Typography inspiration
Typography refers to the arrangement of text and appears in all instances of written communication. Typography can be used for optimum readability, impact or an artistic statement. Typography designers say, without typography, graphic design is merely art.
Graphic typography
Graphic design is based on a structural system. Structural systems can be divided into eight main variations with an endless variety of compositions within each. Once the visual organization is fully understood you can easily organize words or images in this structure and create variation of these systems. Typography is complex in that the elements are each dependant on the order of communication. Additionally areas such as hierarchy, order of reading and contrast effect the final design.
Typography arrangements are what architects call shape grammar, shape grammars, styles are identified through rule based compositional systems. The eight typographic systems are similar in that they all have a set of rules that provide a focus for decision making. The finished design is a visual language based on shape grammar.
Although awkward to begin with, designing seems strange as these systems are rarely seen in print or in web design but after time the creative power of the eight typographic systems shown on this web-site are soon realized.
Typography and text
In traditional typography, text is composed to create a clear, logical, and visually pleasing typographic design that works invisibly without the awareness of the reader. An even distribution with minimum distractions and anomalies are aimed at producing clearness. Choice of fonts is the main aspect of text typography. Editorial, educational and commercial writing all have differing characteristics and requirements.
Contemporary books are more likely to be set with state of the art serif text, roman or book roman with design values of present day design. Newspapers and magazines rely on compact, tightly fitted text roman fonts specially designed for the task, which offer maximum flexibility, readability and efficient use of page space.
Sans serif text fonts are often used for introductory paragraphs, incidental text and whole short articles. A current fashion is to pair sans serif type for headings with a high performance serif font of matching style for the text of an article.
The text layout, tone or colour of set matter and the interplay of text with white space of the page and other graphic elements combine to create a resonance to the subject matter. With printed media typographers are also concerned with binding margins, paper selection and printing methods.
Typography is modulated by Orthography and linguistics, word structures, word frequencies, morphology, phonetic constructs and linguistic syntax.
Readability and legibility
Readability and legibility are often confused. Readability is most often and more properly used to describe the ease with which written language is read and understood, it concerns the difficulty of the language itself, not its appearance. Factors that affect readability include sentence and word length, and the frequency of uncommon words.
In contrast, legibility describes how easily or comfortably a typeset text can be read. It is not connected with content or language, but rather with the size and appearance of the displayed text.
Studies of legibility have examined a wide range of factors including type size, type design. For example, comparing serif to sans serif type, italic type to roman type, line length, line spacing, colour contrast, the design of right hand edge, for example, justification, straight right hand edge to ranged left, and whether hyphenated. Legibility research was published from the late nineteenth century on, but the overall finding has been that the reading process is remarkably robust, and that significant differences are hard to find. So comparative studies of serif to sans serif type, or justified to unjustified type, have failed to settle the argument over which is best. Serifs are the small cross strokes at the end of letters in fonts such as Times sans serif fonts, such as Arial, lack these cross strokes. Unfortunately, the fashion for legibility research was over by the time that revolutionary changes in printing and display technology, laser printing and PC display screens made it actually of potential interest.
Legibility is usually measured through speed of reading, with comprehension scores used to check for effectiveness, not a rushed or careless read. For example, Miles Tinker, who published numerous studies from the 1930s to the 1960s, used a speed of reading test that required participants to spot incongruous words as an effectiveness filter.
These days, legibility research tends to be limited to critical issues, or the testing of specific design solutions for example, when new typefaces are developed. Examples of critical issues include typefaces for people with visual impairment, and typefaces for highway signs, or for other conditions where legibility may make a key difference.
Legibility is also compromised by letter spacing, word spacing and leading that are too tight or too loose. Generous vertical space separates lines of text, making it easier for the eye to distinguish one line from the next or previous line. Poorly designed fonts and those that are too tightly or loosely fitted can also result in poor legibility.
Typography is an element of all typeface material. Periodical publications, especially newspapers and magazines use typographical elements to achieve an attractive, distinctive appearance, to aid readers in navigating the publication and in some cases for dramatic effect. By formulating a style guide a periodical standardizes on a relatively small collection of typefaces, each used for specific elements within the publication, and makes consistent use of type sizes, italic, boldface, large and small capital letters, colours, and other typographic features. On the front page of newspapers and magazine covers, headlines are often set in larger display typefaces to attract attention, and are placed near the masthead.
Display typography
Display typography is a potent element in graphic design, where there is less concern for readability and more potential for using type in an artistic manner. Type is combined with negative space, graphic elements and pictures, forming relationships and dialog between words and images.
Colour and size of type elements are much more prevalent than in text typography. Most display typography exploits type at larger sizes, where the details of letter design are magnified. Colour is used for its emotional effect in conveying the tone and nature of subject matter.
Advertising typography
Typography has long been a vital part of promotional material and advertising. Designers often use typography to set a theme and mood in an advertisement, for example using bold, large text to convey a particular message to the reader. Type is often used to draw attention to a particular advertisement, combined with efficient use of colour, shapes and images.
Typography in advertising often reflects a company's brand. Fonts used in advertisements convey different messages to the reader, classical fonts are for a strong personality, while more modern fonts are for a cleaner, neutral look. Bold fonts are used for making statements and attracting attention.
The history of inscriptional lettering is intimately tied to the history of writing, the evolution of letterforms, and the craft of the hand. The widespread use of the computer and various etching and sandblasting techniques today has made the hand carved monument a rarity, and the number of letter carvers left dwindle.
For monumental lettering to be effective it must be considered carefully in its context. Proportions of letters need to be altered as their size and distance from the viewer increases. An expert typographer-letterer gains understanding of these nuances through much practice and observation of their craft. Letters drawn by hand and for a specific project have the possibility of being richly specific and profoundly beautiful in the hand of a master. Each can also take up to an hour to carve, so it is no wonder that the automated sandblasting process has become the industry standard.
To create a sandblasted letter, a rubber mat is laser cut from a computer file and glued to the stone. The sand then bites a coarse groove or channel into the exposed surface. Unfortunately, many of the computer applications which create these files and interface with the laser cutter do not have many typefaces available, and often have inferior versions of typefaces that are available. What can now be done in minutes, however, lacks the striking architecture and geometry of the chisel-cut letter which allows light to play across its distinct interior planes.
Typographer designer solutions
Web designer or typographer you may have found yourself using only a grid system, explore the potential other systems offer. Typography examples on this site illustrate a range of design solutions for designing beyond the grid system.
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