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New assignment! Lets go!

BRIEF 3

Brief 3 BLACK & WHITE TYPE: Playing with type language
Summary Typography is a versatile element in the world of visual communication. Not only is it meant for language communication but also as graphic communication. The following experiments will get you to think differently about typography. It aims to equip you with the principles of type and also pushes for discovery of new typeform. Use only black and white, no other colours are allowed.
Assignment objectives: Exercise 3a and 3b will allow students to appreciate type beyond its textual nature but as a graphic element of image creation. Exercise 3c develops the students’ sensitivity to the scale and white spaces of typography and the impact it produces to communicate emotions.
Task 1 3a. Type as image

Select one traditional typeface and create a series of composition explorations from it. You may use the various font within the typeface as your series but you need to stick to your chosen typeface. Explore the various anatomy of the selected letter and see how you can create an image out of it. You may also crop or combine certain anatomy together to create your image !

For example:

Typeface: Baskerville

Font: Bold / Light / Italics

Deliver: 2 best compositions at 14cm by 14cm.

Printed on quality white paper card (more than 150gsm)
Task 2 3b. Type as pattern

Create a series of patterns using a single letterform from any traditional typeface (for eg, an “S”). Copy and repeat the letter in columns or rows to make an overall pattern. Change the spacing of the letters to create variations, create repetitive rows and columns and try overlap them. Change the orientation of elements to find your own grid. Repeat

that grid to see what kind of pattern reveal itself

Deliver: 2 best pattern creations at 14cm by 14cm.

Printed on quality white paper card (more than 150gsm)
Task 3 3c. Type as emotion

What does emotion looks like in black and white? Express the word “HELLO” in the following mood. Choose only 4.

Friendly, Angry, Seductive, Confused, Arrogant,

Depressed, Annoyed, Excited, Bored.

Use only one typeface throughout but feel free to vary the different weights, caps, spacing, sizing etc. Explore negative and positive spaces too! No manipulation of type.

Deliver: 4 different emotional type creation at 14cm by 14cm.
Printed on quality white paper card (more than 150gsm)
What you
must deliver
for this assignment		 A total of 8 square cards

A process documentation link on OSS
Grading criteria
  • Due diligence of experimentation
  • Depth of methodology and craftsmanship
  • Aesthetics of image creations
  • Sensitivity of paper choices
Due date: Week 10

So before that, Miss Angeline allowed us to do some experiments in class to have a gauge of what the assignment for task 1 and 2 is about!

Task 1 trial: We were told to try different methods to distort the alphabet on the paper physically and rearranging it to create an image out of it. I cut the letter up with a pair of scissors and arranged it like so. Can you tell what letter and typeface it previously was? 🙂
Task 2 Trial: Afterwards we were to experiment with the repetition of a letter to create a pattern! Can you tell what letter and typeface it previously was? 🙂 It was the letter ‘P’ of the Typeface: Bauhaus 93.

3a. Type as image

Using different letters of the same typeface, I will slice and dice the anatomy of the letter; and then creating the letter using the anatomy of the other letters, to become another typeface.

I chose a few typefaces to narrow down which one I would like to use eventually in the end. In my search, I was looking for type that had more personality. Type where the mere fraction of its anatomy can distinguish itself from the other alphabets. Hence, I chose these 3 to analyse.

And I chose Adobe Caslon in the end as I felt that the Caslon type anatomy has more personality and can aid in distinguishing the letters.

MethodologyI also tried to recreate some other alphabets.

3b. Type as Pattern

I had a lot of fun doing this segment of the assignment as it not only is very interesting to see how each letter of each type can create beautiful patterns, the variety is endless because every angle the letter is inverted or tilted, bolder etc. It gives off a completely different feeling!

I used the typeface: Garamond for this part of the project as I really liked the old style serif. It looks classy and posh, especially the letters with the round descender, such as the lower case ‘y’.

I decided to play with many ways of creating patterns with the lower case Garamond ‘y’.

Garamond Lowercase ‘y’: I was inspired by Bohemian carpets for this pattern, wanted something that resembles the sun.

Garamond Lowercase ‘y’: Inverted the colors for this: White on Black background. I also increased the scale so that the radial composition can be seen more clearly, while also turning the composition in 45 degrees to make it less straight.

Garamond Lowercase ‘y’: Mirroring and reflecting.

I decided to play with optical illusion for upper case ‘Q’, the tail of ‘Q’ is very long and sleek, hence direction can be created subtly with the tail of ‘Q’.

Garamond Uppercase ‘Q’:
Repeating the upper case Q in a radial direction, and reflecting it so it will create a sense of movement with the different directions as indicated by the tail of the Q.

