I finished all Part Four exercises in mid-July, and eagerly began this assignment hoping to finish before the end of the month. I then almost immediately entered an awful health flare that I’m still somewhat recovering from. I tried hard to continue working during this time, but ultimately this resulted in a rollercoaster of emotions, lowering my expectations, and grieving. I do not have long left with this unit, so I must finish the work as quickly as possible, and with my health causing such huge issues, I had to let go of the things I wanted to explore.
My health means I am very unlikely to ever work, even as a self-employed designer, part-time from home. I do this degree for myself, for fun, because I simply love the world of art and design and engaging with it gives me a sense of purpose. I found it very hard throughout this assignment to let go of the things that I loved for the sake of ‘getting it done’, as this felt counterproductive to the reason I wanted to study. I don’t want to just do it, I want to love it, and I want to be excited and fulfilled. It is hard to feel excited and fulfilled when you are so unwell.
I think I have discussed before in my learning logs that one of my biggest takeaways from this unit has been learning to set better boundaries with myself. Finding the limits I am willing to reach before moving on, and sticking to that, has helped me enormously throughout Part Four. I felt more confident and capable than ever before! However, as I was so excited about this assignment, I set basically zero boundaries. I now realise that was foolish, and led to a lot of frustration. I continuously went back and forth on what I would even do for my final piece, and maybe I would have found it less overwhelming had I set some limits for myself before beginning.
I have a very short amount of time to dedicate to Part Five, and I hope that this lesson helps me there. I can’t make my health behave, no matter how hard I try, and I have to work with it even on my worst days. All I can do is change the expectations I have of myself and of my work.
I don’t typically do introductions like this to my logs, as I prefer to talk about the feelings in a more natural way as they come up throughout the process. But I have avoided writing this log for weeks as I am so frustrated and hurting over how this Assignment played out. I wanted to be upfront with that, sharing that this has been tough, and writing this is hard. The intersection of creativity, academia, and disability, will always be a challenge.
Anyway, here’s moving on to my typical formal introduction and learning log! Thanks for sticking it out with me.
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Assignment 4 asked me to design the font for use on the cover of a magazine called ‘type’. I also had to write a short article for the magazine using a range of typefaces and typographical illustrations to showcase all I learned throughout Part Four. I was advised to research type foundries, create a mock-up of the magazine cover, and ensure the article was attractive and interesting to read.
I began this assignment by exploring the brief in my sketchbook. I identified key areas I wanted to research, and methods I wanted to use when designing my typeface. I also sketched out some ideas for the cover of the magazine, which I wanted to paint onto a canvas and then photograph. During this research process, I collected a wealth of examples of magazine covers and reflected on the typefaces, colours, images, and designs used across them.
I was extremely excited to create my own font, as discussed throughout Part Four. I wanted to create a variable serif font, used for both the cover as requested and for the body text in the article. The variations of the font would hopefully create visual interest between these two uses. I underwent a lot of research here, starting with the identifont website. This helped me get a sense of how I wanted each of my letters to look and feel, and identify the ‘voice’ of my typeface.
Next, I attempted to sketch out each letter in different styles but quickly became overwhelmed by how much there was to do. I moved to Procreate, where I sketched out a basic concept for each letter, including numbers and punctuation. I referenced the research I had undertaken previously in my sketchbook and used the Adobe Fonts website to explore existing portrayals of the letter I was working on. I felt really good about the concept behind my font and how it flowed at this stage, though it was very rough.
My next step was to take the procreate sketch files and turn them all into vectorised images ready for exporting as a typeface. As mentioned before in this unit, I don’t have much experience using vectors, and at this point, I was very unwell. I installed Adobe Illustrator and watched multiple tutorials on the basics of the pen tool and creating vectors. Each time I tried to engage with this, however, I would end up very unwell after only a short time. It was extremely difficult for me to learn how this tool and software worked whilst my brain was malfunctioning so greatly.
After days of attempting to make this work, I decided it wouldn’t be possible to make the whole font. I went back and forth on whether to design the front cover text and ultimately decided it wasn’t worth putting my brain through this. I felt extremely disappointed in myself and distressed by this decision and contemplated whether I could even continue with my degree in this state.
