2020.10.01. Part 1, Exercise 1.
This was a very interesting exercise that helped me further realize the differences, minute or not between fonts. The curves within the letters are different, some containing similar roundness between its letters, some differentiating the weight of each stroke in a letter. It also made me more aware of how within the serifs and san serifs fonts, each give off a whole different feel and character. The slightest change in shape, proportion, joint connections causes the viewer to feel each font differently.
2020.10.04. Part 1, Exercise 2.
Purity, tradition, and experiment. I tried to choose words that I didn’t necessary correlate with a type or a word, so this was very challenging for me.
For purity, I thought of simple, untainted, precise. The first font that I wanted to find was an outlining font, or the second font seen from the top. In my head it reminded me of a halo or that everything within the lines are untouched. When I found it (Swiss 721 Bold Outline BT), implementing it didn’t give the same feel as I had in my head. There was something heavy about it. The outlining made the actual white space of the word thick and slightly bulky. I then attempted to find more dainty, thinner fonts. I also was drawn to sans-serifs for it’s simplicity, it’s lack of stroke variation and feet. While looking through the abundant amount of fonts in Illustrator, I was surprised by how many sans-serif fonts didn’t appeal to me. Some were too rounded, too condensed, dare I say too light to the point it looked frail. There were a couple that drew my eye and they were Microsoft Yi Baiti and Dita Cd, the third and fourth fonts respectively seen above. Comparing the two, I thought that Microsoft Yi Baiti was more balanced and kept the eye continuing through the word slower than Dita Cd. So I choose Microsoft Yi Baiti in the end. Oh, to also touch on the first serif, Adobe Std R, it did intrigue me and it did give me spa, relaxing vibes but I think it’s more fit for another word that I’ve yet to pinpoint. It’s probably spa, it just hasn’t grown on me yet.
For tradition, the first font that came to mind was Times New Roman. Whether it is the overall reputation of the font of being traditional, transitional or my association of formality, essays (*shiver*) with it, I was just so drawn to it. Traditional also reminded me of a holiday family dinner or some sort of semi-formal to formal gathering. So I decided to dive deeper into exploring serifs. I think not having serifs, brackets, beaks, etcetera just felt too casual. There were so many serifs to choose from but some had too varying weights, too embellished structure, too modern overall (in the sense that the stroke weights in each character varied too much). I stumbled upon Sitka and CapitoliumNews 2 (the second and third fonts respectively from above) which felt right. Both more humanist or Venetian, they’re stroke thickness were balanced and not too hard on the eyes. Comparing the three serifs, I was surprised to be drawn the most to the Sitka which felt like a combination of proportions from Times New Roman and CapitoliumNews 2. It felt like a font I’d print on an RSVP and send out to my parents and friends to a fancy dinner I’d hold in my brain.
Lastly, experiment. Experiment was a hard one because the first thing that came to mind was experimental, wild, unordinary, unique. So thus came the exploration of all of the funky fonts in life. There were so many. I was looking through all of them but none of them gave me straight experiment feels. Some were a bit too childish or script-y. I then turned my search to more lab, science, testing auras, a real physical experiment. This did narrow down the search field but it was still tricky. I was looking for something that was still somewhat formal but also a bit grunge, just a tad bit. The first font, not the symbols font at the very top, was Stenciletta Left. I really liked the thought process of it, it’s an interesting font to look at and one of those fill in the missing spots fonts. But when it came to the word experiment, it didn’t quite hit the right note. I tried upper case and lower case but I feel as it they relied too much on the viewer’s sense of closure that it disrupts the way I read the word. There was too much to interpret myself and make in my head. I then found Fakir Pro which was sort of meh to me. It was different but again, wasn’t really fully conveying the sense of experiment. It was too rigid and patterned, repetitive which may better fit another word. Moving onto Westsac. This font, I don’t even know why, but why was it so hard for me to activate and use. It worked out in the end anyways. But I was also fixated on this font with its inconventional letter heights, proportions and weights. I applied it onto the word and after staring at it for a few moments, how do I explain it, it was too much. It was verging on scary, unpredictable, haunting which is not what I was going for. A bit sad and still scrolling through hundred of fonts, Template Gothic OT was found. I think this font is the most representative of experiment out of the fonts my eyes registered. It was readable and had a bit of funk. There were arbitrary moments in it which gave it some flair, experimental. I’m still not convinced that Template Gothic OT is the best font for experiment and I have the feeling that in my font skimming I did miss a better representation of experiment, but I think it’s appropriate and will do.
