proposals for what we would like to explore as our final task. I presented a couple of ideas in class and came up with a few more after class for approval. Here are the presentation slides of the ideas.
From these ideas and feedback, I explored some sketches of the letterforms.
Image 1.1: Letterform sketches, Week 10 (05/06/2023)
From the sketch, I chose to explore and expand on the font inspired by the
text on the white rabbit candy wrapper. Here is a larger image of the white
rabbit candy wrapper that inspired me.
When searching online, I could not find a complete version of this font which was why I wished to explore it. Given that the font is art deco inspired, I chose to look at some art deco fonts for reference. I found these examples on 1001fonts.com under the art deco tag. Art deco has a wide variety of styles so I had many references to sift through. The notable characteristics of the font on the wrapper is the thin, even strokes and the thin overall shapes.
Image 1.2: Scanned image of White Rabbit candy wrapper, from Google
When searching online, I could not find a complete version of this font which was why I wished to explore it. Given that the font is art deco inspired, I chose to look at some art deco fonts for reference. I found these examples on 1001fonts.com under the art deco tag. Art deco has a wide variety of styles so I had many references to sift through. The notable characteristics of the font on the wrapper is the thin, even strokes and the thin overall shapes.
Image 1.3: Copasetic NF Font Family, 1001fonts
Image 1.4: Chitown NF Font, 1001fonts
The above references were chosen because they have interesting shapes,
much like the white rabbit text and they have even, straight strokes as
well. Given that art deco fonts are generally used for titles and serve
a more decorative purpose, their lowercase letters can also be alternate
letterform designs. From these references, I went back to
sketching.
Image 1.5: Letterform sketches, Week 10 (07/06/2023)
Initially, I was going to make a shorter version of the letterforms
to serve as the lowercase letters. However, I was advised to create
alternate letterforms of the same height instead, similar to the
referenced fonts. I also decided to nix the lines that run through
the rounder letters as they felt out of place with the style of the
white rabbit font. In accordance with the 'B' in the white rabbit
wrapper text, I tried to include overlapping lines in some letters
as well.
Image 1.6: Sketches of alternate letterforms, Week 10
(07/06/2023)
Sketches turn to digitization in Illustrator. Learning from the
previous semester of typography, I created guidelines for the
font using Myriad Concept Variable font at 1028px. I also
created shapes and strokes that are 50px wide to use as the
construction blocks for the letterforms.
The shapes within the green box are the building blocks I used. While some letters were simple and didn't require a lot of exploration and experimentation. Other letters such as the 'G' and the 'Z' took more variations to narrow down. My initial sketch and digitization of 'O' was overly decorative as well, unreadable even, which lead to simplifying it to a simple geometric circle as is common in many art deco fonts. The 'S' also took a couple tries and some feedback to better its shape. Especially for curvy shapes, I used other similar shapes and the 'o' shape to make the letters more geometrical and fit in better overall.
Image 1.7: Letterform construction on Illustrator, Week 12
(20/06/2023)
The shapes within the green box are the building blocks I used. While some letters were simple and didn't require a lot of exploration and experimentation. Other letters such as the 'G' and the 'Z' took more variations to narrow down. My initial sketch and digitization of 'O' was overly decorative as well, unreadable even, which lead to simplifying it to a simple geometric circle as is common in many art deco fonts. The 'S' also took a couple tries and some feedback to better its shape. Especially for curvy shapes, I used other similar shapes and the 'o' shape to make the letters more geometrical and fit in better overall.
Image 1.8: Numbers, punctuation and symbols construction,
Week 13 (28/06/2023)
Moving on to the numbers and punctuations, I followed the
guides created by the Instagram account
@grillitype. The main characteristics I kept in mind for the numbers
were to have the same round geometrical shapes for curves
and sharp points where applicable. The punctuation and
symbols did not deviate much from the guides though
feedback was given that they seemed small. One exception
is the height of the brackets are shorter and placed
higher than usual due to all the letters in the font being
at cap height and having no descenders.
From the original set of letters, I duplicated and altered
them to create an alternate set of letterforms. I also
refined the original set of letterforms and adjusted the
details. Some letterforms were swapped around in their
sets to make them match. The alternate set of letters have
more of an emphasis on slanted down or lowered down
strokes compared to the earlier set.
