Typography: choose wisely

Typography: choose wisely

Typography is a fine art and those who excel at design know how to use it to convey the correct message and keep people reading – in a nutshell. But designing print material for your marketing and business stationery isn’t as easy as simply choosing a font you like and placing it on the page.

First, decide on the message you want to convey in your design. That font featuring the straight lettering and closed spacing is best for a serious business – something like accounting or a lawyer – while the rounded, wide spaced font you might think would look good inside a birthday card is not going to do the trick. Good typography is about finding a font that shouts your message from the page – and doesn’t look like it’s been created on Microsoft Word.

Take a look at brands around you and the fonts they use. Apple, for example, puts across a clear message that its designs are on trend, while The Guardian utilises its very own font book (aptly named, Guardian) to demonstrate its leading, informative status.

Did you know there are different ‘types’ of font? Here are just a few examples and they are each best for certain uses:

Serif: A Serif font is characterised by the ‘little feet’ you will notice on the bottom of the letters and are great for formal documents or businesses in keeping with traditional values.

Sans Serif: A Sans font has no ‘feet’ and is usually used when conveying on trend sentiments or products.

Hand lettering: As Ronseal would say, this font does exactly what it says on the tin, and looks as though it has been written by hand. This typography adds a human element to a design.

Script: This elegant, light font style is utilised by companies who want to convey a professional but ‘regal’ message. This type of font is not intended for use in body text, but for headers and short statements.

Want one more final tip when it comes to choosing typography? Never, ever pick Comic Sans. Even the guy who created the font acknowledges it’s not a great font.

We hope you find it useful.