If you write something and it’s not legible, it’s as good as not writing. Type is a significant part of any creative, especially, how the text is presented.

Going by the definition,

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed.

Although it varies as per the kind of design, having a meaningful typo is very important to convey the design to your audience. The 2017 Oscars are a perfect example of why Typography is important. A lot of things together make a perfect Typography.

Let’s see how you can play with typography to bring out your design.
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Define the category of your design

It is important to categorize your design. You may categorize your design in the following
 3 segments:

• Audience
• Platform
• Purpose
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Targeting the right audience

Before getting into the depth, if you know who your audience is, your display elements can be decided accordingly. If the message is for a corporate audience, it is important to use a font that looks professional, is readable and relatable to the audience. Similarly, while targeting children, teenagers or while creating designs for a light event, you may choose any childish font like Comic Sans or a trendy curvy font like Bradley.
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Designing for a particular platform

Fonts used for print, web, mobile apps are all distinct. Using the same font on all these platforms can lead to the user having different experiences, as the readability,level of all the platforms is different from each other. For print, the most commonly used fonts are Helvetica, Verdana and Centura Gothic. However, the trend for Sans Serif fonts for printing has increased lately, which is why we can rule out Centura Gothic from this list. For web or digital space, however, we have a varied list of options. From Futura, Helvetica, Gotham to Open Sans, Roboto, Lato, the list goes on.
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Defining your purpose

What kind of attention is your design seeking? Answer this and your direction will be set. Defining the purpose of your design will help set a tone. This is the most important factor of typography. Unless your purpose is defined, the above two points won’t be of any use. The purpose will determine the messaging which will then define the typography.

In the above image, you can see that the type and the size of the lead text are different from that on the CTA, the intro, and the vertical hiring tag. This is because all of them serve a different purpose.
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Giving your text a character

Once categorized, it’s time to play with the appearance. Highlighting the correct text is the key here. By common sense, a headline needs to be more prominent than an intro, listing needs to have bullets association, prominent words need to be bold and/or underlined, so on and so forth. But is there more to it?
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Image and font balance

The appearance of your text depends on a couple of things. You may play around with the type of font used, color, styles applied, placement of elements, etc. to have a distinct character in your text. While doing this, it is very important not to overdo it. Each design is distinct basis its visual balance. If your design is image heavy, your type will have to be subtle. Choose a simple font that will not distract your audience, and if your intention is to emphasize on the text, keep the design subtle. Do keep in mind the 3 key principles while choosing your font: readability, legibility, and purpose.
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Size matters

Irrespective of what font you choose, if you don’t size it correctly, the text will lose its significance. Also, ensure that you level each part of text appropriately. Let’s take the Oscars for instance here. On the winner’s card, if the award category and the winner’s name would have been appropriately placed, the goof-up could have been saved.

Typography plays an important role in any design. When thinking design, emphasize on typography and test your typography skills. Tell us about your best practices.

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