On the first week we had a simple exercise to warm up our creative juice and being introduced to typography in the process. I recall taking a class in basic Typography far back in Polytechnic several years ago (6 years ago, my, has it been that long?). Since then I have applied that skill in things like name card and posters. It is nice and refreshing to be re-learning an old skill again, this time from a fresher perspective.

Here is an interesting short video of the History of Typography I found that I thought is useful to share:

I have also found an interactive website of the History of Typography here: http://www.counterspace.us/typography/timeline/

Some of my old notes… (Basically same as the notes given on week 1 but split up)

2000px-Typography_Line_Terms.svg

13 FYTI Anatomy of A Character TTS

FYTIAnatomyofACharacter3

A quick search on Google led me to this interesting checklist:

A.Checklist

Looking through more Typography videos led me to these two introduction videos from Lynda.com:

 

20160115_092202

Ok, so enough about traditional Typography, now I want to talk about Project 1. I am thankful that the project is open-ended in which any medium is acceptable and being an Animation major, I want my Typography project to have influence from character design.

My Overall Theme: Dreamscape
Style: Doodle/Hand-drawn Drawings
Keywords: Cute, appealing, imaginative, surreal, reflective, serenity

In the prior 2D I class, I had did some surface research of Dada and Russian Constructivism and even a bit of Futurism and Cubism but those are not really the style I am looking for, so instead my research will focus on mainly alternative ways to represent Typography such as Handmade Typography, Isometric Typography and Doodle Typography with a hint of surrealism and stylized doodling here and there.

After doing a mindmap of words/jobs to represent, I came up with: Necromancer, Monster Tamer, Anxious, Depressive, Cat Whisper, and Dreamer.

Some of my initial research with decorative design:

example1

 

I then looked at how character design and doodling can be Incorporated into decorative typeface. I find that these will be a basis mainly for Monster Tamer and Necromancer.

example3

example2

As my overall theme is Dreamscape and one of my “job” is Dreamer, I look into M C Escher (love his word by the way), specifically The Waterfall, and took inspiration with 3D/Isometric typography and the way space is used as a core element.

mc-escher-waterfall Print e2da73310c54dc2375719578a85ab29c

E-feat-752x490

example4

I decided that to bridge all the work with an overarching element, with doodling, I feel that having an outline (rather than vector as is the case above) would be important. Here are some rough examples of how it might look:

example5

I feel that the type should be hand-drawn instead of having perfect lines like above to give it a doodle feel. In regards to the type of typefaces, I always feel close to Sans Serif, probably because of my love of video games and video game companies tend to have Sans Serif typefaces.

a9d03015-2760-43df-8056-d23af1969289 Logo-PSX Sega_logo-2 Square-Enix-Logo 2000px-Nintendo_red_logo.svg


For color and mood, I look to the video game Mountain Valley (which is again inspired by M C Escher).

mv2

monumentvalley_gdc_long screenshot4monument-valley-android-02

monument-1

The cool color of the first few give it a calm and dreamy feel, while the grey and dark of the last two is good for anxious and depressive.

I usually get inspired by music when doing artwork, this time I am inspired by a track that I feel is appropriate to the emotion I am trying to archive.


 

Lastly I just want to share a few videos I come across that I find it might be useful for this Project.

This amazing short documentary consist of interviews and background knowledge of a master typographer. His process of reinventing a typeface for a project is a useful insight on how master designer works.

Next is the classic typography documentary – 2007’s Helvetica (can’t believe it has been this long). A graphic design/typography documentary centered around the typeface of the same name.

Next is a video from PBS The Art Assignment (awesome channel about contemporary art), How to Critique, that I find would be useful in giving feedback to other artist/designer.

Phew, finally done with the first set of research for Project 1. Time to get to work.