Typography is an artform that stretches back thousands of years—from stone-carved letterforms in the second century, to Gutenberg’s creation of movable, letterpress type in 1448. Typesetting was born a tedious trade where hours were spent laying out a book’s pages one letter at a time. For the last 150 years designers have wielded type as visual weaponry, to point directly at the masses and fire at will. Now we’re assaulted with type, most of which is awful; and that’s where you come in.
Practicing good typography is at the core to good design. Computers are all grown up (they even come with two buttons we hear) and everyone, including yer mama, is making christmas newsletters with custom type—comic sans and all. Knowing your em-dashes, serifs and line heights is important, but the key is developing typographic control. Here are some points to consider:
Some of the best designers are also writers, but at the very least we should all be readers. Writing is turning into a crucial role for us; when it’s our job to articulate ideas we have to be clear about what those ideas are and how to best present them. Read the text first, then make recommendations to the author about clarity, pace and length to ensure the text is digestible. All too often designers find themselves rewriting all of the text, stripping out the nonsense and getting at the core ideas. And this becomes absolutely key on the web, where writing has a very utilitarian function and ideas need to be as streamlined as possible. Use lists; break long pieces up with clear headings and subheadings; summarize up front; use emphasis to break homogeny.
Typefaces change the tone of text, so know what your words are saying and how your typeface emphasizes and articulates the message. Not every typeface is the right choice for every job, but most designers have a handful of favorites that cover just about everything. Analyze older print designs and see how some of the greats still stand up today; good typography has a lot to do with the timelessness of a piece.
Two theatre posters; two approaches. The design on the left still looks amazing after more than a century. Extreme use of scale works well for posters that need to pull the viewer in for progressively more layers of information. The poster on the right treats the type as though it were an illustration. It is flowing and playful with a sense of whimsicality—much like the play it represents.
A versatile typeface works at a variety of sizes; many of the classics work great for both body and display text. If you’re having trouble making a photo work, craft some text and start working with scale and stacking words. Stacking words or strings of text is one of the best ways out of a jam; you bring emphasis to the text, make it visually interesting, and entice the reader to actually read!
This concert poster comes from the Hatch Show Print folks. They’ve been doing amazing work out of Nashville, Tennesee since 1879! There work is still created by hand using real blocks of letters that are carefully arranged and sent through a press. The subtle imperfections of this method give the poster unique character.
It’s generally a good idea to keep the typeface as is, that is, don’t stretch it, increase or decrease the tracking too much (that’s the space between letters) or apply faux bold or italic (an easy mistake in the Photoshop type palette). While some will argue for strict utility of headlines and body copy, sometimes it’s interesting to break the rules in the interest of the content and readability. David Carson often turned text on its ear and distributed paragraphs across the page like you might subjects in a photograph. There’s power in this, and while it can turn ugly and unreadable quickly in the wrong hands, don’t underestimate the value of interesting type treatment.
The image of the left is an article from Raygun magazine from back in 1993. Many of today’s grungy layouts can be traced back to what David Carson was doing in the early nineties. The David Byrne poster on the right is an excellent example of allowing the typography to become one with the illustration. This poster would have been ruined if a digital typeface had been rendered on top instead of the imaginative doodle-based letterforms.
Many articles rely on illustrations rather than photographs as introductions to type pieces—think old magazine articles or newspaper features. Starting with a strong typographical statement can draw the right amount of visual interest and be more meaningful and contextual than a photo; and with the right typeface, it will be quite beautiful on its own.
Sometimes a free and funky font might be the right one for that special piece of display type, especially as an initial cap. Consider using a single letter of a rather “interesting” face as a visual element; often an entire paragraph of text might become hokey or too heavy-handed and stylistic, but might be magical in moderation.
Accidents are easy in real life, but making them look good on a computer isn’t easy. Try adding some grunge to a headline to give it the misprinted look, or tightly crop around the core of a word or phrase to give it extra emphasis. Great and interesting things happen when you approach typography a little backwards. Some texts, like poetry, lend themselves to expressive gestures, strange positioning and emphasis, and odd spacing between letters, words and paragraphs.
There’s a lot of great work being done, especially in the poster scene where text is highly visual. Look to printed matter for the best inspiration. Check your library for books on Russian constructivist posters, 1930s American boxing posters, communist propaganda, books on handwritten text, motel road-side signage, Spanish-civil war posters, and hand-painted signage from the last 100 years. There are great books out there on the subject of type; you just have to find them.
We’re a small design shop focused on creating thoughtful print, web and motion products. Recently we designed the iStock t-shirts as well as launched an independent clothing and art product web site called Iron-On Resistance, have a look, will ya?
Open House Poster; Maya Drozdz and Bill Hanscom
Red Theatre poster; designer: Studio Dumbar; letterer: Bob van Dijk; illustrator: Monica Peon
David Byrne poster; Joel Elrod
Cranbrook catalog; Catelijne van Middelkoop
Raygun; David Carson
Better Safe Than Shaggy; art director: Pete Morelewicz; designer: Alice Lewis; photographer: Darrow Montgomery
Beastie Boys poster; Hatch Show Print
Midsummer; Gail Swanlund