Saturday, 6 April 2013

Does type really matter? - Sidney Ting

I found a really interesting article asking does type really matter? And it got me thinking, does it really matter what type we chose when we write or design something. The short answer is yes because I couldn't live in this world where everything was written in comic sans. But the article mentions that the British foreign and commonwealth office spent about 80,000 pounds changing its typeface to one that was almost identical to its last one. That's a lot of money just for a small change in what font you would use when writhing letters or documents up.

The article then explains it saying that its all about recognition of the brand and how you want that brand to be conveyed to the world. A quote about choosing the right typeface for a brand from Jonathan Barnbrook, founder of the website Virus Fonts- "A good typeface creates an emotional response in relation to the message it is conveying. You're trying to get that tone of voice right - you can shout or whisper. And you want to sum up the spirit of the age, because they do date quite quickly". 

 An everyday example of this is street signs and a Nickelback cover. Street signs don't want you to have an emotional response, its just telling you what the street is. While Nickelback want to show that there a rock band that is slightly gritty in there sound. 

 The type we choose can sometimes change how we look at whatever the type is on. If Nickelback had a flowery expressive typeface, no one would assume they were a rockband but instead a boyband with a singer with flowing long hair.

 Type does matter even if everyday people realizes this.

 Source

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10689931
The article I was referring to.

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. Bananas and Cheese7 April 2013 at 02:41

    I believe subconsciously typography effects the way we interpret and analyze information. As graphic designers we are more aware of the effects different typefaces have on how we process information, and the hierarchy in which we do so.

    I'm sure everyone can agree that when designing logo's and business cards, one of the hardest things to decide on is what font to choose. If typography wasn't an important factor in how we interpret information then why would searching for the perfect typeface be such a critical decision for a graphic designer.

    In my earlier research i came across a wesite called “Typography for Lawyers” (http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/) which is a witty website filled with hints and advice from lawyers, for lawyers. Here's some information/ tips that I have selected from the website that you might find useful

    1) Butterick’s First Law of Typog­ra­phy
    Given mul­ti­ple doc­u­ments, read­ers will make more judg­ments based on typog­ra­phy as they find it harder to make judg­ments based on sub­stance.

    2) Butterick’s Sec­ond Law of Typog­ra­phy
    Judg­ments based on sub­stance require reader atten­tion, so under the First Law, read­ers with lim­ited atten­tion are more likely to make judg­ments based on typog­ra­phy.

    3) Good typog­ra­phy is mea­sured on a util­i­tar­ian yard­stick. Typog­ra­phy that is aes­thet­i­cally pleas­ant, but that doesn’t rein­force the goals of the text, is a fail­ure. Typog­ra­phy that rein­forces the goals of the text, even if aes­thet­i­cally unpleas­ant, is a suc­cess.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)