Advanced Typography: Task 3 Type Exploration & Application

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12/05/2025 - 8/6/2025 / Week 8 - Week 14
An Hongzheng / 0378415
Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University
Task 3 : Key Artwork & Collateral

CATALOGUE

1. Lectures
2. Instruction
3. Task 3：Type Exploration & Application
    3.1 Proposal
    3.4 Final Typeface
LECTURES 


Week 8

Independent Learning Week

Week 9

No Lecture

Week 10

No Lecture

Week 11

No Lecture

Week 12

No Lecture


INSTRUCTIONS

Figure 2.1: Module Information Booklet / Week 8 (11/6/2025)


TASK 3

Information Briefed by Mr. Vinod:


3.1 Proposal

Figure 3.1: Proposal Slides / Week 8 (11/6/2025)

Form the beginning, I come up with 3 general ideas.
1: Continuation of the game title font for the Blue Protocol game.
2: Develop a universal font for the Eastern Project series games.
3: Continue with the font I created in Task 2.



2 Idea Development

Figure 3.2.1: Chosen Idea / Week 9 (18/6/2025)

At the end, I choose Idea#2


3.3 Typeface Creating

Figure 3.3.1: Font References / Week 9 (18/6/2025)


For the references, I tried to found some elements that usually be used in Touhou Project games, such as "Magatama"，"Fulu"; and I also found some exsiting fonts about Touhou Project, they are a actual font and 2 game titles.


Figure 3.3.2: Progress 1 / Week 9 (17/6/2025)



For the font design in this task, I want to try a different production process - I use my ipad to do the skecth and the nearly complete digital design, since it's more convinient for me to imitate brush marks  by ipad instead of Adobe Illustrator's pen tool.

I use grids set of canca to start my design in order to regulate the size of each letters easily and accurately, and it will be useful for me to move final product to Adobe Illustrstor.

Uppercase "A" first, and use it as the size reference for other letter, numbers and punctuation.



Figure 3.3.3: Progress 2 / Week 9 (17/6/2025)


According to capital letter "A", I created all the other capital letters.


Figure 3.3.4: Progress 3 / Week 10 (26/6/2025)


Based on capital letter "A", I design the lowercase letter, and use it as the basic reference for the other lowercase letters.

Figure 3.3.5: Progress 4 / Week 10 (26/6/2025)


Finishing create all lowercase letters, the descent part may be not very accurate, would adjust them in Adobe Illustrator and FontLab.

Figure 3.3.6: Progress 5 / Week 10 (26/6/2025)


Same way to create all numbers and common punctuations.


Figure 3.3.7: Progress 6 / Week 10 (27/6/2025)

Export the works from Procreate in ipad as png file, and upload them to Adobe Express to convert into svg file. 




Figure 3.3.8: Progress 7 / Week 10 (27/6/2025)




Import the svg file into Adobe Illustrator, then height of canva should be 1000 px, and then set the Ascender Line, cap line, mean line, baseline and descender line according to the capital letter "A".



Figure 3.3.9: Progress 8 / Week 10 (27/6/2025)


Add more artboards and arrange all letters, numerals and punctuations, then adjust the details and size of descent part.


3.4 Final Typeface


Figure 3.4.1: Stroke and Guides / Week 11 (2/7/2025)


Figure 3.4.2: Final Typeface / Week 11 (2/7/2025)


3.5 Generate Font - FontLab


Figure 3.5.1: Chart for Kerning - Uppercase / Week 11 (2/7/2025)

Figure 3.5.2: Chart for Kerning - Lowercase / Week 11 (2/7/2025)

Sidebearing rules provided by Mr.Vinod, according to these measurement methods to do the bearing after importing the fonts into FontLab 

Figure 3.5.3: Progress 1 / Week 11 (2/7/2025)


Since all the letters, numbers and puctuations are already a shape instead of a single path, so I can copy and paste every shapes into FontLab directly. 


Figure 3.5.4: Progress 2 / Week 11 (2/7/2025)


Use Windows - New Metric Tab, and type all the captital letters to check the original space of each letter, and adjust them.