Garamond Uppercase ‘Q’:
Inverted the colors, White on Black.

Garamond Uppercase ‘Q’:
Created outlines and varying the core color to create more movement, as though you are being sucked into the hole on the top left hand corner

I have realized that not only layout and composition is very important as it is not merely just repetition, I wanted to create movement in my compositions. Hence, I chose to do my patterns in radial form, to create some form of optical illusion. In addition, I inverted the colors and played with tonality and outlines to push my designs.

3c. Type as Emotion

For this segment, I chose to use the typeface: Helvetica. My objective was to convey emotions through layout, scale and tonality.

I chose Helvetica because the typeface is very neutral. There is no biasness or any form of personality which was what I wanted as it can help me achieve my goal: Strip off any preconceived notion of typeface to express the emotion. For instance, if I were to use ‘Black Letter’ for this segment, Black Letter is medieval and vintage. Hence, using Black Letter to express the emotion, ‘anger’ it will feel like an angry old man being angry. Well… that is my interpretation. 🙂

Inspired by a weak heartbeat on the heart monitor

Changed the tonality of ‘LO’ and arranged in high and low to emulate boredom

All pushed to the side in a black background Wanting to be alone. All letters are tilted as though leaning on each other for support

Excitement is bursting of out the frame! E is tilted to show slight cheekiness as compared to the straight ‘HLLO’

Pushed all to the corner. Tonal contrast shows that it is slowly being consumed by darkness.

A more Obessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) perspective where everything is aligned properly and there is a titled letter to ruin the formation. Used Greyscale for visibility.

Swirly line formation to create a whimsical mood. Scale changes as though it is approaching you. Letters go out of the frame to express enthusiasm in the greeting.

I have come to the end for this process documentation of my explorations! Stay tuned to my final Assignment 3 post to see my final productions! 🙂

Thank you!

Seng Yi Ling.

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After reviewing the very constructive and helpful feedbacks given by my classmates and Miss Ina, I made several changes!smile

I took the advice to play with opacity and I drew extra motifs: Lotus Petals. I imagined falling petals with he floating babies would be really dreamy.

Hence I placed all my bloomed lotuses at the top, and the petals falling from there. This creates visual direction as well from top to bottom, where all the fallen petals gather at the bottom.

And then I added more existing motifs and varied the background to evoke different mood.

After consulting with Miss Ina, she asked me to try another composition where the babies are buried in lotus petals!

And it was indeed a very different feeling as compared to the floating babies composition, and I added other existing motifs to see what else works best!

I can’t help but think of the film American Beauty upon looking at the babies buried in lotus petals haha!

Furthermore, I added an overlay of the babies behind the existing ones as suggested to create greater depth to the background that works best, preparing them for test print with varying brightness, contrast and saturation!

To be honest, the comments given were really helpful because I was really stuck for a long time and the comments really helped to give me a new direction to approach my banner. THANK YOU. 🙂

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Hello all! It has been a while since I have updated this page. So here is my progress so far!smile

I digitalized my motifs which I drew on paper and then used a Wacom tablet to color in my motifs, adding shading and also changed the outlines of the motif.

I drew out a few layouts that I can explore placing my composition as I faced serveral,several issues regarding file size on Adobe Illustrator which delayed my process severely. 🙁 These is just ONE of the explorations for the layout compositions.

Banner Draft 1
I simplified the composition based on last week’s suggestion and tried out the initial design I had in mind. Composition is the same for both here, but I changed up the background gradient color to evoke different feelings.

Feedbacks and suggestions given by my lovely classmates and Miss Ina 🙂

  • Banner looks rather flat because there is no depth and motifs are roughly all of the same size.
  • Very constrained by the banner width hence it looks tight and not spacious.
  • Look on Pinterest for some inspiration for layouts and compositions.
  • Can refrain from being constrained by the width by extending motifs out of the margin. Perhaps umbilical cord and fray outside too?
  • Can play around with opacity, perhaps used in background? Flowers in the BG in low opacity.
  • Play around more with scale, to create depth. Baby big head can be of actual size? Cause now got no dominance.
  • Introduce a new motif to encapsulate the babies? Bring in an element that they can reside with.
  • Connect hard drive to laptop and save it in there, can save your computer from going into coma state.
  • Change up the colours. Maybe change the BG to more than 1 colors. Avoid going for the same colors as the motifs, other wise the motifs wont pop.

Will be doing up more draft layouts based on the feedbacks given and update this page again!! 🙂

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After several rounds of experimentation, edits and tryouts; these are my final submissions!

VERNACULAR

(A)

(B)

I had a hard time choosing between these 2 as I really liked the composition for (A) as it resembles the top view of the location I chose : Johor Bahru Jalan Wong Ah Fook , but there is readability issue with ‘World’ when inversed.

