Jenny's Exercise 1&2

Why I like it?

I often use Comic Sans font for various purpose. I like the informality of it
and it is fairly stylized- hand rendered. It is similar to my own hand writing,
thus I feel comfortable reading and writing with it. This font is a little more
modern than serif font, and I think it is great to use for tables and charts
compared to the serif fonts. I also think that this font allow eye to follow the
text easier than fonts such as Times New Roman.

Where do I use it?

I use this font for making tables, charts, informal documents, comics and posters.

About this font

Comic Sans is a casual script typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released
in 1994 by the Microsoft Corporation. It is classified as a casual, non-connecting script,
and was designed to imitate comic book lettering, for use in informal documents. The
typeface has been supplied with Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, initially as a supplemental font in the Windows Plus Pack. The font's widespread use,
often in situations for which it was not intended, has been criticized.

Comic Sans is frequently used in both comic books and webcomics as a substitute for hand-lettering, although comic artists usually prefer to use custom-designed computer

fonts instead. The Comic Sans font has been used on several products, including the

tags on Beanie Babies (since the late 1990s) and the 2004 Canada Day 25-cent collector coin.^[6] It is also used in The Sims video game series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans

Research questions

Can I produce a font that is easy on eye?
Can I produce a font with humour?
Can I produce a font for teenagers?
Who will be the target for the usage of this font?

Thursday Class Time and Place

Hi All - It seems that most of you can make a Thursday class so I have managed to book B108 (so its not in the design block) from 5 - 7pm. I actually have the room to 8pm so if we need to start later let me know as soon as possible - but the earlier we start the earlier we can leave.

Good to see that most of you have also now posted some experiments. I will try to comment on them this evening - but for now it seems a lot of you have tried cutting / ripping / moulding techniques that are a good start but tend towards a certain aesthetic that neglects some of the richness and individuality that can be made in shaping a series of letters into a unique and highly recognisable font with the characteristics and background that you have highlighted in your favourite font exercise. So for tomorrow I want you to prepare a few things so that we can have an intensive font making studio - you will need to bring in:

A wide brush and some ink / water colour

Graph paper

Soft lead pencils - 2b / 4b

Collect some found objects, twigs and sticks

A rule / compass and tape

 

Also -

Print out a full set of letter forms from your reviewed font - including upper and lower case, and other special characters, at 40pts

Return to your research questions and print them out with a series of responses that respond or note down avenues for experimentation and ways of investigating these questions (you may choose to focus on your best 3) eg:

Q -  Can I produce a font that can be collapsible?

Notes - Try making letters from wooden components that are screwed together, try folding letterforms out of paper and throwing them in the air and photographing them, collect images of buildings, bridges and other built forms collapsing, review them for letter shapes and possibilities.

Q - Can I produce a font which can be modified?

Notes - Try to come up with a series of letter forms that when used can be placed over each other to create a range of possible variations on each letter shape...

With all of these we can then spend the class focusing on creating a series of possible starting points for developing a truly experimental, recognisable and useable font - I would like to try and focus on the letter A, G, Q, S and I

To get you thinking here are some letter forms from Neasden Control Centre's Polemia series - a project that combines action and experimentation starting with different choices of working material. The letter forms are an act of collection and acquisition, reclaiming lost or forgotten objects - as well as of creative juxtaposition. The real character of these letter forms come from the obvious made quality - the carry a 3-dimensional weight that comes from the careful construction and combining of elements on the one hand in balance, but also as an installation - out of scale with our usual experience of 'type'

 

Nina's Exercise 1&2

why i like it

Well, Gill Sans Ultra Bold , perhaps the typeface I use most. It is the typeface which continue to sur­prise me with their beauty and versatility. It seems lile every character have life and face with this kind of shape.

As we’re all prob­ably aware Gill Sans is a pretty stand­ard font these days, used and abused as a res­ult of being part of a default font install­a­tion on cer­tain oper­at­ing sys­tems. Like Times New Roman, a lot of people have become tired of its express­ive curves (yes, that’s right, I did say ‘express­ive’). I'm hop­ing after read­ing this, at the very least, you’ll look upon Gill Sans with fresh eyes.

In terms of Gill Sans Ultra Bold, I love its cute and round shape. The char­ac­ters are hard, sculp­tured forms which clearly show Gill’s edu­ca­tion and artistic roots. There’s the legib­il­ity of a serif face, bal­anced with the author­ity of a sans-serif. Gill Sans can seem friendly in its lighter weights, mak­ing it per­fect for body text, and with its roun­ded let­ter forms and lim­ited adorn­ments, it’s highly legible. The bolder weights are per­fect for dis­play or sig­nage pur­poses.

