87443 VC Technology - Typography in Context

MASTHEAD & COVERS

Process Diary

Tiffany Nguyen 12048981 // Bzier Magazine

GRID COMPOSITIONS

Since these grids had the same number of rows

and columns all with the same length, I found that
I wanted to create something different each time.
The first composition was more constrained, and as I
begun the next one I was concentrating on more of a
sense of rhythm and more interesting compositions.

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ORDER AND CHAOS COMPOSITIONS

Order brings a sense of hierarchy to a composition. Remembering how

an eye travels across a page, my composition has a sense of order not
only in the text size, but the order it is displayed on the page.

With this composition, chaos felt like trying to find your way around the
page and not knowing where the beginning and end was, so I tried to
display that through angled text lines and overlapping of elements.

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HAND LETTERING EXERCISES

Speed hand lettering using
various markers.
This exercise allowed me to
appreciate the easiness in creating
personalised lettering. By reiterating
an action quickly, some beautiful or
interesting elements can be formed
to create refined letterforms or text
with more personality.

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MARK MAKING EXERCISES

This exercise informed me on a

different way of image making.
I thoroughly enjoyed this
because I think I could use this
as an interesting way to create
something with textures and not
only just making letters.

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MASTHEADS

Bzier a French word used to define the

mathematical curves that are created using
computer graphics.
I was at first inclined to use French typefaces,
but then moved towards the idea of Bzier
being a mathematical word and focused on
geometrical typefaces.

Also looked at letterforms, which had curves

in them to justify the name.
First, I looked at existing fonts to begin a
brainstorm of ideas. Noted special elements
within letterforms, uppercase and lowercase.
Experimented with negative space,
exaggeration of features and shapes within
letterforms to create ideas in forming the
final masthead.

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MASTHEADS
Some examples of ink and brush
lettering: as another quick and
reiterative method to create more
masthead ideas.

Sketching out the letters from the typeface Futura,

I concentrated on the two es in the word and the
angle of the accent. I liked how the slightly angled e
worked since it was a circular form.
I wanted to create something that suited the naming
choice of the word, and the way it was pronounced.
The acute accent of the travels within the word,
and I wanted to display that ironically with a bzier
curve within the masthead.

Tried for my own generated

geometrical masthead. This was one
idea I chose to refine for my final three.

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3 MASTHEAD EXAMPLES

I really liked the look of this mastheadthe texture of the ink, and the contrast
of stroke weights. As much as it was
aesthetically appealing, I did not think
it reflected the idea behind the name
as well enough.

Picking something simple, I looked at

some geometrical typefaces and used
Futura to reflect the magazine name.
I felt as if this was too simplistic and
didnt have a notable feature to make
it stand out.

Even though unrefined, I saw potential

in this masthead and so did my tutor.
I decided to pick this masthead as my
final and further refine it.

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3 COVER EXAMPLES

W H I T E

Designing Design
Kenya Hara

S P A C E

E L L E N
L U P T O N

D E S I G N I N G
D

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A collage of watercolour paintings as a literal

representation of a quote from Designing Design:
bringing novel fruits to a table full of curious
diners. I think this cover displays more of a soft
and subtle design appeal, and that was not what
I wanted to reflect for the magazine design.

Inspired by the quote making whats fresh today

look old tomorrow, I took a photo of bananas
I had painted and edited it onto Photoshop in
reflection of the essay. The imagery for this
cover was found to be the strongest of the
three, discussed in class.

K E N Y A
H A R A

After reading Luptons White Space, I decided

to acknowledge the idea of simplicity and
uncluttered layouts. I wanted to try a typographic
layout as I had never done it before, and this
cover was something to consider for my final.

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REFINEMENT

For me, printing things out in actual

size and seeing how things are laid
out on a page is important, because
seeing it on screen is different to the
printed version. I printed out many test
prints and critically analysed them,
looking at the position of elements
on the page and the amount of white
space around it.

From tutorial time and own time, I

printed out spreads and critically
anaylysed them and wrote areas I
had to fix over the top.

The interim masthead being quite unrefined, I

continued to work on the position of each letter. The
slight angle of letterforms put me off in refinement,
with the z being an uncomfortable letter to tilt. In
the end I decided to create all letters normal (upright)
with the es slightly tilted to give the masthead a
more playful personality, along with the curved
accent connecting to the tittle.

At first, I had wanted to overlay bright

text over the image, but everything
just clashed together really badly
and it wasnt working as a whole. As
much as each thing worked great
on its own, I scrapped the idea of
large teaser text and thought about
layering over the contents of the page
differently, in terms of materials. I
opted for a transparent overlay with
teasers and glitch textures as an
interactive element.

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RATIONALE

For my final masthead, I chose to do

my own vectorised masthead, derived
from my own hand generated drawing.
Bzier is a French word used to define
the mathematical curves created using
computer graphics, which is used
by designers. So, the name of the
magazine devles into many underlying
meanings to it, so I was fixated on
the different little ways my masthead
could be read as. Taking the definition
of mathematical curves, I was
inspired to create my own geometrical
masthead, focusing on possible, but
curves that could be unified to create
a distinctive masthead.
To create my final cover, I had created
many different versions using the
same image. I wanted to do something
different to my usual approach to
design, and try a minimalist design
approach. I did stray from this idea,
but felt like these steps were important
to create my final cover. The idea of

the cover was at first influenced by

Designing Design but then was
also influenced by ideas from White
Space. The image of bananas which
is partially painted over using yellow
paint was inspired by the quotes:
bringing novel fruits to a table full of
curious diners and making whats
fresh today look old tomorrow from
Designing Design. In addition, I added
a glitch effect over the imagery to give
connotations to the technology subject
of the article. White Space was also
put into consideration; I enjoyed the
idea of negative space as something
to utlise in my cover layout, so I wanted
to create a layering of the two articles
together, using transparency paper.
Overall it may look like a simplistic
design, but there are layers to it that
gives the cover more depth. I think
this is the cover I wanted to achieve to
create interest into a design audience
interested in intellectual texts and
meaningful images.

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