FS Me: An accessible typeface design from Fontsmith

I have just come across a typeface design whilst looking into Fontsmith for interest and I came across their accessible font FS Me. This typeface aimed to follow the rules on accessibility so it was legible for those with learning difficulties. When describing their font, Fontsmith (n.d.) said something wonderful: "People with learning disabilities are often treated as inferior by childlike design. FS Me is designed for adults, not children..." This is absolutely true and is an issue which needed to be addressed. Of course when you think of a typeface for those with learning difficulties, you shudder and think of the dreaded Comic Sans with its childish and mocked style. Having to use this typeface can be degrading for someone with learning difficulties because of its poor reputation, so having a typeface like FS Me from Fontsmith is a great innovation.

As well as the purpose of the typeface, from a typographers point of view I liked the small snippets of sketches they showed. These sketches showed footnotes of small amendments to the letters which is rare to see. This will help me a little in my letter sketching series, I will try and show some amendment notes in my next letter.

Fontsmith
(n.d.)
http://www.fontsmith.com/fonts/fs-me

Letter Sketching Series 17/12/15

Just a few hours after the previous letter, I felt motivated to draw this little sketch digitally. Usually the initial sketches are drawn here and there; be that in a lecture in my notebook, on a train in my little pocket sketchbook, or at a friends house on the back of an envelope while your waiting for a pizza. What I have noticed is that my motivation and drive to draw these letters and carry them through to a digital piece is growing more and more that I do them. I enjoy the process and since the letters are drawn absent mindedly here and there it does not seem a chore. But as I do more I have found they are looking to be up to a good standard. Typography has always been an interest of mine, and I started by learning how to set fonts and layouts, but drawing letterforms has always seemed daunting and an almost impossible task, but now I can see I am actually doing it, almost with surprising ease. It is this realisation that I am capable of doing it which strives me to keep going and improving. And now I find myself drawing original but realistic letterforms for fun as a way to get away from other work that is getting a bit much. So I have found myself caught up in a snowball effect where I am drawing more and more letters which improve with each one, plus I am loving the process.

Letter Sketching Series 16/12/15

Another letter in a series of sketches aimed to improve my abilities with designing type. With this letter I sketched it and digitally drew it much quicker than the previous letters which I will see as a good improvement which could help me move onto creating a range of letters in the time it took me to create one. Hopefully the speed I produce these letters will quicken to the point I can create a font weight in a reasonable amount of time.

Letter Sketching Series 05/12/15

The next instalment in my letter sketching series. Here I explore various font families and I learnt a lot from this practice. I got a better eye for detail when working with the lighter serifs and slight rounded corners on the sans.

Letter Sketching Continued

Another quick sketch in my learning letters series. A rough sketch in my notebook, taken into illustrator and refined.

MiaKat Design

This is basic re-brand for the custom apparel business MiaKat Design. I created their first identity about a year ago and as my skills and designers eye has improved I have re-visited the brand and gave it a crafted personality that is expressive and flamboyant but clear and definitive. I hand drew this typeface based loosely from the handwriting of founder Maria Newton. I learnt a lot from his project through many sketches and drawings and multiple versions of vectors, my eye for balance and curves was put to the test and I have improved a great deal and have noticed this change in other typeface designs.

Letter Sketching

Just a quick sketch of a two tier lowercase a. Refined on Illustrator. Part of a new habit I am trying to get myself in where I sketch letters quickly on the go int he hope my technical type design skills improve.

Post-It Pixel Parlance

Post It Pixel Parlance is a fun stop motion animation created by me and a large group of people on the Huddersfield Design course. This project was a lot of fun and rejuvenated my interest in explorative typography in a time when my motivation was slacking.

Memories and Lies

Memories and Lies is a small piece created using the Processing code language. With fading and blending profile shots accompanies short phrases of 90% lies about our memories with some odd truths. The reason for the lies is to elect humour when unconventional combinations of faces and phrases show.

Processing Glitching

Using the Processing coding language (loosely linked to Java) I broke JPEG image data by looping random byte interactions.

The results were randomly generated which created some vibrant graphics and colours. I wanted to capture some of these images so I added some code which saved each frame where I can look for my favourites.

Resolutions

Throughout my design education I have had goals in the back of my mind which I set myself, the include improving my layouts, knowledge of typography, look into 3D software (this one did not go so well) and one year where I started to draw for a short while. So I thought again for this year I would set myself some more goals but set them in stone on this blog.

- Explore programming and web development more with more of an end game and purpose:

This I have already started to do and have documented here, I have joined the Code Club and am thoroughly enjoying it. I have also began developing a very basic site for my digital formatted broadsheet poster. I am motivated and excited each time I sit down and get my head into code and would also like to look into scripts for Adobe software.