Personally, I think the character "a ,r, f, j"work well with this shape. Because they are balanced and hard. It looks like their have their own personality.

Where do I use it

Generally I use this typeface for propagand especially in comic books and animation.

About this font

Gill Sans™ Ultra Bold was first introduced in 1928. Eric Gill studied under the renowned

calligrapher, Edward Johnston, the designer of the London Underground sans serif typeface.

This influenced Gill who later experimented with sans serif designs, and in due course produced

a set of capital letters. Gill Sans Ultra Bold is a twentieth century sans serif that has a simplicity

of form which does not reject traditional forms and proportions, and gives the face a humanist

feel. The lighter weights are highly readable in text and suitable for magazine and book work,

whereas the heavier weights are best used for display in advertising, packaging, and labels.

The uppercase of Gill Sans is modelled on the monumental Roman capitals like those found on the Column of Trajan, and the Caslon and Baskerville typefaces.
The capital M from Gill Sans is based on the proportions of a square with the middle strokes meeting at the centre of that square. The Gill Sans typeface family contains fourteen styles and has less of a mechanical feel than geometric sans-serifs like Futura, because its proportions stemmed from Roman tradition. Unlike realist sans-serif typefaces including Akzidenz Grotesk and Univers the lower case is modelled on the lowercase Carolingian script. The Carolingian influence is noticeable in the two-story lowercase a, and g. The lowercase t is similar to old-style serifs in its proportion and oblique terminus of the vertical stroke. Following the humanist model the lowercase italic a becomes single story. The italic e is highly calligraphic, and the lowercase p has a vestigial calligraphic tail reminiscent of the italics of Caslon and Baskerville. Gill Sans serves as a model for several later humanist sans-serif typefaces including Syntax and FF Scala Sans. An Infant variety of the typeface with single-story versions of the letters a and g also exists.
The basic glyph shapes do not look consistently across font weights and widths, especially in Extra Bold and Ultra Bold weights, and Extra Condensed width. However, even in lighter weights, some letters do not look consistent. For example, in letters p and q, the top strokes of counters do not touch the top of the stems in Light, Bold, Heavy fonts, but touch the top of the stems in Book, Medium fonts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill_Sans

Exercise 2: research questions

Can I produce a font that formed with balloon?

Can I produce a font that is floating?

Can I produce a font that children would like to play with?

Can I produce a font that have face?

Can I produce a font that have more than 3 dimensional visual effect?

Alexia's homework

EUROSTILE

Why do you like it?

I think that the primary reason why I like it is that there is a nice blocky-ness to it. There is a definite squareness to it, but it is softened ever so subtly by the curves. It’s an old font, but I believe that Eurostile isn’t used that much because people tend to opt more for the gentler fonts like Helvetica, Gills Sans and perhaps even Futura to a degree. Eurostile has a particular strength and sense of dimension to it.

What characters work best?

For me I think that the K, B, G, S, O, a, e, k, m, t and o work the best because they have that balance between the rigid box and the subtle curve.
Those that could work better
I think that M, W, X and Z could work better if they were slightly more condensed because they feel wider than the rest of the Cap fonts.

How often do you use it?

Admittedly, I don’t use the font that often because a majority of the projects I work on are community and cultural based so it’s a tad inappropriate.
Where and why you use
I think that it works more as a title/subheading font to illustrate the strength of modernity or something along those lines – instead of body text.

What might you be able to learn from this as an exemplary font design?

It is ‘distinctive without being flamboyant’.

Historical Information:

Originally the type was created as an uppercase font and was drawn by Alessandro Butti (1893 - 1959, type designer and teacher. Art director of the Nebiolo type foundry in Turin), with help from his assistant Aldo Novarese (who later became one of Italy’s premier typeface designers). It was first called Microgramma.

Released in 1952 it was popular for the next 10 years, but proved difficult because it didn’t have lower case letters. In 1962 it was released with the lowercase letters and renamed Eurostile.
Linotype began distributing Eurostile decades ago, and during the early 1980s, it worked together with Adobe to bring Novarese’s creation into the digital age as PostScript fonts.

