And how it can be used to send a message.
Choosing the correct font for your project can be daunting, there are just so many to choose from! It took me a while to recognize which fonts work and why—across different design project. Remembering back at some of the first projects I worked on in college makes me cringe. Font selection was a mystery to me at the time; i never really understood why my lecturer was saying, “your font choice is shouting at me!"
It was an mishmash of mistakes trials and errors.
Going forward, I took it on myself to research as much as I could to get a better understanding of font selection. Through a process of practice and guidance, I achieved a solid understanding of font selection and how to implement them throughout my designs. (education is key)
Through hard work and dedication to my education came confidence and through confidence, I found ease. I truly feel that only by making those early mistakes had I really began to understand that words are a powerful tool and by selecting the right font for those words could create a powerful impression.
Fonts are like people
To understand how to make font selection we first have to understand that fonts are like people, they can have character, personality, feelings and emotions. Just like people, fonts can behave badly when used in the wrong way and become helpful and complimentary when used in the correct way. Fonts are essentially the voice of type.
Through my research I discovered the book—The Geometry of Type, it investigates 100 modern and traditions typefaces with great detail. While reading this book I truly began to understand that fonts have character and deeper meaning than just the visual design that you see when reading.
The book looks at the finer point to typefaces including readability, mood, history designers as well as an explanation on how and were to use each of them— a must on the reading list of all professional graphic designers.
Font-ability
As a good starting point, check out this infographic from Upper and lower case. They have selected 22 popular typefaces, showing how well they work together and their compatibility using a numerical system.
full sheet available at: U&lc1992.pdf
Looking for more inspiration?
Why not check out the Creative market blog, they have 10 infographics on display that can help guide you to great font selections and pairing.
In the mean time, why not head over to my portfolio @walbydesign and have a look at how my typographical skills have developed and are used to enhance my design projects.
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