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Typography - Task 3: Type Design and Communication


7.11.2025 - 15.12.2025 (Week 7 - Week 14)
Cheyenne Liew Khye Yean / 0378330
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) Creative Media
Task 3: Type Design & Communication

TABLE OF CONTENTS

    3.1 Research
    3.2 Ideation
    3.3 Final Outcome
4. Feedback
5. Reflection
6. Further Reading

1. LECTURES

All lectures have been completed in Task 1 and Task 2.

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2. INSTRUCTIONS

Figure 2.1 Module Assignment Briefs

Task 3: Type Design and Communication

  • Select one (or 2) of the 10 provided fonts and do a detailed dissection and observation using the letters H, o, g, b.
  • Sketch 3-5 designs of the letters H, o, g, b using markers on graph paper. Sketches can be drawn or written.
  • Select one of the writing styles to develop further, explore it with the letters O L E D S N C H T I G , . ! # or o l e d s n c h t i g , . ! #, and digitise in Illustrator.
  • Create an A4-sized black and white typographic poster using all letters in the final font.

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3. PROCESS WORK

3.1 Research


Figure 3.1.1 Dissection of Letters, Week 7 (7/11/2025)

Mr. Vinod suggested we try dissecting 2 fonts, one serif and one sans serif, so I decided to work with Bodoni Std Book for H, and o, and Futura Std Book for g, and b.

OBSERVATIONS

H: Constructed with only horizontal and vertical lines and is completely symmetrical.
o: Almost fully symmetrical, but with slight differences in stroke thickness on the left and right to maintain optical balance.
g: The bowl is slightly larger than the descender, and the inner part of the loop is slightly off-centered.
b: The bowl overshoots slightly for visual balance.

Figure 3.1.2 References, Week 8 (8/11/2025)

My references consist of a lot of blackletter-style fonts, as I really like the way they look. Besides just that, there are also some rounded fonts to be written using the round-tip pen.

3.2 Ideation

Figure 3.2.1 Exercise Outcome, Week 8 (3/11/2025)

As an exercise, we were told to sketch and write the letter H in both uppercase and lowercase with the ascender line, cap line, median line, baseline, and descender lines to test our understanding on what we've learnt before starting with our own fonts.

Figure 3.2.2 Test Sheets, Week 8 (9/11/2025)

After my research, I began exploring different fonts with the 3 markers. I tried writing multiple variations of each style/letter for comparison before deciding on my final selections.
Figure 3.2.3 Final Ideas, Week 8 (9/11/2025)

I preferred to digitise Flat Nib #1, which Mr. Vinod said was okay as long as I made the necessary changes based on the feedback shown below.

Figure 3.2.4 Feedback for Flat Nib #2 (Left) and Flat Nib #1 (Right), Week 8 (9/11/2025)

I was told that for Flat Nib #2, I should keep the pen angle consistent since I'm writing and not sketching the letters. For Flat Nib #1, I should make sure the counterspace is the same as the width of the stroke.

After that, I made the changes and proceeded to write out the other letters. 

Figure 3.2.5 Final Letters, Week 8 (11/11/2025)

I was unsure about both the t and the #, as both have crossbars, and I had to decide between keeping the line straight or slanted, but after a bit of contemplation, I ended up making them slanted, since the other letters didn't have any horizontal lines.

Figure 3.2.6 Letter 't' Development, Week 8 (11/11/2025)

I also struggled with the shape of the letter t. I didn't know if I should keep it as a regular straight line or give it a curve at the bottom, so I wrote out a few variations for testing before I made my final decision, which ended up being the third option in the picture above.

Figure 3.2.7 Serif Development, Week 9 (16/11/2025)

I started by digitising the letters o and n as instructed by Mr. Vinod, given that they serve as a base for almost all of the other letters (in lowercase). I copied a stroke and lowered its opacity to ensure the counterspace of the letters are even. I tried multiple size variations for the quadrant, with the first one being way too large and jutting into the one on the opposite end. So, I tried sizing them down until I was satisfied.

