Typography - Task 3: Type Design & Communication
15/6/2025-13/7/2025 / Week 8-Week 13
Nastaran Erfan / 0368366
Typography / Bachelor of Mass Communication (Honours) Digital Media Production / Taylor's University
Task 3: Type Design & Communication
Table of Content:
INSTRUCTIONS
TYPE DESIGN
Task 3: Type Design & Communication
Visual Reference:
My goal was to design a font that has the line weight variation of Bodoni but is a Sans Serif font. Then I went to find other fonts to take inspiration from.
In the end I used the following fonts as visual reference:
- Felix Titling - Regular
- Bernard MT Condensed - Regular
- Futura Std - Light Condensed
- Bodoni Std - Poster Compressed
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| Figure 1.1: Visual Reference (15/6/2025) |
Deconstruction:
Then I began deconstructing a letter from each font.
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| Figure 1.2: Deconstruction (17/6/2025) |
Writing Letters:
I began practicing and experimenting with a variety of markers.
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| Figure 1.3: Testing (20/6/2025) |
Then I selected the style I wanted to approach, and also the markers I wanted to use. I also tested if I wanted to choose lowercase or uppercase letters.
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| Figure 1.4: Further Test (23/6/2025) |
Then for the final page I decided to finalize the style that I wanted, so I wrote everything 3 times.
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| Figure 1.5: Finalized Style (23/6/2025) |
Then I selected the best ones of each letter.
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| Figure 1.6: Finalized Sketch (29/6/2025) |
Digitization:
I started to digitize the letters, first, I decided to create an exact replica of the sketch, then I decided to explore a variety of custom brush angles for the thin strokes. Then I started to change the angle of the thin strokes to match the angle of the brush.
After working on the letters I worked on punctuation marks. I then used "outline stroke" and pathfinder to create the finalized shapes for each of the letters/punctuation marks.
I also measured the descender, baseline, median line, cap line, and ascender line.
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| Figure 1.6: Finalized Digitization (7/7/2025) |
Then I installed Fontlab 8 on on my laptop, then added the measurements for descender, baseline, median line, cap line, and ascender in fontlab. Then I started to import each individual letter.
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| Figure 1.7: Imported Letters (7/7/2025) |
After importing each letter, I started to adjust the sidebearing of all of the letters according to the chart Mr. Vinod provided us.
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Then I exported the final font and installed it on my device. I called the font Sleek 3D.
Poster:
Figure 1.9: Final Poster (13/7/2025)
Font Tester:
Final Type Design:
Font details:
- Descender: -192 pt
- Baseline: 0 pt
- Median Line: 500 pt
- Cap Line: 734 pt
- Ascender: 778 pt
Download Font Here
Figure 1.10: Final Task 3A: Type Design and Communication - Sleek 3D (13/7/2025)
Figure 1.10: Final Task 3A: Type Design and Communication - Sleek 3D (13/7/2025)
Figure 1.11: Final A4 Poster (13/7/2025)
Figure 1.12: Final Construction (PDF) (13/7/2025)
Figure 1.13: Final Task 3A: Type Design and Communication - Sleek 3D (PDF) (13/7/2025)
Figure 1.14: Final A4 Poster (PDF) (13/7/2025)
FEEDBACK
Week 8
General Feedback: Based on the feedbacks others got, I realized I need to
explore more before showing it to Mr. Vinod.
Week 9
General Feedback: At the same time as the stream I had a class (editing
techniques) so I messaged mr. Vinod. I also watched the recording.
Week 10
General Feedback: I was absent due to a severe headache.
Week 11
General Feedback: We were working on perfecting the design for each letter,
we got some tips on how to import things into Fontlab.
Specific
Feedback: Mr. Vinod suggested I add angles to everything for the sake of
consistancy.
Week 12
General Feedback: Mr. Vinod assisted us with creating the poster and
mentioned the requirements.
Specific Feedback: He also
pointed out a few errors in my punctuation mark design and I fixed them
accordingly.
REFLECTION
Experience:
This assignment was actually the most interesting one in my opinion; it made me create something that I'll definitely use in the future.Observation:
While working on each stroke, the letterforms, and the kerning, I realized that creating fonts aren't easy and are pretty time consuming, from the very first step that is experimenting on paper to digitalizing in adobe illustrator and imporing/exporting everything in fontlab.Findings:
Creating a type design is a very delicate process that requires a lot of studying, trial and error and practice.FURTHER READINGS
Before tackling a typeface design I needed to study more than the 10 fonts we were provided from week 1; so I went to search for references both online and from the books Mr. Vinod has given us.
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| Figure 2.1: A type primer 2nd Edition (Kane, 2011) (14/7/2025) |
The first book I looked into was A type primer.
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| Figure 2.2: Page 53-54, Understanding letterforms (14/7/2025) |
This bit was also in the lecture slides, but it was good reviewing it to have a better understanding in how to introduce asymmetry and dynamism into our font. I liked how the example on the left is Sans Serif but it’s still pretty dynamic.
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| Figure 2.3: Page 14, Display typefaces (14/7/2025) |
This specific page gave me great ideas about how to add character to my font design.
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| Figure 2.4: Typographic design: Form and communication (Carter et. al, 2015) (14/7/2025) |
Carter, R., Day, B., Meggs, P. B., Maxa, S., & Sanders, M. (2015). Typographic design: Form and communication. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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| Figure 2.5: Page 40, The Anatomy of Typography (14/7/2025) |
Something similar to this was also mentioned in the lecture slides, however it's nice to see a more variety of fonts. It was only after seeing all of these different classification of fonts that I decided I wanted to create something that is either extra/ultra condensed, bold, Sans Serif, with line weight variation.
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