18.10.2023 - 29.11.2023 (Week 8- Week 14)
Caitlin Ong Lynn Dee / 0343801 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Advanced Typography
Task 3

1. Lectures

2. Instruction

3. Submission

Task 3 / Type Exploration and Application

Proposal
Research
Typeface Draft 1
Typeface Draft 2
Typeface Draft 3

Stage 1
Stage 2
Font Presentation Draft 1
Stage 3
Font Presentation Draft 2

FontLab
Final Typeface
Font Presentation
Font Application

4. Feedback

5.Reflection

6. Further Reading

7.References

LECTURE

Refer to Task 1:
Advanced Typography | Task 1 (0343801.blogspot.com)

INSTRUCTION

Task 3 / Type Exploration and Application

In this project we have to create full set of letters, numbers and punctuation, we presented with three options.

3 options:

Create a font that solves a larger problem or part in a solution, it can be related to the specialization of choice or not.
Improve an existing font.
Create an experimental type of font that novel and unique.

Proposal

3 design ideas:

Improve one of the most hated fonts, which are Curlz and Papyrus font.
Create a font for dyslexics' people to increase their reading proficiency.
Design a Typeface for American Prescription bottles to help elder people see the description.

I choose the idea 2, since I am dyslexic myself, I am able to relate to the subject.

Fig 1.1 Proposal Presentation (14/10/2023)

Research

Types of typefaces that make it easier for dyslexic viewer to read:

San Serif
Roman
Monospace

Recommend font for dyslexic reader:

Arial
Helvetica
Verdana
Courier
Comic Sans
Calibri
Trebuchet
Open Sans
Century Gothic
Tahoma

Rules for making a dyslexic font:

Use Sans Serif font.
Clear Letter spacing not too wide and not too tight.
Line spacing should at least 1.5pts.
Font Size should be at least 12-14pts.
Similar letter like p and q should be distinct not mirror images of each other.

Letter that are similar:

b, d, p, q
v, w, y
i ,j , l
m, n, u, h, r
o, c, s, e
Uppercase “I” and lowercase “l”

Dyslexic Font:

Dyslexie:

The underside is bold to prevent from flipping.
Increase the length for ascender or descender.
Tall x-height to improve legibility.
The difference in letter is being emphasized.
Increase of opening of letter such as “c” and “e.”
Tip a few letters such as j to prevent from looking like “i”
Punctuation and capital letter must be bold.

Fig 1.2 Dyslexie Font (28/10/2023)

Open Dyslexic:

Fig 1.3 Open Dyslexic Font (28/10/2023)

Sylexiad:

Fig 1.4 Sylexiad Font (28/10/2023)

Read Regular:

Fig 1.5 Read Regular Font (28/10/2023)

Gill Dyslexic:

Fig 1.4 Gill Dyslexic Font (28/10/2023)

Lexia Readable Regular:

Fig 1.5 Lexia Readable Font (28/10/2023)

Sketches

I draw three typeface style based on the recommend fonts for dyslexic readers. The first sketch located at the (top) is based on the font courier, but I apply the similar charateric of dyslexie font. The second sketch located in the (middle), has a monospace shape but with a bold underside to prevent letters from flipping. The third sketch located on the (bottom) is inspired by Lexia Readable, the serif are added to differentiate the other letter. Unfortunately, all of those concepts are rejected, because they look too silmilar to other fonts.

Fig 2.1 Font Sketches (29/10/2023)

Draft 1

The first draft is inspired by Century Gothic, and I made width equal to achieve the monospace look. I use circles and lines to create the letters. But then I realized the letters look too tight. so, I remade it.

Fig 2.2 Draft 1 Process: Setting up guidelines and font reference (4/11/2023)

Fig 2.3 Draft 1 Process: Drawing shapes and lines (4/11/2023)

Fig 2.3 Draft 1 Process: Drawing Shapes and lines, Outline (4/11/2023)

Fig 2.4 Draft 1 Process: Deleting extra lines using Share builder tool (4/11/2023)

Draft 2

This time the letters are model after Century Gothic and Verdana with various widths, I also applied the thick underside. similar to the Dyslexie font to prevent it from flipping. From the end result, the letters look like just a carbon copy of Open Dyslexic font. From there I did more research on how to make my font original.

