Advanced Typography / TASK 2 (A) & (B): Key Artwork & Collateral
Daphne Lai Yu Cheng / 0366380
GCD 61004 / Advanced Typography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors' University
Task 2 / (A) Key Artwork & (B) Collateral
- Lectures
- Instructions
- Task 2 / (A) Key Artwork & (B) Collateral
- Feedback
- Reflection
- Further Readings
LECTURES
Week 1-4 lectures notes are completed in Task 1.
Week 5 (20/5/2025): AdTypo_5_Perception and Organisation
- Something that is regarded, understood or interpreted.
- Deals with visual navigation and interpretation of the reader via contrast, form and organisation of the content (textual, visual, graphical, colour) in Typography.
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Figure 1.1 Contrast in Typography by Rudi Ruegg
- Light/Bold
- Condensed/Extended
- Organic/Machined
- Roman/Italic
- Small/Large
- Negative/Positive
- Serif/Sans serif
- Ornate/Simple
- Red/Blue
- To create distinction.
- To differentiate between information.
Size
Figure 1.2 Contrast in Size
- Provides a point to which the reader's attention is drawn.
- Big letter is more obvious compared to the smaller letter.
- Example: Headline and body text.
Weight
Figure 1.3 Contrast in Weight
- How bold type can stand out in the middle of lighter type of same style.
- Squares can also provide a heavy area for a powerful point of visual attraction or emphasis.
Form
Figure 1.4 Contrast in Form
- The distinction between a capital letter and its lowercase, roman and italic, condensed and expanded versions of typeface.
Structure
Figure 1.5 Contrast in Structure
- The different letterforms of different kinds of typefaces.
- Example: Monoline sans serif and traditional serif, Italic and blackletter.
Texture
Figure 1.6 Contrast in Texture
- By putting together the contrasts of size, weight, form and structure and applying them to a block of text.
- How the lines of type look as a while up close and from a distance.
Direction
Figure 1.7 Contrast in Direction
- Opposition and angles between vertical and horizontal.
- By mixing wide blocks of long lines with tall columns of short line.
Colour
Figure 1.8 Contrast in Colour
- The use of colour suggests that a second colour is often less emphatic in values compared to plain black on white.
- It is important to give thought to which element needs to be emphasised and to pay attention to the tonal values of colours that are used.
Form
Figure 1.9 Form
- The overall look and feel of the elements that make up the typographic composition.
- Plays a role in visual impact and first impressions.
- The interplay of meaning and form brings a balanced harmony both in terms of function and expression.
- The way a thing has been "placed" or "put together".
- An attempt to understand the laws behind the ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions.
- Max Wertheimer developed a number of "laws" that predict how perceptual grouping occurs under a variety of circumstances.
- Emphasises that the whole oof anything is greater than its parts, based on the idea that we experience things as unified whole.
Figure 1.10 Gestalt Theory
- Elements that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as a unified group.
- Elements that are close together tend to be perceived as a unified group.
- The mind's tendency to see complete figures or forms even if a picture is incomplete, partially hidden by other objects or even if part of the information needed to make a complete picture in our minds is missing.
- Humans tend to perceive each of two or more objects as different, singular and uninterrupted object even when they intersect.
Law of Symmetry
Law of Simplicity (Praganz)
TASK 2: (A) Key Artwork & (B) Collateral (13/5/2024)
Task 2A: Key Artwork
To create a wordmark of our first name/pseudonym. Explore typographic styles and play with visual forms by modifying and abstracting parts of the letters, combining the letterforms into shapes or arrangements. Finalise wordmark design and start animating it.
- Black wordmark on white background
- White wordmark on black background
- Colour palette
- Wordmark in actual colours on lightest shade of colour palette
- Wordmark in lightest shade of colour palette on darkest shade of colour palette
- Wordmark animation (Gif format)
Mind Map
We were assigned to create a mind map about ourselves, this is a mind map about myself:
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Figure 2.1 Mind Map (13/5/2025)
Inspiration Moodboard
Next, I created a moodboard for my wordmark design inspiration. I like all types of typographic designs but I decided on designing a "sharper", contrasting and expressive wordmark.
Additionally, I was inspired by cybersigilism tattoos and designs, cybersigilism might seem controversial or strange to some, but I find its design visually expressive such as the intricate lines, symmetry and high contrast make it extremely appealing.
