Category Archives: Computer Graphic Design

Computer Graphic Design Assignments and Information

Computer Graphic Design

Type Week: Making Your Own Typeface With Calligraphr

Objective:

I can use online tools and my understanding of typographic principles to produce my own typeface.

Web Links:
Calligraphr.com

Topics Discussed:

  • Typography
  • Font

Assignment:

Today we are going to wrap up our exploration of Typography through its ultimate expression: Making our own Typeface!

Type can be created through many methods, including carving individual letters out of steel blocks, printing letters on clear plastic strips to stick down on pages, or our preferred method: through digital design, using applications specifically built for this purpose. Today, we are going to explore one of those applications, one that is purpose-built to make creating typefaces easy enough that anyone can do it!

To begin, visit the Calligraphr.com website. You will need to create your own login to proceed – It is recommended that use your haydenmagnet.org email address.

  1. Create a template and print it out. (A pre-built template will be provided in class, but you are welcome to build your own custom templates!)
  2. Fill out the template. You can do this in many different ways:
    • You can simply write the appropriate letter in the box with your favorite pencil, pen or marker
    • You can draw the letters on a seperate piece of paper, then cut them out and paste them in the provided spaces.
    • You can cut out letters from other documents and paste them on the template in the provided spaces to create an eclectic “ransom note” style font!
  3. When you have all the spaces filled, use a scanner, digital camera or a smartphone to take a screen capture of your filled-out template.
  4. On the fonts page, choose the Upload Template option and upload your image file.
  5. Click on Build Font and watch the magic happen!
  6. You now have a custom font that you can install and use for any of your design projects!

Assigned: March 3rd, 2025
Teacher Pacing Due Date: March 4th, 2025

Computer Graphic Design

Illustrator Type Week: Expressive Text

Objective:

I can use the Appearance and Graphic Styles panels in Illustrator to produce expressive text.

Web Links:

Adobe Illustrator CC: Graphic Styles
Adobe Illustrator CC: Appearance Attributes
Adobe Fonts: https://fonts.adobe.com/
DaFont.com – Download Free Fonts: https://www.dafont.com/

Topics Discussed:

Typography
Appearance Panel
Graphic Styles Panel
Expressive Text

Assignment:

Visit the Adobe tutorial links. Follow the instructions to learn how to use the Appearance Panel, and how to save object appearances as Graphic Styles.

Back in the early Twentieth century, there was a group of designers called The Modernists, and they developed a movement called Modernism. The Modernists believed that text should not be expressive, and meaning should only be derived from the word itself (i.e. the word “dog” should not look like a “dog”).

However, young designers who grew up during the time of Modernism asked the question: Why can’t the word “dog” look like a dog?

wwdog

Text that visually looks like the thing it is describing is called Expressive Text, and Illustrator has special tools that make the production of Expressive Text extremely easy and effective. Today we are going to explore the use of these tools to produce some expressive text of our own.

  1. Check out the Adobe Fonts and DaFont.com links. We will discuss in class how these sites make it easy to download and install new and useful typefaces for use in your designs.
  2. Watch the in-class demonstration, or visit the links above to learn how to use the Appearance Panel, how to save object appearances as Graphic Styles, and how to access the pre-set Graphic Styles libraries.
  3. Open your Text Week document in Illustrator and go to the fourth (lower right) artboard.
  4. Use the pre-set Graphic Styles libraries and the Type Tool to create five words that look like what is being described. For example:

Try to use different words and graphic styles than the ones in the example. When you have all five words and all of the previous assignments, save your document.

Make sure that you have all four Artboards completed, and turn it in to today’s Assignment Post in our Google Classroom to complete the Typography Week activities.

Assigned: February 27th, 2025
Teacher Pacing Due Date: February 28th, 2025