- Last year I focused on improving my design skills, now this year I want to focus on my creative ideas:

This I have already approached this in my Conversation brief where my first idea was to stick with what I knew and creative a simple book with a number of essays on my research findings into A Conversation, however I knew in my gut this would not be good enough; the idea was mundane and the content would have been boring so I went back to the drawing board. From here I came up with a great idea that I was quite enthusiastic about: Type Talk. Type Talk was a fun perspective on typefaces and their styles which with my knowledge gained from my research on A Conversation I could show my understanding of typefaces in a new way. This idea was much more creative and captivating.

Wilsons Republic Two

I recently attended the second Wilsons Republic after seeing their first launch night earlier in the year. There was a much larger turnout of people from before and the atmosphere was electric, there was amazing music, good conversation and I got to speak to a number of new people. The talks from Peter O'Toole and Sneaky Racoon were funny and quite informative, one point I picked up from Sneaky Racoon was how she moved from one thing to another when she lost interest in them, constantly pursuing her goals and aspirations. I think this is an inspiration to may people as we get a tendency to get too secure in our lives and become scared of the risk of breaking out of it when were no longer happy. I would like to follow her example and always strive to do things that I am passionate about and what makes me happy, cliche as that may be it is still a good attitude to follow as I will always strive to learn and move forward.

One area of Wilsons Republic which I find interesting is their brand. Going against the host, The Engine Rooms' most basic rules the brand for Wilsons Republic never stays still, it is always changing with each gathering. Director Darren Evans laughed about this irony and disregard for rules. The Brand for Wilsons Republic is aimed to change with each meeting, a new designer or studio in the local area is tasked in creating another beautiful set of visuals to attract designers from around the Huddersfield area. This meetup's graphics were designed by the well known Aidan Nolan, AKA  - A.N.D Studio. I love this modular and interchangeable system of blocks which makes up the typeface and it reminds me of an earlier typeface from him which he designed for the Out of Hours 2 exhibition. It is such an ingenious idea which is simple and flexible whilst looking appealing to the current designer and creative trends.

Character Design

For this task we were asked to draw some rough sketches for a new character which we would be using for a serial box design. This was only an idea development stage so the sketches I did at first were very quick and basic, just to get my ideas down to develop from.

One character I came up with was this half drawn stick figure, it would possibly have a pencil shown drawing it too and the tag line would be 'creating your own world' or 'create your day'. This idea was good however it did not leave any opportunity for bright colours or interesting shapes for the character, as the stick figure is only made of the most primitive shapes and is typically black, and trying to re-invent the stick figure would ruin the simplicity of it. So I moved on.

My next idea was a large rounded character called Glob, he has a friendly monster style with his non threatening facial features but chinky legs and large teeth. His expression is plain which gives him a simpleton look that would be lovable like a pet. I loved this idea and could already picture him taking over most of the area of a serial box, building on the perception of his big size, so I carried the idea forward and developed the sketches.

I fine tuned the shape of his body and reversed it to see which I preferred, I tired multiple facial expressions and I also drew his body under the force of movement. And after the experimentation I still went with my original blank expression, closed mouth appearance. I then started to draw some mockups of the cereal boxes, following my earlier idea to have him covering most of the box and then having the typography look like it is struggling to fit around him, like it is being squashed against the side.

The Analogue Website

Nathan Bolton

The Analogue Website

Date: N/A

http://www.nathanboltondesign.com/#/the-analogue-website/

Here is a piece of work by designer Nathan Bolton which has inspired me with its genius idea and underlying use of a play on association.

The Analogue Website is a range of printed matter, ones include a poster and a book. I have a copy of the screen printed poster which is when I found out about the entirety of the project. The purpose of the Analogue Website is to show the relationship between print and digital design, which currently seem to be targeted against each other by most of the design community. Bolton seems to want to change this attitude and show how they can work together, he wants to draw your attention to one point in particular. Printed design is typically converted to digital design to keep with the modern times, making printed design seem redundant and unnecessary, however here Bolton has re-purposed digital design into a printed form by laying out reams of HTML code into a simple two column layout. So he has turned a website into a poster.

I love this whole concept as it attempts to put a stop to the feud between print and digital design and shows how they compliment and work together. I also find the clever thought behind it fascinating. Bolton has taken what we typically associate with a website, its digital form, and turned that familiarity with it on its head. It confuses the viewer at first to see a website in an almost naked form which we are not accustomed to seeing. It plays on our natural associations to inflict thought and consideration.

I have also reviewed this piece in my work for A Conversation for my Intermediate Studio Practice module.

