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Typography

Lesson 15 from: Creating Brand Identity Systems

Brian Schmitt

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Lesson Info

15. Typography

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Lesson Info

Typography

typography is the foundation of a brand identity along with the logo while the logo usually appears only once in any design. Typography is used throughout the system is therefore very hardworking, it's key to select a typographic system that's expressive of your brand and strategy. So thinking about typography now this is your brand's typography and this is slightly different from your logo. When you're creating a brand identity system, you're going to have to create a logo which is most likely going to have a logo type in it. And that will be the way you write your brand's name. But then there's also the sense of typography for brand communication and you need to develop these together. Most likely you will have developed the logo first for the brand identity system and then you'll get into the typography and you'll be making sure that they work sort of together and this is the typography for communication. So gather examples that feel like their own brand. Once you have like, you kno...

w, research like everything else present that to your client or or put it together for yourself. So you have a a clear sense of what the typographic direction for this brand is. Once you have a feeling for different typography that you think can work for the brand, try to set headlines in it. Um try it out. You know, don't just pick a font. Um use it, you know, and use it with everything else. Use it with color. Use it with your logo um and use meaningful words when you're setting headlines. So even if you don't have a writer working with you yet try to find something from the brief, something from this project that is meaningful to you then write out to to say something and practice, you know, how does it feel when your brand says something, does it feel on brand? You know, you're gonna kind of sense that ideally as a designer, you know, when you're trying things and and putting them all together typography holds cultural signifiers and personal recollections when it's viewed, you have to take these into account. You know, there might be something that that means something to a certain culture, the way it's written, there might be something that that people are used to seeing in a space or not used to seeing and you have to consider these, you know, how, how the type feels is going to be affected by past perception as well as what you're currently presenting. So, when you're thinking about your typography, think about how it works with your logo as well, because they're always going to be seen together, you're going to have branded communication, right? It should either contrast or complement the logo, it should be maybe written in a similar way or it should be written in a way that feels like the brand's writing will either work with or create tension with the logo and every time you produced branded communication, there's there's a different feeling that comes along from the writing and it might be something that you see an art, well, it's always about the way the words are written in the message, how they work together to represent the brand or the organization. This is about like the logo, but it's it's almost harder working because the way that you choose the font and then the system, the way that you set it and use it creates a feeling. And the typographic communication is a repeatable tool for the brand that they're going to use over and over to communicate. So picking the right typeface is key. I'm looking at examples from history that I like, where type was maybe clear and beautiful. I'm looking at art projects that made me think of typography in a different way and made the words have more meaning. For me designing typography, inspiration can come from anywhere. So look at movies, you know, look at clothing articles, look at the backs of books and um isolated pieces of type, classic movie posters, magazines, there's there's no limit to, you know, where you can find your inspiration through the written word and it's about what you do with these building blocks. So when I'm thinking about typography, the hierarchy is the key. You know, those are the two things is the message there. And is it clear and the tone should fit. Does the way it's being said fit what it's saying hierarchy is about like it's akin to signage way finding at an airport, how do you know where to go? Um, typography can be excellent in that, but then it also needs to invoke a feeling as well. So if the writing is what you're saying, typesetting or how you say it. Good. Typographic systems balance emotional connection usually through a headline or display font with clarity through a text font. That's easy to read. The typographic system or collection of font styles for your brand worked with the symbol, photo and color elements to create a visual language for the brand for the Okey project, I wanted a typeface that would really work well with the logo because it was a custom typography in the logo, there was no existing typeface that would work for the rest of the communication. So I wanted to find a type that was both geometric and upright. Something that I could fit really long flavor names like watermelon onto the front of the bottle, but that would also be clear at a varying size. So what would be a hard working typeface for for these different kinds of executions? So I went with a typeface called music Grotesque and I use different weights of it. The upright version for the flavor names and the bold regular version for the rest of the copy. It had to work with both the logo and also symbols and then create a clear hierarchy for messaging on places like the back label, um where we had sort of headline type message and then we needed to get into um product benefit copy. So, creating this typography system for both product and communication at once, let me develop and and think about how the brand would start speaking to people visually. I recommend that you have no more than three type styles for execution. And one way to do this is to create styles for headline subhead and body copy font. And these sort of styles end up becoming the way that your brand speaks and combined with your logo combined with color combined with your use of imagery. This ends up being the visual language of the brand. This brand identity system that we keep talking about. Mm hmm.

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