The most obvious attribute of Eurostile, other than its lack of serifs, is the squared quality of its design. Many of the letters look as if they began life by tracing the frames of old television screens. There is a symmetry and implied mathematical quality to the design. Hermann Zapf dubbed this the “super curve,” and worked with it himself in his serif newspaper face Melior®. The geometricity of Eurostile also puts it together with types like Avenir®, Futura®, and ITC Avant Garde Gothic®, even though Eurostile looks quite different at first glance.
Eurostile has a large x-height and is distinctive without being flamboyant. In plain text, this means that it is not a replacement for sans serif text faces like Univers® or Franklin Gothic™. Nevertheless, Eurostile is easy to use well, and it has the added benefit of standing out from the crowd of other typefaces in the sans serif genre.

http://www.linotype.com/5324/eurostilenext.html

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What is my motivation for this font?
Who will I want using it?
Can it be have a multifaceted use?
What is the experience of this font?
How does the font affect the message I want to create?
Can it involve the ‘reader’ in producing it?
Can it be a learning tool?

I think I might extend my research from the publication. Tactile typography and the experience as opposed to just the look of a font.


Highlighter on lined paper. I then used a scalpel to lift the letters from the page.

Ripped up strips of paper and the folded them to create letter forms.

Yoghurt letter forms. Yum!

felix exercise 1, 2, 3, 4

Exercise 1: My favorite font

Optima®




About this font

Optima, one of Hermann Zapf’s most successful typefaces, was released by the D. Stempel AG in 1958.

In 1950, Zapf made his first sketches for his “serifless roman” while visiting the Santa Croce church in Florence. He sketched letters from grave plates that had been cut about 1530, and as he had no other paper with him at the time, the sketches were done on two 1000 lire bank notes. These letters from the floor of the church inspired Optima, a typeface that is classically roman in proportion and character, but without serifs. The letterforms were designed in the proportions of the Golden Ratio.

In 1952, after careful legibility testing, the first drawings were finished. The type was cut by Stempel’s renowned punchcutter, August Rosenberger. Optima was also produced in matrices for the Linotype Machine. With the clear, simple elegance of its sans serif forms and the warmly human touches of its tapering stems, this family has proved popular around the world.

Optima is the typeface used for the text on the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C.

quoted from: http://typophile.com/node/15685?

Why i like this font

It combines the clarity of modern face with the objectivity of sans-serif typefaces.Thus, it is highly recognizable but has a low fatigue to its audiences. The outline of Optima is not exactly erect, but with a micronic curve which makes the font formal, steady, without a sense of stiffness. The scale of its thickness is perfect, let the font seems fairly elegant.

Where do I normally use it

I normally use it on the advertisements, especially for cosmetics.


Exercise 2: research questions

Can I produce a font that expresses a boorish sense?Can I produce a font that expresses a compare of stillness and movement?
Can I produce a font that is stupid?
Can I produce a font that is luxury?
Can I produce a font that is aboriginal?

Exercise 3: Handwritten Lettering

This will be post later.


Exercise 4: Develop a sample of five letters that are “written” with unusual mark-making instruments.

attempt 1: Rough

This is an attempt to answer my first research question: Can I produce a font that expresses a boorish sense?

I think about using the surface of ground tile as bottom textile and the surface of sole as upper textile to produce such sense.

following is the whole process

step 1: print and cut

step 2:making the edge become rough

step 3: finding the bottom textile

step 4: acquiring the textile on the paper

step 5:coloring the upper textile

step 6: producing

step 7: initial outcome


step 8: segistration

step 9: final outcome


attempt 2: light writing



This is an attempt to answer my second research question: can I produce a font that express a compare of stillness and movement?

I use a laser pen to "write" the alphabets on a big screen with recording by a digital camera to achieve it in a dark photographic studio.
The alphabets is the track left by laser-light's movement which captured by camera, but nothing was really reserved on the screen. after the camera stop its shoot, it seems that nothing has happened before.

Gopi Exercise - 4

Exercise - 4

This is my one of experiment to create font with the use of paper, USB wire, fruit and clay.

Gopi Exercise - 1 & 2

Exercise - 1

Centable Book

It is very difficult to select pick any one font as my favourite since I have a likening for too many fonts. But if I have to make a choice then Centable Book stands out for me. Primarily it is a very clean and readable font which is why it tops my list. One can read anything written with it from a distance and it also gives a spacious feeling.

Though it comes from the serif font family, some of it’s characters have a contemporary touch. That makes it quite exclusive. Moreover this font can be use for different purpose and for various subjects. For example the same type can be use in body copy as well as a headline.