From here, I naturally struggled to find a direction for my work. I spent several weeks trying out different things when my health allowed and kept going in circles regarding what I would do for my final piece. I eventually decided to paint, as planned, as this was what I truly wanted to do for the front cover. I really wanted to showcase as many different fonts as possible in a celebration of typography. To do this, I selected the most ‘interesting’ letters with a lot of variables, such as a, g, and w.
Usually, I mix my paints based on what feels interesting in the moment, but for this piece, I decided to use Adobe Color to create a colour scheme for my painting. I then mixed the colours using acrylic paint as close as possible to those I selected. Then, I used an abstract technique to layer the colours on the canvas, creating visual interest and depth. This took a few days and several layers of paint, but I feel really happy with the overall finished look.
For the lettering, I chose typefaces at random that I felt represented the breadth of options out there, and put them all together in InDesign. I used a much bigger file than my canvas, intending to have the letters overflowing from the edges of the canvas. I then split the file into 9 A4 files and printed these to transfer to the canvas.
Once printed, I pieced the pages together, and then I laid them out on my canvas to mark the edges so I knew where to transfer. I then used a B2 pencil to blacken the reverse of the design. Next, I stuck down the paper so it was wrapped firmly around the canvas, and I used a biro to go over each of the letters, leaving a faint black outline on the canvas.
Originally, I had wanted to paint each letter by hand, as I have done so in the past, but with the constraints of my health (and time), I used POSCA markers to colour them. I think this looks fantastic and it does feel like a celebration of type.
I managed to arrange to use the local college’s photography space to photograph my canvas for the cover of the magazine. I made sure to take plenty of photos from different angles and perspectives. My aim was to have the images look like they were taken in an art gallery with the work hanging on the wall. I then edited the photos in Lightroom to enhance the colours and add some warmth to the pieces, as the white felt too stark for me.
My health necessitated that I have more time off from the project at this point, and when I came back I wanted to do something different as I was tired of thinking about the same issues and having no real progress. I looked at the topics needed for the article inside the magazine and sketched out some ideas for typographic illustrations that would go alongside them. I was quite excited by these ideas, though not well enough to explore them fully at this stage.
When I finally had a bit more energy, I decided to focus on getting the front cover finished. I used the PDF from If The Face Fits for this and selected typefaces that were similar to my goal when creating my own. This was difficult, as none of them felt ‘right’. I realised quickly this was because the only one that would match my vision would be the one I wanted to design myself. I laid them out on a Photoshop canvas to see which I favoured and chose Essonnes for the final design.
Alongside Essonnes, I used Franklin Gothic as a complementary font. I explored different possible layouts for the cover in my sketchbook, then again in InDesign, and mocked up two of them. I picked colours from the painting that I felt complemented the overall piece, and I referenced my previously gathered magazine research to ensure I had what was needed – such as a barcode, price, date, and information on what was inside. I then placed the images on magazine mockups to see how they’d look in the real world.
As usual, I sent my mockups to fellow students and friends, and the reception was very mixed. I think my favourite is the one without a border, but many people preferred the one with a border as it looked cleaner and easier to read. I do think the green shade looks harder to read in the magazine mockup than in the JPEG, and it would be worth exploring more options here. Despite how hard it was to reach this point, I feel good about how the magazine covers look. I am disappointed to not be using my own typeface, but trying to give myself grace knowing how much I was trying to do with so little energy and capacity.
Over the past few weeks, I have struggled to decide whether to design the article spread. I loved the exercises focused on this, and really enjoy mocking up a layout. However, I think due to the toll this has taken on me, and the need for me to complete Part Five in a short time, I need to move on. I got a lot of experience doing editorial work throughout Part Four, and I really hope I can use that in Assignment 5 to showcase how far I have come in this unit.
I have mixed emotions finishing Part Four. I truly loved the exercises, and I felt so excited about the work I was doing. I also feel a lot of disappointment and shame that I couldn’t produce the work I wanted to for the Assignment. I feel like I have let myself down, and like I don’t have anything to show for assessment now. Writing this learning log was really hard. I am usually comfortable being honest and open about my experiences, but this felt like admitting failure on a whole new level.
Looking ahead to the exercises in Part Five, I can see I have more opportunities to showcase the skills learned in Part Four, and I really hope I can do so in a more productive way. I also have decided to take an extended break when I finish this unit before I start the next, in the hopes doing this will give my body some space and time to recover.
Learning Log 