Advance Typography - Task 3: Type Exploration & Application
11/06/2025 - 23/07/2025 / Week 8 - Week 14
Aquela Zefanya Soares / 0374377
Advance Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LECTURES
INSTRUCTION
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TASK
Proposal
For this task, we were asked to create a proposal before designing our font. We were given the freedom to choose the concept we wanted to develop for our final font. Before proceeding, we needed to understand the purpose of the font and the proposal helped us find that direction.
References
Once Mr. Vinod approved my proposal, I started researching to find the right direction and inspiration for my font design.
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Process
Sketching
Then, I sketched my design in IbisPaint. The whole process took me 10 hours to achieve the look I wanted.
Digitization
I purposely made a clean sketch so that when I digitized it, I could use the Image Trace tool in Adobe Illustrator. Before digitizing, Mr. Vinod instructed us to use a 1000px artboard, so I used Myriad Pro as a base and guideline for my x-height (500pt), cap height, baseline, ascender, and descender. I referred to Myriad Pro for the width, height, and sizing of my characters and punctuation.
I used Image Trace for all of my alphabets, numbers, and punctuation marks, then adjusted the size and refined the liquid shapes thingy using the Smooth Tool and anchor points.
I felt that my sketch of the dollar sign wasn’t strong, so I decided to construct it using my ‘S’ and a straight line instead. After that, I continued refining my characters until I was satisfied with the result.
FontForge and FontLab 8
Before proceeding to FontForge, we needed to export the assets as SVG files, since FontForge doesn’t support direct copy-paste like FontLab.
Then, I imported all of my SVG files into each character template.
Because not every character get imported correctly, I did some adjustment to the font to match the one that I have in my Adobe Illustrator
After finishing the adjustments, I moved on to fixing the sidebearings. While doing that, I noticed that some of my characters looked off (like the comma), so I made a few tweaks. I also adjusted the size of my 'Q' for better consistency.
After completing everything, I wanted to start kerning. However, I found kerning in FontForge too complicated and time-consuming, so I decided to switch to FontLab 8 instead. There, I made further adjustments to my sidebearings and began the kerning process.
Before finalizing my font, I decided to double-check everything. That’s when I noticed that my period, comma, semicolon, and colon were not the same size, so I adjusted them for consistency.
Since I was making a majuscule font, I initially placed all my letters in the uppercase section only. However, I got tired of having to turn on Caps Lock every time I wanted to preview it (or maybe I was just being lazy), so I decided to copy the letters into the lowercase section as well to make things easier. Later on, Mr. Vinod told us that for a unicase font, we’re actually supposed to place the letters in both the uppercase and lowercase sections, so I guess my laziness helped after all.
Font Presentation & Font Application
For the font presentation, I didn’t have a clear direction at first, so I tried out everything I could think of. I edited this one in Adobe Photoshop to add a nice blur and smear effect with color, which I later used as the basis for my color palette.
I asked my friends for feedback on this one. They said it looked good, but kind of bland, so I ended up changing the composition to make it less plain.
"In the meantime, since I had no inspiration, I decided to create the font application using a mockup template from Unblast.com. The process was quick, and because I designed a decorative font, I wanted it to be used for logos and book covers. So, I chose templates that reflect that intention.
Then, I asked Mr. Vinod for feedback on my font presentation, font application, and the HONOR competition (the process will be explained in the next section). He said everything was good except for the font presentation, as the color palette made it look bland and plain. So, I decided to change the composition and color palette again.
After getting feedback from my friends, I found a composition and color palette that I felt worked well. Below is the final result of both the font presentation and application after applying the feedback.
HONOR Competition
For the standby wallpaper, I initially wanted to use a quirky icon to make it more interesting, but I later removed it because I didn’t like how it looked. Instead, I added effects such as bevel, satin, and drop shadow to enhance the overall visual appeal.
I ended up not liking the object, so I removed it and decided to create the wallpaper using only numbers. Then, I added a clock and date section for the standby contest.
