“What do you imply by typography? What font is that? What’s a typeface?” – We repeatedly face questions from our purchasers on the distinction between fonts and kind, when to create one thing customized, and the way it applies to model improvement. Let’s clear some issues up:
- The time period “Typeface” refers back to the household of sort.
- The “Font” is the variant of the typeface inside that household.
Why is Typography necessary?
Typography is greater than selecting the most recent stylish “font.” Typography is vital in establishing a model’s total tone and really feel. Not solely will typography affect the consumer on how they really feel when viewing your model, however it’s going to inform and information them as they work together with you. Typography performs a major position in how customers understand info written in textual content. Usually talking, a visually interesting sort is more practical at grabbing the consumer’s consideration and may have extra potential to strengthen the model than a generic typeface.
For us, step one within the design course of is to discover a sturdy sort research, pulling totally different typefaces that take into account all challenge specs (usability, licensing, Webfont availability, and aesthetics primarily based on conceptual path).
This kind research will act as a beginning/reference level for brand design, offering the designer with a financial institution of applicable fonts to work with as they start the design course of. From there a customized typeface can be created if wanted. A terrific instance of the place a customized typeface was wanted to spherical out the system is our latest work with Hazelwood Labs.
In our preliminary conferences with Joseph at Hazelwood, we mentioned the precise in-application use circumstances that the model would have. Considered one of their key contact factors was the power to laser minimize letters into varied wooden, steel surfaces, and different supplies. In the event that they had been to make use of an strange typeface to laser minimize, items of the letters would fall out and reduce legibility. When beginning the design course of, fixing this downside was prime of thoughts. So as to obtain the ultimate look, we would have liked to create a completely customized typeface with a “stencil” font.
Sort is far more than “only a font.” Typography has a major position to play in a model’s improvement and visible id. And due to that it requires a deep dive into creating issues deliberately and with usability prime of thoughts.
