Advanced Typography / Task 3: Type Exploration and Application

18/10/2021 - 14/11/2021 / Week 9 - Week 12

Ngu Kah Shin / 0347666

Advanced Typography / B' in Creative Media / Taylor's Design School

Task 3: Type Exploration and Application

INSTRUCTIONS

HTML Link:

Exercise:
Task 3: Type Exploration and Application

Description:
With the knowledge and experience gained in the Exercises, Project 1 and 2, with the accumulated knowledge from the lectures and your own reading, synthesise and apply the learning in the tasks to be mentioned, allow the knowledge gained guide and inform your decisions for the effective execution of your final project.

For my final project, I have chosen experimental typography, which is to explore possible solutions or combinations that may add value to an existing typeface, developed in my Task 1 Exercise 2: Type & Play. From there, I attempted different methods to provide a creative solution or add value to the typeface.

"True experimentation means to take risks"

-Michael Worthington

This statement is of little value as questions on what really is at stake and what are the designers really risking are raised. According to Worthington himself, he believes that the risks involved are the blank perception, the mystery, the not knowing of the outcome of that particular experiment. Although this kind of experimental process does not play any direct commercial role, the outcome may be improved upon, where it may feed other future experiments or projects to be later developed into a valuable piece of work with the potentiality of providing a solution for a problem of sort.

As for my final project, all ideas were all birthed from the font I have developed. The font itself is made up of circular elements, which I have adopted as a guideline for all the typographic approaches. The end outcome is an exploratory process of several cross-disciplinary experimental techniques with a touch of creativity and playfulness. The work is manifested into several kinds of formats related to the bubbly typeface as shown below.

Fig 2.1. Task 1 Exercise 2: Type & Play- Final PDF (14/09/2021)

Idea pitches

Fig 2.2 Idea 1: Lightbulbs (12/10/2021)

Initially, the idea was to utilise lightbulbs as individual pixels, lighting up certain heads by either building a simple circuit with on/off switches or just simply unscrewing slightly for the bulbs to spell out the alphabets. The concept was scratched off due to the high expenditure on bulbs, and the face that I am a broke uni student. Determined, the idea of using agar-agar, food colouring and fairy lights were developed after deep-diving through Pinterest, Behance and magazines. The idea seemed easy in my head, plus I would have jelly to snack on after the experiment. I should've known it was too good to be true! (progress further discussed here)

Fig 2.3 Idea 2: Bokeh effect (12/10/2021)

Branching out directly from the pre-existing typeface, this idea uses light and camera techniques to generate bokeh letterforms. I was pretty excited about this concept, hoping to conduct it in the design studio on campus and expand my knowledge and skillset on how to use a camera. Mr Vinod however, was not fond of this concept and did not encourage to pursue it as Idea #4 seemed more promising. It is still something I hope to try one day, hopefully during my semester break.

Fig 2.4 Idea 3: Risograph (13/10/2021)

Literally reflecting what it means, this concept would explore risograph art style by layering different colours on top of each other to create the typeface. Not only is this method environmentally friendly, but it is also relatively affordable and most importantly, something I have never tried before and looks super fun! Similarly to the previous idea, Mr Vinod discouraged this idea as it feels a bit shallow and not that experimental as the results are quite literally as what would be expected.

Fig 2.5 Idea 4: Bubble (13/10/2021)

Fig 2.6 Idea 5: Cheerios Effect (20/10/2021)

PHASE 1: TESTING

After the approval from Mr Vinod, I immediately started on the experiment. Idea #4 where dish soap was used to create the letterforms needed a little more alternations in the recipe. The first bubble solution consisted of water and dish soap only. I later realised this solution produces bubbles that are quite small and quick to burst.

After researching, I found out glycerin or corn syrup can be added to make bubbles that last longer by slowing down the evaporation that causes them to burst. However, after a few trips to the grocery shops and supermarkets, it was quite bizarre to me that I could not find any glycerin or corn syrup. I ended up using white sugar as sugar and corn syrup are made of a relatively similar component- glucose.

As for the agar-agar lightbulbs, more problems arose as I progressed:

Food colouring dye did not spread evenly
Because the agar-agar is transparent, light penetration was too strong and caused a sharp beam
Super time consuming to wait for the agar-agar to firm up

For each of the problems mentioned above, I discovered a way around it by adjusting the agar-agar recipe. Adding cornstarch helped create a translucent effect where the light distribution was much more balanced and smooth.

Fig 2.7 Phase 1: Testing for Idea #1 and #4 (25/10/2021)

Another idea spring when I was mixing the solution for both the ideas above. Creating letterforms using the dye and 'drawing' out the words using a toothpick. This was fun but soon realised how impractical it would be because of the nature of liquids acting in liquid. Definitely added to my personal To-Try Projects List!

Fig 2.8 another new experimental idea (25/10/2021)

PHASE 2: EXECUTION

After the trial and error at my small, shared kicthen, I contacted Mr Vinod and Mr Asrizal to book the design studio for me to carry out my experimental typography project. I conducted the 3 typographic approaches. Unfortunately, I did not take as much behind-the-scenes photos because I was too busy having fun with the bubbles, agar-agar and cheerios!