Figure 3.2.8 First Attempt at Digitising, Week 9 (16/11/2025)

Then, I continued with the other letters. I noticed that the letters look disproportionate and a little weird. I fixed this issue by making the overshoot of the letters smaller, which in return, made the stem look longer and more proportionate.

Figure 3.2.9 Options and Final Selections, Week 9 (17/11/2025)

I made multiple variations of a few select letters, and then made my final picks as seen above.

Guideline Details:
  • ASCENDER: 735 pt
  • CAP HEIGHT: 699 pt
  • MEDIAN LINE: 500 pt
  • BASELINE: 0 pt
  • DESCENDER: -230 pt
  
Figure 3.2.10 Original (Left), Changes Made by Mr. Vinod (Centre), Remade Version (Right), Week 9 (17/11/2025)

Figure 3.2.11 Tapering Process, Week 9 (17/11/2025)

Based on the feedback given, Mr. Vinod said that punctuation should be simpler. He also adjusted my exclamation mark and asked me to redo it more accurately. So, I continued by tapering the exclamation mark and slanting the hashtag.

Figure 3.2.12 Development of Letters d and i, Week 10 (24/11/2025)

In the next class, Mr. Vinod said that the letter d in blackletter shouldn't connect the way I did it (left), and should end in a thin stroke instead. So, he made some adjustments to it using the direct selection tool (centre). I later redid it and tried to have the stroke connect to the end of the stem (right). 

For the i, I originally followed the angle of the thin strokes, not the thick strokes, because I thought it would make the letter look better overall, but Mr. Vinod said that it should be following the same angle as the thick strokes. After fixing the angle, the lines on the dot made the whole letter unbalanced, so I ended up removing them.

Figure 3.2.13 Before (Top) and After (Bottom) Fixing Overshoot Height, Week 10 (29/11/2025)

Figure 3.2.14 Final Digitised Letterforms With and Without Guidelines, Week 10 (29/11/2025)

As I was about to import my letters into FontLab, I realised most of the overshooting on my letterforms were not the same size. I fixed that by adding 2 additional guides of the same size and adjusted them for each letter until they were even.

Figure 3.2.15 FontLab Process, Week 11 (30/11/2025)

After importing all the letters, I typed them out and started adjusting the side bearings. I started with 50 on each side, as shown in the tutorial, but noticed the spacing was really large and awkward, so I eventually sized down to 30. I also typed out some other words and adjusted the kerning to even out the spacing between the letters.

Figure 3.2.16 Text with Updated Settings, Week 11 (1/12/2025)

The next day in class, the feedback I got was to reduce the side bearings, so I lowered it from 30 to 20. I also removed all the original kerning and redid it based on some specific letter pairings with weird gaps.

Figure 3.2.17 Punctuation Kerning Process, Week 11 (1/12/2025)

After I was done with most of the kerning, Mr. Vinod looked at my work again and told me to adjust the kerning of the open counter letters with the punctuation.

Figure 3.2.18 Letters Kerning Process, Week 12 (8/12/2025)

This week, Mr. Vinod said my font was already good, and all I really had to do was fix the kerning of the open counter letters with the letters with descenders. Besides that, I was also advised to reduce the size of my space.

Figure 3.2.19 First Poster Process, Week 12 (8/12/2025)

I then proceeded with my poster. I already had a rough idea of how I wanted it to look, but I didn't know what words to use yet. I initially thought of using just "the design school", however, that seemed a little boring and it also didn't include the punctuation. So, I put the letters into a random word generator and tried to make up a sentence with some sense.

Figure 3.2.20 Poster Process, Week 12 (8/12/2025)

I was quite happy with the poster already, but the part that says "shred. lights!" looked distracting, so I turned the opacity down to 50% to fix that.

Figure 3.2.21 Updated Poster Process, Week 12 (8/12/2025)

3.3 Final Outcome

Link to Download Font: 

Figure 3.3.1 Initial Sketches, Week 12 (9/12/2025)

Figure 3.3.2 FontLab Screen Grab (Side Bearings), Week 12 (9/12/2025)

Figure 3.3.3 Final Type Construction - JPEG, Week 12 (9/12/2025)


Figure 3.3.4 Final Type Construction - PDF, Week 12 (9/12/2025)

Figure 3.3.5 Final Poster - JPEG, Week 12 (9/12/2025)


Figure 3.3.6 Final Poster - PDF, Week 12 (9/12/2025)

Test Font Here!

