Advanced Typography - Final Project



28/10/20 - 18/11/20 (Week 9 - 13)
Ahmed Yaman Ibrahim (0341119)
Advanced Typography
Final Project

INSTRUCTIONS


Final Project

Collateral (Week 6-9)

For our final project, we are to develop a font that is intended to solve a larger problem or meant to be part of a solution in the area of our interest. After some brainstorming, I decided to come up with a Latin typeface to accompany the Maldivian Thaana script. Ideally this would be used in situations where both languages are required.

Fig. 1.1: Final Project - Dhivehi Thaana script

I began by studying one of the available Thaana fonts; I chose one that was commonly used in both formal and informal instances, titled 'A_Waheed.' 

Fig. 1.2: Final Project - Thaana font A_Waheed

I looked at how the letters were designed, particularly the ends of the letters, and tried to design a lowercase typefaces inspired from elements of the Thaana script.

Fig. 1.3: Final Project - Initial letter design

I used Comic Sans as a base as it most closely resembled the Thaana script in my opinion. During the initial feedback session, Mr Vinod explained that I should adjust the end points of the letters to make them less prominent. With the way the letters were looking right now, they simply felt too informal. He suggested that I either redesign with capital letters or continue with the current design. I decided to scrap this and redesign with capital letters.

Fig. 1.4: Final Project - Designing uppercase letters

I tried doing a lowercase version of this style as well but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to and with the time constraints that I had, I decided to scrap it altogether and went ahead with the uppercase letters.

Fig. 1.5: Final Project - Uppercase letters


Fig. 1.6: Final Project - Final typeface (PDF)

I then imported the letters into FontLab and began converting it into a working font.

Fig. 1.7: Final Project - Typeface imported into FontLab

Fig. 1.8: Final Project - Adjusting kerning


Fig. 1.9: Final Project - Final font


I then began designing collateral. I decided to create collateral where both Thaana and the font I created could be used in the same place - the use-case I came up with was educational material on Maldivian culture. This included books, a CD and bookmarks. For artwork, I used traditional Maldivian lacquer artwork, known as 'Liyelaa.'

Fig. 1.10: Final Project - Designing collateral


Fig. 1.11: Final Project - Collateral: Book


Fig. 1.12: Final Project - Collateral: Notebook


Fig. 1.13: Final Project - Collateral: CD


Fig. 1.14: Final Project - Collateral: Bookmarks with Maldivian proverbs


Fig. 1.15: Final Project - Collateral flatlay (final)


Fig. 1.16: Final Project - Collateral flatlay (PDF)


FEEDBACK

Week 10 (28/10/20)

General Feedback:
Finalize ideas soon and get started on designing the typeface as soon as possible.

Specific Feedback:
The idea is fine, study the chosen Thaana typeface in detail when designing the typeface. Avoid designing slanted letters and keep them straight.

Week 11 (4/11/20)

General Feedback:
Start working on collateral ASAP.

Specific Feedback:
Reduce the rounded points on the letters. Either keep working on current design or come up with an alternative with capital letters. Study how the original Thaana reference typeface was designed.

Week 12 (11/11/20)

Was absent for this class.

Week 13 (18/11/20)

General Feedback:
Have all the blog posts ready for next class, check and double check all the links.

Specific Feedback:
Adjust thickness of the letters G and Z. A little overboard with the artwork use in the collateral, but it's tastefully done and acceptable due to the use case.


REFLECTIONS

Experience:

Week 10-11: Last stretch of the semester was incredibly hectic. Managing time was still the biggest issue, trying to balance the workload for all the subjects but I did what I could. I was able to come up with an idea for my final project easily enough as I thought about it over the semester, but designing the actual letters was quite frustrating. Week 11-12: The initial design I came up with wasn't working well, but when I started over from scratch it came to me quite easily. Designing collateral wasn't difficult either, as I had been trying to visualize it for weeks already, before the project actually started. Week 13: This week was just making minor adjustments and finishing up the blog, so it wasn't nearly as stressful for this subject, but I still had a massive workload from other subjects as well.

