Advanced Typography / Task 2 Key Artwork and Collateral

15 / 05 / 2024 — 12 / 06 / 2024 (Week 04 — Week 08)

Kim Seoyoon / 0357755

GCD 61004 / Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 2 A & B / Key Artwork and Collateral

TABLE OF CONTENT

LECTURES

INSTRUCTIONS

TASK 2

PART A – Key Artwork

PART B – Collateral

TASK 2 OUTCOME COMPILATION

FEEDBACK

LECTURES

WEEK 01 – 04 LECTURES CLICK HERE

Week 05 (22/05/2024) : Perception & Organization

Lecture 05: Preception & Organization

Perception in typography deals with the visual navigation and interpretation of the reader via contrast, form and organisation of the content. Content can be textual, visual, graphical or in the form of colour. However, our focus today is on typography.

Fig 1.1.1 Methods of Contrast by Rudi Ruegg, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

It is important to create contrast to create distinction or differentiation between information.

7 Types of Contrast by Carl Dair

Fig 1.1.2 Methods of Contrast by Carl Dair Week 5 (22/05/2024)

1. Contrast / Size

Fig 1.2 Contrast / Size, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

A contrast of size provides a point to which the reader's attention is drawn.
The most common use of size is in making a title/ heading noticeably bigger compared to the body text.

2. Contrast / Weight

Fig 1.3 Contrast / Weight, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Describes how bold type can stand out in the middle of the lighter type of the same style.
Using rules/spots/ squares also provides a heavy area for an emphasized point of visual attraction.

3. Contrast / Form

Fig 1.4 Contrast / Form, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Using the different weights to create contrast is an important factor when dealing with information.
A distinction between a capital letter and its lowercase equivalent, or a Roman letter and its italic variant, condensed/ expanded versions.

4. Contrast / Structure

Fig 1.5 Contrast / Structure, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

The different letterforms of different kinds of typefaces; monoline sans serif and traditional serif/ italic and blackletter.

5. Contrast / Texture

Fig 1.6.1 Contrast / Texture, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Fig 1.6.2 Example of Contrast / Texture, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Created by putting the contrasts of size, weight, form, and structure together.
Texture refers to the way the lines of type look as a whole up close and from a distance.

6. Contrast / Direction

Fig 1.7 Contrast / Direction, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Opposition between vertical and horizontal, and the angles in between.
Turning one word on its side can create a dramatic effect, text blocks also have their vertical/ horizontal aspects of direction.
Mixing wide blocks of long lines with tail columns of short lines can also create a contrast.

7. Contrast / Colour

Fig 1.8.1 Contrast / Colour, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Fig 1.8.2 Example of Contrast / Colour, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

The use of colour suggests that a second colour is often less emphatic in values compared to plain black on white.
It is important to give thought to which element needs to be emphasized and to pay attention to the tonal values of colours that are used.

Form

Fig 1.9 Form Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Form refers to the overall look and feel of the elements that make up the typographic composition.
Plays a role in visual impact and first impressions.
A good form of typography tends to be visually intriguing to the eye which leads the eye from point to point, entertaining the mind and often memorable.

The word typography originated from the Greek words 'typos' (form) and 'graphis' (writing), which means to write in accordance with the form.

Typography can be seen as having 2 functions:

1. To represent a concept

2. To represent a concept in a visual form

Displaying type as a form provides a sense of letterforms' unique characteristics and abstract presentation. Below are some examples of great combinations of typographical forms:

Fig 1.10 Examples, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

The interplay of meaning and form brings a balanced harmony both in terms of function and expression. When a typeface is perceived as a form, it no longer reads as a letter due to the manipulation of its letterform by distortion, texture, enlargement, and being extruded into a space.

Below are some examples of how form and communication come together:

Fig 1.11 Examples, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

Organization / Gestalt

Gestalt is a German word meaning the way a thing has been "placed" or "put together".

An attempt to understand the laws behind the ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions.

A Gestalt psychologist, Max Wertheimer developed a number of laws that predict how perceptual grouping occurs under a variety of circumstances.

Emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts—based on the idea that the things we experience are a unified whole.