Fig 2.5 Draft 2 Process:Setting up guidelines with font reference (5/11/2023)

Fig 2.5 Draft 2 Process: Drawing shapes and lines (5/11/2023)

Fig 2.6 Draft 2 Process: Drawing shapes and lines, Outline (5/11/2023)

Fig 2.7 Deleting extra lines using Share builder tool (5/11/2023)

Fig 2.8 Draft 2 Process: Thickness adjustment (5/11/2023)

Fig 2.9 Draft 2 Uppercase (5/11/2023)

Draft 3

I stumble upon an interesting font called. Inconstant Regular made by a renowned Norwegian graphic designer named Daniel Bronstad. Daniel made the font for Dyslexia Scotland’s There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia campaign. The purpose of the font is to be both dyslexic friendly and ascetically pleasing. Unlike any other font the letter embraces the nature of being irregular. So, I use that font as my main inspiration.

Fig 3.1 Inconstant Regular by Daniel Bronstad (5/11/2023)

Fig 3.2 Inconstant Regular Stylistic Set GIF (5/11/2023)

Fig 3.3 Inconstant Regular Poster (5/11/2023)

Now I know the golden rule of making a dyslexic font is to make similar letters distinctive. But since Mr. Vinod wants the idea to make the letters organize. the entire process of the font is quite complicated.

Stage 1
On this initial stage, I use the Sylexiad font as a reference as to make the font organized.

Fig 3.4 Draft 3: Uppercase, Lowercase and Punctuation progress (5/11/2023)

Stage 2
I notice that the ascenders are not long enough to be noticeable, I extended the ascender.
The letter "a" looks to similar to "d" "b" "p" and I change the shape. The curve on number "3" "5" and "9" look too similar, so I change each of them to look different.

Fig 3.5 Draft 3: Letter Adjustments (8/11/2023)

Fig 3.6 Draft 3: Number Adjustments (8/11/2023)

After testing the font sequence by forming it to sentence there the font shape might look suitable.

Fig 3.7 Draft 3: Sentence Sequence Test (11/11/2023)

When I export it into Font Labs to create the font presentation, I notice the letter "d" and "a" looks out of place, and some of the letters very similar they blend together with is not my intention.

Fig 3.8 Lowercase Kering (11/11/2023)

Fig 3.9 Uppercase side-baring (11/11/2023)

Font Presentation Draft 1

I wasn't sure how to create the formant of the presentation. I reference a couple of poster references on the internet. two of the drafts that I created is center around the comic sans on how useful the font is despite the negative reception. The third draft list down the synonyms describing, the fact that dyslexic find letter confusing is that all letters are uniformed, and being irregular is the key to make it readable.

Inspiration

Fig 4.1 Font Presentation Reference (12/11/2023)

Fig 4.2 Draft 1: Layout 1 (12/11/2023)

Fig 4.3 Draft 1: Layout 2 (12/11/2023)

Fig 4.4 Draft 1: Layout 3 (12/11/2023)

Stage 3
In order to make the letter look stable measure the width of the Verdena font (according to an article Good Fonts for Dyslexia by Luz Rello and Ricardo Baeza-Yates Verdena one for the most preferred font for dyslexic) and apply to my font. Frist, I write down the recommend control letters of font creation, which are. "H" "n" "o" "y" then I draw a box for the measurement. The letters without an arch use the "H" and "n" measurement. Letter with arches I use the "o" and "y" measurement.

Fig 5.1 Width Measurement failed attempt. (18/11/2023)

Fig 5.2 Using rectangle to measure Width Measurement on Verdena (18/11/2023)

Fig 5.3 Drawing "H,O" and "n,o,y" within the box (18/11/2023)

Guidelines

Fig 5.4 Guidelines Height (18/11/2023)

Guideline Height:

Ascender - 624px
Capline - 524px
X-Height - 400px
Baseline - 0px
Descender - 225px

Shape Transformation

Just like before I use lines and shapes to create my font. I convert them into outline to make a whole entire letter.