There is visual tension. And I really liked (B) as well cause the visual hierarchy made it easier for viewers to read.

18 x 18 cm Black and White Letter that has an interesting type.

ORGANIC

I further scattered the letters and changed up the scale of the letters and play around with the arrangement, while taking into consideration of visual hierarchy.
18 x 18 cm organic letter. I like the different broken glass shards within the letter. It is raw and edgy. The reflective surface creates depth.

I changed up the curve levels and got this lovely colour! It has a combusted metallic look and it is a fresh new perspective to the glass shards~

Taking a look at the Molten Metallic letter A closer!

Application

My favorite application tryouts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PRINTS

I went to multiple printing shops to get a glimpse of how my printed work will look like, and a pity to say that the printed results really vary very differently from the computer screen…   

The black A3 Organic ones are such a pity as I really wanted the glass shards to shine through the black background through its contrast, but sad to say the printing came out TERRIBLY: The ink was inconsistent and even after editing the master file so many times, there was always this grey box behind each letter…

So I decided to change up the Curves and submit the Molten Metallic Shattered Dreams against a white background, instead of the Glass on black background.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PAPER TYPE

VERNACULAR

I chose textured paper for the A3 pieces (250 gsm) for the Vernacular Type because I like the grid-like texture, which resembles the top view of the map. Comparing the texture of the paper and its location, its rough grid lines and yet smooth texture as a whole is like the area of choice: Jalan Wong Ah Fook. The town is pretty urban and a mixture of old and new.

I chose glossy white A4 (260 gsm) for the Vernacular Type 18 x18cm B/W letter is because the type itself has a smooth glossy texture, and I thought using the same texture for the printed version will emulate the same feeling.

ORGANIC

I chose silk white textured paper (different from the Vernacular paper) for the A3 pieces (250 gsm) for the Organic Type because I really liked how the type looked raw and edgy, and the irregularly gridded textured paper reflected what I felt of the broken glass type: Irregular, angular and broken.

I chose glossy white A4 (260 gsm) for the Organic Type 18 x18cm letter is because the type itself has a smooth glossy texture, and I thought using the a glossy smooth texture for the printed version will enhance the shine and smoothness of the glass pieces.

AND I AM DONE WITH ASSIGNMENT 2~ Thank you for sticking through TYPO 1 Assignment 2 posts, hope you like the final product, and see you next time on Assignment 3 posts! 🙂

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Moving on to the second part of the project: Organic type.

This is the brief given by Miss Angeline! 🙂

BRIEF 2B: ORGANIC TYPE

Brief 2B ORGANIC TYPE: Exploring free form type
Summary Typefaces are more than just mechanical characters, when produced creatively by the hand, type can provide a unique personality that a machine can never match. Cast away all preconceptions of typeface and create your own free form type that is expressive and unique !
Assignment objectives This assignment intends to take you away from your computer screen to explore the creation process of handmade typefaces, appreciating the beauty and emotions of an organic letter form
Task: Try your hands at a variety of hands-on materials and produce another phrase, quote, memory or lyric ideally between 15-25 characters including spaces. You can use the same phrase as in assignment 2a.

  1. Transfer your creation onto a digital form and then deliver
    your organic typographical creation on an A3 sheet printed on quality paper.
  2. With your organic typeface creation – apply it onto something tangible. for eg. a book cover, a title of a newsletter, a bag, a series of greeting cards etc..
Tips There will be an in-class exercise to practice the making of this assignment. Do not miss it !
What you
must deliver:		 An A3 printed poster with your organic type

A digital simulation of your organic type application

A process documentation link on OSS
Grading criteria
  • Due diligence of organic experimentation
  • Depth of methodology and craftsmanship
  • Aesthetics of letterform creation
  • Sensitivity of paper choices
Due date: Week 7 (together with vernacular type)

During the ‘In Class Pratice’ I was taken back to my Year 1 Foundation 2D class as it explores similar aspects of mark making! 🙂

I used tiny stamps and neon highlighters as an inkpad to create this, and then Angeline taught us to use Photoshop to manipulate the designs, which brings about more variety of how far the designs can be pushed!

I’ve realized that materials to create marks and impressions are all around us, and it is up to us to make full use of it to express what we want to our fullest potential. cool

EXPERIMENTATION

Starting was really hard for me because I couldn’t think of what materials to use and what 15-25 characters would be best to bring out the essence of the material used.

Just so happen, my father dropped a glass mug at home. I took the glass shards and further crushed it, hopefully I can do something with it! 🙂

 

The letters look really nice and I further experimented with the photo manipulation and played around with the colors!