In particular I like alphabets a, g, e, q in lower case and also the dot on ‘i’ and ‘j’. The shapes are pretty different from the regular round or square ones which makes the fonts special to me. If you observe the letters closely the base of some letters are a bit slanting which proves that the letters were not totally designed for formal reasons. Therefore, the lowercase are more special to me than the uppercase. Given a chance, I would like to make some changes in the uppercase characters. Not many but surely some of them. Letter Q, O, M, R and S are the most impressive from the uppercase.

Whenever I have a simple and decent design to make, I consider this font as a priority. For most of my project I used this font. As a professional, I used this font at in various campaigns. Sometimes even in stationary design and also while creating logo designs when the name of company was started with letter G. Since ‘G’ has the most exquisite look amongst all the characters, upper or lower case.

Exercise - 2

Can I produce fonts which can be eatable?

Can I produce a font which melts like an ice cream.

Can I produce a font in which people can live?

Can I produce a font which can be modified?

Can I produce a font which people can use as cloths?

Can I produce a font which people can use for next 50 years?

Can I produce font which reminds you of nature.

Can I produce a font which can be attracting small kids?

Iris: exercises 4

There are a couple of experiments with making letters, one is some green bean drawing models and the other some paper.

Iris: exercises 1&2

I love Papyrus font. Because it looks like handwriting, I like it.
Papyrus font is a popular and unusual roman typeface that effectively merges the elegance of a traditional roman letterform with the hand-crafted look of highly skilled calligraphy.
It’s handcrafted and irregular as well as rough look give Papyrus a distinct look that lends itself well for display type. It is especially suitable for anything that needs to look a little bit antique.
Although this typeface has been overused in the past decade so many people are currently bored with it. But it value can be used in everywhere, such as logo, information board, book covers and packaging. Some people even use it for PowerPoint presentations. I think the small letter like b, d, f, h, k etc look better, because they are look very slightness and unique. Interestingly, they are even longer than capital letter. In addition, capital letter like E that the first bar is shorter than the middle one looks very funny.

This unique style font created by American designer Chris Costello, a designer and illustrator, created Papyrus using a calligraphy pen and textured paper. His intent was to create a typeface that looked as if written on papyrus 2000 years ago. On his website, he says that he has“affection for classic lettering styles”. He has also designed the typefaces Blackstone, Letterpress text, Mirage and Virus. He is a professional bass player and a black belt in Tae-Kwon Do. In an interview, Costello talks about the inspiration and process for Papyrus: I took a calligraphy pen and some textured paper and just started drawing “old looking” alphabets in many different styles. I was thinking about the ancient Middle East and I then began writing words, dates and phrases from the history of that time in all upper case lettering. I soon came up with what I thought vernacular writing may have looked like if the English language existed 2000 years ago. It probably would have been written on papyrus and figured that would be the perfect name for the font.
Papyrus was re-issued by linotype and ITC. It is now included with Microsoft and Apple as a system font.

Research question:
1.Can I produce a font that can be familiar with others?
2. Can I produce a font that can be use in holographic projection?
3. Can I produce a font that can be collapsible?
4. Can I produce a font that would melt?
5. Can I produce a font that can attract living creature such as butterfly?

Todays class - week 9

Hi all, great to see that mark and miranda have posted some of their exercises, and they are looking good. I will give more specific feedback later in the day. Please start to make some postings if you haven't already as it can start to drive the creative font making process.

I have emailed you all your marks this morning, so if you haven't got them please check the email accounts that you use for this blog. 

I also have made an error in the long weekend week - and as such am still away in Newcastle and won't be back in time for class today. Plan A is to try and reschedule for 5 / 6 pm on Thursday I am checking with the design office to see if there is a room available. Can you let me know if you can make this time? If not friday afternoon may be an option or Wednesday also. Or there is always online, but seeing as next week is the public holiday I would like to see you all before then

Mark's Excersice 4

For exercise 4, I've playing around with a bohemian scarf and a perfume packaging. I like how these two objects turns out, each has a different feels to it. For the scarf, it looks a little bit organic and playful, more texture and color. While for the packaging its a bit bold and industrial i might say.

Miranda's exercises 2, 3 & 4

Exercise 2

Ok I have to admit I really don’t understand the nature of this question so my answers may seem a little glib, but what is a toxic or washable font?
Can I produce a font that is edible?
Can I produce a font that causes people to have an epilectic fit?
Can I produce a font that brings tears to your eyes, in a good way that is?
Can I produce a font that people would want to wear?
Can I produce a font that makes your hair shiny?
Can I produce a font that will make me squillions of dollars?


