Advanced Typography - Task 2: Wordmark and Collateral
13.05.2026 - ..2026 / Week 4 -Week
Aida Tan Jie Fei / 0385645
Advanced Typography/ Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 2: Wordmark and Collateral
LIST
- Lectures
- Instructions
- Process Work
- Final Work
- Feedback
- Reflection
- Further Reading
LECTURES
Week 4
AdTypo_4_Designing Type
Why do we need to design another typeface?
- Type design carries a social responsibility so one must continue to improve its legibility
- Type design is a form of artistic expression
Adrian Frutiger is a Swiss type designer who focused on typography and played an important role in the development of typography into the digital era. He designed influential typefaces such as Univers and Frutiger.
Frutiger
- Designed in 1968, the Frutiger typeface aimed to be a clean, distinctive, and highly legible sans serif font, readable both up close and from a distance, with strong emphasis on functionality.
- During the design process, Frutiger considered real-world conditions such as poor lighting and fast-moving viewers reading signage.
- He tested letterforms in blurred conditions to ensure each character remained recognizable even when not seen clearly.
Adrian Frutiger received what he considered a highly meaningful honor in Varanasi, India. He designed a new Devanagari typeface for modern typesetting and printing, simplifying the script while preserving its traditional calligraphic characteristics.
Matthew Carter is a British type designer and craftsman. He trained in punchcutting at Enschedé under Paul Rädisch, worked on Crosfield’s typographic program in the early 1960s, and later served as an in-house designer at Mergenthaler Linotype from 1965 to 1981.Many of Carter’s font were created to solve specific technical challenges, especially those related to early digital systems.
Verdana (1996)
- Released by Microsoft to ensure excellent readability at very small screen sizes, particularly with the rise of the internet and digital devices.
- Its letterforms are influenced by pixel-grid construction rather than traditional tools such as the pen, brush, or chisel.
- Carter carefully addressed commonly confused characters to enhance screen readability, such as lowercase i, j, and l.
Bell Centennial
- Commissioned by AT&T specifically for telephone directory use.
- Designed to address technical and visual issues found in the earlier typeface Bell Gothic.
- The typeface was named to commemorate AT&T’s 100th anniversary.
Johnston Sans (1916)
- Designed with “bold simplicity,” balancing modern design with traditional influences.
- Combined classical Roman letter proportions with humanist warmth, creating an elegant yet simple style.
- Commissioned by London Underground to create a unified typeface for posters and signage.
- Established a consistent visual identity by replacing previously inconsistent lettering across different companies.
- Addressed the need to unify the London Underground Group by solving the problem of visually chaotic and inconsistent signage.
1.Research
Type design involves understanding type history, anatomy, conventions, and key technical terms such as side-bearing, metrics, and hinting. It is also important to define the typeface’s purpose and intended use, for example in signage or transportation systems, as this helps guide design decisions. In addition, existing typefaces should be studied to gain inspiration, understand context, and observe usage patterns.
2.Sketching
Typeface sketches can be created using either traditional or digital methods. Traditional methods use tools such as pens, brushes, ink, and paper, which are then scanned for digitization; this approach often allows for more natural control of strokes. Digital methods use tools like a Wacom tablet to draw directly in design software, offering faster workflow and greater consistency, but they may reduce the natural feel of hand-drawn strokes.
3.Digitization
Typeface digitization is typically done using professional software such as FontLab and Glyphs App. Some designers also create letterforms in Adobe Illustrator before importing them into font design software, although this approach is sometimes criticized by purists.At this stage, attention must be given not only to the overall form of the letterforms but also to the counterforms, as they play a crucial role in the legibility of the typeface.
4.Testing
Testing is a key stage in type design, used to refine and improve the typeface through feedback, with prototyping as part of the process.Depending on the type category (text or display), readability and legibility vary in importance: text typefaces prioritize clarity, while display typefaces place more emphasis on visual expression.
5.Deploy
Even after a typeface is released, issues that were not identified during testing and prototyping may still appear, so revision work continues after deployment. The more rigorous the testing process, the fewer and more minor the post-release issues tend to be.
Typeface Construction
Roman capitals are often based on a grid system, using a square combined with an inscribed circle and a centered rectangle to establish proportions and structure. This grid-based approach, especially when incorporating circular forms, helps guide the construction of letterforms and ensures consistency and balance in type design.
In type design, various structural and visual adjustments are required. Curved or protruding elements often extend slightly beyond the baseline and cap height to achieve optical balance, and alignment between curved and straight forms must also be carefully adjusted.
In addition, letter spacing cannot be evenly measured but must be optically adjusted to create consistent visual white space. This process is known as “fitting.”
AdTypo_Context & Creativity
Most typefaces come about due to a need or demand. The need or motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic.
Overall, type design is a labour of love that requires courage and a spirit of exploration, as its rewards are often not proportional to the amount of work involved.
Week 5
INSTRUCTIONS
Figure 2 Module Information
PROCESS WORK
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
FURTHER READING
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