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Advanced Typography: Task 3- Type Exploration and Application

10/6/25 - 15/7/25 // Week 8 - Week 13
Chuah Shu En // 0368157
Bachelors of Design (Honors) in Creative Media

Advanced Typography: Task 3- Type Exploration and Application




Table of Contents


Lectures

No more lectures.


Instructions

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Task

Type Exploration: Proposal 
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Fig 1.1, Proposal (16/6/25)

I ended up going with the second idea which was to make a font based on the Babymetal logo. 

Fig 1.2, Babymetal logo 'A' (16/6/25)

I started off with referencing the 'A' and building the other capital letters from there while using grid lines. 

Fig 1.3, First attempt (16/6/25)

After I showed my first attempt to Mr Vinod, he mentioned that the letters aren't consistent and suggested another method using grids to make sure the thickness of the strokes are similar. 

Fig 1.4, Second attempt process (23/6/25)

Fig 1.5, Stroke adjustment (23/6/25)

Mr Vinod also showed me a way on how to arch my strokes without distorting the width too much so everything stays consistent.

Fig 1.6, Second attempt process (29/6/25)

Fig 1.7, Lowercase letters process (29/6/25)

Making some the lowercase letters were quite straightforward but I ran into some difficulty when creating letters such as 's' and 'j'. 

Fig 1.8, Punctuation process (1/7/25)

When designing the numbers and punctuation, I referenced a tutorial posted by Fontforge.

Final Letters Outcome 

Fig 1.9, Final uppercase letters (1/7/25)

Fig 2.0, Final uppercase letters outline (1/7/25)

Fig 2.1, Final lowercase letters (1/7/25)

Fig 2.2, Final lowercase letters outline (1/7/25)

Fig 2.3, Final punctuation and numbers (1/7/25)

Fig 2.4, Final punctuation and numbers outline (1/7/25)

Fontforge

Mr Vinod suggested we use a software called Fontforge to create our font. Following this tutorial, I imported my glyphs from Adobe Illustrator into Fontforge.

Fig 2.5, Importing assets into Fontforge (7/7/25)

Fig 2.6, Kerning process (7/7/25)

Fig 2.7, Testing font (7/7/25)
Fig 2.8, Metalbaby font (7/7/25)
Type Presentation
Since my font is inspired by the band Babymetal, I tried to work in some of their songs into my type presentation.

Fig 2.9, Type presentation drafts (13/7/25)

I ended up settling with the ones shown below;

Fig 3.0, Type presentation 1 (13/7/25)

Fig 3.1, Type presentation 2 (13/7/25)

Fig 3.2, Type presentation 3 (13/7/25)

Fig 3.3, Type presentation 4 (13/7/25)

Fig 3.4, Type presentation 5 (13/7/25)

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Fig 3.5, Type presentations PDF (13/7/25)

Type Application

For the type application, I decided to go with the watch for the HONOR competition, a shirt and a badge.

Fig 3.6, Process in Photoshop (13/7/25)

Fig 3.7, Process in Photoshop (13/7/25)

For the shirt, I was inspired by those "I love New York" tourist shirts. 

Fig 3.8, Type Application 1 (13/7/25)

Fig 3.9, Type Application 2 (13/7/25)

Fig 4.0, Type Application 3 (13/7/25)

Fig 4.1, Type Application 4 (13/7/25)

Fig 4.2, Type Application 5 (13/7/25)

Fig 4.2, Type Application 5 (13/7/25)

Fig 4.3, Proof of submission (13/7/25)



Final 

Fig 4.4, Metalbaby font (15/7/25)



Fig 4.5, Type presentation 1 (15/7/25)

Fig 4.6, Type presentation 2 (15/7/25)

Fig 4.7, Type presentation 3 (15/7/25)

Fig 4.8, Type presentation 4 (15/7/25)

Fig 4.9, Type presentation 5 (15/7/25)

Fig 5.0, Type presentations PDF (15/7/25)

Fig 5.1, Type Application 1 (15/7/25)

Fig 5.2, Type Application 2 (15/7/25)

Fig 5.3, Type Application 3 (15/7/25)

Fig 5.4, Type Application 4 (15/7/25)

Fig 5.5, Type Application 5 (15/7/25)

Fig 5.6, Type Application 5 (15/7/25)


Feedback

Week 9 
Specific Feedback: Proceed with either the first or second idea as the third one is invalid due to it already being an existing font.

Week 10
Specific Feedback: My uppercase letterforms aren't consistent.

Week 11
Specific Feedback: My uppercase letterforms were still inconsistent so Mr Vinod helped me make my uppercase letterforms more consistent.

Week 12
-

Week 13
-
Reflections

Experience:
It was really interesting creating my own font and figuring out how to use the different software (Adobe Illustrator and Fontforge) together. Ideating for the HONOR competition was fun as well as I got to express my creativity with the very font that I created as well.

Observation:
Making the font consistent took a lot of time but the thing that took the most time was figuring out an unfamiliar software. I've observed that I often struggle when it comes to learning new things. 

Findings:
I've found that I've come to appreciate typography more and am more aware of it in my daily life as I look at various products and design choices.

Further Reading

Creating a font with Fontforge by 
( https://kreatifbeats.com/2022/04/19/creating-a-font-with-font-forge/ )

Steps
  1. Open Asset Export in Adobe Illustrator and drag glyphs into the window
  2. Select everything and export as SVG
  3. Open Fontforge and open a new file
  4. Double click on the box and import your SVG asset
  5. Now you can further edit your baseline, cap height, descender line etc.
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