Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about lettering and graphic design.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking, and exploring together in this lesson.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to create and understand impactful typographic letterforms. Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are typography, typeface, letter form, and serif.

I'm going to say those again, and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Typography.

Typeface.

Letter form.

Serif.

Great, now, let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Let's take a look at each of their definitions.

Typography is when we are arranging letters and text in a way that makes them readable and visually appealing.

Typeface is a set of letters that share a similar shape and design.

Letterform is the shape and design of a single letter.

Serif are the small lines or strokes added to the ends of letters.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that I'll be working through together in today's lesson.

The structure of letters and how to create impactful typographic letterforms. In the first learning cycle, we're going to take a look at the structure of letters.

How does the way letters are arranged on a book cover catch your attention and make you want to read it? Pause video here, and have a quick discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? How do those letters arranged on a book cover catch your attention? Well, typography is the art of arranging letters for readability and to make them visually appealing.

Typography plays a large role in advertising, branding, and graphic design to communicate messages and evoke emotions, often alongside pictures.

You can see these different magazine covers here with pictures and text.

Which one is capturing your attention? But even without pictures, different moods and themes can be conveyed through how the text is written, such as in documents, books, and magazines.

Wherever text is used, the size, weight, and style of each letter and word can influence the overall design.

Typography considers how all text is arranged in a design.

A typeface is where a group of letters share a similar shape and design.

And a letterform refers to the specific shape and design of a single letter.

So taking a look at each of those images there.

The typography is how all of the text is arranged in the design.

You can see that there in that image.

A typeface is where a group of letters share that similar design and shape.

And letterform are those specific shapes and designs of a single letter.

Now, by considering how individual letterforms are designed in their shape, spacing and proportions, we can make sure that different letterforms become similar.

You can see in this X, Y, and Z.

Can you see there the shape and the spacing that has been chosen, and also the proportion.

So the size of those letters.

And that's what makes them similar, that shape, space, and proportion.

These elements help to create a balanced typeface.

The proportions for letterforms are created using guidelines.

So we've got a baseline that's the line on which all standard letters sit.

And then we have the x-height, so the height of most lowercase letters.

We've got the cap height, the height of capital letters.

We've got the ascenders, the height of letters with an upward stem, for example, b, d, h, and I.

And we've got the descenders, the downward stem letter height.

So gs, p, q, y.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can we label the guidelines here? So we've got ascender, x-height, baseline, cap height, descender.

So pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about labelling these guidelines, and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look? So we've got the ascender, the x-height, the baseline, the cap height, and the descender.

Well done if you got those in the correct places.

Now, not all typefaces use the same proportions for their letterforms, and so the guidelines used might shift in relation to the baseline.

So let's take a look at these typefaces here.

What do you notice about the proportions and the guidelines? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, though, the baseline and size is the same for each typeface, the proportion and guidelines are different.

So some typefaces give more space for the x-height, the ascender, or descenders of letters, and others may give less.

Can you see in these examples where they've done that? Let's take a look.

So here we're on the same, then we have a bit of movement here.

And here.

And also here.

So they can, sometimes, give more space for the x-height that ascenders, descenders, and others may give less.

Just like these examples here.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

In typography, the baseline is.

the line on which all standard letters sit, the lowest line that no letter should extend beyond, the standard measurement of pen nib.

Pause the video here and take a moment to think about this question, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that it's the line on which all standard letters sit, you are absolutely right, well done.

Letterforms can be broken down into basic shapes.

The whole alphabet can be created by using circles, triangles, and straight lines.

So we've got triangles for letters like A and V, circles for letters like O, Q, and C, and straight lines for letters such as X, I, and T.

When sketching the basic shapes of each letter form, rulers can be used to keep everything aligned on the page and to measure the space between each letter.

What do you notice about the spacing on these two words? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and then press play when you are ready to continue.

What could you see? Well, hopefully, that you spotted, in the example on the left, the space between each letter is not quite similar.

It makes it quite hard to read, but on the right, the spacing is kept even, which creates balance.

Can you see down, the one in the left, you can see the A and the C.

They're quite close together, aren't they? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

When creating typographic letterforms, you should start by drawing the basic shapes first.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about whether that statement is true or false, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's true, you're absolutely right, well done.

But why is that statement true? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

Why when we are creating typographic letterforms, should you start by drawing the basic shapes first.

And press play when you are ready to continue.

How did your discussion go? If you said that breaking letterforms down into simpler component shapes, such as circles, triangles, and squares, makes it easier to maintain correct proportions and create a balanced typeface, you are absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to choose a selection of letters, maybe three to five to draw, and break down each letterform into basic shapes, sketch these shapes on your paper, and then complete the letter by filling in these shapes.

