Typography - Practical Tasks: Exercises

20/4/2026 - 24/5/2026 / (Week 1 - Week 5)
Jaden Lim Zi Yi / 0379047
Typography / BDCM / Taylor's University
Task 1
LECTURES

Week 1
Lecture 0 give a brief introduction to the module and typography as the arrangement and design of text for expression. We will learn through feedback and refinement while understanding its history and applications. Lecture 1 explains how typography developed over 500 years, showing how different tools and cultures shaped how letterforms and how studying its evolution helps designers improve. 

Week 2
Lecture 2 explains the basics of text formatting such as kerning, letter spacing, alignment and readability in typography. It also introduced Adobe InDesign and showed how these formatting tools help make text more readable and visually balanced in design.

Week 3
Lecture 3 focuses on managing and formatting large amounts of text in typography. It explains concepts such as paragraph spacing, leading, typographic hierarchy, cross alignment, and avoiding widows and orphans, while showing how proper spacing and layout helps improve readability and create cleaner designs

Week 4
Lecture 4 introduces the basics of typography anatomy and typeface classification. It explains different parts of letterforms such as baseline, x-height, ascenders, and descenders, while also teaching the differences between typefaces, fonts, and text styles like bold, italic and small caps. The lecture also shows how understanding these typography basics help designers create clearer and more effective designs

Week 5
Lecture 5 explains the subtle details behind typeface design and how small differences in strokes, curves, spacing, and counter forms affect readability and the personality of a typeface. It also discusses optical balance, contrast in typography, and how designers study existing typefaces to create clearer and more consistent letterforms

INSTRUCTION


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Task 1: Exercise 1- Type Expression
The goal is to create type expressions for 4 out of 6 given words and create clear type expressions by sketching and warping the text to visually express each word's meaning. I chose the words free, bloom, smile and hope, and completed my rough sketches digitally using IbisPaint.


Figure 1. 80 Initial Sketches of my Type Expressions
Figure 2. 24 More Sketches of my Type Expressions after feedback 

Final Type Expression
Digitalizing the 4 chosen words in Adobe Illustrator


Fig 3 Final Type Expressions JPEG


Fig 4 Final Type Expression PDF
Word Animation

Fig 5 Word Animation for 'bloom'


Fig 6 Final word animation for 'Free' after feedback

Task 1: Exercise 2- Formatting Text
The goal is to learn basics of InDesign and text formatting by watching videos from lecturer and applying the principles in your own work


Fig 7 Kerning & Tracking exercise


Fig 8 Font Size, Line-Length, Leading & Paragraph Spacing


Fig 9 Alignment, Paragraph Spacing, Text Fields & Ragging


Fig 10 Cross Alignment & Baseline Grid


Fig 11 First 3 Layout Attempts on Ex.2


Fig 12 Final 3 attempts after feedback 


Fig 13 Final Text Formatting (without grids) JPEG


Fig 14 Final Text Formatting (with grids) JPEG


Fig 15 Final Text Formatting (without grids) PDF



Fig 16 Final Text Formatting (with grids) PDF

HEAD
- Font/s: Janson Text LT Std 75 Bold & Janson Text LT Std 56 Italic
- Type Size/s: 52pt
- Leading: 50pt
- Paragraph spacing: 50pt

BODY
- Font/s: Janson Text LT Std 55 Roman
- Type Size/s: 9pt
- Leading: 12pt
- Paragraph spacing: 12pt
- Characters per-line: 58
- Alignment: Justify with last line aligned left

 Page Margins
- top: 3cm + left: 1.27cm + right: 1.27cm + bottom: 3cm
- Columns: 4
- Gutter: 0.5

FEEDBACK

Week 1
General Feedback
Lecturer explained the module rules and guided us through the instructions, they told us to set up our e-portfolio and prepare 80 sketches for next week.

Specific Feedback
Lecturer showed me how to download the 10 fonts and clarified that the sketches can be done on any medium for now.

Week 2
General Feedback
Lecturer told us to have our 80 sketches for our 4 of 6 chosen words checked and approved before we can proceed.

Specific Feedback
Lecturer explained that my original sketches were not expressing the chosen words sufficiently. After making more sketches with that in mind, I had my sketches approved but was also told I can still do better.

Week 3
General Feedback
Lecturer told us to digitalize our approved sketches and start the word animation once we are done

Specific Feedback
Lecturer approved of the first word i digitalize so I could comfortably proceed with the rest of the words

Week 4
General Feedback
Lecturer told us to finish our animation and start text formatting once we are done

Specific Feedback
Lecturer rejected my 'bloom' animation as it didn't really look like it was blooming so I made a new animation for 'Free' which was approved

Week 5
General Feedback
Lecturer told us to have our text formatting approved and completed by end of class

Specific Feedback
Lecturer rejected my initial layouts due to orphans in certain paragraphs and the overall layout lacked flow and didn't feel holistic enough, and that it was important to enlarge and emphasize important words like 'Transform' in the title 'Transform The World'.

REFLECTIONS

Experience
I started the module by setting up my e-portfolio and generating 80 sketches to interpret my chosen words. It was challenging to produce that volume of work right away, but I managed to get the sketches approved after pushing the concepts further. The process then moved into digitalizing those ideas and working on word animations, which brought a new set of technical hurdles. The final week was spent on text formatting, where I worked on refining the layouts and adjusting the hierarchy of the text. Overall the main difficulty was having initial sketches approved.

Observations
I noticed that my early concepts didn't communicate the words clearly enough, which required me to rethink my approach before my lecturer approved them. While creating creative sketches was tough, the animation stage was even tougher; my "bloom" animation was rejected because it didn't look right, so I had to pivot and create a new one for the word "Free." In the final layout stage, the feedback showed that my formatting lacked a cohesive flow, contained paragraph orphans, and failed to emphasize key title words like "Transform." Despite everything, I was able to improve after feedback consistently.

Findings
I learned that the design process requires a lot of back-and-forth iteration, and first drafts usually need significant refinement to work. When an animation concept fails visually, it is better to adapt and change direction rather than trying to fix a flawed idea. Ultimately, clean layout design depends on handling small typographic details, which means actively fixing issues like orphans and using clear size contrast to make important text stand out. The key takeaway would be to consistently refine ideas and be open for change.

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