Image 1.9 : Wireframe of refined letterform
construction, Week 14 (05/07/2023)
Image 1.10: Final set of glyphs, Week 14 (05/07/2023)
The above glyphs were then imported to Fontlab 8 by
copy pasting them. Initially, I had the wrong settings
for pasting the vectors in but I fixed it soon after
watching the tutorial video as a refresher.
Image 1.11: Imported glyphs in Fontlab 8, Week 14
(06/07/2023)
Some of the punctuation I had created did not have
slots on the Fontlab glyphs tab so I forewent them
and moved onto kerning. I started this process
using the Fontlab application on the Mac computer
in Lab 19 but continued and finished it on a trial
version on my laptop.
Image 1.12: Metrics tab for letter kerning, Week
14 (06/07/2023)
Due to the difference in layout, I had to google
how to set up the metrics table and text bar for
the metrics tab similarly to the tutorial video
given to us. Including the sample text available
in the application, I also found several sample
sentences
online
to use for kerning. This particular process
makes me stressed as I have to trust my eyes and
senses to make sure the kerning looks right. I
exported the font and generated the font which
can be downloaded here: link to RabbitCandy-Regular
Final Font Measurements (From baseline):
Ascender height: 732 px
Cap Height: 697 px
X-height: 500 px
Descender height: -202 px
Stroke width: 50 px
Presentation & Application
Once we're done with Fontlab and font generation, we are instructed to create font display pages as well as application examples. Using the references provided to us, I made the pages themed around the designs on the original candy wrapper. I traced several designs from the candy wrapper design and used them.
Final Font Measurements (From baseline):
Ascender height: 732 px
Cap Height: 697 px
X-height: 500 px
Descender height: -202 px
Stroke width: 50 px
Presentation & Application
Once we're done with Fontlab and font generation, we are instructed to create font display pages as well as application examples. Using the references provided to us, I made the pages themed around the designs on the original candy wrapper. I traced several designs from the candy wrapper design and used them.
Image 2.1: White rabbit candy wrappers, from
Google
Mainly, I kept to the red, black and blue
colour scheme. I also used the yellowish
shade of the top image to make the overall
display look vintage and fit the art deco
theme. I created the display pages out of
order and started with one that showcased
the font and the characteristics of the
font. The blue lines also came from the
candy wrapper design.
Image 2.2: Descriptions of the font, Week
14 (07/07/2023)
The second page created was the font
character sheet. The letters were set to
alternate with each other in order to
show the differences between them. The
numbers and punctuations start on a
different line to maximise space.
Similarly to the previous page, the red
lines decorating the page come from the
wrapper design.
Image 2.3: Character sheet of the font
display, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Then, I started on the hardest page of
the font display, the front page. I was
rather confused on how to begin
designing this page as it would be the
first thing people would see. When
looking at the references, many had
rather colourful first pages. From this,
I wanted to create a page that would
immediately bring to mind the white
rabbit candy.
I looked at vintage Chinese advertisements on Google and Pinterest for inspiration but ultimately felt it did not fit much. I found that the candy was initially marketed as nutritious for consumers and thought the slogan of the brand at the time, the text in blue, would be suitable to showcase the font. I also added a small description of the font (using Courier New regular) as well as the name of the candy in Mandarin to fill the space between the title and the slogan. I also traced the rabbit from the old wrapper design to add to the design as it felt unbalanced. It was also on this page where I exported the font again and decided to change the name of the font to make it more descriptive.
I looked at vintage Chinese advertisements on Google and Pinterest for inspiration but ultimately felt it did not fit much. I found that the candy was initially marketed as nutritious for consumers and thought the slogan of the brand at the time, the text in blue, would be suitable to showcase the font. I also added a small description of the font (using Courier New regular) as well as the name of the candy in Mandarin to fill the space between the title and the slogan. I also traced the rabbit from the old wrapper design to add to the design as it felt unbalanced. It was also on this page where I exported the font again and decided to change the name of the font to make it more descriptive.
