Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed” —Wikipedia
The debacle of the 2017 Oscars’ presenters wrongly announcing the movie of the year as LA LA Land, instead of the real winner Moonlight, illustrates the power of typography and its importance in good design.
Look at the close up of the card Warren Beatty had to read from on the left:
And how much easier it would have been for him to read the one on the right and realize he had been handed the wrong card!
When I wrote about the importance of fonts last year I said typography is “an integral part of a design, not just for their aesthetic virtues, but also because they can help set the mood or tone you’re trying to convey.”
But the Oscars blunder showed that fonts matter, not for just conveying emotions, they matter in basic communication. Consider a marketing campaign with brochures that, while looking pretty, get tossed away because the potential customer can’t read it or understand the main subject you’re trying to convey, such as your annual “BLOW OUT SALE!”
Once you catch your customer’s attention about the sale, gala event, trade show, etc. it’s important to keep the customer reading the content. That’s where basic, clean, readable typography comes in. This doesn’t mean it needs to look boring. Work with a good designer who can show creative ways of arranging the copy on the page that are engaging and pleasing to the eye such as the example above. The fonts should guide the customer and help them organize the information.
Printed pieces are still a very important part of a marketing kit, and fonts play a center stage in making it a success! Accent Printing Solutions is a printing company with locations in NJ and NYC.
