Typography Module 3rd session

We've upgraded from press ads to leaflets. WOOT!

We were given a Word document which had tons of writing about some meeting that was going to happen. We just had to copy it into QuarkXPress and arrange it in order of hierarchy and give it a reasonable layout. Sounds easy. Was a bloody nightmare. :( Kinda got there in the end though.

Below is my first attempt. I find centering text gives it a professional sort of look, which are my reasons for doing so.

We were told to import 6 logos and place them on the leaflet where we thought would be the most appropriate place for them to be. As you can see, I decided at the bottom and as small as possible is the best place, purely because of the irrelevance and uglyness of them.

The logos we had to use are below.

After the last task, we had to re-size them for equal hierarchyage...

...and then put them on the leaflet to see what difference it made.

It does actually look a lot better than the first one I did. They look in proportion, and don't stick out as much as before.

We each printed our own leaflets out, then swapped with someone and made notes on them which we could then use to improve. I only changed a few things on mine. Below is the final.

Disappearing line

Here's the first of my play arounds on After Effects.

I've been looking at making things grow, like all the vine videos you've most probably seen.

This is me, simply using one line (then copy and pasting it... to make two which somehow ended up being opposite each other)

This is all well and good, but the problem is that I wanted it to grow, rather than disappear. Poo.

After having a little chat with Mr Townend, I started using this effect on type.

It looks great!... although it writes backwards. Gr.

I thought I'd give 3 lines a go. It didn't work as I thought it would. I knew After Effects works with layers, but I wasn't sure if it'd still do what I wanted it to.

I may try it again, but open the Illustrator file up in Photoshop and save as that so hopefully it'll save in layers. If THIS fails, I'll just have to save each line individually in Illustrator and open each one in After Effects. Argh.

Aaaaand... belowwwww issssssss what I wanted to achieve! :D

I didn't even think about making more than one layer in Illustrator. Duh!

2nd schematic Diagram

Since I didn't know what a schematic was until we started this, therefore didn't have a clue how to lay it out etc, and after seeing what everyone else had been doing, I decided I needed to make it look a little more complex (hehe).
My first schematic diagram was way too simple. So I had another look at it and made a few changes.

Typography Module 2nd session

Another lovely session with Graham.

Linking in with the task we did which was to compare two typefaces, we had to describe one of the typefaces chosen using three words (below)

We then had to think of an animal that suits the three words (below)

...and also a job (below)

We were then given out first job. We had to layout details for a press ad.

We first tried portrait (below)

I thought of three words, just like before, which described the job. I then chose a typeface which I thought would work well for the information. I used Optima.

We then went onto using a landscape format. I HATED it! I didn't feel comfortable at all using this format. It felt squished and just horrible...hence my awful design!

Crit

Today's crit was really helpful. I've been struggling a little with the whole research side of things, so it's been handy getting some feedback. I'd missed the presentations last Tuesday, so this has been the only time I've managed to get some feedback on my work. People seemed to like my idea which I was really happy about!! :D

Here's the 30 frame storyboard I made for the crit.

It's not what I'm going to be making as I'm still working on the word I'm going to use for the final piece. I've used A, B and C and a few of the effects I want to include just so it gave people an idea as to what I want to achieve.

I also made a little flip book. Well, ''flip book''. I thought it'd be a good idea, when storyboarding, to create this as it would give you an idea as to how it looks when being animated. It saves creating it all on After Effects straight away I guess.

Quick storyboards

A few rough sketches of my first idea.
I like the idea of one letter appearing at a time, which then spells out a word (the title of the program) at the end of the animation.
I want each letter to have a unique affect which will then lead to the next letter.
I've been taking inspiration from some typefaces I've got which I've kept from years ago. There's a range of different ones.

I've been trying to find some interesting typography around Leeds.

I came across these..

This is probably the best piece of typography I've found. I particularly like how the letters have been constructed. The ways in which they connect is interesting.

1st Schematic

I started off making a few notes to see what I'd be needing in my schematic.

And then used the notes I'd made to attempt a better layed out schematic.

My first dvd schematic in Illustrator.

Typography Module Task 1

Using the correct terminology (with a little help from a handout we were given) we've been asked to create a poster on a selected typeface and to describe its characteristics. Here, I've chosen 'Chaparral Pro', and have compared its differences to the typeface 'Didot'.

Formative feedback

Typography Module

So this afternoon was the first lesson of the type module.

We learnt how to use Quark Xpress! :)

We had a basic talk through the tools which had similar features to InDesign.

Then we went through the anatomy of type, to try and get us used to the proper words.

The first task we were given to do, was to type in a random letter, sized 69. and using a font of our choice. Using a handout with correct annotation, we had to describe the letters qualities. Below you can see I chose 'b'.

We then used the first letter of our surname in the same font, but in uppercase. (below) We described this also.

The next task was to use the first letter again, in the same font, and create patterns.

We then used the second letter and

did the same.

First video with sound! :O

It does what it says on the tin really!

There wasn't an actual pendulum type sound, so we had to improvise. I did my best playing around with the sound, trying to cut it short and duplicating it to keep in time with the swooshes.

What is type?

What is type?

-Affected

-Design

-'Make type taste good'

-Function/purpose

-Visually engaging

-Readable or look good (need a balance)

-Readable body of type

-Legible

Start of type = stone carving - permanence

-handwritten, influenced

-Mechanical type - mass distribution

-Past 200 years - people couldn't read

Posters began existing with type

-Computers brought thousands of fonts - digital libraries - wouldn't get them pre-comps

-Font families - including stroke

-Cleverly visually

-Engaging - change stroke

-Tracking - push letters apart

-Kerning - pull letters together (careful with kerning!!)

-Type is speech made visible

Typeface poll

Right, here's a quick poll I'd greatly appreciate people to have a vote on!

I'm trying to find out the top 10 typefaces.

I've taken all of these from Word as they're all commonly used for all sorts.

If you could be so kind as to choose your favourite (from visual appearance) or most used typeface and lett me know via facebook or a comment on here....(state the page number, and count down to the preferred typeface), I'd most definitely love you forever! ♥

I appreciate they don't open and enlarge into a separate window, so if you squint or do what you can in order to see them the best you can that'd be AWESOME!

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Presentation