DESIGN BOARD BRIEF

RATIONALE

403àstudio brief 1,2

For every module

Present work for all practical work

Min 6 pages

A3

9-10 pt

Simple grid layout

Paper type (something related to the theme)

Do not copy your blog into the board

Formal writing (3^rdPOV) more objectively

SHORT RATIONALE

IMAGE OF THE FINAL TYPEFACE AND KIT/TYPE SPECIMEN (add PINS design)

RESEARCH

Source of the initial ideas

Contextual research (designers)àhow your work violate his ideas?

Analyse intentions and ideas behind (not only about how it looks) (why? How? What for?)

correct terminology to describe the anatomy of type

INITIAL IDEAS

5 short paragraphs for the 5 initial ideas

Annotate the 5 ideas

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT (like a story board)

Use columns rows and images

Reasons behind

Your responses to peer review n crits

Analyse how changes improve your design

Correct terminology

FINAL OUTCOME / PRODUCTION

Ideas behind how your typeface is being used (branding? Signage? Way finding? Learning? Game?)

How scale might change presentation (massive? Small?)

Format of the type specimen

Image on how you use the machine

Promotable?

Website àanimation

Social media (gifs)

How it might be used in context, on objects (testing)

EVALUATION

How you stepped out of your comfort zone

How you create something exciting

If you are allowed to do it again, what is important to know?

What rules are important? (consistencyàvital for typeface)

Parts that could be improved –

Sketch out ideas to improve themàsplit up into different pages, one idea one page

TODAY:

Rationale

Design ideas

Design development

Keep things gridded

INDESIGN:

Acrobat àfile àprint àportrait

Single sided better

Simple binding 

RATIONALE

As I an still having no idea on which font I am going to choose fore my final outcome, I decided to write a short description for both of the fonts that i did. 

THE ANGULAR FONT:

(I did a stencil of rhombuses, triangles and trapeziums out of card papers. If I go for this typeface, I will probably be making stencils as the machine. I am going to attend the laser printing workshop to make my machine. This typeface perfectly corresponds to the topic -MODULAR. However, I think that stencils are a bit lame and boring. Therefore, I am still thinking about it. Am I gonna use stencil as my final machine? Do I really like this typeface as much as the cylinder typeface?)

The strong and sharp typeface that is made of only rhombuses, trapeziums and triangles. 

Two trapeziums form the base of each letter.Triangles for eyes and small strokes.

With only three simple shapes, 26 alphabets are created. 

THE CYLINDER/CAN FONT:

(To be honest I really like this typeface as it looks more neat and unified. However, it is very hard to make the machine. I have thought of many ways to make a cylinder with rows of pockets on it for people to slip small blocks of papers in. However, they didn’t really work. I have thought of a new idea of using a large lemonade bottle as the cylinder and stick plastic strips on it to make rows of pockets. However, after the long process of planning, I still couldn’t find a way to perfectly stick the plastic strips onto the cylinder without any marks or glue or tape. That’s why I am struggling in which typeface I am going to choose. Am I gonna choose the one that is more secure? Or am I gonna go for the cylinder typeface that I personally like more?)

A 3-D typeface which gives people an artistic yet, neat feeling. Each one of the letters are made of a transparent cylinder. 

Looking from the front, they are made of small black blocks. You can see through the back with a reflected version of each letter.

THE CANLIND TYPEFACE (STUDIO BRIEF1)

THE CANLIND TYPEFACE:

The word “Canlind” is made up of “can” and “cylinder”.

The counters and the bowls in the word “Canlind” looks like it is made up of vertical lines and circles.

“Canlind” corresponds to the structure of the typeface.

Angela's typeface

I was inspired by Angela's design. She used boxes for her typeface design and it inspired me to use cylinders for my typeface. The typeface ended up looking very interesting as they look very consistent. I created a system of omitting one box when there is a turn.

RATIONALE

A 3-D typeface which gives people an artistic yet, neat feeling. Each one of the letters are made of a transparent cylinder. 

Looking from the front, they are made of small black blocks. You can see through the back with a reflected version of each letter.

