TYPOGRAPHY- TASK 2
2025-2025(week6 - week7)
FANN WONG JING EN｜0382237
Design Principles | Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Typography GCD60104
TABLE OF CONTENT
MODULE INFORMATION BRIEF (MIB)
LECTURE NOTE
Week5: Letters | Understanding
1. Visual symmetry of letters
Although some letters look symmetrical, designers have actually made many adjustments in details to make them "look" symmetrical but actually slightly deviate. This subtle design is intended to make the text more natural and harmonious visually.
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2. The importance of x-height
• "x-height" is a standard used to measure the height of lowercase letters, usually with the height of the letter "x" as a reference.
• Some letters with curved strokes (such as "s") must extend slightly beyond the center line or below the baseline in order to appear visually as high as straight strokes.
This is a "visual compensation" technique that makes all letters look the same size.
fig1.1 Maintaining x-height | from lecture typo_5_understanding
3. Form and space
• "Counter-form" refers to the blank area inside or between letters.
• When words are combined into words, it is not just the strokes that make up the shape of the characters, but also the spaces between the characters that shape the visual rhythm and overall sense.
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4. The power of contrast
• Font design also uses the basic principles of graphic design, the most important of which is "contrast".
• Through the changes in thickness, size, shape, and space, designers can create text effects with strong expressiveness and reading guidance.
Contrast is not only the source of beauty, but also the key to attracting attention.
Week6: Screen&Print | Different Medium
1. Fonts are everywhere
Fonts are the core of visual communication. Whether in books, advertisements, web pages or movie subtitles, they appear in different forms and exist in every medium we come into contact with.
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2. Paper reading vs. screen reading: two media, two design thinking
Print Type
• Long before the birth of electronic screens, fonts were born for
reading on paper.
• Designers pay special attention to the
fluency of typesetting and the comfort of reading.
• Classic
fonts used for printing include: Caslon, Garamond, Baskerville, which
are elegant, knowledgeable and easy to read for a long time.
Screen Type
• Designed for web pages and digital devices.
• After special
optimization, it improves the clarity and recognition on various
electronic screens (such as mobile phones, computers, and tablets).
•
In order to make small-size fonts clear and easy to read, the spacing
is often adjusted to be wider and the spacing is wider.
•
Although these adjustments may change the appearance of the original
font, the essence is to adapt to the digital reading environment.
Hyperlink
• It is a new unit of text that can be clicked and jumped to, which can
be connected to a new web page or a specific part of a document.
•
It is usually presented in blue with an underline.
Appropriate font size on the screen
• The 16-pixel size used on the screen is equivalent to the size of
text printed on a book, mainly to adapt to the reading distance between
the human eye and the screen.
System fonts and web-safe fonts
• The built-in fonts of each device will vary according to the
operating system.
• If a font is not available in the system when
the user browses the web, the text will be automatically replaced with
the default font, which may affect the overall design effect.
•
Therefore, "Web Safe" fonts are often used in web design to ensure
normal display across devices and platforms.
Pixel differences between different devices
• The resolution and screen size of mobile phones, tablets, computers,
and TVs are different, resulting in different visual sizes and
proportions of text with the same font size on different devices.
fig1.5 Pixel Differential Between Devices | from lecture typo_6_screen&print
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4. static fonts vs. dynamic fonts: text can also "dance"
Static Typography
• Traditional fonts express tone through bold, italics, etc., but their
expressiveness is still relatively limited.
• It emphasizes the
clear transmission of text information, not action or change.
Motion Typography
• With the development of film, television, and music videos, text has
begun to "move".
• In movie titles and advertisements, fonts can
move, deform, and jump with the rhythm of music to enhance the visual
experience.
• This dynamic effect not only conveys information, but
also creates an atmosphere and guides the audience into the story
situation.
I have chosen Article 2: 《Punk's Design Revolution : Breaking The Rules. 》
My understanding of this article
This article talks about the origin, spirit and influence of punk design. It emphasizes an anti-traditional, anti-commercial and anti-aesthetic attitude. In New York and London in the 1970s, punk was not only a musical style, but also a visual revolution.
Punk design does not pursue perfection and symmetry. It likes to use torn paper, hand-cutting, rough fonts, black and white contrast, and even "untidy" typesetting to express an attitude of "I don't care about rules".
