I was assigned to create a presentation regarding the 3 ideas that I want to
do for the final task. I decided to go with remaking 3 fonts which are
Papyrus, Playbill and Wide Latin. I made samples for each of the ideas to
give further idea on how i want to execute or what i want to achieve as the
end goal.
At the end i decided to go with remaking playbill. I was planning to make it
more modern by toning down some of the very loud features but Mr. Vinod
suggested that i should make it more exaggerated, making it a more unique
font.
During my first attempt, i kept the letter design fairly simple because i
wanted to keep the soul of playbill while making the characteristics more
exaggerated but Mr. Vinod suggested that i add in a distinct feature to the
new letters because apparently it still look too similar to the original and
so i added in a distinct feature for each of the letters by placing a
diamond vertically.
From my research on the playbill font, the lowercase letters were rounder
compared to their capital variants and so the lowercase letter required
more attention. I kept the grid, the only thing change was the width. The
original capital letter grid has 4 squares, and so for the lowercase, i
reduced it into 3 squares for some of the letters but not all of them
because some of the letters are wider than the others.
The letter h below for example still uses the original 4 grid layout while
letters like g,i and j used the 3 grid layout.
Figure 3.6 Lowercase letters inside grid, Week 10 (29/06/2025)
I reduced the height of the exaggerated serif stroke by around 20%, and
the reason behind this is so the letters still make sense and doesn't look
like a box because the original exaggerated serif letter is very big, but
the normal strokes on the other hand are still the same because i want to
keep it consistent. I gave the lowercase numbers a distinct feature where
the diamonds are place in the middle horizontally unlike the capital
variants where they have the diamonds placed vertically, and the reason
why was to create more distinction.
Figure 3.7 Exaggerated serif changes, Week 10 (29/06/2025)
Figure 3.8 Lowercase letters, Week 10 (29/06/2025)
Number Digitalization
Creating the numbers was very simple because I only needed to use the same
objects from the uppercase and the lowercase letters (I only needed to do
a little bit of tweaking). The characteristics of the numbers are quite
unique, though, because they possess the characteristics of uppercase and
lowercase letters. All of the numbers have a rigid structure (the same
with the uppercase letters) mixed with some round appearance (the same as
the lowercase letters). I also made a distinct feature as well for numbers
where i place diamond shapes on the top part of letters horizontally.
Figure 3.9 Number inside grid, Week 10 (29/06/2025)
Figure 3.10 Number, Week 10 (29/06/2025)
Punctuation Digitalization
Most of the punctuations are very simple to make because i just need to
use existing objects, but some of them required effort the way they are
constructed such as the ampersand and the @. I used the number 8 as a base
to create the ampersand and it looked quite similar, i just gave it a tail
but cutting middle part as well as giving it an extra stroke poking out.
For the @, i used my lowercase a and made it into a single story a and for
the outer circle i used my o and tweak it.
Figure 3.11 Construction of ampersand and @, Week 10
(29/06/2025)
For the other punctuations i just needed to use my original stroke and
resize the length, as well as playing with the rotation depending on the
punctuations i am making. The period is constructed from the dot from the
j and i, i only needed to slightly change the size. The comma was
constructed from 2 periods stack on each other, and the bracket was
constructed from the letter o.
Figure 3.12 Period, comma, bracket, Week 10 (29/06/2025)
Figure 3.13 Punctuations, Week 10 (29/06/2025)
Revisions
I did some revisions to the punctuations because there were some mistakes
regarding their appearance.
I made the brackets reached the below the baseline, the @ symbol got a
change in width and the spacing inside, as well as, fixing the asterisk
stroke and size.
Figure 3.14 Punctuation fixes, Week 11 (02/07/2025)
Fontlab
I moved the glyphs to fontlab to begin the kerning process and fixing the
side bearings. I made all the side bearings into 30 and gave a variation
of kerning spaces to the letter pairs/numbers/punctuations.