Fig 5.4 Line Transformation (18/11/2023)

Fig 5.5 Line Transformation, Outline (18/11/2023)

Fig 5.6 Shape Transformation (18/11/2023)

Fig 5.7 Shape Transformation, Outline (18/11/2023)

Progress
The colored box shown in (Fig 5.7) green, yellow and red boxes serves as width measurements. From there I construed the font using shapes and lines and then I converted into outline to refined it.

Fig 5.7 Font progress (18/11/2023)

Fig 5.8 Font progress, Outline (18/11/2023)

Feature to identify similar letters.

I study the characteristics of the Inconsistent font, dyslexie font, and Sylexiad font for inspiration on how to make each of the of the similar letter distinctive. some the letters such "B", "R", "P" and "Q" and "O" are one that I notice that was similar based on my observation, that never applied in any font.

Fig 6.1 Unique Features of Q and O (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.2 Unique Features of B, R and P (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.3 Unique Features of V,W,X and Y (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.4 Unique Features of E and F (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.5 Unique Features of i, j and l (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.6 Unique Features of v, w and u (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.7 Unique Features of m,n,h and u (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.8 Unique Features of r and m (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.9 Unique Features of a,b,d,p,q and g (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.10 Unique Features of 6 and 9 (18/11/2023)

Fig 6.11 Unique Features of 0 and O (18/11/2023)

Calligraphr

My Font lab Trial ran out, so I transferred my fonts to calligrapher,

Fig 7.1 Caligraphr (18/11/2023)

Font Presentation Draft 2

I was notified it was required for the format to be in 1024px x 1024px. Even though Mr. Vinod provided us samples of inspiration. I was unsure on how to plan my layout. i use the same reference in draft 1 (Fig 4.1)

Fig 7.2 Draft 2 Layout 1 (18/11/2023)

Fig 7.3 Draft 2 Layout 2 (18/11/2023)

Fig 7.4 Draft 2 Layout 3 (18/11/2023)

Fig 7.5 Draft 2 Layout 4 (18/11/2023)

Fig 7.6 Draft 2 Layout 5 (18/11/2023)

Fig 7.7 Draft 2 Layout 6 (18/11/2023)

Punctuation Update

Previously, the punction with that has a comma shape I round with tiny stroke, I figure it is too small for people with dyslexia to see it, so I change the stroke to make more obvious.

Fig 7.8 Punctuation transformation (18/11/2023)

FontLab

i use the D7.04 Maclab computer. to put all of my font into FontLab. When kerning I use the side bearing guild provided in Teams.

Fig 8.1 Side Bearing Guild Uppercase (22/11/202)

Fig 8.2 Side Bearing Guild Lowercase (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.3 Uploading font in Fontlab (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.4 Side baring of H and O (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.5 Side baring of all Uppercase (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.6 Side baring of n and o (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.7 Side baring of all Lowercase (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.4 Side baring of "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.5 Side baring of Number (22/11/2023)

Fig 8.6 Side baring of Punctuation (22/11/2023)

Final Typeface

Fig 8.7 EasyRead Font (22/11/2023)

Presentation

Mr Vinod created samples for Illustrator, to help me give me an idea of how-to layout a font presentation.

Fig 9.1 Font Presentation created by Mr. Vinod (24/11/2023)

I pick up a color scheme from color hunt. and I use reference from posters from the internet. and my friend font presentation.

Fig 9.2 Color Scheme (25/11/2023)

Fig 9.3 Font Presentation Process (25/11/2023)

The artboard located on the (top, left) has newspaper background the reason being that Newpaper typically have a large paragraph of small text. Based on personal experience I find it hard to process the information written in a larger body of text.

The artboard located on the (top, right), displays the letter "p,q,b,d" to show the comparison of the letters distinctive feature.

The artboard the located on the (bottom, left) is based off a word search puzzle. It has randomized letter with hidden word, this based my personal experience, as I always get lost when reading a paragraph.

The artboard (on bottom, right) has the sentence, "D" is for Dyslexia which is play on the movie "V" for vendetta. This is meant to show that my typeface is oppose on the usual norm of font creation which consistency.

Fig 9.4 Font Presentation Upadated (25/11/2023)

Application

Mr. Vinod suggests applying my font on children's books, he suggests that I use the Miffy books and created samples in Illustrator for me to refer.