It is very jarring against the white background I have realized… I was about to go blind. Hence a black background might be better! Debbie (my classmate) suggested that I should add a tinge of blue to make the glass less yellowish and it worked out really good! Thanks Debbie 🙂 ! I also added some glass shards to make it look more shattered. 🙂

Application of Organic Type on products.

Pink on the glass looks pretty sweet and on the edgy typeface !

Changing a Trajan typeface to my glass font. It looks really funny because the original typeface made the poster look really scary, but mine looks like a horror parody movie!

That is it for my Organic Type process documentation! The next up will be the Final post! Hope you’ll like it and that everything will turn out fine in the end!! innocent

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NEXT PROJECT, the following is the brief given by Miss Angeline! 🙂

BRIEF 2A: VERNACULAR TYPE

Brief 2a VERNACULAR TYPE: Exploring the spirit of street type
Summary Type found in your everyday surrounding reveals layers of stories about it’s existence. The combination of traditional type vs contemporary type, serif vs san serif, upper caps vs lower caps, type seen during the day and during the night all give hint to the culture and lifestyle of a particular area / street / town and even the city as a whole.
Assignment objectives: This assignment intends to take you away from your computer screen to explore the everyday typefaces around us and it’s application. The coloured version will deliver a flavour of the area that you are working on, while the black and white version will strip all colours away and allow one to appreciate the letterform in it’s barest state.
Task: Head down to a favourite area / neighbourhood or street and create a typographic composition to reflect the spirit of the area.

  1. Think of a phrase, quote, memory or lyric that you associate the area with, ideally between 15 -25 characters long including spaces
  1. Write this down on a piece of paper. Take a pen or pencil with you so that you can cross out the letters as you find them
  1. Find the individual letters that make up your phrase using a high quality camera with zoom lens so that you can isolate each individual letter
  1. Try a daytime and night-time version for the composition
  1. Combine your photos digitally on an A3 sheet to spell out the phrase – printed on quality paper
Places you
can go to		 Chinatown / Little India / Bugis / Joo chiat / Katong / Neighbourhood wet markets etc..  please discuss with instructor
Tips
  • You will need a good camera for zooming into the letters
  • Do a day as well as night version
  • Be prepared to return to the area for a second time as you
    may not capture all the letters that you need the first round
What you
must deliver:
  • An A3 printed poster of 15-25 character collage
  • An 18cm by 18cm printed poster of 1 single letter in black and white after
    digital manipulation
  • A process documentation on OSS
Grading criteria
  • Due diligence of vernacular type exploration
  • Sensitivity in spotting creative type forms
  • Aesthetics of poster layout
  • Sensitivity of paper choices
Due date: Week 7  (together with organic type)

Doing some mind mapping:
Because I couldn’t decide which location works best for me and which location would provide me more interesting typefaces and background, I decided to try two locations:

Ang Mo Kio Central Hawker Centre & Johor Bahru, Jalan Wong Ah Fook.

OUT FIELD

Ang Mo Kio Central Hawker CentreThings I have noticed when choosing to take photographs of Hawker Centre signboards:

  • There are glowing outlines for most of the signboard type, most likely is to attract attention.
  • The graphical forms have the purpose to inform and persuade customers to purchase. Thus the typeface used are friendlier to look at, like casual script typefaces that gives an informal vibe.
  • The most important factor is the legibility of the typeface.
  • The background of the signboard is usually much darker in color, so that the juxtaposition between the text and the background makes the text pop.

Johor Bahru, Jalan Wong Ah Fook
Things I have noticed when choosing to take photographs of signboards at Jalan Wong Ah Fook:

  • There is a mixture of traditional and modern signboards, and the difference is rather large. It feels as though it is not a transition phase, but more of two different time periods co-existing in one area. Like I am between two worlds.
  • Both typefaces in that area are rather whimsical and doesn’t seem to have any rules or restrictions. It is as though a lot of free expression was allowed when the sign typeface was created.
  • Background the typefaces were on were very raw. Especially the more traditional ones as the paints were peeling off or the material the type was on became rather old.
  • The placement of shops were very loosely organized as compared to Singapore, where food and shopping are clearly segregated; The shops here are not. On the left there would be a café, and right beside it would be a tyre shop. I love this ‘no -arrangement’ arrangement of the shops here as the spirit of being free and ‘not a care in the world’ can be seen through this street.

In the end, I have finally decided to do this Vernacular type project based on JB’s Jalan Wong Ah Fook because there is a wide variety of interesting type on various backgrounds! 🙂

Experimentation

I have decided to choose the words ‘Between Two Worlds’ as mentioned above, I find that JB’s Jalan Wong Ah Fook is like an area where two different time period co-exist together and not a transition phase where old becomes new. It is like I am between two worlds!
 I arranged the letters in a way that the word ‘two’ was not in the composition. I spelt the word ‘Worlds’ twice so there is 2 of ‘Worlds’.