I set both left and right sidebearings of capital letters "O" and "N" to 50, and then set the other letters based on the measurement rules.


Figure 3.5.5: Progress 3 / Week 11 (2/7/2025)

For some letters, the original size or shape may be too wide or so long that over the descent lines, I adjust these path of letters in FontLab.


Figure 3.5.6: Progress 4 / Week 11 (2/7/2025)

Then, I set the left and right sidebearing of lowercase "o" and "n" to 50 firstly, and change the side bearing od the other letters based on these 2 letters.


Figure 3.5.7: Progress 5 / Week 11 (2/7/2025)

Some special lettters need to adjust the kerning between them and the other letters, like "j","q", "g" and "N", so I typed different combinations with these letters and the other letters, and change the space between each two letters. 

The range of reducing or increasing is between -100 to -25. 


Figure 3.5.8: Progress 6 / Week 11 (2/7/2025)


Finally, import the numbers and punctuations, and adjust the sideloading space slightly.

Link to download the font: Touhou Project Regular
Figure 3.5.9: Font Information / Week 11 (2/7/2025)


3.6 Font Presentation

Figure 3.6.1: References / Week 12 (10/7/2025)

When searching for references, we not only referred to conventional font presentations, but also to traditional Chinese and Japanese ink paintings and poetry. To mimic the overall atmosphere and presentation style.

Figure 3.6.2: Progress 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



In the initial attempt, a conventional layout was chosen, which had the advantage of appearing clear and smooth, but lacked distinctive features.

Figure 3.6.3: Progress 2/ Week 12 (10/7/2025)


Later, referring to the writing styles of ancient China and Japan, the layout was changed from top to bottom, with left to right, which was more distinctive and perfectly matched the features of the font itself.

Figure 3.6.4: Progress 3 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


After the typesetting was completed, I added a background and some texture. First, a rectangular tool was used to create a yellow background, imitating the color of ancient paper. Afterwards, a new layer was created, a paper image was added, and the transparency was reduced to add a paper texture to the entire screen.

Figure 3.6.5: Progress 4 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


Add a theme image in the background: Gouyu. And reduce transparency without affecting the overall readability of the image.


Figure 3.6.6: Progress 5 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


The second presentation is mainly used to demonstrate the effect of fonts in forming long text. Therefore, using the same elements as the first presentation will not result in significant changes.


Figure 3.6.7: Progress 6 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)

The third presentation is mainly used to demonstrate the effect of numbers and punctuation in fonts. I have decided to place only a few numbers in the middle of the screen to highlight the key points. Use the "*" in the font to form a graphic and use it as the background.


Figure 3.6.8: Progress 7 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


The fourth presentation is mainly used to demonstrate punctuations. I copied all the punctuations in bulk and organized them neatly as backgrounds. In order to avoid appearing too monotonous, the transparency of some punctuations in the background was randomly modified.

Afterwards, I chose @, #, ￥,%, and the four punctusations as the most important display objects.


Figure 3.6.9: Color Plate / Week 12 (10/7/2025)

Figure 3.6.10: Progress 8 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)

In the final presentation, I explained the original intention of creating this font and demonstrated the color effect of the font.

In order to make the colors more in line with the font, I searched for commonly used ancient Chinese style colors as templets.


Figure 3.6.11: Font Presentation 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)

Figure 3.6.12: Font Presentation 2 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


Figure 3.6.13: Font Presentation 3 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



Figure 3.6.14: Font Presentation 4 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


Figure 3.6.15: Font Presentation 5 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


3.7 Font Apploications


Figure 3.7.1: Mockup Images / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


The above is the mockup prototype of the application.


Figure 3.7.2: Progress 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



Reuse the background in the presentation as an element for application.

Figure 3.7.3: Progress 2 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


In Photoshop, convert the design in the mockup into smart objects and replace them with images prepared in Adobe Illustrator.

Figure 3.7.4: Final Application 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



Figure 3.7.5: Progress 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



First, prepare the text to be used in Adobe Illustrator and convert it into a graphic.