And yes, the homie BigCheese OT had to make a cameo, just because.
2020.10.08. Part 2, Helvetica.
Hello! It’s has been a while and I apologize. Quite the couple weeks its been but we’re back. :))
But these are a few of my poster design ideas. My font is Miss Modernism herself, Helvetica. I’ve always loved looking at interesting fonts, typography, poster designs, lettering. So this project and all of the beautiful fonts, typography posters I will be able to just bath in, ug, a dream.
I’ve grown to love Helvetica more and more ever since learning and reading about it. It’s history is so vast and the applications are near endless. From it’s rise to dominance in mainstream media while speeding up the inevitable arrival of modernism in the 60s, this sans-serif font has elements, characteristics that outshine many of its peers, like Arial. As a diverse signage font and it’s invention focusing on the clarity of words, it’s x-height is taller for more ease of reading at a distance yet it’s tight aperture conflicts this, making it look denser and making smaller Helvetica letterforms harder to read.
While watching Helvetica in class on Thursday, it also really opened my eyes to the reputation and character arc of the font. Helvetica was associated to “trustworthy-ness,” “stability,” “clean,” “organized.” This also contributed to how I wanted to represent the font in my poster.
As an individual, I feel like I unconsciously sway towards the more minimalist designs. Interior design, paintings, posters. But I think adding some flair, some movement, excitement, spontaneity in the poster will further prove the variety one can find in Helvetica. In my thumbnails, there are some that I like compositionally but still need to work on details wise. The number of ways of arranging words, letters, text is too grand, there are too many good ways to format them. But my goal is to maybe bring a simplistic spice, demur with a twist. I’m not sure if I can even convey that in a thumbnail which I’m sad about but when it’s time to transfer to Illustrator, I feel as if the experimentation will be continuing. I think I’m edging more towards the second and fourth design as I can envision playing more with composition, scale, maybe even closure and continuation. Yay!
2020.10.08–29. Part 2, The Long Journey.
Hello. Oh boy does midsemester hit. And it hits with force. I apologize for the lack of updates the past two weeks.
Regarding this project, I’ve just been playing around with compositions in Illustrator as the ease of translating, augmenting, rotating shapes just feel so nice. I still feel as if my compositions are inferior than the immense potential Helvetica has provided us, the masses. The first time everyone shared their compositions, I was just in awe of theirs. I was definitely inspired by their work and some of the originality that was present (eg. the cropping of letters, the use of letters to form different, unique spaces, etc.). I had a jumble of sketches (as seen in the delightful, but small pool of brain vomit) in which I attempted to create a diverse spread to test. Ultimately, with the comments and good voices of my peers, I was able to narrow down my choices to the three below:
This was part 1 of The Thinning. These 3 were the most clean and relevant to the font. They were not overworked which definitely are more pleasing to the eye. From there I had my meeting with Hannah and Amanda and further narrowed down from 3 to 2, ending up with the two rightmost sketches to continue forward with.
I wanted to play more around with sizing and the overall relationship between objects in the pieces. I think that each has their unique feel and I wanted to more stretch the boundaries of their possibilities. I played with grids, overlapping, heavier weights, italics. The more I dove into these, the more I had an idea of the direction in which I wanted to head in.