In addition, I placed the word ‘Between’ in the middle of the two ‘Worlds’ which emphasizes that it is in between the two worlds. ‘Between’ acts as a barrier. ( I had a hard time explaining this haha)
After consultations, I jot down some of the feedback given by my peers and Miss Angeline.

Afterwards I made more amendments and experimented with more ways of arrangements.

Yin Yang inspiration is just a try out when I asked a friend what she thought of ‘two different world’.

That is it for my process post on Vernacular type! Stay tuned to my next 2 posts: Organic Type and Final Post for Assignment 2 😀

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Hello! So I did up some sketches and added some more possible motifs, based on the feedbacks given presentation last week!

Afterwards I tried out different forms of illustrating it in digital form, just to see which method works the best. I was looking for feasibility and which method looks best.

Thus, I attempted Image Trace, Vectoring and tracing with Wacom tablet.

Every method has its pros and cons.
-Image trace was a fast method since I already outlined it on paper, but the issue was that some lines are not clean.

-Vectoring gave clean lines and shapes, issue faced was that it was time consuming.

-Using Wacom is very fast, but I am still unfamiliar with the tablet, and little details such as the toes are just rounded up.

Hence, I would prefer working with Vectoring or maybe Image Trace for this project, and then coloring it using Wacom.

So I colored the baby using Wacom tablet over the Vectored outline method and got this as a result.

I discovered that resizing the colored baby on Adobe Illustrator poses a problem, as the colors will usually shift… I wonder how can I deal with that issue hmm…

 

 

With the colored baby, I tried doing up a pattern just by rotating, flipping and copying just to see how it’ll look like.

Woo~ it looks like they are doing a mass baby yoga event!
However, I think the lines overall still don’t look very clean and amateurish. I think colors is something I should also pay extra attention to since it may dull the whole composition if not used correctly.

What do you think? 🙂

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Hello ADM OSS! I am back here again, but this time as a Year 2 Sem 1 Viscom Typography 1 Student! So lets get started!cool

So first things first, I did some research recorded some information in class as I am still very new to this whole Typography thing…

What is Typography?
Typo(Form)graphy(writing)

Typeface VS Font
Typeface is like an album and Font is like the songs in that album. For instance Typeface is a font family ( Times New Roman , Comic Sans etc.) and font embodied a particular size and weight. For example, italicized Times New Roman at 24 point would be considered a different font than italicized Times New Roman at 28 point.

San-Serif VS Serif
Simply to my understanding, Serif are the fonts that have feet like Courier New and San-Serif typefaces are like Arial.
San (non) serif typefaces are more equidistant, clean looking and easier to read per alphabet in isolation.
Serif typefaces are less equidistant and it looks elegant if used appropriately. Reading serif paragraphs allow us to grasp the shape of the alphabet before reading it ( like in newspapers, their typefaces are usually serif)

The following is the brief provided by Ms Angeline!

BRIEF 1: TYPE HISTORY

Investigating the past of type

Gather in groups of 3-4 and attempt the following brief. You will learn to delegate the work among yourselves in equal measures leveraging on your strength and interest.

Brief 1 TYPE HISTORY: Investigation the past of type
Summary Almost every typeface exist for a reason. How much do you know about how they are created and why?  What are it’s application reasons and significance in both historical and contemporary context?
Assignment objectives: Working in groups, this assignment provides the opportunity to investigate the historical, cultural and social underpinnings of a well known typeface and its application significance in a modern, contemporary society. This will pave the way for future type usage assignments beyond that of aesthetics, but also for functional and contextualized purposes.
Task: In groups of 4/5, decide on one typeface from the list below that you and your team mates would like to explore and investigate. Bring your investigation to life in any appropriate means or format. (an exhibit, a sketch, a presentation, a poster, a video, a game etc…) In your investigation, you should explain:

• Reason of existence and origins

• The context in which it originated

• Who designed it? Why was it designed?

• Examples of application and existence

• How has this typeface influenced us?

(researched + personal views)

However you choose to present, make sure you have means of documenting your process and the final results as part of your
portfolio collection..

Presentation should take no more than 15 minutes with 5 mins of Q&A.
What you
must deliver:		 • Final presentation of your choice in any format (sketch, ppt etc…)

• A group blog link documenting your process
Typefaces to choose from San Serif: Frutiger, Helvetica, Gill Sans, Univers, Akzidenz, Bell Centennial, Avenir, VAG Rounded, Comic Sans

Serif: Times New Roman, Baskerville, Garamond, Bondoni, Bembo, Clarendon, Courier, Trajan
Notes: Whilst you may be able to find information from the internet, there are also plenty of books in the library that writes and reports about the historical significance of each of the above typefaces in much more details. Please look it up.

