Advanced Typography (Task 2): Key Artwork & Collateral

Fig. 1. Scarab from Fiona and Cake [S1EP9]

ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY (TASK 2): KEY ARTWORK & COLLATERAL

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21/05/2025 - 17/06/2025 (Week 5 - Week 9)
Irdhina binti Mazli Sham (0366894)
Advanced Typography - Bachelor of Design in Creative Media - Taylors University
Task 2 Key Artwork & Collateral

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

LECTURES

LEC 01 – 04: ADVANCED TYPO TASK 1

LECTURE 05: Perception and Organisation

Perception: the way something is regarded/understood/interpreted.

In typography: deals with visual navigation and interpretation via contrast, form and organisation of content (textual, visual, graphical, colour)

CONTRAST: several methods to achieve (ie. light/bold, condense/extended, ornate/simple etc)

7 KINDS OF CONTRAST BY CARL DAIR

SIZE: provides a point to which the reader's attention is drawn

ie. making the title noticeably bigger than the body text

WEIGHT: how bold type can stand out in the middle of lighter type

can also use rules, spot and squares to provide a heavy area (emphasis)

FORM: distinction between capital letter and its lowercase equivalent, or roman letter and its italic variant etc

STRUCTURE: different letterforms of different kinds of typefaces

ie. monoline sans serif vs traditional serif

TEXTURE: combination of contrast in size, weight, form and structure (applied to a block of text)

how the lines of type look as a whole up close vs from an distance

COLOUR: second colour is often less emphatic in values than plain black on white

DIRECTION: opposition between vertical, horizontal and angles in between

creates dramatic effect

FORM: overall look and feel of the elements in a composition, it plays a role in visual impact and first impressions (leads the eye from one point to another, entertains the mind and is the most memorable).

Typography originated from the Greek words typos (form) and graphis (writing) – to write in accordance with form

functions to represent a concept in visual form
interplay of meaning and form brings balanced harmony in function and expression

ORGANISATION – GESTALT: something that has been placed or put together (attempt to understand laws behind the ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions)

LAWS IN GESTALT

SIMILARITY: elements similar to each other are perceived as a unified group (colour, orientation, size etc)

PROXIMITY: elements close together are perceived as a unified group

CLOSURE: mind's tendency to see complete forms even when incomplete, hidden by other objects or missing part of information

CONTINUATION: tend to perceive each of two or more objects as different, singular and uninterrupted even when they intersect

INSTRUCTIONS

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nd3fZ8PxqWPcVXoOJb25KxRR7eZu1qTb/preview

TASK 2

KEY ARTWORK

SKETCHES

For task 2, we were required to design a lettermark following our own branding/identity. To start out, I made a simple mind map mostly on what my interests are and how they can be applied in the design.

My name (Irdhina/Irdina) also has Islamic ties with the meaning "honour" so I also took that aspect in account, as well as the theme of Jawi Calligraphy and the word "sharp" as in quick thinker.

Fig. 2. Personal mind map (Week 5)

For references, I started with the fantasy-esque title fonts usually displayed in novel covers as shown below (top four). However, the typefaces had an obvious Western influence which Mr. Vinod was doubtful for and ended up advising me to look deeper, especially in local cultures.

Fig. 3. References (Week 5)

I came up with several designs and ultimately settled for the last design which would later be further tweaked to improve on the balance. I initially used literal objects to symbolise the chosen keywords (ie. honour being represented by the sword in terms of weaponry and choosing weaponry as a theme to suit my interest in mythology and legends), as seen in the earlier designs, especially design three, four, eight and nine. However, Mr. Vinod suggested I scrapped the idea. Eventually, I decided to digitise the last design.

Fig. 4. Lettermark sketches (Week 5)

PROGRESS WORK

Digitisation

When the initial digitisation was shown, Mr. Vinod told me to remove any unnecessary details that might impede the readability. Once the details were removed, it was time to solve the problem of making the lettermark balanced. Especially since the name Xadhi has five letters, it was difficult to truly make the design balanced but I tried my best using a box made from guidelines, as suggested by a friend. It took several tries but I eventually came to a decent result.

Fig. 5. Progress screenshot (Week 6)

In the end, I managed to tweak the design until it is a lot more readable and balanced compared to the original product.

Fig. 6. Initial digitisation vs. final digitisation (Week 6)

Fig. 7. Final digitisation (Week 6)

Colour Exploration

For the colour palette, I used websites such as Coolors to get a variety of colours that I could play around with. I initially settled for a purple-pink-ish tone but Mr. Vinod suggested I add more value as the colours were complementary but not contrasting enough.

Fig. 8. Progress screenshot (Week 7)

From the colour palette I already had, I decided to tweak some of the colours to show more value following the given format. In the end, I settled with five different colours instead of four with two lighter shades, two complementary and contrasting base/accent colours and one darker shade.

Fig. 9. Chosen colour palette (Week 7)

Animation

I had some trouble when coming up with an idea for the lettermark animation, especially since the design I made had a lot more organic shapes which took more focus into keeping the consistency. The main idea was to have "something" come in and disrupt the scene.