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Sketches
I did some sketches and exploration on different types like bold, geometrical and sharper designs.
Figure 2.3 Sketches (18/5/2025)
After feedback session, I decided to work on:
Keywords: Sharp, Contrast, Expressive and Chaos.
I came up with this design by using keywords from my mind map, "not easily approachable, looks fierce" which is people's first impression of me. This design is about how the name Daphne gives a very soft and delicate but the person behind the name might not be the same.
During the feedback session, Mr Vinod said that my wordmark design is lacking balance and has alot of negative space on the left side. He told me to put a square around wordmark to check the negative space around to make sure both sides are balanced and also put it on a baseline to see the amount of points. The letter 'N' jointing 'E' is not readable.
Figure 2.4 Chosen Sketch (18/5/2025)
Digitalisation
This is the overall process of my wordmark design:
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Figure 2.5 Process (20/5/2025)
I did changes on the letter 'E' by separating the 'N' and 'E' and redesign the letter 'E' to make it more readable and ensure the consistency of the overall wordmark.
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Figure 2.6 Process (20/5/2025)
I moved on to the other letters to do some refinement by adjusting the overall balance and consistency of the wordmark. I shorten the tail and adjusted the height of 'D' then smoothen every letters to make it look cleaner.
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Figure 2.7 Process (20/5/2025)
During the feedback session on Week 6, Mr Vinod said that wordmark is consistent from look and feel. However, the 'P' connecting to 'H' is confusing, can connect both letters on top, optional to connect 'N' and 'E' together.
I deleted the connected strokes and switched it to the top for 'P' and 'H'.
I also connected 'N' and 'E' while avoiding confusion.
Figure 2.8 Process (27/5/2025)
Below is the evolution of my wordmark refinement process and final wordmark design:
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Figure 2.9 Process (27/5/2025)
Colour Palette Application
Personally, I like how the colour blue and orange contrast each other well compared to other contrasting colour palettes so I went to Color Hunt to find a suitable colour palette for my wordmark.
Initially, my chosen colour palette was #1 and consisted of 4 colours. Mr Vinod said to have one additional colour, I could choose neutral shades or a lighter shade of the orange or blue so I added a light shade of orange.
Figure 2.10 Initial Chosen Colour Palettes (27/5/2025)
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Figure 2.11 Colour Palette Application (27/5/2025)
Next, we were to put our wordmark on an A4 size artboard, include the keywords, apply our wordmark on a shirt and minimise the wordmark on the top right.
Figure 2.12 Final Wordmark, Keywords & Wordmark Application on shirt (27/5/2025)
Key Artwork Animation
I decided to do frame by frame animation using Photoshop. I started by duplicating artboards in Illustrator and did adjustments to them.
My idea is to place 2 wordmarks (top & bottom) and let them intersect each other and flickering as the frame goes.
Figure 2.13 Initial attempt on wordmark animation (GIF) (12/6/2025)
I applied and increased the intensity of Gaussian Blur frame by frame to make the wordmark gradually get visible after the intersection.
Figure 2.14 Initial attempt on wordmark animation (GIF) (12/6/2025)
After the adjustments, I imported them into Photoshop and set the the frame duration.
Figure 2.15 Initial attempt on wordmark animation (GIF) (12/6/2025)
This was my initial attempt on the animation, it was too fast and not really smooth so I added more frames to it and lengthen the duration.
Figure 2.16 Initial attempt on wordmark animation (GIF) (12/6/2025)
Figure 2.17 Final wordmark animation (GIF) (14/6/2025)
Task 2A Final Outcome
Figure 2.18 Black wordmark on white background (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 2.19 White wordmark on black background (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 2.20 Colour Palette (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 2.21 Wordmark in actual colours on lightest shade of colour palette (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 2.22 Wordmark in lightest shade of colour palette on darkest shade of colour palette (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 2.23 Wordmark animation (GIF) (14/6/2025)
Figure 2.24 Task 2A PDF Compilation (14/6/2025)
After finalising the wordmark design, come up with 3 design collateral ideas by using mock up templates and set up an Instagram account to showcase them.
- Collateral 1, 2, 3
- Instagram handle & link
- IG screen grab with good resolution. IG featuring 9 tiles (profile must feature a bio).