I understand its core spirit as three keywords: rebellion and authenticity.
Maybe today, we are used to smooth, clean, and high-end visual designs, but punk tells us: design does not have to be "good-looking", it just needs to "have something to say", it is powerful enough.
Visual References
1. The first picture "PUNK"
• Although the font is bold sans serif (very simple), it is torn,
blocked, and misplaced, conveying the attitude of "punk is imperfect and
opposes neat alignment".
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2. The second picture "DAMAGED"
• The font is clean sans serif, but it expresses "destruction" and
"scars" through a large number of cracked lines (such as broken
glass).
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3. The third picture "PUNK ROCK"
• The words seem to be stamped, and each word looks like it is printed
on an old newspaper or a dirty wall.
• Rough, irregular, and each
square is different, conveying the "street feeling", "handmade DIY" and
"dirty and real" of punk.
Creative techniques
1. Materialized Typography
• Instead of using ordinary fonts, the title font is processed by imitating "painting" and "fault effects".
2. Contrast composition method
• "BREAKING" is vertically arranged with soft grayscale; "RULES" is horizontally arranged with strong black and white fragmentation - two contrasting designs enhance the impact.
Digitalized
Finals Outcome
FEEDBACK
Week7: specific feedback: The main problem is that everything is not coherent and cannot form a whole
REFLECTION
Tips I learned when designing this picture
• Fonts can express emotions
For the first time, I realized that fonts are really not just for "writing". Like the treatment of the title "RULES" this time, I used a broken and torn design to simulate the texture of hand-cutting. Such fonts are like "shouting", conveying a feeling of anger, dissatisfaction, and restlessness.
• Contrast can create visual tension
The "BREAKING" side is vertical, gray, and neatly arranged, while the "RULES" side is horizontal, black and white, and the font is broken. This contrast is exactly the visual language of "breaking the rules", which is very direct and powerful.
• Chaos is not chaos, but a style
At first I was very worried about "whether it will be too messy", but later I found that as long as the structure is clear, even if the style is rough, it will have more attitude. Punk design is the feeling of "dirty and messy, but you will remember it".
• Layout can have personality
In the past, I thought that layout was "aligned well and placed neatly", but this time I learned that layout can also be part of the design. Just like the middle column this time, although the text is neat, the chaos of the font and title creates a very contrasting visual effect as a whole.
THE FURTHER READING
What caught my attention at the beginning of this book were the two words in the title: "Form" and "Communication". In the past, when I was doing typesetting, I always instinctively placed the words, thinking that beauty was enough, without thinking too much. But this book made me realize that: font, size, line spacing, alignment, in fact, every visual choice is "speaking". Typesetting is not just visual design, but information strategy - how you use vision to guide others to read, how to see the key points, how to follow the logic, these are all part of typesetting.
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1. The foundation book of systematic typesetting principles
The content of this book is clearly layered, from the basic structure of fonts, grid system, alignment principles, to dynamic typesetting, information hierarchy, and visual rhythm guidance, gradually constructing a typesetting "language system".
The following points are particularly beneficial to me:
• Grid System:
It is not just a tool for aligning text, but also an invisible support for visual order. It made me re-understand that "neatness" does not mean "rigidity", but a sense of order that serves information.
• Hierarchy:
The book emphasizes the establishment of clear information paths through size, thickness, spacing, etc., so that readers can "see" the key points without explanatory text. This is the art of visual guidance.
• Dynamic Composition:
Design does not have to be static. Text can be moved, twisted, and extended-as long as it still serves communication. This is a very important inspiration for my future attempts at animated text and interactive web page typography.
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2. Integration from function to beauty: typography is a way of thinking
The book has always emphasized: Typography is design thinking. This made me realize that typography is not actually "art processing", but a balance between rationality and sensibility, and a way of thinking that solves communication problems through visual forms.
For example, if the font of a non-profit organization's leaflet is too decorative or the information hierarchy is chaotic, it will drown out important information; and if the font of an exhibition poster is too mechanical and has no emotional tension, it will also be difficult to attract attention. Typography is in these "invisible structures" to determine whether a message can be "seen".
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