The world of graphic design is made up of many fields. All of these fields help to give people the perfect result that they’re looking for and giving them what will be the greatest fit for what they need. Whether this is a poster to hang in a bedroom or a new marketing venture, one part of graphic design is sure to give you the best result.
Typography is a field of graphic design that is crucial for many reasons. This field of design is complex and takes a specific skill set to be able to produce quality typography. If you want to know the difference between a good and a great designer, you’ll be able to tell by their typography skills.
So, for the new designer (and maybe even the old one looking to learn some new skills) the question remains; how can you take your typography to the next level? How can you ensure that it’s the very best it can be?
Practice Hand Lettering
Although nowadays a lot of typography is digital, every good designer will come across a project, perhaps more then once, that deserves a human touch. When this happens, you want to ensure that your hand lettering skills are equally as talented as your digital ones.
Take the time to truly perfect your hand lettering until you’re able to ace it easily. You want to develop a style that aligns with your digital one, to be able to use the two equally. Hand lettering will help you be able to look at and critique fonts better then you’ll be able to with digital.
Build Your Own Font
For the new designer, this is often the scariest and most difficult aspect of typography. Designing and developing your own font is a painful and yet rewarding process. If you’ve already brought hand lettering into a few projects, you’ll be on your way to developing your own style.
The key point of building your own font is to have a better understanding of fonts overall. Dive yourself into the process and work on your font until it reaches perfection. Believe us when we tell you that there are few things as satisfying as using your own font.
Continue To Learn
Want to know the most commonly made and the biggest mistake of typography? To stop learning. It’s easy to think that, once you’ve developed the basics, you’re done. Maybe you’ll do a bit of research when necessary, but for the most part, you’ve stopped entirely trying to learn new things.
You see, like any field of design, typography is constantly changing. To stay up to date, it’s your job to ensure that you’re always learning and growing. Never stop educating yourself on typography; you’ll be surprised at what you may not know and what you’ll learn.
Don’t Use Too Many Fonts
It can be tempting to use dozens of fonts in your typography. But it’s important that you keep the number of fonts that you use in a design limited. With typography, the saying less is more couldn’t be more true.
You’ll find that most professional designers agree that three is a good and practical number of fonts for font families. Remember; although you may be tempted to use more, always keep your font family to a minimum.
Think About The Purpose
When you plan out the typography style for a website, you should think about the purpose of the site. As a graphic designer, you’re always concerned with the aesthetics.
You want the site to look good and to create an effect. It’s important to you and your client that the site makes people who visit it feel a certain way.
However, it’s important that you also prioritize purpose. If the site you’re designing is a formal, business website, then clear, sans serif fonts are a great choice. But if the site is for a children’s day care center, then you might want to experiment with more funky fonts.
Many cursive fonts look gorgeous, but be careful when using them. They can be hard to read, which will make visiting the website a frustrating experience for anyone who tries to view it.
Make sure that, before anything else, the purpose of the site is considered when you are making your typography choices.
Keep Accessibility in Mind
Graphic designers sometimes forget that it’s extremely important to keep accessibility in mind.
If someone with vision problems visits the site, you need to make sure there’s an option that will either read the site out loud to them, convert the fonts into more readable fonts, or make sure that your site is completely accessible no matter what.
It’s very important that the typography of your site is easy to read for people with all levels of vision. Keep accessibility in mind when choosing your fonts.
Choose Your Colors Wisely
Sometimes, choosing different font colors seems like a ton of fun and a good idea. However, if you use too many different colors, you could send the wrong message.
By using a variety of colors, you can make it seem like the brand is inconsistent. This can confuse visitors to the site and make it seem like more than one person or team worked on it, and that they didn’t have any idea what they were doing.
Keep your color palette simple and use three colors at most. Also, make sure that if you’re using gray on your website, that it’s a dark gray that’s close to black.
Font Size And Spacing Matters
Similar to choosing your colors wisely, you should also choose your font sizes wisely. Every element of a website – from the menu at the top (or on the side) to the information in the footer at the bottom – matters and should be chosen with care.
If you split the text on your site into columns, then you need to make sure that it’s spaced out enough that it’s easy to read. Make sure you check this before the site is launched.
When it comes to making sure your site is a place where visitors want to spend their time, one of the most important considerations is font size. It needs to be large enough that it’s easily readable for most visitors, and the spacing between lines is important, too.
Do Your Research
As well as learning, you have to be willing to do your research if needed. If you’re unsure of something or if you think it may be wrong, do your research before continuing. Nowadays the internet is filled with helpful information on nearly any topic you’re interested in.
Or, even better yet, if you have a question and know other designers then you can ask them. Always be willing to learn more and educate yourself when necessary. Even if you’re just a tad unsure, it’s always better to be safe then sorry.
