Advanced Typography: Task 3 Type Exploration and Application

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18/6/2025 - 22/7/2025 (Week 8 - Week 14)

Lim Yeng San (0366316)
Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University
Task 3

For Lecture 1 - Lecture 4, refer to Task 1 blog
For Lecture 5, refer to Task 2 blog



2. INSTRUCTION

Figure 2.1: The Module Information Booklet for Advanced Typography, Week 13 (15/7/2025)



3. PROCESS WORK
Concept
I came up with 3 possible ideas for the assignment. With approval from Mr. Vinod, I pursued Idea 1.


Figure 3.1: Proposal slides for Task 3, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 


Uppercase Letters
Using Univers 75 Black as a reference font, I sketched each creature for each alphabet in Ibis Paint X. 

Figure 3.2: Sketches on Univers 75 Black, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

I then made base letters using basic shapes also using Univers 75 Black as a main reference.

Figure 3.3: Base uppercase letters, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

I then constructed the design of the creatures on the letters. I first went with white visuals with black outlines.

Figure 3.4: Uppercase letter progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

I then thickened the inner and outer outlines after feedback from Mr. Vinod.

Figure 3.5: Uppercase letter progress 2, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

I encountered some issues when importing the letters into Fontforge, so I changed the designs to be black cut-outs instead of white visuals.

Figure 3.6 and 3.7: Final uppercase font, Week (15/7/2025)


Lowercase Letters
I followed the same method as the uppercase but made the base letters first in Adobe Illustrator then sketched on it in Ibis Paint X. 

Figure 3.8: Base lowercase letters, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

Figure 3.9: Sketches on lowercase letters, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

I also initially made the designs white with black outlines but later changed it to black cut-outs.

Figure 3.10 and 3.11: Final lowercase font, Week 13 (15/7/2025)


Numbers, Punctuations and Symbols
Again, I sketched the designs on Univers 75 Black first. 

Figure 3.12: Sketches on Univers 75 Black numbers, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

After that I made the base numbers.

Figure 3.13: Base numbers, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

Then I made the designs with white first then changed it to black cut-outs.
Figure 3.14: Final numbers, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

For the punctuations and symbols, I decided to not design creatures for them to reduce clutter. I made them using the same shapes as the letters and numbers.

Figure 3.15, 3.16, 3.17: Final punctuations, Week 13 (15/7/2025)


Fontforge / Fontlab
I imported my font into Fontlab in the computer lab to arrange the sidebearings first as I found it much easier on Fontlab than Fontforge.

Figure 3.18: Fontforge sidebearing attempt, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

I then adjusted exported the font to fix the kerning for letter pairs in Fontforge as a lot of the letters were far apart.

Figure 3.19: Fontforge kerning progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

Once everything looked okay, I exported the font and named it Mythofolks. 

Figure 3.20: Exported font, Week 13 (15/7/2025)


Font Presentations
For the font presentations and applications, I used a colour palette I found on Colour Hunt.

Figure 3.21: Colour palette, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

 The first presentation poster features the uppercase letters.

Figure 3.22: Font presentation progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

I then changed the colour scheme and the placement of the letters and illustrations.

Figure 3.23: Font presentation 1, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

The second presentation poster features the lowercase letters

Figure 3.24: Font presentation 2, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

The third one is for numbers.

Figure 3.25: Font presentation 3, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

The fourth one has the font name and some punctuations.

Figure 3.26: Font presentation progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

For this one, I changed the colour scheme.

Figure 3.27: Font presentation 4, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

The last one features one of the creatures.

Figure 3.28: Font presentation 5, Week 13 (15/7/2025)


Font Applications
I downloaded mockup files from Mockup Design and made designs for each mockup. The button badges both use the letter X in both upper and lowercase.

Figure 3.29: Badge design, Week 13 (13/7/2025)

Figure 3.30: Badge design 2, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

Figure 3.31: Font Application 1, Week 13 (15/7/2025)
The billboard has the name of the font and a creature in the design.
Figure 3.32: Billboard design, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

Figure 3.33: Font application progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

I then changed the billboard mockup template and design after feedback.

Figure 3.34: Billboard design 2, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.35: Font application 2, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

For the book, I originally used a different mockup to show the pages.

Figure 3.36: Font application progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

I then changed to a different template as it looked more like an open book.

Figure 3.37: Font application progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

After feedback, I changed the book to flags instead.

Figure 3.38 and 3.39: Flag designs, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.40: Font application 3, Week 14 (15/7/2025)

For the bag, I used one of the creatures with the font name on the right side.

Figure 3.41: Font application progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

After feedback, I changed the design to feature 1 letter only.

Figure 3.42: Edited bag design, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.43: Font application 4, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

The last application is a submission for the Honor Global Design Awards competition. I initially used the Standby template.

Figure 3.44: Initial standby design, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

I then changed to the Watch template as the Standby template wasn't available for submission.


Figure 3.45 and 3.46: Watch design progress, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

After feedback, I enlarged the numbers in the design.


Figure 3.47 and 3.48: Final watch designs, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Once I was done, I submitted the design for the competition.


Figure 3.49: Submission screenshots, Week 14 (22/7/2025)
Final Outcome

Link to download font: 

Figure 3.50: Embedded PDF of font, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

Figure 3.51: Screenshot of Fontforge, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

Figure 3.52: Font presentation 1, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.53: Font presentation 2, Week 13 (15/7/2025)

Figure 3.54: Font presentation 3, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

Figure 3.55: Font presentation 4, Week 14 (15/7/2025)

Figure 3.56: Font presentation 5, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

Figure 3.57: Font application 1, Week 13 (15/7/2025) 

Figure 3.58: Font application 2, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.59: Font application 3, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.60: Font application 4, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.61: Font application 5 / Honor Global Design Awards submission, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Figure 3.62: Font Presentation and Application Compilation (PDF), Week 14 (22/7/2025)



4. FEEDBACK

Week 9
General feedback: Some of us had our blogs for Task 1 and 2 and we had our proposal ideas checked.
Specific feedback: Idea 1 is interesting.
Week 10
General feedback: We had our uppercase letters reviewed.
Specific feedback: Simplify the design and the lines are too thin. Think of how the letters are seen in different sizes

Week 11
General feedback: We had our progress checked
Specific feedback: None given
Week 12
General feedback: We had our progress checked
Specific feedback: Try Fontlab to fix the issues

Week 13
General feedback: We had our presentations and applications checked
Specific feedback: The presentations are good but change the colour palette. For the applications, enlarge the font



5. REFLECTION

Experience
I had fun in this assignment as I got to more than just design letterforms. It got me to learn more about history as I had to research a lot for this task. I was happy the illustrations got applied to the letters without too many issues. 
Observations
I noticed that font making is quite limiting. I used both Fontlab and Fontforge for this task and noted that Fontlab has more features and was easier to use but was wildly expensive while Fontforge is free and possibly has just as many features as Fontlab but was hard to figure out as it had a confusing interface and often crashed.

Findings
I found a better understanding of Adobe Illustrator as it got easier once I learned more about it. I also found that you should keep fonts to one colour for ease when importing it into font apps.


6. FURTHER READING

Figure 6.1: Type Rules! The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, Week 14 (22/7/2025)

Type Rules! The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography by Ilene Strizver is, as stated in the title, a guidebook for typography and teaches on the various styles in typography.

Selecting The Right Type for The Job
- Each typeface has it's own personality an conveys different emotions

Display Typefaces
- Stronger in personality
- Sometimes lacks legibility at smaller sizes
- Evokes a multitude of emotions
7. LINKS TO OTHER ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY POSTS


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