08.06.2022 - 24.06.2022 [Week 11 - Week 13]
Janaan Ahmed (0353333)
Typography / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 3B: Type Design & Communication
Lectures
Week 10
Mr. Vinod briefed us on the task and continued giving feedback for
the previous task 3A.
Week 11
Today's lecture was quite brief since we all attended a
seminar by Sam (a past student). Mr. Vinod asked us to
work on digitising our sketches.
Week 12
Mr.Vinod provided feedback to the class' digitisation
progress and helped through any difficulties any
of us had.
Week 13
Mr.Vinod provided further feedback to the last stages of our sticker design. He also briefed us on how to draft the Final Compilation and Reflection before our final E-Portfolio submission.
Instructions
Task 3b: Type Design & Communication
Task Info:
We are to select a greeting from a given list and design a Telegram
sticker that expresses the intended message. We are to use only
black, white & red (Taylor's University colours). On completion,
we are to take a screenshot of the sticker on the Telegram app.
Further things to note:
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| Fig 1.1: Instructions |
The greeting that I chose from the provided list was 'Happy
Weekend!'.
Visual Research:
The kind of lettering that I had visualised was fun, flowy
and relaxed.
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| Fig 1.2: Lettering by Eric Marinovic (20/06/22) |
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| Fig 1.3: Lettering by Mary Kate McDevitt (20./06/22) |
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| Fig 1.4: Lettering from
rawpixel (20/06/22) |
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| Fig 1.5: Lettering by Mary Kate McDevitt (20/06/22) |
Process:
Sketches
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| Fig 2.1: Digital Sketches (22/06/22) |
When I think of the weekend, I imagine a carefree fun and relaxed appearance. I chose to translate these qualities into my lettering by making the letterforms round, curvy and flowy. I also chose to make the x-height quite large.
Digitisation
I started by creating a template layer to easily trace over with the pen tool.
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| Fig 2.2: Creating template layer out of sketch (22/06/22) |
After tracing the outline of the letters, I used the line tool to make the graphical elements.
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| Fig 2.3: Tracing outline of sketch with the pen tool (22/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.4: Changing stroke cap to 'round' (22/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.5: Copy-pasting strokes (22/06/22) |
After filling the outlines, I used the divide tool to separate the counter spaces
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| Fig 2.6: Using pathfinder to create counter (22/06/22) |
I then went to Object>Expand to convert the strokes into shapes.
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| Fig 2.7: Turning the strokes into shapes (22/06/22) |
After finishing the tracing, I removed the template layer and refined the lettering (stroke widths, counter size, spacing).
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| Fig 2.8: Using direct selection to adjust the 'eye' (22/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.9: Making necessary optical adjustments to letterforms and spacing (22/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.10: Smoothing the curve of the 'y' (22/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.11: Using shape builder to make the sun (22/06/22) |
After drawing all the elements of the design, I flipped the canvas to look for imbalances in the design that I may have overlooked by looking at the screen for too long.
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| Fig 2.12: Mirroring the sticker to make design more optically balanced (22/06/22) |
I finished it up by placing the university logo within the sticker.
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| Fig 2.13: various positions of TU mark (22/06/22) |
Colour
We are restricted to shades of black, white and red. I chose to opt out black since it didn't reflect the happy and bright mood I associated with the weekend.
We are restricted to shades of black, white and red. I chose to opt out black since it didn't reflect the happy and bright mood I associated with the weekend.
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| Fig 2.14: Colour palette (23/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.15: Initial Colour (23/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.16: Creating sticker outline + bg ((23/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.17: Adding outline to graphical elements (23/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.18: combining outlines (23/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.19: Finalised colour versions (23/06/22) |
Having completed the design, I set the dimensions of the artboard to 512 px as indicated by the requirements for generating stickers on Telegram.
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| Fig 2.20: Transferring sticker to new artboard (23/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.21: Adjusting design to fit into required dimensions (23/06/22) |
Telegram
After reading the article on how to make stickers on Telegram, I went ahead and tried it.
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| Fig 2.22: Using the sticker bot to generate sticker (24/06/22) |
I ran into the issue of my sticker file not fitting the required dimensions, and so went to Illustrator to double check.
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| Fig 2.23: An obstacle appeared!(24/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.24: Attempting to fix dimensions (24/06/22) |
I relentlessly attempted to get the width of the sticker to fall exactly within the 512 px artboard, and yet still ran into this issue. I was on the brink of giving up when I suddenly recalled that STICKERATOR COULD BE USED INSTEAD!
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| Fig 2.25: Using Stickerator to generate file with appropriate dimensions (24/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.26: Success! (24/06/22) |
Making Amendments
Feeling like my sticker design was too plain, I went back and
watched the feedback session from week 13. I applied some
comments given to my classmates to improve the dimensionality
of the letters.
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| Fig 2.27: Adding shadow (24/06/22) |
I experimented with an extra layer of colour underneath the shadow in hopes of making the design pop more.
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| Fig 2.28: Extra Coloured shadow (24/06/22) |
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| Fig 2.29: Side by side comparison (24/06/22) |
Somehow it looked busier than the single shadow one, so I dismissed that design. I then added highlights to complement the shadow keeping the lighting direction in mind.
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| Fig 2.30: Adding highlights (25/06/22) |
Generating the new sticker was an absolute breeze thanks to Stickerator.
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| Fig 2.31: Generated sticker on Telegram (25/06/22) |
Final Outcome:
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| Final Outcome in b/w - PNG (25/06/22) |
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| Final Outcome in Colour - PNG (25/06/22) |
Final Outcome (b/w) in PDF (25/06/22)
Final Outcome (colour) in PDF (25/06/22)
Download sticker here!
Feedback
Week 12
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK
- Work on trying to make the letters pop more so the final sticker is legible on Telegram.
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK
- Work on trying to make the letters pop more so the final sticker is legible on Telegram.
Week 13
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK
-
Make sure gaps between letters are
consistent
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Lettering could do with a bit more
dimensionality: try adding a flat
shadow behind, a slight
highlight
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK
- Make sure gaps between letters are consistent
- Lettering could do with a bit more dimensionality: try adding a flat shadow behind, a slight highlight
Reflection
EXPERIENCE
This task was very exciting to me, but at the same time
not as easy as I thought it would be. I had a lot of fun
brainstorming ideas for the sticker, and really fought
the urge to not fill my design with graphical
elements.
OBSERVATION
In all honesty I had some trouble fully realising my
vision into the canvas. I still feel like there can be
more improvements made to the design. Whenever I felt
too comfortable with my design, I would take a break and
come back to it later with a fresh eye, which honestly
helped quite a lot to spot my mistakes.
FINDINGS
I realised that to fully express a word or a
phrase through lettering, one would require a ton
of practice as well as experimentation with
different styles. It is the nuances in the
strokes, weight, height (and more) of the
letterforms that make the sticker's personality
shine through.
Further Reading
Hand Lettering Basics: A tutorial guide for beginners - Andrea Stan
This article has some excellent pointers about lettering that is covered in a digestible and easy manner.
It essentially talks about the steps involved in lettering, with a variety of styles and examples, as well as some basic typographic rules.
Since I chose to go with sans serif lettering, this particular section from the article was quite helpful:
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| Fig 3.1: Sans serif lettering styles of R |
The most important thing that I learned is to keep in mind the legibility at all times while exploring different styles.
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