Figure 3.7.6: Progress 2 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



The same steps as the first application. When replacing the pattern again, use the rectangle tool in Photoshop to create different colored backgrounds.

Figure 3.7.7: Final Application 2 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)




Figure 3.7.8: Progress 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


Edit images in Photoshop. Mainly to change the color of the font and the transparency of the pattern, in order to better adapt to the glass of the showcase in the mockup.

Figure 3.7.9: Progress 2 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)


Adjust the color of the storefront in the mockup.

Figure 3.7.10: FinaL Application 3 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)




Figure 3.7.11: Progress 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



Import the patterns from Illustrator into Photoshop and combine them with text for layout.

Figure 3.7.12: Final Application 4 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)




Figure 3.7.13: Progress 1 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



Replacing game fonts is very difficult. I tried over 30 games before discovering a game that is easier to change fonts compared to others.

Firstly, import the font file you designed into the corresponding font folder of the game.

Figure 3.7.14: Progress 2 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)



Use Adobe Dreamweaver to modify the content of CSS files and change the orientation of gamefont.


Figure 3.7.15: Final Application 5 / Week 12 (10/7/2025)

Finally, run the game for testing.



Figure 3.7.16:  Honor Progress 1 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)



For the Honor Design Award, I utilized my previous experience and made the required changes to the dimensions of 6000 * 3000.

Figure 3.7.17:  Honor Progress 2 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)



Import Adobe Illustrator files into After Effects to create animation effects.



Figure 3.7.18:  Final Animation / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


Figure 3.7.19:  Upload / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


Figure 3.7.20:  Under Review / Week 13 (19/7/2025)



3.8 Final Task 3 Submission


Figure 3.8.1:  Font Info / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

2. PDF of Font

Figure 3.8.2: Complication of uppercase, lowercase and punctuations / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


3.FontLab Screen Grab
Figure 3.8.3: FontLab Screenshot / Week 13 (19/7/2025)



4.Font Presentation

Figure 3.8.4: Font Presentation 1 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


Figure 3.8.5: Font Presentation 2 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

Figure 3.8.6: Font Presentation 3 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


Figure 3.8.7: Font Presentation 4 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

Figure 3.8.8: Font Presentation 5 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)



5.Font Application

Figure 3.8.9: Font Application - Honor 1 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


Figure 3.8.10: Font Application 1 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

Figure 3.8.11: Font Application 2 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

Figure 3.8.12: Font Application 3 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

Figure 3.8.13: Font Application 5 / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


Figure 3.8.14: Font Application 5- Test Video IN game / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


6.Font Presentation PDF
Figure 3.8.15: Font Presentation -PDF / Week 13 (19/7/2025)


7.Font Applacation PDF and Video

Figure 3.8.16: Font Application -PDF / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

Figure 3.8.17: Font Application - Video / Week 13 (19/7/2025)

FEEDBACK

Week 8:

Independent Learning Week

Week 9:

General Feedback - Both of  idea #1 and #2 are ok.

Specific Feedback - Make sure the font of the game's title(idea #1) is not an exist font.

Week 10:

General Feedback - Ok, continue.

Specific Feedback - 

Week 11:

General Feedback - Don't for get to show the progress of creating font.

Specific Feedback - 

Week 12:

General Feedback - Finish Spacing first then kerning, be quick and prepare for your font presentation.

Specific Feedback - 

Week 13:

General Feedback - 

Specific Feedback - For font presentation 3, reduce the patterns.


REFLECTIONS

Experience - This project was a long but rewarding journey. The hardest part was deciding on the typeface style, but I eventually created Touhou Project Font Regular, a bold and bubbly design inspired by the energy of the Touhou universe. I enjoyed the creative process in Illustrator, especially experimenting to the imitation of the magatama and the ink pen notes. Although I faced technical issues in FontLab, like crashes and failed exports, I overcame them by asking for my friends' help. Creating mockups in Photoshop was smooth and satisfying.

