Typography-Task1:Exercises

 September xx, 2025

22/9/2025-27/10/2025

Sun QiHang 0385392

Typograhy/ Bachelorr of Design(Honous) in Creative Media

 Task1:Exercises

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Lectures

Week 1: Introduction-Development

Typo-1 Development:

In this lesson, I learned that typography is a very important part of design. It is not only used in graphic design, but also in animation and new media. The lecturer explained that good typography needs strong attention to detail and good composition skills. These skills are very useful for anyone who wants to work in design.

The class also helped me understand how typography affects visual communication. It is not only about how words look, but also about how they make people feel and understand information. We learned about the meaning and history of typography, and how it is used in different design areas. The teacher also introduced some important concepts, such as the difference between fonts and typefaces, and the need to understand style and convention.

Another interesting part was about technology. The teacher said that technology makes typography more open to everyone, but it also brings new challenges. Finally, the lecturer gave us some advice for learning, like joining a Facebook group, using online resources, and writing a blog to record our progress.

Overall, I think this module helped me see how important typography is in design. It gave me new knowledge and made me more interested in learning how to use typography effectively in my own projects.

Week 2:

Typo-3 -Text-Part 1:

After listening to the lecture, I learned a lot about the long history and development of typography. The teacher explained how writing has changed over around 500 years, mostly from the Western point of view but also mentioning Asian contributions. It was interesting to hear how people in early times used sharp sticks on clay or carved words into stone. Later, the Greeks changed the direction of writing, and new scripts like Uncial and Minuscule appeared.

The lecture also talked about how people tried to make writing easier to read and more practical. I found Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press very important because it made books and information more available to people and helped the growth of Western civilization.

We also learned about the progress of typefaces from the 15th to the 20th century. Some famous designers such as Jenson, Garamond, and Bodoni created typefaces that are still used today. The lecture showed how technology and art trends influenced the design of letters and the way they were classified.

In the end, the teacher explained the main typeface groups like Serif, Sans Serif, and Semi-Serif. I realized that understanding the history of typography helps us better appreciate how design and communication have developed over time.

Week 3:

In this lecture, I learned about important ideas in text formatting, especially spacing, kerning, and tracking, which all help make text easier to read. Kerning means changing the space between certain pairs of letters, while letter spacing adds space between all letters. Tracking is used to make the spacing in a word or sentence look more even. The teacher explained that kerning is very important for some letter pairs, and letter spacing is useful for capital letters to make them clearer.

We also learned how to use Adobe InDesign to adjust these settings. The instructor showed that good typography needs both beauty and readability. Different text alignments like left-aligned, centered, and justified were also discussed, and we learned which ones are better for different situations.

The lecture talked about leading (the space between lines) and how line length can affect how easy the text is to read. The teacher also explained that we must choose typefaces carefully, depending on whether the text will be printed or shown on a screen. The size of the text and how it looks with images are also important.

Finally, the teacher reminded us that good typography requires balance, clarity, and attention to detail. We were encouraged to use the typefaces introduced in class in our own design projects.

In this lecture, we reviewed what we learned before about text formatting and went deeper into new details. The teacher talked again about letter spacing, kerning, tracking, alignment, and color, and explained how these ideas work together in longer pieces of text. We also learned about paragraph spacing, indentation, and choosing typefaces for better layout design.

The instructor showed how to keep good alignment between text columns and how to use special symbols like the pilcrow (¶) to mark paragraphs. We learned that indentation works well with justified text to make the layout neat and avoid uneven edges. The lecture also discussed how to fix problems like widows and orphans by changing where lines break or forcing new line breaks.

We practiced highlighting text using italics, bold, different typefaces, and colors. The teacher reminded us to adjust the point size when changing typefaces so that the text looks balanced. We also talked about typographic hierarchy and how using different heading levels (A, B, and C heads) helps organize information clearly.

At the end, the teacher stressed the importance of keeping cross-alignment and visual consistency in design. An example showed how changing the line spacing, or leading, can affect alignment. The lecture finished with a quote comparing typography to two-dimensional architecture, which made me think about how typography helps build clear and beautiful layouts.