Zoom zoom woo woo though it is still the same day, it is 1.5 hours later after the beloved Tuesday CDF class. Shall I say, that class was lovely. Lovely people, wonderful peers, delightful vibes, all around magnificence. Though I did not edit anything further, I did get a vibe check from people regarding my designs. I think overall people encouraged me to continue in my exploration of these posters and the small, minute changes I could make in each of them. As the nice people of this class, there were pros listed for both ideas for the posters. I think each have their own space to continue growing and I will definitely continue to fidget around with the details. But there are converging paths seen forth and I’m excited to see where the road takes us. Onwards!
Oh, and as I continue to scan through my classmate’s posters and ideas, it is fascinating to almost have each type’s personality revealed from a few colors, size of text and the use of upper or lowercase. From Peter’s Futura poster to Spandan’s Times New Roman poster and Yee An’s Didot poster to Qiyun’s Garamond poster, the variety in structure is quite remarkable. Garamond and As serif fonts, Times, Garamond and Didot have a dainty, formal, whimsical feel to them while fonts like Helvetica and Futura have a modern, youthful essence. I cannot wait to see everyone’s poster all laid out all stunningly next to each other. Ah, time to continue fixing up my posters, toodles.
2020.10.28–29. Finale.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Again, my nemesis, Achilles heel, my bane. The past week has been productive with further narrowing but more iterating. I’ve been getting into bursts of inspiration where I make artboard after artboard to try to put what’s in my head on paper.
I’ve been receiving advice from peers and Hannah and Amanda on the scale and size of text and also the overall colors of the poster. I think I’m pretty set on how the smaller text should be laid out but I still am torn on the color variations. (Just briefly on my conclusion for the block text, I love the tiny text on the second poster but in comparison to the other posters with the vertical “max miedinger,” there does feel like something’s missing from it, like it’s not as grounded as the others.) Back to the bulk of it, there are three pretty distinct versions: the OG, plain red on white; the OG+, red on black on white; and the OG++, red on white on black. Looking at all of them together, I think I like the simplicity and cleanliness of the OG. It doesn’t feel crowded or messy, the text is legible on the white and there are no internal distractions. But the OG++ is also calling my name. I think I’m attracted to the boldness of the opaque red on a transparent white text with the high contrast white text on black.
After writing what I wrote right above, I decided to narrow. These were what spoke to me. OG and OG++ stand before me. Ah, I don’t want to let one go. Let me just ponder for a sec.
Yea, I think I’m sticking with the original. Standing by what I said before, something about its simplicity I just love. I noticed that through my final few file versions I kept this the same, it stood alone among the others. I didn’t touch it or iterate it like other versions and I think that speaks to how I subconsciously saw it, how it was already good before. This pushes me to trust my decision a bit more. In addition, as I was writing this, I received an email from Amanda on her opinions and comments on my posters and she also was a fan of the first poster for how nothing “detract[s] or distract[s] from the geometric forms of helvetica — it feels clean and conveys the forms of helvetica.” So I guess more confirmation.
But with a somewhat heavy heart, I will be leaving behind all the other children but I’m excited to have found this final poster that I hope to the masses does good justice to the beast that is Helvetica and its domination through the decades of immense change.
This project was so incredibly fun. From spending time alone to mess around with letters and types to constantly looking forward to class to talk to friends and see all the interesting works they’ve created, I had such a blast. In the meantime, I learned so much about not only Helvetica but also the history and stories of other fonts, who designed them, why they designed it, etc. I will miss working on these posters so much (though I might try to make posters for other fonts on my own!) I cannot wait to start our next project and start the whole process again. Wee! •ᴥ•
2020.11.10. Dua Lipa.
Dua said she did a full 180. So I guess I did too. A few minutes before submitting my poster and very small poll from friends, I decided to submit the one below.
Looking at the poster on its own, it has its own strength to it. These 2 posters were very 50–50 to me and it was an absolute coin toss. I’m sure one day I’ll like one over the other but I believe the drama and contrast of this black-backgrounded poster caught the eye of people.
I just wanted to add this on here as I did in fact change my submission/final poster but I love them both. ❤
