14.10.2025 - 18.11.2025 (Week 5 - Week 9 )
Nur Asma’ Binti Anuar / 0378095 / BDCM
Advanced Typography
Task 2: Key Artwork & Collateral
Week 5: Perception & Organization
Perception is the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. Perception in typography deals with the visual navigation and interpretation of the reader via contrast, form, and organization of the content. Content can be textual, visual, graphical or in the form of color.
Contrast creates a distinction and difference, it will be easier to separate different information. So to make design work and meaning pop out clearly and unambiguously with flair.
There are 7 kinds of contrast posits by Carl Dair:
- Size - provides point to reader's attention.
- Weight: Bold >> Light - describes how bold type stand out in the middle of lighter type in the same style. Other than using bold, using rules, spot, squares, also provides a heavy area for a powerful point of visual attraction or emphasis.
- Contrast of form - distinction between a capital letter and its lowercase equivalent, or a roman letter and it italic variant.
- Contrast of structure - different letterforms of different kinds of typefaces
- Contrast of texture - refers to the way the lines of type look as a whole up close and from a distance. Depends partly on the letterforms themselves and partly on how they arrange.
- Contrast of color - suggested that a second color is often less emphatic in values than plain black and white. Therefore it is important to give thought to which element needs to be emphasized and to pay attention to the tonal values of the colors that are used.
- Contrast of direction - Opposition between vertical and horizontal, and the angles between. Turning one word on its side have a dramatic effect on a layout. Text blocks also have their vertical or horizontal aspects of direction. Mixing wide blocks of long lines with tall columns of short line can also create a contrast.
Organization: Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts, based on the idea that we experience things as unified whole, instead of breaking down thoughts and behavior to their smallest elements, the gestalt psychologists believed that you must look at the whole of experience.
Therefore in design, the components and elements that make up the design is only as good as its overall visual form. While each component may be functional at an elemental level, the sum of its parts is not greater than the whole or the overall form.
Perceptual Organization / Groupings:
- Law of similarity - elements that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as a unified group, can refer to any number of features, including, color, organization, size, and motion.
- Law of proximity - This straightforward law states that items close to each other tend to be grouped together, whereas items further apart are less likely to be grouped together.
- Law of closure - refers to the mind's tendency to see complete figures or forms even if a picture is incomplete, partially hidden by other objects, or if part of the information needed to make a complete picture in our minds is missing.
- Law of continuation - holds that humans tend to perceive each of two or more objects as different, singular, and uninterrupted object even when they intersect. The alignment of the objects or forms plays a major role for this principle to take effect.
- Law of symmetry (Praganz)
- Law of simplicity
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INSTRUCTIONS
Task 2A starts with key artwork, it is a wordmark/lettering, but is also an artwork. As a wordmark/lettering it is used to identify a person but it is also used as an artwork that might adorn a lapel pin/T-shirt/poster (collateral). The key artwork can be disassembled into constituent shapes to form vibrant patterns that continue to maintain and expand its visual identity.
Explore and compose as many permutations and combinations of your name in the form of a wordmark/lettering. The final key artwork must be an elegant solution, well balanced and composed, not complicated or confusing that leads to a functional and communicable key artwork. This key artwork will subsequently be used in Task 2(B) collateral. Task 2(A) and 2(B) will require you to explore the boundaries of typographic communication using the knowledge gained from all modules not withstanding this semester’s exercises of Typographic Systems and Type & Play. Synthesise the knowledge and create a key artwork that excites and memorable.
Task 2 begins by creating a mind-map (of who you are or like to be), identifying keywords from that mind-map, create a mood-board or an inspiration. for direction and produce sketches of possible wordmark/lettering of your name (first name or pet name or pseudonym — minimum 4-5 characters). Then sketch and digitize your designs based upon your keyword/s and general stylistic direction of your mood board. Narrow down your options and digitise final 3/2 key artworks (wordmarks).
Task 2A - Key Artwork
The first thing I did was creating a self mind map of who I am and what I aspire to be.
Ideation & sketches:
After collecting and finalizing my moodboard, I went on to sketch my ideas. I chose my name (Asma') for my wordmark. At first I went on with the cat idea for my name. Then I went on with nature, and something inspired by one of the typographical moodboard. Lastly, I finished the ideation with a space type of wordmark based on stars.
The key words that I chose for this are: freedom and carefree.
Digitalization:
- Black wordmark on white background
- White wordmark on black background
- Colour palette
- Wordmark in actual colours on lightest shade of colour palette
- Wordmark in lightest shade of colour palette on darkest shade of colour palette
- Animated Key Artwork (800/1024 px, height andwidth; Gif format)
I realized that creating it on Procreate was easier than it was on After Effects. Using the correct measurements, I applied the wordmark and worked on a simple animation on Procreate.
- Collateral 1, 2, 3
- Instagram handle & link
- IG screen grab with good resolution. IG featuring 9 tiles (profile must feature a bio).
- Take a black and white self-portrait place key artwork (wordmark) on it artistically
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2B Collateral
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FEEDBACK
Week 5: (Absent)
Week 6:
General Feedback: follow the keywords based on the moodboard. Make sure the keyword is being communicated through the wordmark and has a value. Develop empathy for clients and readers when communicating with them. A good wordmark should be unique and simple enough for it to be remembered easily.
Specific Feedback: connect the spacing of the squares, increase the width, reduce the number of stars. Make the apostrophe work with the wordmark.
Week 7:
General feedback: The designs must work through the collateral, if it does not, then your design needs better work put into it
Specific Feedback: The star was not properly constructed, use the star shape to make it better.
Week 8:
General feedback: (Brief on Task3)
Specific Feedback: All good
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REFLECTION
Experience: This task has given me the ability to experiment freely with my designs with limited limitations, which I found freedom in as my first thought. When creating the sketches and ideas, somehow it felt exciting yet also niched. I thought to myself whether this was ok to do or not, ever since the last task I had to put strict limitations and boundaries set. However, during the colors and expansion of the wordmark, I felt more thrilled to create something that spells me, like literally. My name.
Then I had to animate it. The process of animating was nothing but calculating the frames and which layer is which for me, since I used Procreate instead of After Effects. But the final outcome was worth it. I was quite impressed by myself in the sort span of time I had to create it.
After that was creating collaterals and merchandise. How I felt the instant urged of ridiculousness of the situation where I had to wear my own design to class was quite comedic. I felt kind of proud to own it actually, might sell it to my friend and get that RM20 back. But on the other hand, designing the expansion and creating the collateral was actually quite helpful for me in understanding design better. It was fun all in all.
Observation: Trying to find an actual website to create a custom tshirt for you and ship it in time with a good budget was quite difficult to find in this area. Thus the use of Shoppee (this is not sponsored). Although it was still late, the end result was quite good for me. Creating merch takes a lot of time and money to lose, is what I observed. But the end result is what matters in the end.
Findings: During the initial of this task, I already had a vision set in my mind in creating a wordmark based on my name. Halfway through the first part, which is sketching, I realized I had other ideas that compete with the initial vision. Because I had chosen the starry one as my wordmark instead of the cat coffee, not only did I realized how structural and more impactful it was, but it tends to be more organized and vibrant in my perception. That's why I chose that as my wordmark.
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FURTHER READING
Given by Mr. Vinod was to look into pentagram and others work for inspiration and how to work with expansion and collateral. https://www.pentagram.com/work
The main inspiration I took was from Parla. Their work and organization helped me understand better on how to construct my expansion neatly and artistically.
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