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Working with Typefaces & Fonts

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:35:11 +0000

How aware are you of the sheer number of typefaces surrounding you at any given time? They are literally everywhere. On your computer, in your mail, throughout your home, on the metro, at work, at lunch, even in the restroom – literally everywhere! Many refer to them as fonts, but this is often a misuse of the term. Typeface is the precise term when specifying a style of a character set, whereas a font is the particular typeset withing a typeface (such as bold, italic, etc.)

The uses of typefaces may seem trivial to many, but is nothing short of an art form for others. Detail-oriented graphic designers will spend far more time on selecting an appropriate typeface for a logo design than the related graphic. There are literally thousands of typefaces available to choose from, making the selection process that much more time consuming and critical to over-all success of the final design.

A beautiful graphical element can be ruined by the pairing of a poorly selected typeface. Each one has it’s own distinctive characteristics such as serifs, san serifs, rounded, modern, classic and each of these styles also carries varying character widths, curves/angles, height, width and much more. The challenge lies in how to merge your graphical element with the correct style, and font selection to bolster it’s image and impact.

Often is the case where the typace is the logo (no graphic element). These are called typelogos. These are just as effective as ones that include the graphical element. The key to developing an effective typelogo is working the font to render itself in a unique way. One of the most useable features of a well selected typeface and font is how it interacts with the negative space around it (the background). The forms that can appear in this negative space can define the success of the typelogo.

Typefaces are something that we all interact with – consciously or not – every day. The selection of the right typeface and font within a design can compliment and bolster it’s appearance and effectiveness to both the client and its intended audience.

SCM Designs

Vacances Travel

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:27:32 +0000

This was a two-fold, six panel flyer we were asked to design for a tour guide in Greece. She wanted to have a portable promotional flyer that she could have with her at all times and be able to hand out whenever needed. She wanted to highlight her knowledge of Greece – being a native and a having a PhD in Greek history – and feature some fantastic location photos of Greece and the Cyclades Islands. It provides all her contact information in a neat, compact and well presented design.

Click here to download a low-res PDF of this flyer: Vacances Travel Flyer

Movie Stick

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:04:34 +0000

Here’s another front-and-back flyer design done recently for a sub-brand of Library Ideas (a company we also designed the logo for – seen here). Movie Stick is a product on which they download a movie, or set of movies, to a specially made thumb drive device that can then be purchased at a local library and watched on any computer, game box, etc. A great idea. They wanted a promotional flyer that introduced the product and it’s features that could be used as hand-outs while marketing to district library administration.

World Health Organization

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:51:29 +0000

This is an example of a one of ten two-sided “fact sheets” designed for the World Health Organization to be used as hand outs at health trade shows, internally within the organization’s divisions and for many other applications. The faded color wheel, which is one of their adopted marketing collateral images is incorporated on both sides on all ten fact sheets done. They sought a look and feel that presented as informative, more so than decorative.

Click the link to download a low-res PDF of this brochure to review: WHO-Tobacco

CET Academic Programs

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:29:45 +0000

Here is an example of a four-panel, one-fold brochure design we recently did for CET Academic Programs, a scholastic business that offers study programs abroad in places like China, Japan, Italy, Sicily, Spain and Syria. They have a very distinct style and I wanted to be sure to carry this through on this piece as we really like their look.

Click the link to download a low-res PDF of this brochure: CET Summer Brochure

Click this link to see the Summer 09 programs brochure: Summer_09_brochure

AMNH Expeditions

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:59:12 +0000

This is a brochure we designed for the American Museum of Natural History’s travel division, AMNH Expeditions for their 2010 tour to Morocco. It features a daily itinerary, location photos and much more. The design needed to lend to an equal balance of destination photos and information.

Click the link to download this low-res PDF of this brochure: AMNH Morocco brochure PDF