Before I came here, I had spent a cumulative 2 years in a graphic design class, 2 half-year courses and a full year course, so I have a moderate amount of knowledge on typography. Some of the projects we had to do involved: Fake magazine covers, Actual magazine Covers, Ad competitions, and the PA Media and Design Competition (MADCOM). I got excited when I saw that we were using Illustrator because for a moment, I was back in that room with my friends, cracking jokes. Needless to say, I have worked extensively with most of the main parts of Adobe: Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, and was ecstatic that we got it for free because of our student accounts.
When it comes to the activity, it can effectively be divided into two parts: the Physical and digital portions. Focusing on the Physical portion first, the gathering of the separate metal types was less confusing, more tedious than I thought it would be, with having to look much more carefully at what the letter was, and it appearing backwards didn’t help at all. Joining the letters together was more annoying than it should’ve been, which I have just realised that I could have set them up on the counter surface and taped them there. The biggest problem, however, was getting the ink to stamp correctly, combining the botched job of attaching the blocks together and the uneven pressure from pressing them down, which led to the ink not transferring correctly and the print coming out faint.
The Digital Portion was much more exciting to me due to the aforementioned time in Graphic Design. Time was the primary Limiting factor, which caused me to actually have to stay for a bit after everyone left. There was also a significant decrease in the variety of fonts in the program than I was used to.
I had previously only been exposed to the digital form of typography on Adobe, looking through different fonts to find what matched the mood and formatting on the screen next to graphics. But physically taking the metal bricks, joining them together, and struggling through trying to get the ink to print out correctly was an experience. Not one that I would want to revisit anytime in the near or far future, but certainly an experience, nonetheless. I can’t say that the Groups had a significant impact on my experience, with most of the time speaking to other people, I was either trying to explain how to use the measuring tools or sifting through the box of print.