An Introduction To Graphic Design – Typography: Typeface Pairing

 

Typography is powerful. Using great typography can encourage people to change the world. Poor typography choices can lead to miscommunication and disrupt the ebb and flow of an otherwise great design. In the past lessons, we’ve covered the fundamentals of graphic design, layout, composition, and typography. If you haven’t read the previous lessons, please see: An Introduction To Graphic Design Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 here on the Freepik Blog. This lesson will explain typeface pairing, and complete the section on typography.

Typeface pairing is simply choosing typefaces and fonts that work well with a design to convey the desired message. We covered the importance of typography as a whole and the principals of good typography in the previous lessons. Pairing typefaces uses this previously acquired knowledge and set of skills. The first step to finding a great selection of typography for your design is to take a step backwards and think about the the purpose of this specific project. Who is the target audience? What is the desired outcome of this project? How will this project be viewed? These are just a few questions you should be asking yourself before choosing typeface options and combinations.

 

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After reviewing your project’s goals, the first step in typeface pairing is identifying the elements of your typeface palate. Your typeface palate will include typefaces for headings, subheadings, and body text. The heading text is used for titles and large sections and themes. Subheadings are used for smaller sections and themes. Body text makes up the majority of text within a project. The body text is anything that isn’t a heading or subheading. Both headings and subheadings are displayed in a way that distinguishes them from the body text within a project. This distinction is important for clarity and understanding of the project. Readers will find it difficult to understand what they’re reading if they can’t tell the difference between the headings, subheadings and body text. Depending on the amount of text included in a project, you may chose to emphasize other elements of your body text such as quotes, paragraph breaks, and notations. Distinguishing minor elements in the body text may be distracting for single page projects such as posters and flyers, but it can be very helpful for longer projects like books, magazines and newspapers.

 

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Start by thinking of the mood of your project. The mood will define the typeface choices you make. If the mood of your project is thought provoking or serious, don’t choose a happy, playful, or whimsical typeface. This give the reader a false impression of what the project is about. The reader may interpret a serious article as satire, parody or comedy if you chose inappropriate typefaces. When selecting a typeface, legibility is the most important thing to consider. A great message looses its value and importance if no one can read it or understand it. Remember, great designs use elements that work well together to convey the desired message. Everything about your design must fit well together. If any parts of the design don’t convey the proper message, as the designer you need to rework the project to find a solution. Most designs fall apart because of inappropriate typeface choices and pairing.

 

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Choose one type family. By limiting yourself to only one type family, you eliminate clutter and insure simplicity and consistency. Choosing from multiple type families can work for some designs, but if you’re unfamiliar with typefaces that work well together, you can ruin your design. Use your creativity for the graphical design, and keep the typefaces simple and consistent for the best results. To add variety to your type faces, mix serif and sans serif typefaces. Using sans serif typefaces for the headings and subheadings, and serif typefaces for the body text will add some visual variety to your project. Also, reversing the usual roles of thin and thick typefaces can be a great design technique. For example, you could use thin typefaces for the headings and subheadings, and thick typefaces for the body text. Generally, headings and subheadings are written with thick or bold typefaces. Having your body text in thick typefaces instead serves the dual purpose of making your design seem more interesting, and creating contrast between the different elements of your typeface palate. Contrast is one of the key components of making a project legible and enjoyable.

 

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With practice, typeface pairing will become easy and intuitive. Following the practices for both typography and design will help you to develop typeface pairings that you can use across several projects. This concludes the introduction to typography. In the upcoming lesson, we’ll be discussion color theory and design.