Now, focus on creating clear, legible letters with consistent proportions, and maybe use a ruler for straight edges and to measure even spaces between each letter.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Shall we take a look at an example? So hopefully, you were able to choose those letters and break them down into basic shapes, and sketch them on your paper and then fill those letters in.

If you have a look at this example, the letters are clear and easy to read, and a ruler was used to create straight edges and even spacing between each letter.

Well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to have a look now at creating impactful typographic letterforms. As well as using guidelines to match their proportions.

Other elements of letterforms can be considered and balanced.

So we've got a bar here, an open counter here, a stem.

Another counter, a loop, an ear, a terminal, a descender, a bowl, an ascender, serifs, and some more serifs here.

So that's lots of words there for us to consider, and we're gonna to take a look at what some of those mean.

We're gonna look at serifs.

A serif is a small line or stroke attached to the end of a letter.

The word "sans" comes from a Latin word meaning "without", and so sans-serif means without serif.

So you can see on the left here the sans-serif typeface.

And then on the right, the serif typeface.

Can you see on the right how we've got those small lines attached to the end of the letters? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which of the following examples are a sans-serif typeface? A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about that, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said B and C, you are absolutely right.

Remember, sans-serif, it means without serif, so there's no lines added on the end of the letters.

Serif and sans-serif typefaces are used in different forms of typography.

A serif typeface can make printed material like books and newspapers easier to read, as they help to guide the reader's eye along the line of text.

They can also look more professional and stylish.

A sans-serif typeface avoids using extra details or flicks for the letterforms. This makes them useful when there is less space for the text, such as on a small screen or flyer, and when a message needs to be conveyed quickly and directly, such as a street sign.

Here, you can see two versions of the same passage of text, one written in a serif typeface and the other in sans-serif.

Talk to your partner about how these two typefaces, serif and sans-serif are different.

Pause a video here and give yourself time for that discussion, and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did your discussion go? Well, Andeep said, "I found the sans-serif text easier to read, but the serif text looked like it could be written in a book." And Laura says, "The serif typeface looks more professional and stylish.

The sans-serif font didn't have as much character or flair." Did you think the same? Let's take a moment now to pause and check our understanding.

A, something, is a small line or stroke added to the end of letters.

Is the missing word sans-serif, serif, or form? Pause the video here.

Give yourself a moment to think about this question, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said a serif is a small line or stroke added to the end of the letters, you are absolutely right, well done.

While a sans-serif typeface maintains even thickness for all areas of letterforms, serif typefaces may alter between thick and thin strokes, but take a look here at that serif typeface on the left and then the sans-serif typeface.

Can you see how in the serif typeface it alters between thick and thin strokes? You can see it here in the H and the N.

And with this sans-serif typeface, the strokes have kept their even width.

Now, as well as using a typeface with serifs and altering the thickness of strokes, small decorative touches like curves, swirls, or other details can be added to give letterforms a distinctive look.

Let's take a look at these examples here added to the letters P, Q, and R.

Which one do you like the most? Different elements in an individual letter form can be hanged to add style and impact, but for a typeface to function, it is important to create consistency between letters.

Remember that considering the shape, spacing, and proportions of letters will help with this consistency.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

A sans-serif typeface varies between thick and thin strokes, has even width strokes throughout, is not used for professional writing.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner about how this sentence ends, and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said a sans-serif typeface has even width strokes throughout, you are absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to choose a favourite word or maybe use your name or a friend's name, and design a typographic letterform version of this word.

You can use paper with guidelines or a ruler to create your own on a blank sheet of paper.

Experiment with adding serifs, thick and thin lines, or small decorative elements like flourishes to the letters.

Pause a video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at that, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Shall we take a look at an example? Now, in this example, letterforms were drawn on paper with guidelines to create that consistent shape, spacing, and proportion, and a ruler was used to measure spaces between the letters.

Can you see how thick and thin lines, as well as decorative details have been added to create a balanced typographic word? So we've used the word letter form and can you see those little circular dots added to the end of some of those letters, The E, the R, the F.

Well done for having a go at creating your own typographic word.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about drawing typographic letterforms. Typographic letterforms can be designed and drawn by focusing on their shape, spacing, and proportions.

Breaking down letterforms into their basic shapes makes it easier to create balance and consistency across a typeface.

Serifs, decorative elements and flourishes can be used to alter the appearance of letterforms to make them more distinctive and stylish.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.