Brief 3: Design Boards

Brief 3 - Final Evaluation/Reflection

This brief is definitely the brief which I have found the hardest to do in terms of keeping it consistent across thirty days. Having to set aside time every day for this has been a challenge with some of the other briefs and work I have been doing at the same time. However I do think that doing this brief was definitely beneficial and I know that my skills in hand drawn typography have vastly improved from where they were at the beginning of this brief.

The best thing about this brief was that I was able to do what I wanted and experiment in a variety of different type styles and layout. With other briefs there are brands and guidelines to stick to, but in this brief, with each days effort being different, I have been able to enjoy it and do whatever I want instead of sticking to the same thing every day. It has given me a real taste for the variety of styles that are possible with hand drawn typography, and it has shown me what I really do enjoy and what I am good at.

I found that I excelled in the design during the second week and was able to vary my designs a lot more. I think that this was down to confidence and the fact that I had done a first week of a variety of styles and found that while some of them didn’t work too well, I do have some skill in this area and can push myself to develop that. While I can definitely say there are a number of designs which I am unhappy with due to my lack of skill in certain styles, it was all part of a learning curve and I am glad that I experimented in all styles.

As well as developing my skills in this style of design, this brief has also given me a much deeper understanding in the way which typography is formed and the principles behind it. This, with the research I have been conducting for my Cop3, I have found that the information gathered has really helped me consider the designs I have been creating and consider how the letters work together. This has overall given me a much better understanding into the typography anatomy and principles in general.

This brief has also allowed me to consider the idea of being able to create my own hand drawn fonts or typography designs for other briefs/in the future. I am now much more confident in this design and want to continue to push myself in this and use it as much as possible. It will definitely help me in the initial stages of briefs in visualising solutions in a much more realistic way.

Overall I have enjoyed the process and will definitely be thinking about whether I can complete it again, pushing myself again in this area to hopefully come out with some exciting and excelled pieces of hand drawn typography.

Brief 3: Day 30

Brief 3: Day 29

Brief 3: Day 28

Brief 3: Day 27

Brief 3: Day 26

Brief 3: Day 25

Brief 3: Day 24

Brief 3: Day 23

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Brief 3: Day 22

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Brief 3: Week 3 Progress

I don't feel that this week has gone particularly well in terms of my progress. I have found that I haven't had so much time this week to be able to do this brief well every day, so a couple of the days are quite rushed and are disappointing, but it's all part of the learning experience of it. It's shown me that it takes time and patience to create a good piece of hand drawn type.

I'm happy with the results on Day 15 & 19. Day 21 was also ok. I followed the couple of examples I took influence from, but I think the dramatic changes in weight doesn't work so well overall. It looks quite unbalanced, mainly due to the 'O's'. If I were to do it again I would include the thin weight at a point and carefully consider how the two weights work together.

I am starting to find that I am creating much better work when it is structured type, like day 15 and 19. I am also starting to get better with the use of serifs and how I draw them into the letters. This is definitely something I want to continue with. Hand drawn type doesn't necessarily always have to be a script-like font. I think creating a more complex serif font design takes more time, patience and skill, so I am glad that I am enjoying this.

I have found that I am still finding it quite hard to create good script-like type, so for the last 9 days of this brief I want to narrow the designs down into the style of type which I have been most successful at.

Days I think have been successful:
6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 19

It is a bit of a mix between structured and script designs. I also really enjoyed Day 9 which involved creating a shape and fitting the text in this, warping it. This is something that I want to work on too because it adds a bit of character to a design which can use a simple font design.

I enjoyed Day 6, 10 and 12 because of the use of different fonts in the same design. This is something that I want to consider working on. It gives each word a bit of individuality and presence. Day 13 was the design that I enjoyed the most. This was a bit of a surprise, and I was really happy with the outcome, so working in this kind of style is something I want to try again.

Overall my general thoughts about this past week are that while the results haven't been as good as I'd have hoped, it has helped me reflect on the work from the week and whole brief and decide how to move forward in this last week.

It has also made me start to think about what I want to do as a continuation to this brief. Right now I am considering doing the brief over again so I can focus down more and work on the skill more because it is obviously something that isn't easy to learn and do well. While I know my work on script-life type isn't entirely successful at this point, I really would like to keep working at it so I can eventually have a range of type styles that I feel comfortable working in.

Brief 3: Day 21

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Brief 3: Day 20

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Brief 3: Day 19

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Brief 3: Day 18

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Brief 3: Day 17

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Brief 3: Day 16

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Brief 3: Day 15

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Brief 3: Week 2 Progress

I have decided that I will do a progress update for each week as it gives me points where I can reflect the weeks work and decide what direction to go in for the following week.

I have found it much easier to progress with this brief this week. I think I am getting more comfortable with the task and am more confident in my ability to create the typography. I definitely still have a lot more work to do in terms of creating really clean and refined type, but I think at this point I am doing well with it all.

At this point I have tried out a few different type styles and am starting to learn which styles I like to do and which ones I really don't like doing at all. I think the last three days (12 - 14) have been my most successful works so far, which is something I feel good about because they're all three completely different styles.

I have also started making decisions about which style to do on each day according to the chart I created initially. I have skipped a couple out up to this point because I haven't felt that they will benefit me in any way compared to the other styles. This does open up two days work for other styles that I may see around or online.

I am quite confident that by the end of the thirty days I will be at a reasonably good level of skill in this brief and am definitely considering the idea of redoing this brief in the future and changing it to fit what I want to achieve at that point in time.

I have decided that once this brief is finished I will do a bit of a mini brief in refining/redrawing a few of the designs which I am not happy with. While I like the fact I can see the progress, I do want to have an amount of designs which are all at the same standard. I think the first weeks work will all need refining, and possibly day 8, 9 and 11.