Georgie-Ann Getton

For the hand writing project we had to select from Garamond, Baskerville, Bodini , Helvetica and Century Expanded and replicate the typeface with our name along with a descriptive word. This project was very difficult for me because I have never done anythig like this before. I had never used different shade pencils , drew on tracing paper or anything even close. Then also having to draw my name free hand brought on so much pressure because I had to just look at the text then try my best to replicate. It was very tempting to just trace my name none the less I stuck it out.

The typeface that I decided to use was Garamond. I just fell in love with this typeface the first time I saw it. The word that I got was Adorable. My text to replicate was “Georgie the adorable”. I spent hours trying to replicate the text and keep my sheet as clean as possible. The most difficult things about my text was the lower case “g” in my name. The “g” in Garamond is very specific. Also another thing that I struggled with was replicating the thick and thin relationship between the letter. I could visually see that the relationship was there but when I drew it , it ended up being thicker than it was supposed to be.

After the project was complete I knew that it needed to be a lot better but I was still very proud of my accomplishments and knew that this was just a step one. With future practice and more opportunities to create or replicate a pieces I know I will get better. I got to learn to appreciate letter contrasts and color contrasts when drawing text.

For the hand writing analysis we were directed to choose a font that we felt was relevant to the statement we had randomly chosen. With my phrase being “the dashing” I felt Garamond was most fitting. Garamond, the original typeface, is classic and, some would say dashing. It gives the feel of a classic style typeface while being presented in a more modern setting, along with my nickname “nikki f”.

This project helped me to understand the complexity of Garamond. With varying serifs and letter sizes I was able to better understand this old style text. The K’s were specifically difficult for me, with their unusual size and letting. I was confident with my project and hope to learn more about the five typefaces.

Steven Aguilar

In this assignment I got the word “Grandiose” which I found interesting. To work on this project I chose the font Helvetica because professor said it could be a challenge and he was right. One of the hardest letters to draw in Helvetica is the letter “S” because it’s so precise and you also have to be very careful in the movement of your hand while drawing the curves.

I learned from this assuagement that while working on the typefaces in my case Helvetica it’s very important to pay close attention to the details. For example the spaces between my first name differ with the spacing I used while drawing the word “grandiose” which affected the flow of the design. This are the kind of details that are very important to pay attention to so it doesn’t affect the design.

Melasha Barr

For this assignment, I drew the word “sturdy” out of the bag which was the complete opposite of how I am. I chose the typeface Garamond because I liked the rustic look of the letters. I underestimated the difficulty of this assignment however, and if I could choose another typeface, I would chose something like Bodoni or Helvetica since they’re a bit more simple. I struggled more with the uppercase letters more than the lowercase letters because they were bigger and had greater proportions, specifically the S, A, and the M.

I learned that a lot goes into making letters than we think. Struggling with the details of my typeface made me more aware of how different letters actually are even though they look the same. This assignment has definetely increased my appreciation for the “simpler” typefaces.

Michael Stevens

I chose to trace and sketch Bodoni. The typeface was designed to have a “stronger contrast between the thick and thins, unbracketed serifs, and strong vertical stress” (“Designing with Type 5” 44). Bodoni became known as a Modern typeface due to these particular features. I chose Bodoni because I thought the unbracketed serifs were unique and challenging to render. Also, despite having a low “readability” rank, I was attracted to the thick and thin relationship of the Bodoni faces. This project was not easy. I learned that sketching specific letters and even tracing is a difficult task. More so, I realized the importance of spacing between letters, words, and rows. As for drawing portion of this project, I learned the difference between a 2H, 2B, and 4B pencil and that erasing can sometimes cause more harm than good.

Kerry Chan

I used a Bodoni typeface. I chose Bodoni because I think the words are beautifully written thick and thin but I think I should have chose another typeface because there’s not much curves in my lettering. It’s too neat. I learned I should use a hard pencil which is the 2H pencil to trace before using the soft pencil to fill in the letters. There are also stresses on the “e” and “o” but I have only “e’s” in my words so it was less pronounced. I gave more spacing to my “y” and “v” on my words and some letters were higher than the x-axis margins. The margins have to be precise or the letters will have a slant in them. Also the curved letters like e and o is slightly below the line so I had to look out for that.

Santiago Vinasco

For the assignment I chose Bodoni. I thought it was beautiful, elegant, and modern. I love the straight line look mixed with the older, classic typefaces. It is also very neat since the vertical axis is straight down.

I found this exercise very satisfying. I do enjoy handwriting (I’m very proud of my script) and drawing. However, it was still challenging even though this assignment was up my alley. I tend to write in a tilted/slanted fashion so to get accustomed to straight horizontal and vertical lines was a bit difficult. Overall, I think I did a decent job. Could of been better, could of taken more time to carefully craft every right angle. I also smudged some of the letters with my eraser. I found it most difficult erasing the right pencil marks, forcing me to redraw some of the ones I liked. Definitely learned how to be more careful and observant of typefaces– something I have hardly taken the time to notice.

Xin Lin

The font I choose for this assignment is bodoni. The reason I choose it because I look easier to hand draw it. However, when I started my first name which is hand-drawing, I found it was pretty hard. Especially, the thin and thick relationship and letter spacing. I also noticed that every letter doesn’t have same size and spacing. The one gave a lot troubles are letter “Y” and “N”. When I drew N, it was much more narrow than the standard size, and I had struggled a while to get the right letter spacing for Y. Each letter has it’s own characteristics, and I need to exam it carefully before I start.

The most important thing I learn from this project is that things that look easy may not be that easy. I spent a about 4 hours to finish the whole assignment. I had to redo few times become the baseline wasn’t  horizontal or I didn’t pay attention to some minor errors. This gave me a lot of ideas about typographic. Learning the differences of fonts and drawing them by hand gave me more deep understanding of letter spacing, lettering and other elements. Those stuffs make huge difference between excellent design and bad design.

Alfred

For this assignment I chose Century as my typeface. When I saw it I though it might be a bit easy since it’s curvy. Yet when I started drawing I found out that was not the case.

For me the thing I had a bit of trouble with was the S’s and the lower case a. I never thought so much work went into doing a project like this. Spacing was also very important erasing made it a bit harder because it makes the paper messy.

Doing my name free hand was ok there was some letters I got quicker then others. Doing this project I learned a lot and in the end I think the typeface I picked does represent me.

Danisa Valdez

For this assignment I used the typeface Baskerville. I chose that typeface because, in my opinion, it was the most elegant looking one and I felt that it had the most personality. I predicted that it was the best typeface to express my name and word.

Based on this project I learned how to use my hands more meticulously and I also had my patience tested. The most difficult part for me in this assignment was the fact that I had to rely on visual instead of scientific or strict guidelines. I had to use my own opinion to determine if the spacing was even or looked well with the typeface. It made me uncomfortable to know that my project wasn’t based completely on strict instructions.

For the most part, I feel very content with the work I carefully created and with the typeface that I chose to represent my name and word.