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Hand-In: Rationale

I have chosen the typeface Matrix II for its neatly structured design as it relates back my heritage. This typeface has nordic and celtic qualities within it. This is displayed in the wedge serifs of the typeface along with the stroke of the letters. I generated ideas and drafts around my booklet to create a correlation of my background to my chosen typeface.

The color scheme intentionally focuses around green & colours of nature representing my upbringing. From a young age my mother was immersed in nature and the outdoors - similarly allowed me to become invested in it. My father contributed to this by taking me out camping and fishing. I was able to see the environment in a natural state, and enjoy local landscapes/scenery.

This layout has strong parallels to the origin of Celtic lettering. Unlike Polynesian or Old English, it uses a much less bold design. My Pepeha is shown well with just lettering alone in the typeface: Matrix II. This layout uses tall, skinny columns on the side while maintaining thick or bulkier columns in the centre. The slim bar runs along the top to align a seamless heading and title arangement.

This placement creates a simple and organized feel in the reader's eye. Matrix II is different from many other typefaces. Examples of this are shown with the lowercase letter g having a unique stroke on its tail, the lowercase letter x having wedge serifs on the end of every stroke pointing inwards, and the uppercase J that has a thicker wedge serif on the tail which goes below the baseline as well as many other examples of finer details that differentiate Matrix II from other typefaces.

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Project kinetic type update

I have updated my animation by adding in a credits roll, adjusted color levels to give the text more highlight, and adjusted the opacity of the text to bring more importance to it, over one copy I have put a shader over everything but the forge to see if it helps make the text look more important and draws eyes towards the text rather than the background, I have updates some assets to make them look more appealing and adjusted sound to fade out and fit better.

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Project update week 13

I have updated my animation by adjusting sound levels, adding a credits scene at the end, straightening and resizing the text while also adjusting the text color to give it more importance.

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Old animations - no longer used 2

My first animation attempt using after effects.

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Old animations - no longer used

Where I got with my old animation. Its scrapped now but this is where I got to before I went in a different direction.

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Project update week 12

I have changed direction on what I want my animation to be about and scrapped the naturalistic background in favor of an older Norse blacksmith scene. I couldn't see myself going anywhere with the nature scene and had no drive to progress it further. With the forge/blacksmith scene, I knew where I wanted to go from the start of it. I started by creating a background and some assets to include in my animation. Then came up with a simple animation using the forge as the focal point and having blacksmith billows ignite the forge to reveal words of my pepeha coming up out of the forge. I didn't create a storyboard for this and instead just went with the flow of my work as it was made. Lucky for me it didn't take long to create it because I am close to the deadline now. I used a Celtic-looking font called Dublin to enhance the Celtic feel of the animation and found some royalty-free sounds from youtube of blacksmith noises to include in my animation. I had trouble finding a specific sound that I wanted to include which was the sounds of metal being quenched, so I took matters into my own hands and used a gas stovetop to heat up metal utensils until they were red hot and quenched them in a pot of water while using my phone to record the sound. Unfortunately, my phone doesn't record and save in MP4 so Tumblr won't accept the file type.

Links to the sounds i am using from other people:

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Background update week 10

I have begun to add more detail into the background of my animation. Unsure of exactly what I'm going to be animating for the kinetic type or how I'm going to incorporate typography into the animation yet.

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Informational video

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Storyboard iteration and work progression week 9

Above is a rough quick storyboard for a similar idea I had about the animation. I have elements that help make the flow of the animation more natural like the clouds opening and closing. For my animation I want to really nail sounds so the viewer can feel as immersed as possible. My animation resembles a credit roll scene which wasn't intentional but can help me form a strong animation by following similar aspects of it. I would like the landscape to look alive and not stagnant, so I will accomplish this by making trees and things move from the wind. This will help make it look more like a moving image rather than a painting.

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Sound ideas week 9

Looking into royalty free Viking music to add into my animation for a more immersive feel. Music will be a huge addition to my project, it will be crucial if I want to give a Celtic Viking feeling theme to my project.

Below are some royalty free Viking music I have found that I will consider putting into the animation.

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Project 2 research and Ideation week 8

For our second project of this semester we are creating a kinetic type animation. We are taking inspiration from our Pepeha, our animation has to relate to us and what makes us who we are. Being a man with Celtic blood I am deciding to follow the Celtic themes that I have worked with in project 1 and have begun creating ideas on how to display type using animation with a Celtic theme.