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4. FEEDBACK

Week 8
GENERAL FEEDBACK: Maintain consistency in the letterforms, if one letter follows a vertical or diagonal structure, everything else should be in the same style.
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK: For Flat Nib #1, the counterspace should be the same as the stroke width, and the ascenders should be slightly smaller to match the traditional blackletter proportions. For Flat Nib #2, the design is interesting, but when writing, the angle of the pen should remain consistent.

Week 9
GENERAL FEEDBACK: Look at other fonts with similar stroke contrasts to compare with (ex. Bodoni/Fraktur).
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK: Mr. Vinod advised me to remove the flourishes from the punctuation, as they are usually made simpler in blackletter fonts. Besides that, he also told me to slant the hashtag and taper the exclamation mark.

Week 10
GENERAL FEEDBACK: Ensure the height of the artboard is 1000pt before uploading the text to FontLab.
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK: Mr. Vinod advised me to change the dot of the i to match the angle of the thicker strokes in the other letters. I was also told to make minor changes to my letters d and g as the connecting strokes in blackletter usually end in thin strokes.

Week 11
GENERAL FEEDBACK: When checking spacing, lower the font size instead of zooming in to maintain consistency.
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK: Reduce the side bearings, blackletter is usually tighter in spacing. Kerning is rarely used unless there are awkward spaces after adjusting the side bearings, which are usually only in specific pairs of letters.

Week 12
GENERAL FEEDBACK: Having a lot of kerning means the side bearings are wrong. For the poster, be expressive and make it impactful. The text doesn't have to make sense, but the letterforms should all be kept at the same size.
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK: Whatever adjustments of side bearings and kerning done with c should also be done with e, especially when the letters are placed next to other letters with ascenders. Besides that, reduce the size of the space.

Week 13
GENERAL FEEDBACK: Font should not be distorted when making the poster.
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK: -

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5. REFLECTION

Experience

When starting this task, I felt both excited and intimidated. On one hand, the idea of creating my own font sounded appealing, but because I started quite late, coming up with original font ideas was challenging. The ideation stage was also pretty stressful because I kept second-guessing whether my ideas were good enough. However, after that was done, everything got a lot simpler to manage. 
  

Observations

Throughout the task, I realised that even the smallest design decisions can influence the whole font itself, especially since I was working with blackletter. I had to constantly make minor adjustments and google blackletter examples to make sure I got the proportions right, like when keeping the overshoot sizes equal, which also made me realise that maintaining consistency across characters was much more challenging than expected.
  

Findings

I learned how much precision and attention to detail are needed to design a good font. Albeit quite frustrating, exploring punctuation was also surprisingly interesting, especially as I slowly learnt the "rules" required to maintain a cohesive style. Overall, this task made me appreciate how much thought and research go into creating even the simplest fonts.

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6. FURTHER READING

Figure 6.1 From Quills to Vectors: Comprehensive Guide to Blackletter (Source: LTTR/INK), Week 9 (20/11/2025)

This article by LTTR/INK talks about all things blackletter, which helped me with certain parts of the font design process.

Foundations of Form
Figure 6.2 Basic Strokes, Week 9 (20/11/2025)
  • Blackletter letters are broken down into structures of clearly defined logical components.
  • The rhythmic density of vertical strokes contributes to its overall narrow and compact appearance.
  • The structure is built using 3 basic strokes: the quadrant, the lozenge, and the downstroke.
Lines & Alignment

Figure 6.3 Measurements Using Nib Widths in Grids and Counterspacing, Week 9 (20/11/2025)
  • The alignment of letters is guided by a structured grid to ensure horizontal alignment, which is crucial for maintaining a uniform and rhythmic appearance.
  • The width of the pen nib determines the x-height.
  • The counterspace is measured by nib width to help maintain a tight and dense feel.
Overall, even though I had already digitised my letters, reading this helped me fix my consistency and made the rest of the process much smoother.

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