Image 2.4: Front page of font display,
Week 14 (07/07/2023)
The final font display page was
rather simple. I took inspiration
from some of the references we were
given which displayed their font
with a list of words that matched
the aesthetic of the font. I chose
to list the various flavours that
White Rabbit candy had produced in
their lifetime and paired it with
boxes to mimic the ingredients list
at the back of food
packaging.
Image 2.5: Font display page, Week
14 (07/07/2023)
Moving onto application, I chose
to make a poster for the candy
as well as a recipe card for
milk candy which can be made at
home.
The poster is inspired by the candy wrapper design as usual. I used the same images in Image 2.1 as my references for the poster and looked at poster designs on Pinterest for inspiration. In the end, I combined elements of both versions of the candy wrapper designs, using the more modern rabbit design with the traditional rabbit pattern as the border. I used my font for all the text in this piece.
The poster is inspired by the candy wrapper design as usual. I used the same images in Image 2.1 as my references for the poster and looked at poster designs on Pinterest for inspiration. In the end, I combined elements of both versions of the candy wrapper designs, using the more modern rabbit design with the traditional rabbit pattern as the border. I used my font for all the text in this piece.
Image 2.6: Poster layout
sketch, Week 14 (0707/2023)
Image 2.6: Font application,
White Rabbit candy poster,
Week 14 (07/07/2023)
The other application is a
recipe card. I like the
aesthetic of recipes being
written down or printed and
collected. It feels vintage,
matching with the font
aesthetic. I went looking
for recipes that might
utilise the candy but came
across a recipe to make the
candy itself at home. Using
the recipe from
joinrassa and referencing some
designs on Pinterest, I
created the recipe card
below. I did simplify the
recipe a little in order to
make it fit in the
card.
Image 2.8: Font application, milk candy recipe card, Week 14 (0707/2023)
Image 2.7: Pinterest
recipe card reference
images
Image 2.8: Font application, milk candy recipe card, Week 14 (0707/2023)
Task 3 Final
Submission:
Link to Final Font TTF file : WhiteRabbitCandy-Regular
Final font display 2, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final font display 3, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final font display 4, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final Font
Application, Poster,
JPEG, Week 14
(07/07/2023)
Final Font Application, Recipe Card, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final Font Application compilation, PDF, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Link to Final Font TTF file : WhiteRabbitCandy-Regular
Final font display 1,
JPEG, Week 14
(07/07/2023)
Final font display 2, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final font display 3, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final font display 4, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final Font Application, Recipe Card, JPEG, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final Font Display compilation, PDF, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
Final Font Application compilation, PDF, Week 14 (07/07/2023)
FEEDBACK
Week 9
General feedback: Consider if there is a gap that your typeface could fill. Consider the application of the typeface.
Specific feedback: There is a high threshold for the comic font idea due to the abundance of comic fonts that are existing. Fictional language expansion is lacking due to the poor quality of shapes and structure present in the original language. White rabbit font is based on art deco and can be expanded on.
Week 10
General feedback: Look at how the font you aim to make is applied and do the research. Be careful not to be overly influenced by references and inspirations. Ensure e-portfolio is continuously updated rather than in one go. Make sure that quality is not compromised even though time is short, throw away troublesome designs and start over, don't overly focus on it.
Specific feedback: Watch out for the 'O' and avoid making the font overly decorative, the counterspace of the W is off, the construction of the letters is rather rudimentary.
REFLECTION
Experience: Given that I missed a week due to illness and my own chronic procrastination, this project was simultaneously difficult yet easy. It was easy in the sense that when I sat down to work on it, it was enthralling and I wanted to keep looking at every detail. However, due to time limits, I could not afford to do so which made it difficult to progress at times when I got stuck and didn't know what to do next.
Observations: I realised that reference and observation is key to creating fonts and applications as well. It also pays to be detail-orientated.
Findings: I found that while some punctuation had many rules to make them look appropriate, others are more vague and refer to other punctuation as guidelines. This means that the basics have to be well crafted and to observe how similar punctuation are crafted in referenced fonts.
FURTHER READING
GT Academy Lessons (@grillitype, Grilli Type Foundry, 2021)
I heavily relied on this Instagram account's guides to designing sans serif numbers and punctuation and symbols. They are very clear cut and even have animations to showcase their explanations. They also teach viewers to utilise already created letterforms or symbols to create other symbols and forms.
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