Perceptual Organization / Groupings

1. Laws of Similarity
2. Laws of Proximity
3. Laws of Closure
4. Laws or Continuation
5. Laws of Symmetry

6. Laws of Simplicity (Praganz)

Fig 1.12 Gestalt Laws, Week 5 (22/05/2024)

1. The Law of Similarity

States that elements that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as a unified group.
Similarity can refer to any number of features, including colour, orientation, size, or indeed motion.

2. The Law of Proximity

State elements that are close together tend to be perceived as a unified group.
Items close to each other tend to be grouped together, whereas items further apart are less likely to be grouped together.

3. The Law of Closure

Refers to the mind’s tendency to see complete figures or forms even if a picture is incomplete, partially hidden by other objects, or if part of the information needed to make a complete picture in our minds is missing.

4. Law of (Good) Continuation

Holds that humans tend to perceive each of two or more objects as a different, singular, and uninterrupted object even when they intersect.
The alignment of the objects or forms plays a major role in this principle.

INSTRUCTIONS

Module Information Booklet

Task 2 (A) — Key Artwork (10%)

Timeframe: Week 4 - Week 6 (Deadline Week 6)

In task 2A, we were given instructions to create a wordmark of our own name/pseudonym.

What we need to submit:

Black wordmark on white background
White wordmark on black background
Colour palette
Wordmark in actual colours on lightest shade of colour palette
Wordmark in lightest shade of colour palette on darkest shade of colour palette
wordmark animation

Task 2 (B) — Collateral (20%)

Timeframe: Week 6 - Week 8 (Deadline Week 8)

Using the wordmark that we created from task 2A, we were instructed to expand the visual identity and apply its idea/ design to chosen collaterals. This also included creating a layout design for my own Instagram page.

What we need to submit:

Collateral 1, 2, 3
Instagram link
IG screen grab with good resolution

Task 2 (A) – Key Artwork

Mind mapping / Inspirations

To start off, we were instructed to create a mindmap about us. Here is a brief mindmap about me:

Fig1.1 Mindmap 'About Me', Week 5 (17/05/2024)

I also created a moldboard for my artistic direction and inspirations for my wordmark design. Personally, I like bold and heavy typographic designs and think that helps to provide a stronger impression.

Fig1.2 Moodboard, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Sketches

Fig 2.1 Initial sketches, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Chosen keywords: Bold, organized, flexible, adaptability, geometrical

Among the sketches, I decided to go with the rectangular wordmark with cube letters.

My initial intention was to explore the idea of stretching the shapes of the cube of each letter to create something unique.

Below is my finalized sketch after some exploration. I chose this design as it contained both my name in English and Korean (negative space) which is fun.

Fig 2.2 Final sketch, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Digitization

Fig 3.1 Digitizing process, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

I began digitizing my sketch by creating blocks of rectangular letterforms and rounding each letter's corners using the direct selection tool. The counter of the letters 'e' and 'o' was created using a stroke tool along with a width tool to create an even and balanced oval shape.

Below is my first attempt at wordmark digitization:

Fig 3.2 Digitized wordmark attempt #1, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Mr Vinod commented that there was a lack of consistency and legibility in my initial design, as the overall wordmark is seen more of a 'seoy-soon' rather than 'seo-yoon' due to the placement of the letter 's'.

The main cause of this was that I had 7 letters in my name which made it difficult to maintain the width of both the top and bottom rows unless the shapes were squeezed in, so I tried out several variations using the existing letter designs.

I also decided to remove the inconsistent connection of the letters to balance out the space between the letters.

Fig 3.3 Wordmark variation explorations, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Below is my finalized choice of wordmark design with adjustment processes. I also reduced the space between the letters as it seemed a little wide.

I twisted the letter 'o' in the centre so that the overall wordmark is more fun to look at and it also helps to add uniqueness to my identity. Doing this also brought back the idea of connectivity in a more simplified way compared to my initial design.

Fig 3.4 Digitizing process, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Fig 3.5 Final digitized wordmark, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Colour Application

For the colour palette, I used several websites like Colour Hunt and Coolors to look for the right colour combinations of my liking. After selecting several colour palettes I placed them all together and compared how it actually looked when the colour was applied to my wordmark.