Observations - I noticed that setting up a consistent grid greatly improved the balance of my letterforms. It helped maintain a unified x-height, stroke width, and spacing. Matching strokes across letters, numbers, and punctuation, as well as careful kerning, were key to achieving a readable and cohesive font.

Findings - Completing the font gave me a strong sense of accomplishment. Touhou Project Font Regular works well for expressive, creative visuals, but its bold style makes it less suitable for long texts. This project taught me the importance of balancing creativity with practicality in type design.


FURTHER READING

THE VIGNELLI CANON, 
book by Massimo Vignelli .
(Figure 6.1.1)


Week 9

- Page 44-47

A Company Letterhead
We are against arbitrary layouts that ignore structure. We reject disordered placements that lack clarity and purpose.

We are for a Design that uses the grid to bring order and hierarchy. A typical letterhead starts with 10mm margins and is divided into three columns—leaving the first column blank for a logo or empty space, and using the other two for the text. This asymmetrical layout conveys modernity.

A six-module horizontal grid places each element with care: the receiver’s address aligns with the second module, the letter begins after the third, and the logo may appear below the fold in the first column. The sender’s address is placed at the bottom, split between columns two and three.

A central axis layout uses five columns: one for each margin, three for content. The logo sits at the top center, and the text begins below the fold, with contact details centered at the bottom—more fitting for formal uses.

This approach extends to envelopes, fax forms, and invoices, all guided by the grid. It ensures clarity, consistency, and elegance.

The grid is not just structure—it is a system that prevents meaningless placement and invites endless variation, like music composed from a few notes.

That is the magic of the grid.



Week 10

- Page 48-53

Grids for Books
We are against arbitrary layouts that ignore content. We reject distortion and disconnection between form and material.

We are for a Design where the grid brings structure and continuity from cover to cover. The size of the book follows its content—square images suggest square books, rectangular images suggest rectangular formats. The content determines the container.

We value grids that match image proportions, reducing cropping, and respecting composition. We align text and images to the same grid, using consistent modules and leading, achieving clarity and elegance.

We strive for tight, thoughtful spacing—ideally the size of a line of type. Digital tools now allow for precise and flexible grid systems, but complexity must be handled with care.

And that is what grids mean in book design.



Week 11

- Page 54-55

Typefaces
We are against visual pollution. We reject the careless explosion of typefaces born from desktop publishing. We detest distortion for its own sake and typography used as decoration without purpose.

We are for a Design that values structure over novelty. We are for clarity, economy, and discipline. We are for using a few well-designed typefaces—not many. Our work has shown that with just Garamond, Bodoni, Century Expanded, and Helvetica, one can create variety, elegance, and meaning.

We believe most typefaces are made for commerce, not necessity. We value Optima, Futura, Univers, Caslon, and Baskerville, among a few others. Our list is basic, but that is its strength—it ensures quality.

We see typography as a tool to organize information objectively. We reject self-indulgent or pictorial use of type. Type should not bark when it says “dog.” It should communicate with clarity through space, weight, and alignment.

We accept that some contexts may call for expressive type—logos or promotions—but that is not our core concern. When done well, we appreciate it.

We believe good design is never boring. Only bad design is.


Week 12

- Page 66-69

Flush Left, Centered, Justified
Flush left is our preferred alignment—it follows natural reading flow and creates cleaner layouts. Though the ragged edge needs adjusting, it’s visually effective.

Centered text suits formal content like invitations or business cards, adding elegance and symmetry.

Justified text, while common in books, often feels forced due to uneven spacing. We use it rarely.

Type Size Relationship
Type size should match column width. Smaller sizes like 8–10pt work for narrow columns, while larger sizes (16–18pt) suit wider layouts. We usually limit a page to two type sizes for clarity, often pairing small text with headings twice the size.

Headings and subheadings can share size, differentiated by boldness and spacing. Consistency in type size adds elegance and efficiency, especially in books.

We value precise leading, careful spacing, and logical use of weights. Type should not be decorative or distorted—except in packaging, where flexibility is allowed, but only with restraint.



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