BUBBLE TEXTS

Fig 2.9 & 2.10 Bubble texts: progress work (9/11/2021)

AGAR-AGAR TYPOGRAPHY

For this, I had to prepare the agar-agar the night before going on campus. Below is a brief explanation of the process, where a mixture of unconventional materials and techniques were applied to achieve the results shown in Fig 2.12.

Using agar-agar, food colouring, round moulds, letterforms are created from the agar-agar pixels. I could have just used lightbulbs but I am a broke uni student who can't afford bulbs. The agar-agar was delicious and I had my dinner covered so definitely a win-win situation for me. Final project? Check. Dinner? Check. Got weird looks from other students in the studio? Check check check.

Fig 2.11 Agar-agar texts: progress work (10/11/2021)

Fig 2.12 Agar-agar typography: video outcome (13/11/2021)

THE CHEERIOS EFFECT

Storytime!

One morning, I woke up feeling like I just had a nap in hell. I poured oat milk and THEN my cereal (NOT the other way round) for breakfast and as I was falling asleep I saw a letter C forming. This happened due to the fact that I poured milk first and not cereal first like a sane person. Also because of surface tension in fluid mechanics, also known as the Cheerios Effect!

Fig 2.13 Cheerios Effect typography: Poster 1 outcome (13/11/2021)

Fig 2.13 Cheerios Effect typography: Poster 2 outcome (13/11/2021)

Fig 2.13 Cheerios Effect typography: Poster 3 outcome (13/11/2021)

https://youtu.be/CnkKrWrGe2Y

Fig 2.14 Cheerios Effect: Video outcome (14/11/2021)

As much as I had fun getting my hands dirty messing with agar-agar and Cheerios cereal, the final project submission came down to the bubble piece. A whole deal went into the planning, preparing and carrying out the experiment for all 3 approaches but Bubbles typography yield the most interesting and unpredicted outcome.

The letterforms created by these pockets of bubbles have a few distinct characteristics, where each letter is quite round in shape with no sharp corners or edges. Due to the nature of the dish soap such as its consistency and ability to stick as well as the size of the plate, the letters are also made up of a limited number of bubbles, with a minimum amount of 9 from the letter T and a maximum of 25 individual bubbles from the letter B.

FINAL SUBMISSION

Fig 4.1 Bubbles text - JPG (14/11/2021)

Fig 4.1 Bubbles text - PDF (14/11/2021)

https://youtu.be/xjP_EIuN5-o

Fig 4.1 Temporary - MP4 (14/11/2021)

https://youtu.be/8VTjbMBgrg4

Fig 4.2 Soap Bubbles - MP4 (14/11/2021)

Hours spent on each task:

Agar-agar:16 hours

Bubbles: 20hours

Cereal:10 hours

FEEDBACK

Week 10

General Feedback: creative, good to have many ideas

Specific feedback: pursue ideas 1, 2, 4. idea 3 (risograph) is interesting but feels a bit shallow. can try out something with the fairy lights alone

Week 11

General Feedback: (asked about booking of design studio to proceed with the project) So far, quite interesting but the agar-agar idea might be tough to execute well. suggest what can be done next to the outcome of the experiment for future use.

Week 12

General Feedback: So far so good. The light should distribute much evenly for the agar-agar idea, maybe editing the video and picture could help improve. Cheerios idea is nice but continue

REFLECTIONS

Observations

Listening to the feedback sessions given my Mr Vinod to my peers are very insightful and csn provide indirect help to my own work. It was also very fascinating to see how the initial prompt chosen by my peers got developed into what is now their final outcome. I can definitely learn more from them. Some of them carried out experimental typography like I did meanwhile others developed fonts.

Findings

So much fun! Advanced Typography class in Semester 2 is definitely more enjoyable than Typography class Semester 1. As stressful final project can be, I definitely had the most fun with this task. This task granted us the freedom to practice, explore and push our creativity outside our computers. Before starting, I read a lot of experimental typography projects and articles which amplified the importance of playing with everyday objects and creating solutions for these unconventional approaches people have came up with.

Experience

Absolute blast! This task felt like it was given by a substitute teacher in a relief class, it was super fun and I enjoyed it very much. I think I spent ablonger time trying to come up with an idea for my final project than the time spent actually doing it. I guess I was worried my ideas and approaches would turn out difficult to execute. Fortunately, eith enough research and review sessions with Mr Vinod really helped me shape my final project to be more smooth sailing than it would have been otherwise.

Further readings

Experimental Typography by Shu Wen Chong (2018)

"An example of the scientific experiment would be Galileo Galilei's dropping of two objects of different weights from the Pisa tower to demonstrate that both would land at the same time, proving his hypothesis about gravity. In this sense, a typographic experiment might be a procedure to determine whether humanity affects the transfer of ink.

Experimental typography by Inga Vasiljeva (2014)

"The goal of this project was to gain experience in working with editorial content composed across a multiple-page format. The task was to design a booklet/magazine featuring an article of choice. The topic discussed and opinions expressed in the article provided content-rich with potential for investigation and appropriate typographic formulations. Beyond demonstrating an understanding of typographical conventions, the aim of the project was to push the boundaries of conventional layout."