Fig 9.5 Font Application by Mr Vinod (24/11/2023)

The children that I selected for my application are Winnie the Pooh, Paddington and Miffy. I replaced the existing font with my own font, on the book cover and book pages.

Fig 9.6 Font Application process (25/11/2023)

According to Mr. Vinod, display book pages in 2 pages, makes it less confusing. As I did the pages for Winnie the Pooh and Paddington, Mr Vinod mention that they all look blurry and find pages that are simpler. I redo is again, but I can't find a high-quality image for Paddingtion, so I use Angelina the ballerina books.

Fig 9.7 Font Application Updated (29/11/2023)

Fig 9.6 Font Application Updated 2 (29/11/2023)

I found out the Miffy book pages are blurry, so I change, layout. I found out the Angelina the ballerina book pages are too big, and it takes up too much space in my pdf file. It the page was unnecessary.

Fig 9.6 Font Application Updated 3 (1/12/2023)

Final Outcome

Downloadable Font: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jeBcLbYMJVPEg3nbV2yQerjypYacAmn5/view?usp=drive_link

Font Presentation

Fig 10.1 Final "EasyRead" Font Presentation Layout 1 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.2 Final "EasyRead" Font Presentation Layout 2 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.3 Final "EasyRead" Font Presentation Layout 3 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.4 Final "EasyRead" Font Presentation Layout 4 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.5 Final "EasyRead" Font Presentation Layout 5 JPEG

Fig 10.5 Final "EasyRead" Font Presentation Layout PDF

Font Application

Fig 10.6 Final Font Application 1 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.7 Final Font Application 2 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.8 Final Font Application 3 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.9 Final Font Application 4 JPEG (1/12/2023)

Fig 10.10 Final Font Application PDF (1/12/2023)

FEEDBACK

Week 8

General Feedback

None

Specific Feedback

Use reliable research.
Curlz and Papyrus are not technically the most hated font.
The problem should be set specifically in Malaysia.
Go with Idea 2 since I am dyslexic.

Week 9

General Feedback:

Use the grid to make the font and keep the process.

Specific Feedback:

Go with a different approach other than the one I sketch out.

Week 10

General Feedback

Know to true purpose of the font.
Create the lowercase letters next to the Uppercase Letters

Specific Feedback

The thickness of the underside of the font is just right.
Make sure the letters are organized.

Week 11

General Feedback

After finish creating the font print it out and put into Fontlab

Specific Feedback

Make sure to upload the reference font in my e-portfolio.

Week 12

General Feedback

Refer the side-baring guild upload in Teams.
For capital letter start with "H" and "O"

Specific Feedback

Prepare the concept of draft 3 of the font presentation.
The font presentation serves as an antithesis to the regular font.
Kern the letter properly.

Week 13

General Feedback

Continue on design the font presentation and application.

Specific Feedback

Find your main font presentation reference in Teams.
Don't use too many colors use a minimum of 2 colors.

Week 14

General Feedback

Be more ambitious.

Specific Feedback

The font presentation looks good.
Present two pages in the Font Application
Use a simple page formant where the illustration is right while the text is on the right.

REFLECTION

Experience

Although I enjoy, creating a font that breaks the rules the basic rules of font creation. But even though it is for a good reason, I am conflict with that idea. Since consistency is ideal to make an effective font. I did my best effort to make the font stable yet maintain the true goal the font. It took a lot of trial and error to get it right. Despite the process being complicated that I thought, In the end I know the purpose of the font is important.

Observation

Some part of the assignment I don't know how to start, especially the font presentation where, I look at the sample Mr. Vinod provides me. Majority of them have a big format size, while I am limited with a 1024px x 1024px formant. On top of that the sample have a lot of written information making me more confuse. I find it better look around to see my friend's layout to give me an idea on how to plan the composition of the layout.

Findings

I search on the Internet for information on how to create dyslectic. I found out there are a lot of strict rules to follow to make it effective. Some information, about dyslexic quite board, even a dyslexic myself haven't notice. and it hard to keep track on the information, since levels dyslexic varies on different people and there no such as perfect font for every single person with dyslexic.