Digital Imaging & Graphic Design

TYPOGRAPHY & MESSAGING

Typography and the holy grail

In today’s digital landscape—more than ever—people are aware of typography, design and how the world looks around them. Gary Hustwit records this in Helvetica, a documentary about how fonts affect our everyday lives. Most notably, Helvetica ushers in the larger conversation about global visual culture, detailing how and why people are progressively more mindful about the visual impact of design.

What are these words about words? (Defining type, typeface, font, stroke etc...)

Five tips to help you understand fonts and why they are so important (link follow)

Typography is the ART and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. As the designer, you have choices with regard to the:

SHAPE of text - ie. TypeFace (Font), TypeStyle, PointSize, Spacing, TypeCase, Angle, Skew
POSITION of the text (are all words placed together, apart, aligned, separated)
COLOUR and EFFECTS of text - #000000 vs. #004b3F vs. #41e5a4 ; Fill and Stroke, Dropshadow

Between the shot art (i.e. the photograph) and the typeface a consumer message either succeeds or fails with little room between. Can you imagine the messaging of, say, Mothers Against Drunk Driving if it used a heavily serifed, or a brush script font?

When you DON'T factor in scalability into your design work

In print you don't need to worry about this. What you see in preview for print is what you get

Sometimes less isn't more

Using nothing but type and opacity

Or the poster from PETA without the shot of the basketball player?

The objectives of good messaging are:

To ensure LEGIBILITY of your text (It has to be easy to read)
Convey the CONTENT of the message (the text and art - including photos - should make some emotional impact, or lend itself to the subject matter)

Some Typographical Techniques:

1. The Original Text - legible, but not particularly effective. Typography is NOT about applying a bunch of filters, effects or layer styles to the text - it's about intelligently SHAPING and CRAFTING the text elements.

2. Adjust Group and Size

(Observing "Proximity" and "Alignment")

Split text into "Logical" phrases or groups
Emphasize important elements by increasing their point size (or by reducing the size of less important elements)
ALIGN top and bottom rows by adjusting or transforming their relative sizes

3. Pick contrasting TYPEFACES

Choose DISSIMILAR typefaces from different (but complementary) Font Families
- SERIF, SANS, SCRIPT, SLAB, DECORATIVE
Choose TWO - only two fonts are needed - more is overkill
Adjust the size of the elements to ensure alignment. Varying sizes and fonts keep things looking interesting. Remember that the size should imply the relative importance of each element in the title.

4. Use COLOUR to create Readability and Contrast

Alternate Fill and Stroke colours
Apply Dropshadows

USEFUL LAYER STYLES -

STROKE
- The outlines around text
- Help to create CONTRAST and readibility
FILL
- The colour within text
- Use a STRONG, BOLD font with lots of fill area
DROPSHADOW
INNER/OUTER GLOW

What Typeface and Font Should I Use in my messaging?

FontsInUse for inspiration

Check out this article - it really is EXCELLENT

Here are some great examples to get you thinking:

Think about how your messaging will play across your intended audience. Here we see an ad for Pakistan International Airlines whose designers didn't appreciate the implications of the plane and Eiffel Tower elements being so close

Assignment #6 - PSA: Be the Change

Often commercial art and messaging is thought to be something done only to sell a product, in fact, our opinions are shaped just as often by organizations who are trying to sell ideas. PSA mandates are often to inspire change locally to impact global change. Make it relevant, make it yours. Ideally you are shooting in the studio, but you may use ROYALTY FREE stock images to supplement your design (from places like RGBStock.com or Pexels etc...) You may choose whatever canvas you want (e.g. cereal box to a poster). Research the different sizes depending on what canvas you want. If you're unsure, work at document size 24"x 36" at 220 ppi.

Evaluation is as follows:

pitched idea
shooting
poster/photo-essay
1500 KB jpg and PSD file

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