Eco, The Poetics of Open works

Here is a short few words on my thoughts of The Poetics of Open Works,

Open work is a term used for a creative piece, be that music, art or even writing, that is constructed with multiple directions of interpretations. How the piece is interpreted depends on the viewers perspective and their initiative to string elements together to create a whole piece. How someone sees and interprets a piece depends entirely on their subjective thinking through a certain perspective, thus creating this openness as one person can not possibly think the exact same way as another. Artists like to harness this multitude of interpretations as it adds an infinite amount of layers to an artwork making it reflect the dynamic and complex human personality. The open nature of art and creative work results in the work constantly developing and it encourages the viewer to think harder to unravel the messages hidden underneath the years of different interpretations. It pushes art further forward and so encourages innovation in the way artists think.

Manchester Print Festival

As part of Design Manchester 2015 there was a Print Festival hosted on the 17-18th October so I decided to head down and check it out after attending the BCN-MCR event a few years earlier. I loved the atmosphere and there was a selection of great prints. And of course I got a small A3 poster from their event last year.

2nd Behance Portfolio Review

* Images Courtesy of The Engine Room, Huddersfield

   

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153472246997713.1073741835.108166732712&type=3

For the second year running I have attended the Behance Portfolio Review which was hosted by The Engine Room at The Media Centre in Huddersfield. I got some great feedback for my current portfolio and I also got the chance to speak to Studio and get to know a larger area of the local design community.

Rotoscoping Street Dancer from Emma Nicholson on Vimeo.

For this exercise we were being shown how to rotoscope a clip and place it into a chosen scene. And for this I needed a short clip of a moving figure with no overlapping of other people or parts of the foreground etc. Then I had to find a looping point int he movement.

Initially we trimmed down the clip to its looping point which for me was about 1.7 seconds. Then to seam;essay stretch it out to two seconds we performed a Time Stretch which adds duplicate keyframes to extend the clip.

We then created an initial mask using the pen tool of the clearest part of the clip, ideally one where the subjects limbs were extended out clearly. I then step by step adjusted this mask to match each keyframe so the sequence was completely removed from the background. One glitch I occurred was the mask in the gab between the duplicate keyframes was randomly generated by After Effects to move from one keyframe to another, not knowing the keyframes are duplicates.So to fix this I enabled the 'Hold Keyframes' options and the mask kept its form until it was manually changed.

Another issue with After Effects is that the lest keyframe is always blank so before the clip loops it flashes off for one frame before starting again. To fix this I had to perform a Time Remap where I moved the endpoint to the next to last keyframe and trimmed the excess on the end. And now my clip looped seamlessly. I could also extend the two second clip to the whole ten seconds now. For this to work I added a simple Loop Out Duration expression into the expression dialogue box.

My Rotoscope was now ready to be added into the scene, for which I have chosen a London street with a large part of clear road where my character will seemingly be dancing. I gave the background a wiggle effect which I learnt from my last tutorial and this gave the background some life which lifted it off the ground.

Code Club

I have recently attended a Code Club and two weeks in I have developed some basic code using the code language Java in the Processing Program. Processing is a piece of software developed by Designers for other Designers to use as a visual creative tool.

During week one I started off with some very primitive code and created a simple ball that bounced around the screen.

And during week two I took this further by adding arrays which generated a number of ellipses automatically and made them bounce in random directions around the screen. And then after the club I wanted to take it a little bit further and generate random colours which I did by changing the value of the colours into random which picked a random number int he scale I specified.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my time at Code Club and I am waiting till I know a little bit more before I start to work it into my practise; but I am coming up with a few ideas currently. Watch this space.

Process and Production Typeface Design

These series of sketches was a result of a process and production task given to us where constrained within a four by four A4 grid. We had to fill each block with a phrase beginning with "I am", this filled the grid and created am interesting type structure. I started off drawing very precise letters with a compass and technical drawing tools, this was a bad start in the wrong direction. We were given this task in the hope we were loose with our ideas and thus allowing us to explore areas we were unfamiliar with. I decided to take influence from the rectangles in the grid and create a rectangular type form, this not only looks stylish but it is a great style to use for teens and young adults due to its.This encouragement to use new materials was informed more when it came to the second phase

I wanted to create quite a stiff and restrictive typeface like this simply because I has never done it before so I wanted to try it out. It has a grungy and edgy look which is a nice break to the swiss typefaces I typically use. I created the larger versions of these letters on A4 sheets of paper using a simple hand printing method. I would simply mask out the edges of the sketched letters and drag ink across the page, then once I peeled back the mask what was left was an imperfect grungy typeface with uneven surfaces and a range of colours and densities of ink.

Another grid based typeface I like the look of which I think subconsciously inspired my own design was the recent identity of Wilsons Republic designed by Aiden Nolan.

The next step for this project is to expand this 4x4 grid into an even larger format whilst maintaining this structure. And to achieve this I will need to re-think my printing methods to adapt to this larger size.