Figure 3.15 Fontlab process, Week 12 (09/07/2025)
Presentation Designs
Figure 3.16 Color palette, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
I made 5 designs for the presentation slides, all of them contained a
distinct identity of the wild west which are old/stamp like appearance,
used a light tan color as well as having a somewhat of a dusty/dirty look.
My goal was to capture a tiny glimpse of the wild west.
For the first two designs i made a single bold letter, P and B, placed
upfront and I added in textures to them to give it a stamped like
appearance as well as softening the edges. Behind the single bold
letters i placed in the "Rules of The Wild West" which aren't official
rules but i figured it would be cool because the wild west used to be a
placed that is filled with outlaws/criminals. I made the sentences have a
left and right alignment to balance things out as well as reducing the
opacity. Finally, i added in a layer that has a low opacity and gave it a
texture, as well as coloring it a dark desaturated yellow.
Figure 3.17 Presentation 1 & 2 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Next, i made a mandatory wanted poster design because if I don't then this
will be a missed opportunity. Most of the methods that i use for this
design are the same like the P and B design, The exception being that i
placed a background color instead of just using a single colored layer
that i placed on top. I also gave the letters some grainy texture to them
and gave them a second texture to give that signature old/stamp look. I
finished it off with a very light layer that has a low opacity to blend
everything more.
Figure 3.18 Presentation 3 design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
For the fourth design, i made a design that contain names of buildings
that are commonly present back then in the wild west. I placed a low
opacity textured layer as the background, placed in the words and
positioned them vertically horizontally where the placement is either the
top or bottom. For the final step, i gave them some texture and made the
edges softer.
Figure 3.19 Presentation 4 design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
My idea for the fifth design is that i make a very simple design where it
contains all of the capital letters. The reason is because capital letters
look more bold and fitting because the purpose is show the wild
west/cowboy font in a form of presentation. The process is quite simple,
because it's the exact same as the others. First i placed a texture
background color and placed in the elements, letters and words as well as
texturizing them and added in a very light layer on top to blend
everything.
Figure 3.20 Presentation 5 design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Final Outcome
Figure 3.21Presentation 1 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.22 Presentation 2 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.23 Presentation 5 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.24 Presentation 4 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.25 Presentation 3 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Font Application
I made 5 different designs to explore how i can use my font and so i made
5 different mockups. For the first mockup i designed a billboard. The
process is very straightforward, i just placed in the necessary words and
elements, textured the, and placed a textured colored layer as the
background color.
Figure 3.26 Billboard design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
For the second design i decided to go with a book cover design. The
process is similar like the billboard one, i just placed in a black
background, and the words/elements. I only textured the letters for this
one because i want a clean slick look for the background
Figure 3.27 Book cover design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Third design, i decided to go with a poster design. I found a photo posted
online, it was photographed by Billie. C. and i think it would fit because
of the compositions and imagery. I placed in a title "BILLIE" and the
sentence "One Shot Wonder", textured them and added in some other elements
on the bottom.
Figure 3.28 Poster design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
I made a pillow design as my next choice because i think it will look
unique. The design is very straightforward because it's just 4 letter p's
placed in a diagonal order.
Figure 3.29 Pillow design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
For the final design, i choose to create a banner. My idea was to make a
banner for a wild west expo event. First i placed a texture background as
the base and then I placed in several different elements to make it look
enticing, textured the "WILD WEST" only and placed a colored layer with
low opacity to make them look dusty and blend everything together.
Figure 3.30 Banner design process, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Final Outcome
Figure 3.31 Application 1 Design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.32 Application 2 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.33 Application 3 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.34 Application 4 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.35 Application 5 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Task 3 Final Outcome
The reason behind me remaking Playbill is because i am quite fond of the wild west, specifically wild west games such as Read Dead Redemption 2. Playing that game left me quite an impression and I always thought that the wild west related typefaces has an interesting and distinct look but of course it looks old and so i want to give a shot at remaking the font.