THE RULES

I modified the typeface today as I realised that the letters are applied by the same rules. They are not unified by the system. Therefore, I added rules to the typeface.

1. omit one block when there is a turn in the letter

2. single blocks cannot be put together diagonally

EXPERIMENTS 

I started off by sticking a lolly stick onto a metal ring. I used UHU to stabilized the stick onto the ring. However, it didn’t work at last as the glue is not strong enough. Therefore, I tried to wrap a small sheet of card paper onto the ring in order to have the lolly stick more stabilized when stuck onto it. 

It still didn’t work as the paper cannot be stuck onto the ring properly.

I bought metal rings and lolly sticks from the craft store and planned to stick them together to form a cylinder. However, it didn’t work as it is hard to stabalize the lolly sticks onto the metal rings.

I then came up with this idea of using plastic sheets in stead of lolly sticks. However, the same problem came up. I have no idea how to stabilise the sheet on the rings without showing any tape traces. 

An other idea came up is that I can actually use large soft drink bottles. I can cut the bottom and top off to create a cylinder shape for the machine. Then i will stick plastic strips onto the the inner side of the bottle to make a pocket. Then, i will provide small black squared papers for people to slide them into the pockets. People can then play around with the papers and slide them into the pockets and form letters. However, another problem came up. The papers are going to slide horizontally and the whole thing will end up being messy. 

NEW IDEAS 

thinking of using a MILO can to hold the cylinder to make it more 'real' like a product for people to use or to play with. Gonna paint the can black and add some black checkers on it to correspond with the font with is made up of black boxes. For the instructions, I am thinking of printing the rules onto a card paper and put it in the box or stick it on the lid or the bottome on the can.

22-10-2018

I modified the typeface today as I realised that the letters are applied by the same rules. They are not unified by the system. Therefore, I added rules to the typeface.

1. omit one block when there is a turn in the letter

2. single blocks cannot be put together diagonally

I realised that after adding the rules, the design process became smoother and the typeface became more like a whole. 

I also did the lower case sketches today. As i just found out that we are required to make both lower and uppercase, I immediately started making the lower case today by applying the same rules. It  was quite smooth and everything went well in the typeface designing process. However, when it comes to making the physical machine... I was lost. I have thought of many different ideas in making the machine in the past week, but they didn't work. Everything seemed to be great when you visualize them, however, when it comes to really making the ideas into something physical, they didn't really go well, The lolly sticks are not sticking onto the metal ring, the acetate cannot be stuck onto the metal ring, the lemonade bottle was to fragile n thin and did not look good for a real machine... Everything just didn't work well... 

Got some new ideas today after having a quick chat with the teacher:

- velcro?

- stickers?

- magnets?

- acrylic tubes?

ANOTHER IDEA 

acetate rings with two black box on each, make them exactly opposite to each other. Put five of the rings on each column. People can then turn each ring to build a letter.

As I do not have any clear tape left, I used masking tape to draft.

Later, I bought some clear tape and it looked a lot cleaner. I then stuck some tags onto each ring so that people can easily recognise the rings in order to turn them.

 

 I made every single one of the rings identical by sticking 2 black squared stickers on them. The two stickers are stuck directly opposite to each other to make the reflecting effect. 

 The idea worked well, therefore, I decided to move on to the real machine.

I bought a acrylic cylinder from Amazon and i used that as the base of the machine. I then wrapped 5 rings around it to form one column of rings. I will then make 5 columns of rings as my typeface is made up of 5x5 units.

THE TYPE SPECIMEN

BOOKLET (SQUARED)

I arranged the circles and the words into different orders to try out the best looking one.

GIF

POSTER(A3/ A0) 

 SILENT CRIT FEEDBACKS

-      Works really well as a set

-      Function of the type not very clear

-      Colour scheme really suits the project

-      Cleaner instructions might be needed on how to use your machine 

-      Format of specimen well considered e.g. paper size and could be well mass-produced

-      Rationale / explanation/ justification of typeface is not very clear

-      Colour scheme for booklet is uniform throughout and is presented very nicely

-      Instructions on how to use the machine/ kit isn’t very clear – try expand on this and explain step by step?