Just my type: A book about fonts

Simon Garfield
Grading criteria
  • Creativity of presentation format
  • Audience engagement
  • Ability to answer all research questions as specified under Task.
  • Documentation of process
Due date: Week 4

The typeface that our group ( Debbie, Chia Te, Cai Jing, Benjamin and I ) have decided on is : HELVETICA

Helvetica Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud7XVkCWi0s

What is Helvetica?
Helvetica is a San – serif, Neo Grotesque typeface which originated in Switzerland. 

Who created Helvetica?
Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry of Münchenstein, Switzerland.

Why was Helvetica created?
Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market.

Originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk, it was created based on Schelter-Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral and rational typeface that had great clarity, had no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of contemporary information.

Neutralism was what Helvetica carried and artists who used this typeface adored.

When was Helvetica used?

Because Helvetica is neutral and lacks a strong personality of its own you could say, its clean lines go well with many elements such as images, especially images with lots of detail where the text needs to pop out without stealing the show.

More weights were added to the Linotype machine and the family was heavily promoted.

The size of the family — the number of available weights and widths — is also a factor in the choice of a typeface for a corporate identity, because it allows text to speak with many voices without breaking harmony.

Thus, Helvetica has since gone on to become one of the most well-known and widely used typefaces in the world. It is beautiful it its own simplicity.

Common Mistakes

While it is true that Arial was intended to be a competitor to Helvetica – as Helvetica was to Akzidenz Grotesk – and they are often mistaken to be the same typeface because of their similarity.

We played a little quiz game of ‘Fastest Fingers First’ with the audience for this segment, and made flip board panels to incorporate some interactivity! 🙂

How to distinguish Helvetica?

Look out for the dead giveaway lowercase letters such as ‘e’, ‘t’, ‘c’ and ‘f’. Uppercase letters that give away a Helvetica type are ‘G’, ‘R’ and ‘Q’

There is very even distribution of weight throughout Helvetica letters, and the angles at which the letter ends are more horizontal. This is because Helveica was designed based on vertical and horizontal grids.

‘Helvetica is all around!’ Video

Our group did a short video to show how prevalent the presence of Helvetica is around us, even when we are not trying to look for it!

“It (Helvetica) shouldn’t have a meaning itself, as the meaning is in the text content itself, not the typeface.”

– Wim Crouwel in the documentary Helvetica

Helvetica was used to complement the design and meaning of the product, The typeface did not have any intrinsic meaning. In a way, Helvetica helped the content of the product to shine, instead of vying for attention. It really emphasizes on the neutrality of this typeface. 🙂

Miss Angeline’s Comments and Feedback! 🙂

Dear Helvetica group,

Thank you for going as the first presenters of this week’s group assignment submission !  Your “water” analogy has left a very deep impression on a number of your classmates reflections ! The little role play of Arial appearing was also a nice touch to keep us engaged mid-presentation ! Well done on that ! 

The personality of Helvetica as well as the intention of it’s design was well identified too. The analysis of the terminals were well thought out. I especially enjoyed the take on the comparison of the past and present adverts of the same brand.
Comparisons between Helvetica vs Arial was great too as they are so similar yet so different at the same time.  On this note, you might want to check out one of the Tuesday’s groups comparison of Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica.
Akzidenz grotesk is known to be the father of Helvetica  (neo grotesque meaning “new” grotesk) while Arial is the contemporary cousin of Helvetica ! https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/a160028/wp-content/uploads/sites/816/2017/09/Akzidenz-Grotesk-Process-Documentation.pdf

Great job on the video demonstrating to us in a context so familiar to all of us – I enjoyed watching the journey from ADM right up to North Spine I believed ?  

Keep up the good work !  

Group Reflection on the presentations!

– We are more sensitive to front now, like how the type anatomy is different from each typeface.
– We are more aware of our surroundings now when we look around to see how various type is used for a specific location or design.
– Understanding the history make appreciated the font even more. As knowing how the relevant typeface come about really allow us to be more appreciative of such revolutionary changes, and how just mere typefaces changed the aspect of advertising then and now.
– Typefaces are not just a setting for how fancy words should be designed, but should be used with careful selection as to which scenario and preference it is best user for.

Thank you!! 🙂

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Very stoked to be able to touch on the topic of the Supernatural for this project because it is something that I have immense fear for, and at the same time I am very intrigued!

Was pretty stuck because the scope is so broad! So I did up a mind-map to see where my interest lie in and hopefully I can narrow down to a more specific topic of the Supernatural I can work with.