Figure 3.36 Final letterforms PDF, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.37 Fontlab screengrab, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.38 Presentation 1 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.39 Presentation 4 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.40 Presentation 5 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.41 Presentation 3 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.42 Presentation 2 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.43 Application 1 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.44 Application 2 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.45 Application 3 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.46 Application 4 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.47 Application 5 design, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.48 Presentation PDF Week 12 (11/07/2025)
Figure 3.49 Font application PDF, Week 12 (11/07/2025)
HONOR Competition
I submitted some of my work in the HONOR competition.
Figure 3.50 HONOR competition, Week 13 (18/07/2025)
FEEDBACK
Week 9
General Feedback : Making a font that is used for a body, is
significantly harder.
Specific Feedback : Instead of modernizing the playbill font, why
not
make it more exaggerated.
Week 10
General Feedback :-
Specific Feedback : Make it more distinct than the original.
Week 11
General Feedback :-
Specific Feedback : Punctuations doesn't have to follow the same
strokes as the numbers or letters.
Week 12
General Feedback :-
Specific Feedback : You can move on to Fontlab.
Week 13
General Feedback :-
Specific Feedback : The 'S T A' needs attention in kerning
REFLECTION
Experience :
This final assignment is crazy; it is very exhausting because of how much
work it requires, but in the end it is very satisfying when everything
clicks in place. This assignment has taught me to attend to every single
little detail I can find because it all matters when they come together in
the end. This is a great finale in my opinion because it incorporated
every single thing that I have learned in typography class (semesters 1
and 2), and it's just insane to see the progress/improvements I have made.
However, there is still much to learn because the world of typography is
very vast, and I have only learned a handful of things. I am very grateful
for Mr. Vinod, as I think his way of teaching is very effective (though at
times quite unforgiving) because he forces us to think and think really
hard, which pushes us even further. Overall, I will most likely remember
attending this class because of how much of a journey it was; it is a
blast.
Observation :
I never realized that punctuation can be so complex because from what I
have observed, I saw that their sizing and positioning can matter
tremendously. For all I know, punctuations looked very simple (appearance
and position), so I didn't think much of it, but then I made my own
punctuations for the font I was making, and I was quickly humbled. It is
very interesting now because it changed the way I think about most
things—that something so simple may not be what it seems.
Findings :
Simple elements really matter when it comes to designing something. I
realized back then that they do serve some importance, but I didn't
realize that they are actually REALLY IMPORTANT in some scenarios. I was
trying to create the book cover mockup, and I am not satisfied with the
appearance because it just looks terrible, and then I decided to add in a
circle as well as a line to give it more character, and I was amazed at
how much impact such simple strokes can actually give. It gives more
meaning to the design because I tried to emphasize the word "Standoff,"
and the simple line worked wonders, while the circle was to symbolize sort
of an arena. Overall it is very interesting to relearn something but in
more depth.
FURTHER READING
Figure 6.1 The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert
Bringhurst, Week 9 (22/06/2025)
Week 9
Not all serifs are decorative for example the beak serif in Galliard's h
directs the eye horizontally, while Baskerville's hairline serifs mimic
quill strokes.
The ampersand '&' is not a glyph but it a word from Latin "et"
and that is why it is necessary to space it like a character not a symbol.
Week 10
Digital italics are often just slanted romans. True italics such as
Arrighi and Dante have different skeletons. The a switches to
single-story, honoring cursive origins.
Week 11
Digital fonts have their own little boxes but real handwriting and good
type design usually doesn't follow that rule. The ampersand for example
usually spills out from the frame and cursive scripts flow with each
other.
Week 12
Letterspacing should respect the natural rhythm of the letters, not
apply equal mechanical spacing. Capitals need more space around them,
while lowercase letters should flow like spoken words, tight where
natural, loose where needed.
Week 13
Typography is not just visual — it's how text feels when read. Good type
carries the voice of the content. If the typeface distracts from the
message, it fails, no matter how stylish it looks.
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