Week 5：

In this lecture, we learned about the basic ideas of typography and how important it is to understand them through real practice, not just theory. The teacher said that typography is usually taught at the beginning of a design course, but doing exercises helps us understand it better.

We studied some key technical terms about letter forms, such as the baseline, median line, and ascender height. These parts are important for keeping balance in the design. The teacher also explained different parts of letters like strokes, apexes, and bowls, showing how they affect both the look and readability of typefaces.

The lecture also covered small capitals, numbers, punctuation, and ornaments, helping us see how small details can change the appearance of text. We learned about the history of typeface development and how designers aimed for both readability and ethical expression. The instructor encouraged us to study different typefaces to understand their variety and meaning.

Finally, we talked about the course’s set of nine type families and how choosing the right one can help express the message more clearly. The lecture ended by reminding us to read more about typography, improve our reading skills, ask questions, and use available resources to build deeper knowledge.

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Instruction

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/105_fLEUgJIjUGtqb2dqMPvPWI3nJgyQg/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

Task 1 :

Exercise 1 - Type Expression

1) Sketches

Mr. Goh provided six words for us to choose four of them for the design.

These six words are：Fall, Bloom, Bend, Disappear, Swipe, Focus

The words I choose is: bloom, swipe,  bend,fall

This is the sketch I designed

2）Digitalization

Using Adobe Illustrator to digitize the sketch.

3) Final Typo Expressions

 animation:

Exercise 2 - Text Formatting

This task requires us to create a layout that includes text formatting, such as kerning, letter spacing, paragraph spacing, line spacing, and alignment adjustments.

Using the provided text and the ten fonts given by the teacher, l will formatthe text.

These are some layouts I have tried.

Final project:

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Feedback

Week 1

Specific Feedback:

General Feedback: After today’s class, I learned that writing itself can be a kind of visual expression. The way we design text — its size, shape, and layout — can show feelings and ideas. I realized that words can also be a part of visual design.

Week 2

Specific Feedback:

General Feedback: In this class, we learned how to use Adobe Illustrator to make our sketches digital. I found it interesting to see my hand drawings become clean digital art. This skill is useful for my future design work.

Week 3

Specific Feedback:

General Feedback: In this class, I learned that Photoshop can group several pictures to make a GIF animation. I was surprised because I didn’t know PS could do this before. It was fun and helped me understand simple animation skills.

Week 4

Specific Feedback:

General Feedback: In this lesson, the teacher gave us ten fonts and asked us to design a layout for an article. I realized that layout design is not easy and needs careful attention. I learned some basic and useful editing skills to make text look more clear and professional.

Week 5

Specific Feedback:

General Feedback: Because of the road closure, the class has been moved online.

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Reflection

Experience:The past five weeks have been intense yet rewarding. We progressed through Task 1 in weekly stages, receiving timely feedback that helped refine our work. Reviewing classmates’ projects also broadened my perspective; their approaches and the comments they received gave me concrete ideas to try. Beyond meeting deadlines, the emphasis in class has been on active learning—understanding why decisions are made, not just ticking boxes. The pre-recorded lectures on typography fundamentals supported this, letting me revisit key concepts at my own pace.

Observations:I noticed myself paying closer attention to details as the weeks went by. Working in small, weekly increments made space for focused guidance and course correction, which was extremely helpful. At the same time, I realised I occasionally overlooked important instructions in the brief. For instance, I initially ignored the requirement to consider 10 typefaces during sketching, which later complicated my digitisation and motion stage. I’m also still figuring out how to translate verbal ideas into animated form, as my familiarity with animation principles is limited.

Findings：Typography is more than functional letters and words—it’s an art that demands precision and intent, capable of shaping how messages feel and read. Since starting this module, I’ve become more alert to type in the environment: signage, apps, packaging—each choice communicates something. I also recognised that I tend to stay quiet in class, which slows my learning. I need to ask more questions, practise critical thinking, and avoid relying on being spoon-fed. Better attention to brief details early on would prevent downstream issues, especially when moving from sketches to digital and animated outcomes. Finally, I often spend too long perfecting parts of the task and juggling other modules; improving time management and letting go of perfectionism will help me deliver consistently and on time.