Palettes #1 and #2 were my favourites among all choices. However, the contrast between all colours was not strong enough when placed one by one (purple with blue/ almond with maverick). I wanted consistent contrast among all colours, so I decided to go with palette #1.

Fig 3.6 Color palette exploration, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

I also adjusted the value of the darkest shade to match the overall idea of "white and blue" with "black and red" as the initial colours had more red in the darkest shade. Below is the finalized version of my colour palette:

Fig 3.7 Final choice of colour palette, Week 5 (17/05/2024)

Key Artwork Animation

For animation, I used Adobe After Effects to edit the keyframes of each letter.

Fig 4.1 Animation process on Adobe AE, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 4.1 Finalized Animation, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Task 2A Final Outcome

Fig 5.1 Black wordmark on white background, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 5.2 White wordmark on black background, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 5.3 Colour Palette, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 5.4 Wordmark in actual colours on lightest shade of colour palette, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 5.5 Wordmark in lightest shade of colour palette on darkest shade of colour palette, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 5.6 Key Artwork Animation, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 5.7 Task 2A PDF Compilation, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Task 2 (B) – Collateral

Collateral

Below are the links to the websites I used for mockups:

Unblast https://unblast.com/
Mockups Design https://mockups-design.com/
Mr Mockup https://mrmockup.com/free-mockups/
Mockup Bee https://mockupbee.com/

I picked the types of collaterals based on my mindmap, specifically about one of my strengths "adaptability". I also wanted to choose items that are easily approachable, such as stationary/ clothing etc. Therefore I chose stickers and tape as a representation of "being able to stick anywhere".

All of the mockups were done using Adobe Photoshop with patterns and design layouts prepared using Illustrator.

In addition, I created several variations that could be used for further identity expansion in mockup designs:

Fig 6.1 Wordmark Variations, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Collateral #1 Sticker Pack

The first mockup I chose was a sticker pack. After finding a suitable mockup model for my designs I began by creating several sticker designs and tried placing them together to find which ones suit the best.

At first, I tried making them stand out as individual designs but to keep the consistency and harmony of my identity, I got rid of this idea and maintained the same design but in different colours so that it is more easy to recognize at once.

Fig 6.2.1 Sticker layout designs, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 6.2.2 Collateral #1 Stickers, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Collateral #2 T-shirt

For the second collateral, I created a repetitive pattern using the letter 'O's.

Fig 6.3.1 T-shirt pattern design, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 6.3.2 Collateral #2 t-shirt, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Collateral #3 Duct Tape

The third collateral was created with a duct tape mockup model. For the layout design, I created 2 different patterns for the tape surface part and the inner backing part of the tape. To create patterns like the one below, I used the pattern tool on Illustrator with my wordmark arranged into a horizontal line.

Fig 6.4.1 Duct Tape pattern designs, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 6.4.2 Collateral #3 Duct tape, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

After finalizing, I cropped the mockup images to fit the Instagram grid:

Fig 6.5 Finalized collaterals (cropped), Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Identity Expansion & Instagram Tile Design

1. Initial Developments

Colour Palette

Fig 7.1 Colour Palette, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Firstly, I began by applying a gradient effect to my colour palette. I made four separate gradient elements by colour to avoid colours from over-blending as I wanted to maintain the proportion and dividing line of the palette. After adding a base gradient, I used the grain tool to apply some texture to the palette.

Black & White Photograph

Fig 7.2 BNW Photo, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Unfortunately, my black and white photograph was low-resolution when placed next to my other tiles. So I used the halftone effect to make the photograph sharper and I thought that the halftone dots enhanced the contrast from my wordmark which made it stand out more.

Patten Expansion

Fig 7.3 Upgrading pattern design, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

I decided to keep the same pattern design that I used in collateral #2 for consistency. I modified the colour range for this one to look like the letter 'S' (blue coloured ones), which is the first letter of my name 'Seoyoon'.

However, the overall look felt incomplete and flat so I attempted to add a 3D sticker effect by using the mesh tool & pen tools and gradients in Illustrator. Doing this also provided a connection to the choice of my collaterals (sticker, tape) and also the letter 's' representing the verb 'stick'.

