This week, we looked more into typography and the different considerations of how it can effect tone of voice.
on the surface, (and to normal people) typography is as simple as different letters = different shapes. But to designers its so much more than that, which i discovered after todays lesson. we had spoke about type many times in semester one but this lesson really changed my perspective. we learned about all the different features of type, like ascenders, descenders etc. Despite being tiny details, they can really alter the appearance and tone of your wordmark.
to get more comfortable with the terminology we began by analysing our own brand names in our chosen fonts. At the beginning of this task, I honestly find it quite difficult to identify all the anatomical parts of my word. Terms like a picture Apex extender defender felt very technical and it wasn't immediately obvious to me how to see them. I think I was initially looking at the word as a whole shape, rather than slowing down enough to analyse each individual letterform. Looking at the miro board really helped, seeing how others labelled things made me realise these features aren't abstract ideas, they're very small structural decisions. Something as small as the curve of a shoulder or the sharpness of an apex can totally shift the tone of the word.
Typography is not neutral. The width of an aperture can make a word feel more open and friendly whereas a tight one can feel more formal and restrained. Overall analysing the anatomy of my word helped me see that these my details are not minor at all, they directly influence tone of voice and brand identity. I will definitely consider all of these feature variations when choosing a font, to try to communicate my brands personality.
we next learned about kerning. its essentially the spacing between the letters, and we looked at how it can really affect the appearance of a word.
this was an example of bad kerning, and once you notice it it is very displeasing.
next we looked at how different brands incorporate meaning into their wordmarks. we looked at examples like fedex and amazon, and it reminded me of the Toyota logo, as i remember seeing online it has a hiddn meaning. every letter of the word toyota is included in the logo, which is a really cool feature.