It is a wide network of sparse thoughts here and there, but I finally narrowed down to 2 topics I would like to explore on (The orange and yellow cloud outline)!

1. Thailand’s Kuman Thong ( Golden Boy)

Seeing that Children ghosts/spirits are not as common explorations in the Supernatural realm, I set my mind on working with Children Spirits as the theme for this project. As I really do love kids ( in the non-creepy way), it’ll be a fresh new perspective to look at them through the eyes of the dead (still not trying to be creepy ._.).
There is this grey area because it is a mixture of good and bad. In a way which meddling with ghost/spirits to obtain a positive outcome, is something that is quite risky.

Some research on Kuman Thong:
Though not part of mainstream Buddhist practices, Thailand black magic amulets were created by and practiced by monks and lay-people (Layperson, someone who is not an expert in a particular field of study) .
Often times the ascetic, Lersi, who was not actually a monk, but was a master of the spirit world, guides black magic spells and rituals. Spell casting is done by lay-people.

Buddhist monks have also got into the practice here in Thailand. Though, as you know, black magic and witchcraft, Thai voodoo – barang, has nothing at all to do with Theravada Buddhism, Thais have integrated it into their belief system and most cannot distinguish between the two.

It amazes me, seeing how people try to put life into a “Luk Trep” doll, or even try to summon the spirits of the dead, while others takes the life of real babies for superstitious reasons.

2. The Day of The Dead

At the same time, I am rather fazed by the festivity for ‘The Day of The Dead’. A day for the remembrance of the dead often comes off as downcast or rather solemn event. However, the Mexican holiday is filled with festivity and hype; alongside with the beautiful decoration and colors involved.

I am rather torn by the two themes, but at the same time I wonder how can I combine the two themes without being too jarring and contradicting, for which the Kuman Thong has a negative connotation to it due to its association with Black Magic, whereas The Day of The Dead is a jovial holiday marked to remember their loved ones.

Style I’m heading towards

Mainly illustrative because I do enjoy drawing and using pencil to design my sketches is more versatile as I can alter and integrate elements into an object easier.

And I would like to incorporate the elements of design, ‘Symmetry’ into my final work, where there is flow and any direction when the design is flipped, a narrative can still be told.

Source of images
– http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/6/3/thai-buddha-amulet-pha-yant-tao-wessuwan-powerful-protect-life-talisman-71316e23df969256fffec99b85e93f34.jpg
– http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/01/content_414080.htm
– https://fineartamerica.com/featured/thai-pattern-background-anek-suwannaphoom.html
– http://zway2go.com/raising-a-baby-ghost/
– http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7120990-3×2-940×627.jpg
– https://www.thaiamuletsales.com/pages/thai-black-magic-amulets
– https://www.pinterest.com/pin/445012006899737924/
– https://www.get-offline.com/inspiration/spend-dia-de-los-muertos-with-calavera
– https://www.pinterest.com/BartushDesign/day-of-the-dead/
– https://www.pinterest.com/pin/494199759081522938/
– https://www.pinterest.com/pin/367958232038481523/
– https://www.pinterest.com/pin/540854236476559569/
– https://www.pinterest.com/pin/512636370072621354/

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The day of presentation… DUN DUN DUN

This is the simulation of the walkthrough of Bunker 143.

Documentation

Do pardon the low quality of the clips as I had limited space on my Vimeo account to upload this video I placed together.
In this video, it will show u the brief thought processes that went by, setting up of the installation, feedback wrap up session with the class (00:53 to 09:40 mark) and the cleaning up process!

 

Oh, by the way, you can fast for

Concept

And why did we name our installation Bunker 143? Stay tuned. 😉

Reference Images

Post apocalyptic scenario

Escape room setting

Narrative and Characters

And the narrative kind of explains why we named our installation ‘Bunker 143.’ Because “143” simply represents the number of letters in each word of the phrase, “I (1) Love (4) You (3).”
The deaths of each of the members were the result of love. Dad loves the child so he risked his life to go back to take the blanket. He dies from the virus due to his risk. The mother kills her child because she loves her child and does not want to see the child die in pain and misery from the virus. Mother kills herself from heartache and guilt.

How did we PRESENT our idea into reality?

1) CCTV Video used are footages taken by each member of our group at different locations to cover more ground.
We followed a standard procedure whereby we took footages of scenes where surveillance cameras would be located, panning like how a CCTV would; recording scenes where the area seemed empty, barren and lack of humanity to show the post apocalyptic situation the family faced previously.

The CCTV footages pans on empty areas, and it gives a feeling as though something is going to pop out at you. Like the video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s >>

Multiple screens were playing on a several laptops in different parts of the room, with one master projection against the wall.