Exercise 3

Handwritten lettering; well for this I handwrote my letters then cut them out with a scapel and then I made a stencil of them and spray painted them and also some other treatments. Not sure how successful they are but they definitely look like my handwriting which is messy. I wanted to try some ink versions of my fav font but no ink so that will have to wait.





Exercise 4

Here are a couple of experiments with making letters, one is some wooden drawing models and the other some wool.

Mark's Exercise 1 & 2

What

Bauer Bodoni Std 2 Black Italic

Bodoni is the name given to a series of serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in 1798. The typeface is classified as didone modern. Bodoni followed the ideas of John Baskerville, as found in the printing type Baskerville, that of increased stroke contrast and a more vertical, slightly condensed, upper case, but taking them to a more extreme conclusion. Bodoni's typeface has a narrower underlying structure with flat, unbracketed serifs. The face has extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall geometric construction.

Bodoni admired the work of John Baskerville and studied in detail the designs of French type founders Pierre Simon Fournier and Firmin Didot. Although he drew inspiration from the work of these designers, above all from Didot, no doubt Bodoni found his own style for his typefaces, which deservedly gained worldwide acceptance among printers.

Many digital versions of Bodoni suffer from a particular kind of legibility degradation known as "dazzle" caused by the alternating thick and thin strokes, particularly from the thin strokes being very thin at small point sizes.



Why

I like the classic characteristic of a serif font. With Bauer Bodoni Std 2 Black Italic, I like how it has that classic look of serif font but in the same time it is quite modern as well. The combination of thin and thick lines of Bauer Bodoni Std 2 Black Italic is what I believe that made this font looks excellent. The italic treatment of this font also add that modern feels to it. Other reason that I like this font is because this font would suite for a publication purposes. Such as for art and culture magazines or maybe posters.

Many serif font like Baskerville could feel a little bit stiff and quite straight, but no with Bauer Bodoni Std 2 Black Italic. I might say because in some ways, Bauer Bodoni Std 2 Black Italic can look quite organic and ‘chic’, but at the same time it still give that sense of seriousness.

I like the curve on the letter R and J. I think it just add the fun to the ‘family’. I also like the letter A, I think the combination between the thick and thin lines in A are just perfect. If I have to change one of the letter I would say Q. I don’t like how the the tail end at center of the circle. I would prefer it end from left to right.


When & Where

I normally use this font mostly for publication projects. However, recently I just used this font for a screen based project. You can see it here, http://www.myspace.com/janskub

Research Questions

1.Can I produce a font that are clearly to read or legible enough?
2.Can I produce a font that can still be use for a 10 to 20 years of time?
3.Can I produce a font that can be use in any type of medium? Print and screen based.
4.Can I produce a font that can be categorize as fun or playful?
5.Can I produce a font that inspired from everyday objects?

add:
6.Can I produce a font that inspired from Sydney's architectures ?
7.Can I produce a font that are fashionable ?

All letterforms of cocktail shaker

Sorry folks realised I didn't have the capital F or T there for you to look at. Here are all the letterforms. Hmm just realised that this is a newer version of the font than I have and the capital T is much better, still not too sure about the capital F.

Cocktail Shaker

Why do I like this font? It has something to do with it’s retro style and it’s informality. I think it’s an elegant font reminiscent of the 1950’s. It makes me think “Mad Men” style advertising execs. I like it’s brush like strokes and the fact it looks a little hand drawn. It’s old fashioned but kind of new looking. Part of me is thinking Bewitched and part of me is thinking groovy font designer.
I really like the capital S. The way it kind of looks upside down with the bigger circular form at the top and the cheeky little hook it has up there. I think the capital F and T are the least successful letterforms, particularly the T - it looks a bit like a back the front 7. The W is kinda cute too with it’s curly piggy tail middle bit (I think it’s the cross bar but it’s vertical not horizontal).
Where would you use this font? I guess on anything that’s kind of informal? Maybe invitations or record covers or some kind of product branding. I don’t think you would get much use out of this font in the corporate world. I could see it used in a bar or venue, maybe a 50’s inspired diner? I guess what I can learn form this font is have a bit of fun with it, loosen up daddio!

Here’s some info I found out about the font and the designer:

About this typeface:
Wrap your chilly fingers around this ultra cool swingin’ typeface! Cocktail Shaker is a swanky retro connecting script born out of 1950s lounge culture. Often referred to as the ‘googie’ look, Cocktail Shaker blends a casual loungy script with clean readability and a twist of modern Atomic Age charm.

