With all the emphasis on content marketing, how your messages look has been overlooked. Ryan Arruda, web content strategist at Monotype, reveals what marketers should look for in a good typeface
Typefaces aren’t simply the glue that binds disparate elements of your brand together. Type is exceptionally capable of representing your brand in the same way logos, colour palettes, and iconography do.
Your type choices convey tone and intention as much as the actual words and images you put forth. Like brands, typefaces too can have distinct personalities – they can be loud and expressive, quiet and stoic, or no-nonsense and utilitarian. It’s your job to find typeface families that marry with the feeling your brand tries to convey.
1. Select the right type
Sometimes typographic answers are obvious. Need to grab your reader by the lapels? A thick, burly display typeface might be best suited to get the job done.
Choices can be quite nuanced too. Many sans serif faces can appear, at first, to share a number of similarities. However, there’s a multiplicity of subtle variations in typeface styles that can dramatically alter the voice of your content. Humanist sans typefaces (say the Neue Frutiger or Abadi designs) often possess a warmth and approachability, while neo-grotesques – such as the Univers or Neue Helvetica families – present more rational, business-like demeanors.
Choose typefaces that can not only function satisfactorily across a variety of media, but pick designs that also feel like partners to your brand. It’s very much a subjective exercise, so don’t rush or compromise; your type matters.
2. Uphold brand integrity
Your logo, mission statement and customer personas are assets you’ve invested in to solidify your brand’s objectives. Like these, type should be ingrained directly into your brand’s DNA, as it carries your brand when other elements may not be able to.
There are going to be situations where all of your brand’s established visuals will not be able to be utilised simultaneously – more likely than not, though, type is always going to be an available option. Use this to your advantage, and sleep easy knowing you’ve crafted a typographic system that can stand on its own.
It’s important to remember that once you’ve identified the typefaces that best represent your messaging, that’s only part of the battle. You need to implement your type consistently, from print collateral, to websites and apps. Having a uniform presentation adds another layer of legitimacy to your brand; looking sharp means looking professional.
3. Make type engaging
While acting as the representative of your brand, typography also acts as an infrastructure for how you present your content.
Establishing a visual rhythm through contrasts in the point size, weight, leading and measure of your type are elementary – but indispensable – methods to guide a reader’s eye. In addition to your typical headline, subhead, and body text styles, choices for ancillary elements such as captions, pull quotes, drop caps or endmarks can add to your typographic palette.
Like your choice of typefaces, the structure of your type can have varying levels of visibility too. It can quietly melt into the background, or overtly call attention to itself. Either way, using type to break up your content into digestible modules makes for both a more enticing, accessible presentation. You’ll capture audiences who are quickly skimming, as well as those who engage more deeply with your content.
4. Keep up with multi-platforms
People today consume type-driven media with a wide range of devices. It’s imperative your type is in tune with the opportunities and limitations these spaces provide.
Smaller screens yield higher typographic demands, whether in terms of legibility, navigational ease, or file size. Responsive design – with typographic consideration at its forefront – should therefore be a starting point as you develop your project. What’s the use of building a beautiful, type-driven experience if a large slice of your readership can’t experience your brand’s presentation the way you intended?
The good news is that the burgeoning web fonts market makes the use of custom type readily accessible. Providers put forth a tremendous library of typefaces to choose from, as well as offer support for advanced typographic fine-tuning, language support, font file formats, in addition to support across browsers new and old.
5. Use HTML5 and CSS3
Aside from no longer being limited to a palette of web safe fonts, HTML5 and CSS3 provide an additional range of dynamic, typographic options. CSS3 allows for dimensional, gradient and shadow effects with your type, as well as more flexibility in shaping columns of text.
With HTML5 as its catalyst, expressive, captivating typography becomes a living part of the web, not simply a static element relegated to an image. From an optimisation perspective, live text means your type is searchable, indexable, and able to be personalised to each specific viewer.
Plus, HTML5 also affords a wellspring of supplementary features, such as geolocation, language detection, and device orientation detection. Along with your typography, these advances allow you to shape a more cohesive, beautiful and tailored experience.
Remember, there’s immense value in using type to connect on a more personal level with your audience.