Collateral #1
My first collateral was to create a sticker pack containing of 3 designs. I created a few designs and chose 3 of them for my sticker pack.
Figure 3.1 Collateral #1 (2/6/2025)
Collateral #2
Next, I intersected my wordmark and created outlines for my collateral design.
Figure 3.2 Collateral #2 (2/6/2025)
Collateral #3
Lastly, I decided on making a CD album for my 3rd collateral. I also searched for inspirations and examples of album design.
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Figure 3.3 Collateral Inspiration (1/6/2025)
Figure 3.4 Collateral #3 (1/6/2025)
Identity Expansion
1) Colour Palette
I thought my colour palette would look a little boring for my Instagram page, I decided to add on Liquify tool. It took me quite some time to draw a straight line.
2) Black & White Photograph
For my black and white photograph, I applied Colour Halftone effect and decrease the Levels to make my photograph darker and high in contrast because it looked too bright.
Figure 3.6 B&W Photograph Adjustments (2/6/2025)
3) Pattern Expansion
I created a repetition design for my first pattern expansion, I used Gaussian Blur to slowly "reveal" my wordmark.
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Figure 3.7 Pattern #1: Repetition (2/6/2025)
For my second pattern expansion, I intersected my wordmark with one wordmark flipped horizontally. During feedback session, Mr Vinod said I could further expand my pattern by enlarging my wordmark beyond the artboard.
I enlarged the wordmark and only including one 'DAPHNE' but intersecting with 2 colours.
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Figure 3.8 Pattern #2: Expansion (1/6/2025)
Instagram Page Design
This was my initial Instagram page layout design but Instagram changed their 1:1 layout into 4:5 so I had to readjust the size of all the images, also did some changes and improve on some designs.
Figure 3.9 Initial Instagram Page Design (3/6/2025)
Figure 3.10 Final Instagram Page Design (10/6/2025)
Task 2B Final Outcome
Figure 3.11 Collateral #1 (JPG) (2/6/2025)
Figure 3.12 Collateral #2 (JPG) (2/6/2025)
Figure 3.13 Collateral #3 (JPG) (1/6/2025)
Figure 3.14 Instagram Layout Design (JPG) (10/6/2025)
Figure 3.15 Screenshot of Instagram Page (JPG) (10/6/2025)
Instagram Page Link: https://www.instagram.com/by_d4phne/
Figure 3.16 Task 2B PDF Compilation (10/6/2025)
Task 2 Final Compilation
Figure 4.1 Black wordmark on white background (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 4.2 White wordmark on black background (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 4.3 Colour Palette (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 4.4 Wordmark in actual colours on lightest shade of colour palette (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 4.5 Wordmark in lightest shade of colour palette on darkest shade of colour palette (JPG) (27/5/2025)
Figure 4.6 Wordmark animation (GIF) (14/6/2025)
Figure 4.7 Task 2A PDF Compilation (14/6/2025)
Figure 4.8 Collateral #1 (JPG) (2/6/2025)
Figure 4.9 Collateral #2 (JPG) (2/6/2025)
Figure 4.10 Collateral #3 (JPG) (1/6/2025)
Figure 4.11 Instagram Layout Design (JPG) (10/6/2025)
Figure 4.12 Screenshot of Instagram Page (JPG) (10/6/2025)
Instagram Page Link: https://www.instagram.com/by_d4phne/
Figure 4.13 Task 2B PDF Compilation (10/6/2025)
Week 5
Specific feedback: Put a square around wordmark to see the negative space around to make sure both sides are balanced and also put it on a baseline to see the amount of points. E is not readable. Rationalise your wordmark.
General feedback: Do good research to know who and what to find. Make sure to have composition in wordmark, it is important. Rationalise your wordmark.
Week 6
General feedback: Consistent from look and feel. 'P' connecting to 'H' is confusing, can connect both letters on top, optional to connect 'N' and 'E' together. Have additional colours, 2 neutral shades to choose from, can also be a lighter shade of the orange or blue.
Specific feedback: Make sure there's consistency in wordmark. Animation should not be too long or complicated.
Week 7
Specific feedback: Pattern is interesting but could be more impactful, do not limit your wordmark, can expand beyond the artboard. Others are fine. DAPHNE can be cropped out and enlarge it more to the point where only few letters are seen.
