Typography - Week 1

Lecture

Our first lecture was a general introduction of what typography is about and a brief talk about what our assignments are like and some basic historical facts on the art of typography, how it came about, etc. We were also explained our first assignment,  which was to watch a 2 hour documentary on the history of letters and to design a TWENTY SEVENTH letter along with a 250 word write up on the logic behind our work.

Task 1 (5%): No 27.
Instructions: Your first task is to understand the written letter, its origins and evolution over time. You will complete viewing the following youtube video, understand, analyse and reflect on the knowledge in your ePortfolio under the reflection tittle. Please view the sample eportfolio to understand how to write your eportfolio (and reflection).

After viewing the video and other videos of your own finding (please document the other videos you watched in your eportfolio under the lecture title) design the 27th alphabet. You will present this new letter to the class and describe your thinking or reasoning for its introduction.

Please draw the final 27th letter on an A4 graph paper using black marker or ink. Ensure that the letter is centered within the A4 graph paper and does not exceed 7cm in height or width. Please document the entire process; research, explorations, trial and errors, thoughts and epiphanies in your eportfolio.

Marking criteria: You will be judged on your creativity: the rationale (in writing 250 words) behind the 27th letter and the argument for its consideration. The aesthetic appeal of the shape of the letter and the process work behind the outcome. It’s visual and logical relevance when compared to the other 26 letters.

Primary Research:

My primary research came from me brain storming with different lines. I looked over the existing letters to see how many strokes a letter has at most - which was four. And how many "other features" would letters have - which was usually either a dot, or a cross. like in "i" and "t".

These were the first few drawings I did before making up my mind on the final design on my 27th letter:

Secondary Research:

My secondary research was generally looking at other "27th letters" for inspiration by typing the keywords into Google, I saw a range of them and these caught my eye the most:

I also read an article which was called "12 Letters that didn't make the Alphabet":

•  http://mentalfloss.com/article/31904/12-letters-didnt-make-alphabet 

Interesting, because in my brainstorm of designs above, the symbol in the middle that looks like an "N" and a "g" put together - I came up with that because I was thinking of sounds in Malay that English does not commonly have such as the sound "ng", like in "mengade". 

And it turns out, a similar symbol had already been made and was not included into the finalised set of alphabets.

The Comparison

Final Submission

I chose to stick with this design as my final outcome because it was simple (literally, just one stroke and a dot) and flows well alone as well as if it were to be written in cursive. I kept over thinking the designs, until I decided to refresh and go the opposite direction. I wanted a shape that was not like any other letter but still upholds a feature that connects it to the other original 26 letters with the dot at the end. In terms of sound - I assigned it to sound like "owr". It was actually inspired by the Australian accent, like how they say "soap" like "sowrp". It's a sound that is not common for one to use, unless you are or live in Austrailia. I also thought it was relevant because my letter kind of looks like an "O" anyways, but with a twist - exactly like the sound "owr". 

Second Submission

Feedback

"Khaili, try making a lower case and upper case alphabet of owr. I liked your reflection, very honest but also introspective. See you in class tomorrow. Do relate your thoughts in the reflection when you present the work. Regards."

Experience:

It was hard to get my mind out of what I already know. To think of a whole new letter and assign the sound it would make, how it would look. Eventually, I wanted to do something that did not looking similar to any of the letters, and I wanted it to be simple to write. I aimed to make it "flow".

Observations:

This was my first time ever even THINKING about making a letter? And It was hard at first because the symbols we use to communicate is literally EVERYTHING we know and need in order to communicate. So, to break out of that felt unnatural. However, as soon as I allowed my mind to think out of the box, I was able to scribble out my idea. 

Finding:

I find that making a letter is actually much harder than I thought, because... what letter or sound can I make that is not part of the spectrum the letters and sounds I can already make, which is FROM the current existing set of letters and sounds.