Below is my first attempt at Instagram feed layout design:

Fig 7.4 Attempt #1 of Instagram feed layout, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

2. Modification and Adjustments

Adjustment 1

From the above first attempt, Mr Vinod commented that the black and white profile needs to be taken in front of a white wall; the original photo was taken against the white wall but due to the halftone effect and the shadow on the wall, the shade got a little darker.

To adjust the brightness of the wall, I used the adjustment brush tool in Adobe Photoshop to brush the wall area. This tool also has an adjustment section where I can adjust the brightness and contrast of selected areas.

Fig 8.1 Adjusting background colour on Photoshop, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 8.2 Before and after adjusting, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

After some touch-ups, I cropped the photograph based on the Instagram grid size and applied the halftone effect like the previous one. Below is the comparison of before and after.

Fig 8.3 Before and after adjusting (Halftone), Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Adjustment 2

I was also given feedback that the pattern work in panel four (left one below) was too noisy compared to my other layouts. I also realized that the pattern on the left was more complex compared to the simpler pattern design on the right.

Fig 8.4 Panel 4 (left), Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 8.9 Tryouts, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 8.10 Finalized panel 4, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Above are some layouts I created but eventually discarded as I got rid of the background pattern and just used my logo with a plain background instead.

Below is my finalized version of the Instagram feed layout:

Fig 8.11 Instagram Feed Design Layout, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Task 2B Final Outcome

Fig 9.1 Collateral 1, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 9.2 Collateral 2, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 9.3 Collateral 3, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 9.4 Instagram Feed Design Layout, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/seoy.8.n/

Fig 9.5 Screenshot of Instagram page, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 9.6 Task 2B PDF Compilation, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Task 2 Outcome Compilation

Fig 10.1 Black wordmark on white background, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 10.2 White wordmark on black background, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 10.3 Colour Palette, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 10.4 Wordmark in actual colours on lightest shade of colour palette, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 10.5 Wordmark in lightest shade of colour palette on darkest shade of colour palette, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 10.6 Key Artwork Animation, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 10.7 Task 2A PDF Compilation, Week 6 (29/05/2024)

Fig 10.8 Collateral 1, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 10.9 Collateral 2, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 10.10 Collateral 3, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 10.11 Instagram Feed Design Layout, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/seoy.8.n/

Fig 10.12 Screenshot of Instagram page, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

Fig 10.13 Task 2B PDF Compilation, Week 7 (4/06/2024)

FEEDBACK

Week 05 (Wesak Day)

General Feedback: Refer to the feedback session held online.

Specific Feedback: -

Week 06

General Feedback: When printing the logotype, print them using the format given to spot the flaws better.

Specific Feedback: The letter 's' makes the overall word read as "seoy-soon", adjust the side of 's' to avoid this.

Try making the gap space in between letterforms closer and compare it to the current version as the gaps now seem quite large. Print it out and compare the two versions.

Week 07

General Feedback: Read the website provided to study the identity expansion.

Specific Feedback: Retake the photograph with a white wall as a background.

Panel no.4 seems too noisy compared to the rest of the designs. Reduce noisiness on panel no.4 and make it simpler.

REFLECTION

Experiences

Overall, task two would be the most entertaining task I have done in this module. I had a lot of fun exploring the idea of relating the identity along with my design style. This task also utilized a number of different creative software tools such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and AferEffects which helped strengthen my software skills as I got to learn some new tools while completing this task. As I am not fully comfortable with using Adobe AfterEffects, I had some problems at the beginning of my animating process, but after some trial and error, I was able to achieve my desired outcome. However, I do think that adding a transition of pattern animation would have enhanced the overall quality of my key animation.

Observations

During task 2B where we were instructed to design our own Instagram page, I was able to compare each of my tile designs to see whether they form a harmony as a whole. In this stage, I was also able to spot the flaws in my design and adjust them accordingly which improved the completeness of the overall outcome.

Findings

Referring to the Pentagram site and many other existing branding designs was helpful throughout completing this task– especially in a way of acknowledging how identity designs are done in real life and finding my way of expanding from this knowledge. I learned that more observations and self-learning from these references make your outcome more diverse and entertaining.

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Kim Seoyoon (Johanna) 0357755

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