Since we were instructed to animate the clock, I decided to create a simple animation in After Effects. Before exporting my layers, I rasterized them and ensured that the effects still worked properly so the result wouldn't change during animation.
To keep things simple, I created a basic animation where the background moves horizontally and the clock changes minutes in a straightforward way.
Final Outcome
Try the font here:
FEEDBACK
Week 9
Specific Feedback: Mr. Vinod said that my idea is not an experimental but an extension. He added that when creating a font, I need to be detailed about that.
General Feedback: Mr. Vinod gave us feedback on our chosen ideas and said that the e-portfolio will help us in our future careers because it showcases our work. He also mentioned that we need to add our own touch, personality, and creativity since the e-portfolio reflects its owner. He explained that if we create a font, we need to know the size of our artboard. The height is 1000pt, the x-height is 500pt, and the width is up to us.
Week 10
Specific Feedback: Mr. Vinod told me that I need to have a clear purpose when creating a typeface. He also advised me to be mindful of the letter 'L', as the horizontal line is currently too long.
General Feedback: -
Week 11
Specific Feedback: Mr. Vinod said that my work is okay and I can proceed with the font presentation.
General Feedback: Mr. Vinod said to be careful when creating punctuation because there are many things to be mindful of, and more research is needed for this.
Week 12
Specific Feedback: Mr. Vinod said that my font presentation is okay, but I need to add a color palette.
General Feedback: Mr. Vinod told us that whoever creates a unicase font needs to include the uppercase letters in the lowercase slots as well, so it’s easier to use without having to turn on caps lock every time.
Week 13
Specific Feedback: Mr. Vinod said my HONOR layout is okay, but I need to change the font application’s color palette because, even though the composition is fine, the current colors make it look flat.
General Feedback: -
REFLECTIONS
Experience
This task felt a bit overwhelming for me. The deadline came fast, and everything seemed to be in a rush. I had to push myself to keep up, but I was really happy when I finally finished creating the font. During the process, I kept asking for my friends' opinions on everything I made. They gave me helpful feedback, which made the work feel less heavy.
The most challenging part was creating the punctuation. I didn’t expect it to be that hard, but there are actually a lot of things that I often overlook. I learned that parentheses need to be taller than normal letters because they have to fit both uppercase and lowercase inside them. But they also can't be too long or they’ll look off. Small things like that made me realize how much detail goes into every part of the typeface.
Observations
I noticed that some of my classmates were struggling to finish this task too, or at least it seemed that way. It made me feel a bit relieved because I knew I wasn’t alone. While working, I compared a lot of typefaces to see how they constructed things, especially the punctuation. I forgot that the period, comma, colon, and semicolon should be the same height. It sounds obvious, but I overlooked it at first. I felt like something was off, and after checking again, I noticed that Myriad Pro keeps those punctuation marks at a consistent size. That helped guide me to fix mine.
Findings
While doing this task, I learned how to use FontForge and also re-learned how to use FontLab 8. Even though it’s easier to do things in FontLab 8, I resized the letters, adjusted the placement, and worked on the sidebearings in FontForge. After that, I did the kerning in FontLab 8. It was actually kind of fun using both applications because they have different features. I also learned how to be more patient. Doing the kerning and fixing the sidebearings took me the longest, but I managed to finish it. It wasn’t easy, but I’m glad I didn’t give up.
FURTHER READING
For this task, I mostly referred to https://typetype.org/blog/universitty-lesson-8-designing-basic-latin-characters-uppercase-characters/ as my guide for creating the font. It helped me keep track of similar-looking characters like 'O', 'C', 'G', 'Q'; 'B', 'R', 'P'; 'A', 'V', 'W'; and 'J', 'I'. The guide also explained base characters and how other letters relate to them, which helped me stay mindful during the design process. Additionally, it assisted me in deciding how to set sidebearings and kerning, alongside the guidance given by Mr. Vinod.
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