Tag: typography

Typography


Things like fonts and kerning might not seem very relevant to the digital badges mini project, but typography is an important tool in your “visual rhetoric” toolbox and it will be crucial for your visual resume.  One way to think of rhetoric is “directing the audience’s attention.”  As Wysocki and Lynch write in Compose Design Advocate, “Because we see where we focus our eyes, seeing is very much about attention” (256).  (But if we focus too hard on one thing, we stop paying attention.). When you make something visual, whether it’s a digital badge or a page layout, “you work to draw your audience’s eyes – and hence their attention and thinking – through your presentation in a certain order” (Wysocki and Lynch 256).  You work to get them to do something or feel something or have a particular experience.

Given what we’ve done and read in class so far, these guidelines from Wysocki and Lynch make sense as a simple way for thinking about effective design:

  • Your designs generally should have a limited number of elements so that your audience is not overwhelmed by detail and can see the point of your composition.
    • Ask yourself… What elements do you need to include in your design?
  • Your designs should have a visual hierarchy – a visual path – that indicates to your audience what to look at first, second, third, etc.
    • Ask yourself… What visual hierarchy supports your purpose?
  • Your design must look like a set of unified pieces so that your audience understands that the pieces are meant to work together.
    • Ask yourself… What visual unity can you create? (Wysocki and Lynch 256)

Remember to consider your audience. Some fonts are better for people who are older or for people who have dyslexia (e.g. comic sans).

How can you create hierarchy and unity through typefaces?

Today in class:

  1. Create a simple visual composition that uses type rhetorically. Your composition should demonstrate hierarchy and unity.
  2. Start a document in Illustrator that is 5×5 inches.
  3. Use openin.gs (or anything) to find a compelling bit of text to arrange in your composition.
  4. Practice with the Adobe Illustrator Type Tool, where you’ll see you can select kerning, leading (pronounced “ledding”), and tracking.
  5. Practice setting the type in different fonts, weights, spacing, or along a nonlinear path. Practice using different fonts.
  6. Keep it simple by leaving your text in black (grayscale). You can add a background color to the artboard if you like.
  7. Save your final composition as a .png file at 300ppi and upload it to your Pinterest or Tumblr.

Throughout this week, start pinning or tumbling examples of type and color that inspire you. This Pinterest board is an awesome place to start.