Typography Research and Next Steps

 Typography

As consumers, we are always digesting written words. Type is all around us, whether it's on your phone, book or on websites. Behind the scenes, a designer has taken the time to consider the relationship between the style of the text and what it says. Different moods, atmospheres and emotions can be expressed simply through the type choice.

What is typography?

Typography is the arranging of letters and text in a way that makes the copy legible, clear, and visually appealing to the reader. Typography involves font style, appearance, and structure, which manages to bring out certain emotions and convey specific messages. Its what brings the text to life. These days, typography is mostly associated with both the digital world and print. Typography is more visually diverse than ever before, with designers having plenty of fonts and type options at their disposal.

Why is it important?

Typography is a vital component of user interface design. Good use of typography will establish a strong visual hierarchy, provide graphic balance to the product, and set its overall tone. It should guide and inform the viewers, be easily accessible, and ensure are excellent user experience.

Typography builds brand recognition

Over time, people will start to associate the typeface featured on the product with your brand. This is why it's important to be unique and consistent in your typography because it helps establish a strong user following, which will carry the brand forward.

Typography influences decision making

Typography has a deep effect on the way consumers digest and perceives the information conveyed by the text. Eye-catching text is a lot more persuasive than weak boring fonts that don't reinforce the message and meaning of the text.

It holds the attention of the reader

Good typography could be the difference between someone looking at your product for one minute or half an hour. It is vital that's your product is visually interesting and memorable, and of course, typography plays a huge role in this.

The different elements of typography:

Fonts and typefaces

The difference between typefaces and fonts is that a typeface is a design style which contains a number of characters varying different sizes and weight. On the other hand, a fort is a graphical representation of text character.

There are three basic kinds of typeface: sans-serif, serif and decorative. It is advised to not use more than three fonts when designing because you dont want to clutter your product.

The importance of contrast

Contrast helps convey messages you want to highlight for your reader. It also makes your text interesting, meaningful and attention-grabbing. Designers create contrast by playing around with varying typefaces, colours, styles, and sizes to create impact and break up my product.

Consistency

keeping the typefaces consistent is crucial because you dont want to confuse your audience with a messy design. You should stick to one typeface, especially when conveying information so that your readers understand what they're reading.

White Space

Also known as 'negative space', white space is the space around your text or graphics. It tends to go unnoticed by the user because it's so common, but proper use of white space makes your product uncluttered and any text readable. This can also be used to draw attention to any text and can provide a visually pleasing experience.

Alignment

Alignment is the process of merging and composing text, graphics, and images to ensure there is equal space, size, and distances between each element. Most designers create margins to ensure that their logo, header, and body of text are aligned with each other.

Colour

Colour is where designers can get creative and upgrade their product to a new level. choosing the right colour can be difficult, if you get it wrong men you'll end up with a messy product and any elements mat clash with thee colours. Getting it right however can make your text and other elements stand out and represent the tone of your message.

Colour has three components: value, hue, and saturation. It's important to balance out these components to make your elements eye-catching and clear. A good way to test this is by viewing your product in greyscale and making any adjustments if anything is too dark or light against the background colour.

Hierarchy

Hierarchy is one of the most vital principles of typography. It is used to create a clear distinction between the important pieces of the product that should be noticed and read first. During this day and age, people have short attention spans because of social media. Designers are urged to be to the point and create typefaces that allow people to consume the information in a short amount of time. The most typical example of a typographical hierarchy is size. Headings are always larger than subheadings and standard text.

Conclusion

In conclusion, typography is often overlooked. but its the most important element of design. I need to think about the personality and how I want my audience to feel when they see it. I need to make sure that the typography reflects the personality of the brand/ product. I will start by gathering typefaces and experimenting with them on mockups. It is equally important to consider how the font represents the tone of the message. Im going to start by looking for other LGBTQ design products for inspiration, see if I can see any similarities and patterns.