Afterwards, the videos were changed to black and white, blue cellophane paper against the projector to was used to create an eerie, distant and cold vibe; as compared to the red we rejected as looked straight of a horror movie which was not the intended feeling we wanted to evoke.
In addition, the projection on the wall creates space in a confined indoor area as it shows the vast outside world.

2)Props used are mainly from nostalgic object we had as a children. It kind of sets the time period as to when was the family in the bunker. This way, we do not tell the audiences directly which time period we are in, but show them.

3) QR codes – Audio Diary Logs

The speech in each audio log was designed in such a way that the audience could start with any QR codes they scan and still be able to piece the story together. The sequence does not matter.

Audio Diary Log 1

Intro – “February 28, it’s been 2 weeks since my family and I entered this bunker. Both of them are holding up well, they seem okay with this arrangement. Everything will be well soon… right?”

Audio Diary Log 2

“April 17, The room seems smaller than ever, there are too many things in this bunker. Why did my dumb husband bring so many things? Do we really need the old snow-globe? It reminds me of our honeymoon in Paris from way back. *Sigh…*”

Audio Diary Log 3

“May 30, she looks so happy, playing with her dolls. her toys are all over the place and it’s been getting in the way, but she’s happy so I’ll bear with it. She keeps asking for her blanket, but she still seems to be having fun playing board games with me and drawing. I’ve been cleaning up after her non stop but if it keeps her happy I’ll do it. I can’t wait for the day we can get out and she can live properly again.

Audio Diary Log 4

“August 26, We have enough food for another 6 months, if the virus doesn’t clear up by then then what will we do. I tried telling him but he kept saying it was fine, that we would be ok. But what if we aren’t? Why can’t he see that we’re in trouble, why does he never, ever understand. If he cares so much for the child why can’t be understand that having enough food is better for her than having all these toys. I don’t know how to do this anymore, he isn’t taking this seriously. ”

Audio Diary Log 5

“Oh no oh no. . . .he went back to get her blanket. She wouldnt stop crying… He said that it will be okay and that nothing bad will happen. FOR GOD”S SAKE THERE IS AN EPIDEMIC OUT THERE and he. isn’t. back…its been 3 hours… oh no oh no… if something happens…. He is back he is back!!!”

Audio Diary Log 6

“…He died today.” *long pause* “How could he leave us just like that? Just for that stupid blanket. I-I can’t take this. I need to lie down.”

Audio Diary Log 7

She keeps sneezing recently, and she looks so pale and skinny. back before he died she kept going near him, I’m sure she’s caught it. she looks sicker every day, I can’t watch this again

Audio Diary Log 8

*sighs, soft crying, then thumps onto the floor*

4) Use of Sound. The master soundtrack that was constantly on loop is a combination of cricket sounds I recorded when downstairs my house at night, and the whirring noise from Gabrielle’s computer fan. Safe to say that the two sounds matched really well together and so much so, the whirring of the fan sound seeps into your mind and disappears subconsciously as the cricket sound dominates the track. We wanted to have a mix of unsettling mechanical noises and sounds that adds to the sense of isolation in this bunker.

5) Used of Glow in the Dark paint to emulate the presence of blood. Allows the audience to ponder what exactly happened on that area. Especially when Audio Diary Log 8’s QR code is situated there.

Personal Reflection
Personally I think our team pulled this project off really well and everything was pretty cohesive as a whole.
Despite having some changes here and there as we had consultations with Ru Yi and on our own, I think this project managed to come together really well as the final outcome was even better than what we imagined in our heads!
And most importantly, I think the audiences liked our work considering that they were able to question themselves regarding their own memories of the items, and were able to piece the story together. The use of an immersive space and sound really put the audiences into another setting.
What I felt could have been done better was the use of glow in the dark paint. Because of logistic and location issues, we were not able to use fake blood for the scene where the mother committed suicide as it would be hard to clean off and we would probably get scolded by the management. Hence, the use of glow in the dark paint on white paper scattered on the floor was quite an eyesore, and even misleading as one of the audiences asked me if that was pee on pee pad..

BUT NONETHELESS…

We have finally come to the end of Foundation 4D II Final Project!! Yay!

It was  great pleasure to work with Gabrielle, Yu Lin and Yit Ling in this project! Not only because they are such great people, they are also important team players in this project! And we are very proud to say that we did not spend a single dollar on this project 🙂 !

Thank you Ruyi for your guidance! I have learnt a lot in these 2 semesters from you, and 4D lessons has always been something I look forward to. 🙂

CHEERIO~ See you guys around in Year 2 Sem 1 ;D

<3 Seng Yi Ling