Design & All Things Web

Typography and type are two of the key elements of voice.

The concept of voice refers to how a brand speaks. The tone it takes when it interacts with an audience. Typography and typefaces are key visual elements of developing an appropriate tone. Others being style of copy, event marketing and placement and many more, but those are separate topic.

Let’s begin by examining typefaces. There is no hard and fast rule for choosing type. Each one has a distinct character and emotional quality. Serif, san-serifs and other derivatives can be debated to no end. Each camp having it’s own reasons for using one over the other. Legibility, eye flow and so forth have been argued over with no truly universal conclusions being reached.

The truth is that type selection is first and foremost dictated by the needs of the identity or collateral piece being developed. Relevance is far more important than style. Design schools teach fundamental skills and rules that are a great foundation but only the beginning of the journey. To innovate and generate income, a good designer knows when to follow the rules and when to break them.

Research and insight, experience, talent and gut instinct are much better tools than a parochial understanding gleaned through education alone. It is for this reason that good design takes time and effort. Time to delve into the heart of the brand and effort in creating the most relevant design possible. There is a belief that graphic design is art when it is in fact commercial art. The key difference being that design is not used for self expression but rather to achieve a goal for a third party. In most cases that ultimate goal is to generate sales and income.

In developing voice, designers need to focus on more than the outwardly characteristics that typefaces possess. They need to look inwardly; not just into the brand essence but also into themselves. What emotive characteristics does this typeface posess? How will the target market react to these qualities? Going beyond the visual into the visceral is a key step in discovering relevance.

Often mispronounced by professionals and laymen alike as “topography”, which is actually the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area, rather the first part of “typography” should be pronounced as its root, “type”. The word itself comes from combining type and graphy: a descriptive science.

Typography is defined as the style and appearance of printed matter. If typeface is the voice, then typography is the way in which that voice delivers its message. Typographic layout can be screamed, it can be shy, churlish, aggressive, funny or polite. The use of any number of these characteristics is determined by relevance: the manner in which the design relates to the core brand and how that brand needs to speak to the target audience.

Finally, we come to legibility. This is another topic that has been debated and will continue to be debated. The author’s personal opinion is that legibility is fundamentally important for communication. This, however, does not mean that it is always important. There are times when style and tone are more important than message. Often, this occurs when the brand and message are well known and there is a need to do something more radical or offbeat. In the end, even legibility is determined by relevance.

One can imagine how speaking to a skateboarder demographic is different than for collectors of fine antique cars. Each message, each brand, and each audience has its own need, tone and visual language. Type and typography are the foundations for this voice and the key method for the visual communication of speech. It is the job of designers to take the message, distil and communicate it in the most appropriate way possible for the brand and its target audience.

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