The secret to succeed as a graphic designer and to learn graphic design on the web is to know the right typography. Why? That’s because typography and selecting the right fonts is the key to success of a graphic designer’s career. His or her career is highly dependent on choosing the right fonts in his/her graphic work such as ad design, logo design and more.
The very idea that we need hundreds of fonts on our own computer is the first initial mistake that most designers make. That’s because it is really confusing to get the appropriate fonts when you already have that many. The best advice is not to make use of the free fonts, the ones you have on the computer or the ones which you find on the web. The significance of typography is quite high and each instructor must teach his or her students what is good and what a bad font is.
Typography and calligraphy both are closely related with aesthetics. They are really the combination of aesthetics, common sense, and knowledge. And, this is why various fonts have several different usages. For examples, you won’t use the gothic font to write a news story or a business e-mail. Similarly, Arial doesn’t seem to be a proper font to write comic story. So essentially, each font has got its own unique importance in writing. However, due to overuse and abuse of fonts many fonts got defamed.
A lot of things have been the subject of design acclaim and accolades over the years, and right at the front of the queue are designers and artists, swiftly followed by magazines. Yet in fact, there is a lot more to typography and design than just these few select groups. If you know where to look, there are some absolutely astounding typefaces and designs out there – often right in your face no further than the end of your road.
As my good friend Malcolm from SEO company Surrey reminded me last week – this ones for you, Mal! – Circus posters are definitely worthy of a shout out. When I was growing up I would marvel at their old-school design and bright typefaces which seemed really different to anything out there. I was always wary of looking at the font too closely, though, as I worried I might see a clown in it! Not a good thing when you hate clowns as much as you love fonts.
Many of the early ones were painted completely by hand, by a skilled artist…
Anyway, the other really cool thing about the circus posters was the theme of them. They’d always be a similar theme, and they would never change so much you didn’t recognise them, yet each poster was subtly different. I have a small collection of these posters at home, my favourite one being the one with the massive elephant going back on its enormous hind legs!
And, whether you believe me or not, these Circus posters have proved catchy and influential with an all manner of other industries. For some reason yellow was always a popular colour for font, while red was often used as a background colour to really give it some punch.
Another brilliant face of Circus posters is their hand-made quality. Many of the early ones were painted completely by hand, by a skilled artist, and some of the Circus’s still follow this ethic now, making the work worthy of collecting. At least, if you ask me! Some of these posters show more skill than dozens of modern-day movie posters…that much is for sure.
Another weird thing about these posters is that over the years they have actually been copied by big financial companies looking to create a fun new advertising campaign. Strange as it is, these images are everywhere if you look closely enough, bringing style from other countries to the UK in a way which I am very glad of.
Ever wondered why the calligraphers of old were considered unique artists and were held in considerable esteem? Thing is, we often give a lot of importance to the matter but seldom spend time on the presentation. And presentation is what really matters. I mean you could have great substance with you, but if presented in a way that does not garner attention, the effort is wasted, right?
The font, the typeface, the size: all matter more than we realise. They More
The majority of the time, we do not think about the way words are presented to us. Recognition of the letters and words comes first; the way they are presented comes second. Yet our first glance at the words hides a reaction that is subconscious. With most of our reading now conducted in electronic format, the way text is presented is causing us to be much more stringent about what we read and what we don’t.
Web designers are realising this and the good ones are ensuring that the text visitors first see is welcoming and friendly. Mobile phone companies in particular are realising how important typefaces are. When holidaying abroad or travelling in general, users want the text on their phone to be simple, efficient and easy to digest. Using the internet on your mobile overseas has become normal, but the last thing anyone wants to see is blocky, hard to read text. That is why a lot of Internet Service Providers and Mobile Phone groups have now loaded software on their handsets that allows users to choose the font and typeface that appears friendly to the individual.
The BBC published an in depth article last year about the unspoken importance of typeface. They even used their own website as an example of how minor changes can alter people’s perception of something. Experts have discovered that differences in typeface can physically affect us. When Avatar premiered a year and half ago, there were some complaints to cinema managers about the subtitles used in portions of the film. Some customers described them as ’unreadable'and others cited that the subtitles actually made them feel sick. Whether or not these effects were because of the film being in 3D is hard to say, but it does illustrate the significance of choosing your typeface carefully. The Avatar font was criticised by graphic designers as being ’ugly'and ’boring’. Yet it was chosen carefully to aid in the description of the Na’avi characters in the film.
Changing your font and typeface on the web is easier to do then in print so affords a designer a lot of leeway in experimentation. Trying to quantify the results of any changes with the audience is a lot easier then in print too as the online community are always ready to comment and blog their thoughts for everyone to read.
Typography is considered a niche speciality, which is unusual considering we rely on it every single day. The advance of the internet has begun to change all of that and typography looks set to influence our perceptions even more as the net continues to grow.
It breaks my heart when I see that people treat typography as a theoretical and useless science. In my opinion, this is the most important science in the world today. Why? From the screen of your iPod to your Facebook account, you are looking at type all the time. The choice of phone and the design utilized by online and offline services makes a huge difference on your decision.
Why is it that you are automatically attracted to certain types More
Any printed matter should draw the reader into the text, or at the very least, not put them off reading. There are different typos used for different kinds of printing. Printing can be on a poster, a book, on a web page etc. Each of these has its own parameters that need to be adhered to.
Typography is the art of arranging type and type design. In other words, it is the discipline of shaping written information. It should be More
Originally typography was just seen as a phase that is used while web designing to either glanced over or used depending on the time needed to complete a website. However these days typography has become the standard by which all visual graphics and texts on a website are displayed. The first thing that people notice when entering a website is its visual content. Later with the same type of insight of the visuals they begin to read the contents on More
Typography plays a significant role in brochure design and printing. Everybody wants to have a good combination of font styles in their brochures. Good combination of fonts will also make your colorful brochures look more appealing to the readers. Therefore, it is very important to decide a good set of fonts especially when you decide to print the brochures online. You should indulge in some mixing and matching and eliminate the combinations you don’t like through data scrubbing. Some More
If you are designing your own website or the layout of an online publication or even the e-newsletter for a packaging solutions company, then functionality, ease of use and aesthetics should be your primary concern. Your readers must also be able to skim through your content easily.
It is here that good typography plays an important role. For good typography, a person must have the necessary skill and creativity to make the type pleasing and attractive to the reader. You More