Fig. 10. Rough sketch for animation idea (Week 8)

Once I had a general sequence in mind, I started doing the frame animation on Adobe Illustrator. The frames were then transferred to Photoshop with a set number of frames per second as well as added delay to certain frames to give more impact.

Fig. 11. Progress screenshot (Week 8)

Fig. 12. GIF Lettermark animation (Week 8)

2A FINAL OUTCOME

Fig. 13. Lettermark: black on white background (Week 8)

Fig. 14. Lettermark: white on black background (Week 8)

Fig. 15. Colour palette (Week 8)

Fig. 16. Lettermark: actual colour on lightest background (Week 8)

Fig. 17. Lettermark: lightest on darkest background (Week 8)

Fig. 18. GIF Lettermark animation (Week 8)

COLLATERAL

PROGRESS WORK

From the colour palette I made, I tried making multiple patterns and choosing the most suitable one. I settled for two simple patterns similar to each other that can be applied to the collaterals themselves.

Fig. 19. Progress screenshot (Week 6)

For the posts featuring the designed patterns, I decided to intertwine one with the X from my lettermark.

Fig. 20. Final patterns (Week 6)

For the portrait, I reused a photo taken from a photoshoot I recently had that somewhat fit the overall theme of my lettermark and identity. To make it simple yet interesting, I pasted the pattern on the background and used pathfinder to carefully remove the overlapping parts.

Fig. 21. Progress screenshot (Week 7)

Fig. 22. Final portrait (Week 7)

As for the collaterals, I decided to do one signage and one long set of stationaries that would be cut in half to be posted as a "two-part" banner.

Fig. 23. Progress screenshot (Week 7)

Fig. 24. Progress screenshot (Week 7)

Fig. 25. Final Collateral 1 (signage) (Week 8)

Fig. 26. Final Collateral P1+P2 (stationary) (Week 8)

When organising the posts for the Instagram grid, I went with a mismatched approach rather than simply organising them by colour.

Fig. 27. Post grids (Week 9)

Fig. 28. IG screenshot (Week 9)

FINAL OUTCOME

Fig. 29. Lettermark: black on white background (Week 9)

Fig. 30. Lettermark: white on black background (Week 9)

Fig. 31. Chosen colour palette (Week 9)

Fig. 32. Lettermark: actual colour on lightest background (Week 9)

Fig. 33. Lettermark: lightest on darkest background (Week 9)

Fig. 34. GIF Lettermark animation (Week 9)

Fig. 35. Post grids (Week 9)

Fig. 36. Collateral 1 (Week 9)

Fig. 37. Collateral 2 (Week 9)

Fig. 38. Collateral 3 (Week 9)

Fig. 39. Instagram account screenshot (Week 9)

FEEDBACK

Week 5:

General Feedback: Be careful when adding literal objects in your design, it can change the meaning of what your logo/brand represent.

Specific Feedback: Look more into local mythology and weaponry as inspiration for the lettermark design.

Week 6:

General Feedback: Class held online.

Specific Feedback: Implement the Jawi calligraphy element without adding unnecessary lines/shapes that decrease readability, Colour palette should have 2 light, base, accent (complement and contrast base) and a darkest colour (5 colours in total).

Week 7:

General Feedback: Mr. Vinod gave each student their respective feedback.

Specific Feedback: Pattern made from the lettermark needs to go with the lettermark without overpowering it. Mr. Vinod recommended I do something similar to Nike ads (words interact with photo).

Week 8:

General Feedback: Class was held online with Mr. Vinod giving feedback on the finalisation of Task 2A and 2B.

Specific Feedback: Reduce the amount of colour in my first pattern and upload the animation on the Instagram account (use one of the nine grids).

REFLECTION

EXPERIENCE: I overall enjoyed the process despite how tiring and time-consuming the task was. While the outcome could be better, I learned a lot when it comes to designing a memorable lettermark or even logo. This assignment is definitely one that I would look back on in the future after learning more about design, especially when it is related to my specialisation, Entertainment Design.

OBSERVATION: Based on the feedback Mr. Vinod gave for my design process, I definitely learned to appreciate local stories and cultures more, especially when I look more into what genres I like, particularly stories such as Bujang Senang and Naga Tasik Chini.

FINDINGS: The references I found when it comes to designing a lettermark as well as the Instagram page including work from other friends managed to give me a glimpse of what branding would entail. Rather than simply promoting a product on a blank background, I found a way to personalise it by adding secondary items to make the composition seem fuller and more dynamic.

FURTHER READING

Vignelli Canon on Design [pg. 54-55]

Fig. 40. Cover of the Vignelli Canon on Design (Week 9)

In the Vignelli Canon of Design, the author sees typography as a way to convey/organise information in the most objective way possible. They touched on a phenomena known as desktop publishing, which allowed anyone regardless of experience to have full access to any available typeface and having them be distorted to the user's content. Based on the author's opinion, this contributed to a big wave of visual pollution and the notion (which was agreed upon by them) that most typefaces nowadays are merely for aesthetic value and often times an expansion on a pre-existing typeface, whether intentionally or otherwise.

Irdhina binti Mazli Sham (0366894)