-      Choice of paper stock is alright and works relatively well 

-      Just noticed the note in your kit – I understand how it works better now. try include the instructions in your booklet alongside the diagrams

-      Type itself is very interesting, bold and iconic

-      Machine (I tried it out) is quite confusing to use

-      Aesthetic of specimen very nice but maybe a few unnecessary pages

-      What type of binding would work best?

-      Typeface is very interesting but functioning the game needs more explanation

-      Like how interactive – function of game clear

-      Paper used could be more considered – e.g. acetate to suit the game concept

-      Although hard concept for a typeface – it is very legible 

-      More refinement of the actual game to make it as inciting as the specimen

-      Amazing idea with a strong and clear design and aesthetic, the created typeface is interesting and highly professional and legible

-      With the ‘use it, play it’ pages I would write this in your own typeface.

-      The 3D tube is lovely—it could be simplified with one sheet that fits in the tube to become 3D?

-      The posters are beautiful, the black and white works well – could experiment printing onto stock that is coloured to match the red/ blue/ yellow in the specimen

-      Great colour scheme – primary colours always works well

-      Reference in what context the typeface would be used in

-      Find it quite hard to read what all the words say àlike how the specimen was larger versions of each letter – makes it easier to visualize and understand them

-      Could have done the key words in the typeface

-      Don’t understand the poster ‘use it, play it’àis it a game? àneeds to be clear in the rationale

-      Posters are very visually attractive

 EVALUATION

I am happy and satisfied after looking at the feedbacks. People liked my typeface and that they are visually satisfied with the posters. They think that the primary colours go well with the design and that they think that the typeface is legible. However, they think that the rationale is not clear enough. I understand that there might not be clear instructions and rationales as I wasn’t fully prepared for the crit. I didn’t put the instructions on how to use the machine on the posters and the booklet. Also, people are quite confused about the USEIT, PLAY IT pages. Then, I realised that I didn’t put my ideas of what context the typeface would be used in in the type specimen. What I meant by USE I, PLAY IT is that I want people to play the machine that I made and also I have another idea of putting a light bulb or candle in the cylinder to make it into a lamp. I regretted not putting these ideas in the type specimen. I wonder what will the feedbacks be if I put them in the specimen in the first place. I agree with the statement that my typeface do look better and more legible when in larger sizes. Therefore, I decided to make the posters into sizes of A0 so that everything will be enlarged and the outcome will be more legible. 

SHAPE-FORMS (POST-IT)

Today’s task was to use three different colours of post-its to form create letterforms by filling each square with a colour. We had to use the colours to allow two words to occupy the same gridded space simultaneously. One colour will serve as ground for the other, and vice versa. 

Our group chose FORMS and SHAPE as our letterforms. We decided to use pink for SHAPE and blue for FORMS as they are the two brightest colours from the three and yellow will be the background as it is the mildest. 

This is the final outcome and the teachers asked us to do an animation for it. Therefore , we turned the pinks 45 degrees to make diagonals.

We made another one with the S and P moving. 

-      Do not look at every single letter

-      Look at them as a whole

STUDY TASK
"GESTALT"

= the whole is other than some of the parts

-      Even entirely separated àlook at them as a whole

= ’shape’ / ‘form’

àhow visual input is perceived by human 

1.    EMERGENCE 

-      whole is identified before the parts 

2.    REFICATION

-      Our mind fill in the gaps

3.    MULTI-STABILITY

-      Seeks to avoid uncertainty 

4.    INVARIANCE 

LAW OF SIMPLICITY 

àconfronted with complex shapes àrecognized simplicity 

CLOSURE

àseeks simplicity 

àfills missing information 

àform the complete figure

SYMMETRY AND ORDER

-      Impose an order

PROXIMITY 

-      Arranged on a line or curve 

àmore related

SIMILARITY

-      Share similar characteristics 

àmore similar

FOCAL POINT

FIGURE GROUND

àwhite space is to be regarded as an active elements not black

-      Stable

-      Reversible

-      Ambiguous

Space= establish contrast, emphasis, hierarchy