My first thought process was to incorporate the basic Celtic knot into the animation using swirling ribbons that will sort of fly around before coming together to form the knot. I could use sound effect like the gritty sound of shoelaces tying together to help with immersion. Above are initial design keyframes for the swirling Celtic knot. You can see from the keyframes how I wanted it to be shown. I like this idea because it shows how the binding of the Celtic knot with the whole binding of the ribbons. I don't think this design has enough play with text/type so I will need to somehow better include that going forward.

I like the idea of using Irish scenery or landscape as it relates directly back to me. It looks quite open, calm, free. All words I would use to describe myself. I found an imagine that I used as a staring point to illustrate up my own background. I want all work that I use to be of my own design, and I don't like using photography much because it doesn't align with my style for work.

Above is some starter designs at an Irish landscape background. A work in progress but with some time I know I'm going to like what is produces. I will make some assets for small little trees that I can copy and drop into places along the perimeter of the paddocks.

I have found a link to a website that helps show Gaelic type and can use it to display perhaps my Pepeha but in Gaelic. I have also downloaded the typeface "Dublin" because it very closely resembles Gaelic type with its typeface. Examples of the Dublin typeface below.

With my animatic, I was thinking of using a rolling credit style of animatic. With my Pepeha rolling down the screen using the Dublin typeface and the illustrated background. At this stage the thought of that is very simple and I want something with a little more.. animation.

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Final booklet

Here are my finished Type specimen booklet pages. I have to admit that I am a big fan of the color scheme and am happy with all pages except 1. The Celtic Culture page was rushed and posted before it received enough iteration to deem that the middle Celtic knot pattern isn't correct. I think if I were given more time to iterate I would apply heavier opacity to it and make it look similar to the Celtic knot patterns on the Pepeha page before it.

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Progress update

An update to the progress I have made on my typeface booklet. I am very close to finishing now, but still constantly messing with my contents page because it never looks quite right to me.

I have completed a double page spread that shows the anatomy of my typeface including 32 pieces of anatomy examples. I have illustrated and implemented Celtic knot drawings into my booklet. I have iterated and changed the placement of text, color, illustration and fonts many times now. All that is left to do is create a Mp4. file explaining a bit about the booklet processes and print and bind the actual booklet itself.

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Contents page iteration

The original design for my contents page was dull and meaningless. I have updated my contents page to fit more towards my pepeha using Celtic imagery that I illustrated myself. Adding this icon with a low opacity helped add new design aspects to the page, it helped add life to the page and linked my pepeha to it all at once. Old design on the left, new design on the right.

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Title iteration and adjusted final title page

I have adjusted my title page once again to more suit my color theme and have more focus on the name of the typeface along with adjustment of the blank space. I prefer this than my last title iteration because it draws more attention to the name of the typeface and keeps the title clean and simple.

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Celtic text and Gaelic

Gaelic is the name of a group of languages that was used primarily by Scotsman and Irishman as their means of vocal communication. In 1571 a Gaelic typeface was designed for Queen Elisabeth the First as a way to help convert the Irish catholic population.

Gaelic type was widely used throughout the 16-18th century and then again a little through the 20th century, but died down in popularity shortly after. I see type resemblances with Matrix II and Gaelic type, most apparent in the serifs of the letters.

Obviously Matrix II is modernized and digitized so there are notable differences, however, lots of similarity in the two type remain. Just looking at the "c" of Gaelic type and "c" of Matrix II you can see similarities with the tittle and finial, one of the many similarities in the two typefaces.

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Title iteration and play

I have been going through the iterative design process of illustrating and designing a title page for my type specimen booklet. My designs below are the motions I have gone through to get to my final outcome for my title page. All designs follow the layout I have been sticking too and color pallet I have chosen.

My iteration process started out using the digital rain code as the main design focal point, but that then changed when I decided to introduce more of my own background into my booklet front page.

I still wanted to keep the digital rain in my title page but I didn't like the look of them fighting for illustrative hierarchy, so I merged the two images by keeping the rain limited to just inside the Celtic knot design. The Celtic knot is there as the center piece because of the resemblance that Matrix II has to ancient Celtic writing and/or text.

This is my final outcome for the title page of my typeface specimen booklet. I added the designer of the typeface into the title page because she needs recognition for her work.