This week, we continued our coverage of the topic of typography from last week where we focused on looking at our chosen fonts for our bank brand in more detail as well as how we can modify them to have a unique watermark. We focused on adjusting our typefaces and looking at the glossary of terms for typeface features which allowed us to understand what ways we can present our typefaces.
Every part of a character has a name and purpose, allowing typographers and designers to discuss and modify letterforms with precision and intentionality.
A typeface consists of several key components that work together harmoniously to create its distinct appearance: the cap height determines the overall stature of capital letters, the baseline anchors characters along a common horizontal line, the counter forms the enclosed spaces within letters, the ascender extends upward from the main body, the descender drops below the baseline, the terminal gives character to stroke endings, the set width establishes horizontal spacing, and the x-height defines the size of lowercase letters. By thoughtfully customizing these fundamental elements and their relationships to one another, we can create a unique wordmark that not only captures the typeface's character but also communicates its intended personality and visual impact.
As part of our first task, we carried out a task based on the ‘Anatomy of Type’ which allowed me to firstly understand the different typographic elements as well as being able to identify and label them on my chosen typefaces from last week. I was able to point out a large amount of elements that were implied to my typeface and I found the task to be quite interesting as I didn’t have any knowledge of this before so this helped me see how I can present my typefaces as well as their features.
During class, I decided to go back to a site we used back in first semester when learning about typography; type.method.ac which allowed me to experiment with various different fonts and move each letter to correspond with spacing needed for the specific typeface. Doing this activity again really helped me improve my overall skills and knowledge of typography.
We had the chance to look at other brands examples and how they use the anatomy of type to shape their typefaces. some examples included:
I was also able to learn about Kerning, which makes certain combinations of letters fit together better such as WA, TA, MW or VA.