About the designer:
With over 330 typefaces to his credit, Stuart Sandler has solidly established a reputation as the premier designer of retro display typography inspired by 1950s popular culture. In addition to winning Minneapolis’ The Show for the last three year consecutively, he also has several typeface designs distributed by ITC Fonts, Bitstream, Agfa Monotype and his own Font Diner foundry. Between each font release, Stuart is out shooting photographs of old car dashboards and scouring dusty antique shops (the ones that smell like dad’s old army uniform), and jet-setting to spots all across America where fifties design still stands proudly. With a library of vintage periodicals and a host of ephemera, he’s often found pouring over his collection to recapture the design sense and style of the past. This research proves invaluable to him as he crafts new ‘old’ typefaces.

Website
This is the designer's web site http://www.fontdiner.com/ and I think if anyone likes the retro look this is definitely worth checking out. When you put the address in the address bar a little hamburger appears on teh side (geeky but kind cool). If you click on the free silverware button there is a whole page of free fonts, some more successful than but hell for free they are great!

Online Class Week 8. Discussion and exercises

This week we will work on a range of ‘studio’ exercises to get us thinking creatively and to really experiment with ways of producing typefaces that have a unique personality and materiality. The idea here is to push the extent to which letter forms can appear to belong to a similar font family as well as the boundaries of what make a letter form recognisable as a letter – ie what makes an ‘a’ an ‘a’ is it a circle with a line on the right, a hook with a circle below etc…

Looking at the project at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/5214077/Google-Earth-satellite-images-alphabet-created-by-graphic-designer.html
starts to explore this idea by way of exploiting our associations with letterforms so that particular shapes in the landscape can be arranged into an alphabet despite the amount of information contained in each image
 

Taking this further this project seeks to explore ways in which particular typefaces can communicate abstract ideas, complicated concepts or added layers of information simply in adjustments to the basic building blocks of letter forms. In a way you will need to be able to identify what your font is ‘saying’ to the reader – what particular contexts of use might your font have? Is there a particular feeling that your font evokes? If you were to describe your font as a personality what would it be?

Visit Ellen Lupton’s site thinking with type: http://www.papress.com/other/thinkingwithtype/index.htm

Be sure to you’re your way through this part: http://www.papress.com/other/thinkingwithtype/letter/anatomy.htm and familiarise yourself with the terminology and architecture of font and letterform design as it will help you to produce more informed font designs. If you have any comments or ideas after reading through the site post them here. Don’t forget to re-visit http://ilovetypography.com there are some really great posts relating to more type theory and terminology as well as interviews with font designers and what makes them tick. If you can dig up any font history that is engaging and useful or any links to do with how fonts are designed and thought about please post them in the comments so we can discuss them together in this online ‘classroom’.

EXERCISES

In a single blog post upload your research and development of work for the following exercises. I will then give feedback and comments  on each during the week. Please offer your own comments to other students as well as being sure to read through my comments to see if any ideas or feedback could also be applied to your own work also.

Exercise 1 - what is your favourite font – list why you like it, which characters you think work best, those that could work better, how often you use it, where and why you use and what you might be able to learn form this as an exemplary font design. If possible see if you can find any interviews or historical information relating to the designer and why they designed it

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Exercise 2 – list 5 – 10 research questions that you would like to use to help you explore and analyse your font designs as they are produced. For example: Can I produce a font that washes away? Can I produce a font that is toxic? etc

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Exercise 3 - Produce handwritten lettering in a range of handwriting styles and propose a set of formal characters for your own handwriting – you can take this further by thinking about:

Using a range of tools for rendering you handwriting – ink, watercolor, scalpel, spray can, sticktape, etc consider the ways in which you different materials shape or change they way you ‘write’

Think about your personality – how can you make you letter forms express an aspect of your self?

Try re-rendering your favourite typeface in a way that allows you to own that typeface and push it into a new kind of type design

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Exercise 4 - Develop a sample of five letters that are “written” with unusual mark-making instruments. The form of the letters should be adjusted to best respond to the way the tool you have selected makes marks. You might even consider forming letters in three dimensions and photographing them, experimenting with scale and surfaces, even producing fonts that change over time – here are some fun examples to get you started.

Please try to post your responses to these exercises by the end of the week so I can respond over the weekend – if you get them up sooner all the better. Check back on the blog regularly as I may post some additional information relating to font design thinking and theory as I start to see the work you produce… If you have any questions please leave them in the comments of this post.

Can you also send me an email to karllogge@gmail.com so I have a copy of your email address to reply to with your marks from the first assignment