General feedback: ILW class next week. To be announced in teams whether if it's online or physical.
Week 8
Specific feedback: Good expansion, colour scheme design looks interesting. Not great but decent. Good colour scheme, makes it look exciting.
General feedback: Always document feedback after feedback session. Task 3 briefing. Identify a topic you want to work on. Propose 3 ideas.
Experiences
Task 2 has been quite an interesting and insightful experience. I enjoyed exploring various types of wordmarks and brainstorming ideas for my own design. It pushed me to think creatively while also reflecting on what kind of visual identity I wanted to convey through my wordmark. At the same time, it was quite challenging especially because I can be indecisive when choosing a specific direction or concept. However, that struggle helped me better understand my own preferences and limitations as a designer. Mr. Vinod’s feedback and guidance were very helpful throughout the process, the feedback I received made me explore further and refine my ideas.
Observations
While working on my sketches, I began to notice how each wordmark carries its own unique meaning and interpretation even when based on the same word. It made me realise how much thought can go into even the simplest looking designs. I could clearly observe my own progress throughout Task 2 from the rough initial ideas to more refined versions. It was eye opening to see the wide range of design styles and thought processes through my peers' wordmarks.
Findings
Throughout this task, I have learned that wordmarks play a crucial role in building and communicating a brand’s identity. It is not just about creating something visually appealing but designing something meaningful that reflects the personality of the brand or individual. I also found that this process helps to shape our aesthetics as designers since everyone has their own unique approach. Overall, Task 2 served as a useful guide for understanding the fundamentals of identity design and it has definitely given me ideas on how to improve in future projects.
1. The Vignelli Canon (Massimo Vignelli, 2010)
Figure 5.1 The Vignelli Canon
This book by Massimo Vignelli highlights the importance of strong design principles and how they guide the creation to meaningful, functional and visually coherent designs.
There were 2 parts in this book and I would like to emphasise on certain topics from each part of this book:
Part 1: The Intangibles
Semantics (p. 10 & 11)
- Understand the true meaning behind what you are designing.
- Designers should research the subject, its background, the users, the purpose and its context before starting any project to guide the design in a meaningful direction.
- Every detail should have a reason and purpose. Without meaning, design becomes shallow or even vulgar.
- Vignelli criticises careless or flashy design that lacks thought, calling it a kind of "visual pollution."
- Designers are encouraged to begin every project with a clear understanding of the subject, so their work can be meaningful, respectful and effective.
- Design must be understood. The design fails if people can't understand it.
- While a design can sometimes need explanation, the best designs speak for themselves with clarity.
- The final result reflects how clearly the designer thought about the problem.
- Clear intent leads to clear outcomes, while confusion creates messy, weak designs.
- Good design is universal, no matter the form or scale.
- Discipline is essential in design.
- Every detail matters, there is no place for procrastination or carelessness.
- Good design comes from being focused, consistent and committed throughout the process.
- Discipline means setting rules for yourself, staying organised and ensuring the final result is unified and intentional. Without discipline, design becomes messy and meaningless.
- Good design should be visually strong. Whereas weak design, whether in form, colour or concept is ineffective.
- Strong design clearly expresses ideas through powerful use of elements like scale, contrast, texture, and light.
- However, visual strength doesn’t mean being loud or flashy, it comes from elegance and purpose, not just attention grabbing visuals.
- Real corporate identity is more than just a logo.
- The idea of changing logos just for the sake of being new, especially when a logo already has deep cultural value and recognition.
- Make small updates to fit modern needs while keeping the original identity intact instead of redesigning from scratch.
- Respect the history of a logo.
Part 2: The Tangibles
Identity and Diversity (p. 90 & 91)
- Discusses the need to balance identity and diversity in design.
- A strong identity ensures consistency and recognition while diversity keeps the design fresh and engaging. Achieving this balance brings meaning to design work.
- Too much identity can lead to repetition and reduced impact while too much diversity may cause fragmentation and confusion.
- Successful design solutions allow some changes while keeping things the same.
- Example: Book series with consistent layouts but changing covers and furniture that users can adjust without losing its core design.
In my opinion, I find that these topics were related and helpful to what I'm doing for Task 2. Overall, it was an interesting and good read to improve as a designer.
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