Typography Task 3B: Type Design & Communication

on

Week 11 - Week 13
8/6/2022 - 22/6/2022
Leong Jiahui / 0353469
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
GCD 60104 / TYPOGRAPHY
Task 3B: Type Design & Communication
Content

INSTRUCTIONS
Things to note: 
  • Research Lettering
  • Read the article provided in Module Info.
  • Select greeting
  • Sketch 5 options
  • 512 pixel size of the final artwork
  • First design your lettering using BW only
  • Introduce colour (Taylor's) Red, White & Black
  • You must not use gradients only flat tones
  • Use the Taylor's Mark on your sticker
  • Please do not use existing typefaces directly, as this is a lettering exercise. However, you can use existing typeface/s and modify them.
PROCESS
WEEK 10 (1/6/2022) 
The greeting I've chosen is "Happy Birthday". It's one of, if not THE most popular greetings out there, so finding inspiration online wasn't a challenge at all. Which,, in hindsight, will make it difficult for me to come up with anything particularly original. However, I've taken into consideration of the limited colour scheme we're allowed to use and decided that going with a neutral greeting is the best choice. 

VISUAL RESEARCH 
fig 1.1 visual research (3/6/2022)
fig 1.2 visual research (3/6/2022)
fig 1.3 visual research (3/6/2022)
After doing some digging online, I've compiled these elements that are very commonly found in Birthday greeting visuals: 
  • balloons
  • cake (and muffins)
  • candles
  • confetti
  • ribbon
  • fireworks
  • party deco
Which,, understandable. I'm going to attempt to use these elements in my design sketches. 

SKETCHING 
fig 2.1.1 "Happy Birthday" sticker sketches (6/6/2022) 
I made a few sketches with a brush pen. 4 is a personal favourite where the words stack and form an outline of a cake, but when I showed it to my sister, she couldn't see it until I pointed it out. So I guess it wasn't as effective as I hoped it would be. 
3 can be developed better. 
When I asked around my family and friends, 6 is surprisingly a fan favourite. How...? 

Digitalization 
Fig 3.1.1 Digitalization progress (7/6/2022) 
I used the pen tool for digitalization. They could look better. Will try using the brush tool. 

WEEK 11 (8/6/2022)
After the feedback session, Mr Vinod suggested that I improve the composition of the sticker to fill in more space of the square to avoid too much negative space. 

fig 3.1.2 Comparison between pen & brush tool (12/6/2022)
Okay. Maybe I'm not too well versed with the brush tool but the pen tool ver. looked a lot cleaner in comparison. Mr Vinod also commented on how my balloons looked like bombs instead lol so I'll try working on that. He also suggested trying out option 2 as well so I'm going to do that. Though I do admit option 1 is still my favourite, so I'll also try working more on that. 

fig 3.1.3 Digitalization layouts (12/6/2022) 
Made more variations. The new cake layout (bottom right) feels cute. I think I'll call it a day and start adding colours to it to test it out tomorrow. 
fig 3.1.4 New digitalized layout (13/6/2022)
This one felt cute too...
Below are the shortlisted layouts: 
fig 3.2.1 Shortlisted layouts (14/6/2022) 


WEEK 12 (15/6/2022)
After the weekly feedback session, it is commented that my cake sticker is a bit too graphical and I should stick with the first 3 designs. I should play around with more shades of colour and make sure I create an outline for the stickers after it's done. The outline can be of a different colour as well. 
Before I carry on, Mr Vinod also suggested we test out the sticker bot to make sure we actually know how it works, so here's me doing that: 
fig 3.3 Sticker testing (15/6/2022) 
Cool. Now let's get back to work.
fig 3.4.1 digitalization progress (17/6/2022) 
What am I doing? My best. 
I am doing my best. 
I based this design on a circle to better tie the elements together. I used the "paint inside" tool to colour the stokes with different shades of red. I changed up the confetti sizes too. To make it a bit more fun I joined the ends of the 'y' and the 'B' to the confetti popper.
I also came up with another cake layout based on one of my first designs but it's kinda messy and I don't like it as much. 

Here are my shortlisted designs: 
fig 3.4.2 shortlisted sticker layouts (17/6/2022)

FINAL OUTCOME
Telegram sticker download link: 


fig 4.1.1 Task 3B Final Outcome B&W (22/6/2022)

fig 4.1.2 Task 3B Final Outcome coloured (22/5/2022) 

fig 4.2.1 telegram sticker final outcome - telegram web (22/6/2022)

fig 4.2.2 telegram sticker final outcome - telegram app (22/6/2022)


FEEDBACK
WEEK 11 (8/6/2022)
General feedback: Play around with the strokes of the lettering. The Taylor's logo can be altered to fit the sticker.
Specific feedback: Take note on the cavity space (square). Utilize and optimise the space to improve visibility on mobile. I can try digitalizing option 2 as well. 

WEEK 12 (15/6/2022)
General feedback: Minimise the usage of negative spaces. Adapt the logo into the sticker. Try using symmetry in the sticker. 
Specific feedback: Use different shades of colours to bring out more depth. Confetti can be in different sizes. Outline needs to be made for designs with confetti. Overall still needs more work. 

WEEK 13 (22/6/2022) 
General feedback: try adding more dimension to the sticker using different colour tones. 
Specific feedback: can try adding highlights. Overall a good attempt.

REFLECTION
Is this finally that one task I can start off with by saying I loved doing it? 
No, it is not. BUT it IS my favourite task throughout the entire module and that has to count for something, right? Choosing a generic greeting with tons of references online definitely gave me a head start on my initial designs but I do admit that it has in some way restricted my brain from being creative on its own. Going through batches and batches of designs that starts to blur together over time was frustrating, but I'm happy that I manage to come up with the final design that I am happy with. Painting the letters was my favourite part of the task and it's satisfying to see everything tie together in the end. 
It was cool to know how easily stickers can be generated via the Stickerbot on Telegram and very eye-opening to see how much thought & consideration is put into designing a sticker so it is readable and cohesive. Creating a design for smaller screens is a challenge indeed. Since this is a typography task, the number of graphical elements we are allowed to use is limited as well. This adds more difficulty to the overall task as well. 
All in all, I very much enjoyed this task. In the beginning and towards the end, at least. The middle was an art slump and a lot of suffering. This is the first sticker I've created, and it most definitely won't be the last. 
With that, we are done with all Typography assignments! Cheers 🥂

FURTHER READING
How to choose the right fonts for small screens
https://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/how-choose-right-fonts-small-screens-91516966
fig 5.1 cover photo of article 
Mobile users are getting physically closer to their device and to your website design. 
The key to mobile typography is readability - if the user cannot read it, your design isn't working.
This neat lil article touches on a bunch of factors to consider when it comes to text on smaller screens, more specifically on mobile phones. Some of the factors include typographic styles, size, spacing, layout, alignment etc. It's interesting to see how load time factors into it all as well. 


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