Graphic Design 1 - How to Choose a Typeface

 Choosing a Typeface 

I have always been very interested in learning about typefaces before I even knew I wanted to go into the graphic design field. As a kid I always enjoyed trying to make my own typefaces when writing out different letters and sentences. As I got older I began to pay attention to the way in which type was used in my everyday life. Now as I am pursuing a career within graphic design, typeography is vital in the role in the career of graphic design. While reading the article about choosing a typeface I was able to read about some of the key principles that are needed when deciding on what typeface should be used. Before I begin any graphic design project I always make a list of my goals for the design and its audience. The text had mentioned that for every design project you need to have a strong impression in your mind about how you want your audience to react to the text. By setting out a list of goals for each project it will help me to communicate my ideas strongly to my audience. In order to have my ideas clearly known I need to make sure that my designs have both legibility and readability, while remaining appropriate for the audience and the message. By choosing typefaces with conventional letterforms and generous spacing will allow for the type be be read easier. Decorative typefaces have low legibility because they are primarily meant to be seen at a glance, rather than read at length. Conversely, typefaces designed for novels or newspapers have very high legibility. One other point that was mentioned during this section of the reading was "communication comes before style, so resolve readability first." That phrase within the reading reminded me that communication is the main goal within graphic design, in order to have that you must make the correct artistic decisions to have a successful design.

Notes made from the reading 

Four attributes of a typeface

Design Intent

aesthetics

mood

personal choice

Tips For Choosing A Typeface

Plan you Hierarchy

Consider what others have done already

Experiment the easy way

         -style sheets

         -get a second or third opinion

Avoid anachronisms

Avoid trite correlations

Consider an extended type family (Extended type families usually have serif and sans serif versions, along with multiple weights, full sets of special characters and ligatures etc.)

Stick with the classic combinations

use a limited palette

Tight tracking causes the eye to fill in visual gaps between the various shapes that make up different letterforms, thus slowing down the time it takes to both recognize letterforms and word and sentence structures.

Readability is the dynamic interaction of the type style, size, tracking, leading, color and other properties all combined into one overall impression. 

Choose typefaces that were designed for the purpose you are using them for (display fonts for headlines, body copy typefaces for body copy, etc.).

Make sure your line height is greater than the point size of your typeface for multi-line texts.