Observation:

Week 10-11: I noticed that a lot of other students were struggling with their typeface design as well, in terms of maintaining consistency. Others had done a great job from the start. Week 11-13: I felt a little troubled as other students had designed both an uppercase and lowercase set, whereas I only had uppercase letters, so I tried to use what I had as best I could when I designed the collateral.

Findings:

Week 10-11: I found that studying the original Thaana script in-depth helped a great deal when designing the Latin version, especially in terms of how the letters flowed together. Week 11-13: Trying to be as consistent as possible with the designs for my collateral turned out to be the right thing to do, as Mr Vinod mentioned that they had been tastefully done.

FURTHER READING

Week 10 (28/10/20)
Maldivian language and alphabets (https://omniglot.com/writing/thaana.htm)

Fig. 2.1: Maldivian language and alphabets

Background study I did on the Maldivian alphabet. The website included quite a lot of additional links on the Thaana alphabet.

Week 11 (28/10/20)
Thaana fonts (http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Thaana.html)

Fig. 2.2: Thaana fonts

This is a collection of Thaana various fonts with different styles. I downloaded a lot of them and experimented with how the letters worked together; I noticed that quite a lot of them had kerning issues.

Week 12 (18/10/20)
How to design a typeface system (https://www.fontself.com/blog/5-tips-to-design-a-typeface-system)


Fig. 2.3: How to design a typeface system

This article gave me a bit of insight on how to refine my letters when designing a typeface. It helped me keep the letters I designed consistent.



Popular posts from this blog

Major Project

Image
Ahmed Yaman Ibrahim (0341119) Major Project *Professional Development Week reflection is in the Week 8 section of this post. Week 1 Ideas 1. Gamification platform for schools Based on dissertation topic - An app that gamifies the school experience for students - providing features such as leaderboards, rewards for turning in work on time and for making extra effort, as well as setting sequential objectives and class-wide goals for schoolwork and homework. Teachers would be allowed to reward students based on their performance with badges and other benefits. It would be built as a web app so it can be used with any operating system and can be simultaneously accessed from a mobile phone and a desktop. Sample layout for homepage Main features: Class subjects as individual topics with sequential objectives Reward and scoring system for work submission, to be reflected on a leaderboard Leaderboard that displays students based on performance to encourage competition Badges as a part of rewar...
Read more

Information Design - Individual Projects

Image
21/1/20 - 24/1/20 (Week 3 - Week 7) Ahmed Yaman Ibrahim (0341119) Information Design Individual Projects LECTURE NOTES Project 1: Recipe infographic Week 3 - Week 7 Project 1 consists of creating an A3 infographic poster for a food recipe of our choosing. Lecture 2: Animation Week 3 - Week 7 Project 2 involves creating an animation (max one min.) or looping gif of the recipe. INSTRUCTIONS PROJECTS Project 1: Infographic poster I chose tiramisu for my recipe as I felt it wasn't overly complicated while also not being too simple to fit into a one-minute timeframe for the animation. I looked up a few recipes online to figure out the most common elements in the recipe and began sketching how I could lay out the poster. Fig. 1.1: Project 1 (Layout sketches) I then moved to Illustrator to visualize the design better as I went along creating it. I decided I'd try an isometric design for the tiramisu illustration, so I created a basic i...
Read more

Advanced Typography - Exercises

Image
26/08/20 - 23/09/20 (Week 1 - 5) Ahmed Yaman Ibrahim (0341119) Advanced Typography Exercises LECTURE NOTES Lecture 1: Briefing & Typographic Systems 26/08/20 (Week 1) Our first lecture consisted of a briefing of the module to all students followed by a lecture on our first exercise topic: Typographic Systems. We were shown excerpts of the book Typographic Systems by Kimberly Elam for reference. Typographic Systems The 8 typographic systems mentioned above are Axial, Radial, Dilatational, Random, Grid, Modular, Transitional and Bilateral. These systems are meant to serve as a sort of organizational framework for arranging type on a composition in a way that is functional and visually sound. 1. Axial System In the axial system, type is aligned to either side of an axis. This is especially helpful when organizing lists, or several bodies of text on a composition. Fig. 1.1: Axial system examples 2. Radial system In this system, the type extends outward fro...
Read more