114 new pro tips for type

GRAPHIC DESIGN
From embracing simplicity to befriending your printer, designers reveal the type tips they follow to the letter.

01 Mix and match
Yomar Augusto, www.yomaraugusto.com
"With book typography, as a starter try to find a font that has a big enough family to fulfil all your potential wishes. If you come across a typeface that lacks different weights, but you insist on using it, it might be helpful to check typefaces that are designed by the same designer. They often have the same genes and mix well together."

03 Stay flexible
Jrmie Nuel, www.atelieraquarium.com
"Our choice of font depends on many factors: sometimes it's simply the design of the letter, a historical reference, its readability or a contemporary type design from some designer we like. We look at its ability to be modified and its [level of] specificity. We try to ensure maximum liberty as we don't want to be stuck with some arbitrary choice."

04 Line up properly
Aegir Hallmundur, www.ministryoftype.co.uk
"A neat way to improve the readability of your pages, especially online, is to maintain a clean, straight left margin in any column. This is especially important in your first column, where your logo, navigation, headlines, subheads, datelines and copy text should all line up. Boxouts and bulleted lists should also be extended so that it's the text in them, rather the box edge or bullets, that lines up with the copy."

06 Read 'the Crystal goblet'
Cardon Webb, www.cardondesign.com
"All designers and typographers should read The Crystal Goblet (or Printing Should Be Invisible) by Beatrice Warde. This is an amazing essay about the use of type and type as a tool. By the end of the article, assess whether or not you agree with what was presented, wholly, partially or not at all. This will tell you a lot about who you are as a designer and typographer."

Top type tip
Learn to appreciate value
Post, www.posttypography.com
"Good fonts are worth their price. Well-designed typefaces are expensive because they've gone through thousands of hours of development. Don't use pirated fonts, especially if you're being paid to design with them; save up for a well-crafted typeface or get a client to pay for it - you'll have a great typography tool in your arsenal for the rest of your career."

11 Forget about Small Caps
John D Berry, www.johndberry.com
"Unless you know the difference between true small caps and fake ones, it's best to just forget that your program's Small Caps command even exists. Never just shrink full-size caps down and call them small caps; they aren't. If you're willing to go to the trouble of using real small caps, be sure to letter-space them properly - that is, a little looser than lowercase."

12 Put yourself into your work
Juan Carlos Pagan, www.jcpagan.com
"I am of the school of thought that graphic design should not only reflect but should create culture, and by doing so become the spark that fires discourse. I also find it important, rewarding and maybe even necessary for designers to inject a bit of themselves into their work. For instance, I can't help but allow my lingering sense of prepubescent humour to seep into some of my concepts; it's simply who I am, and to reject it would be to reject the fact that I am a thinking, feeling person."

13 Try before you buy
Robin Snasen Reng¥rd, www.madebymade.no
"When buying fonts for a particular project you should always try the main characters before you decide to purchase it. Most type foundries have a function on their website that lets you write your own sentences. I've bought very expensive fonts in the past that have got discarded because the different letters, when put together, didn't look at all like what I had imagined. The feeling of a particular font can be hard to pin down until you start combining the words."

14 Typography as voice visualisation
Hoon Kim, www.whynotsmile.com
"To deal with type is much the same as to control one's voice: [think of] selecting typefaces as voice quality; having a relationship with type in size, amount and degrees as vocal tone; and setting layouts of type as voices in space and time. Typographic design is visible as well as audible. If you have a great scenario, now it is time to cast good actors."

18 Use text faces in display contexts
Peter Crnokrak, www.theluxuryofprotest.com
"Although text faces are designed to be set at small sizes, the better designed fonts have such gorgeous curves that they function well in display contexts. Be warned, though: properly setting a lowercase, regular weight text face at display sizes takes great expertise; a lot of white space around the text is required to impart a display quality."

24 Be a viewfinder
John D Berry
"Think about where the type will be viewed from: will it be sitting on a page in a reader's lap, or hung on a wall? Will it be seen straight on, or at an acute angle? How far away will it be? What's readable when it's big and up close may not be readable when it's tiny and far away; what's readable straight on may look squashed together when viewed from the side or from below."

Top type tip
Be leading clever
Aegir Hallmundur
"When setting your type sizes, make sure you also set the leading - a rough rule of thumb is to set it to 150 per cent of the point size, so 10pt text would have 15pt leading. Give paragraphs a bottom margin equal to the leading and, to create a basic baseline grid, use only multiples of that number for margins and leading on lists, headings and so on."

01 It's all about space
John D Berry
"What we read isn't just letters - it's the spaces within the letters and the spaces between. So if we set the letters too close together, the balance between black and white is lost, and the words are hard to read. The same goes if the letters are so far apart that they don't hold together at all. The spaces between words, too, need to be in harmony with the way the letters fit together. Then, pay attention to the length of the line and the space between lines."

02 Study craftsmanship
Kenny Allan, www.el-studio.co.uk
"It is of paramount importance that all design students learn, understand and explore the true essence of typography. Typography is a craft, a skill that forms and dictates an overwhelming contribution to all design applications. It allows flexibility through structure, something clearly demonstrated from the early pioneers to present-day practitioners. Good typography requires patience, attention to detail and craftsmanship through execution. Typography is the art of communication."

06 Draft your idea
Panos Vassiliou, www.parachute.gr
"In most cases, the idea is drafted initially as a rough sketch of several characters with as many characteristics as I can fit on the paper. Then I create a second, more elaborate, sketch of three basic characters such as 'a', 'n' and 'o'. These are the three letters I always design first, since they contain many of the characteristics I need as a guide for the other characters."

Top type tip
Build on philosophy
Heist Toronto
"An underlying philosophy forms the foundation for all the work we create, whether it be a client's look-book or the design of a bespoke typeface. What we attempt to impart to colleagues is that inspiration for their bespoke creations can be derived from their own unique value systems and experiences. Formulate your own opinions regarding typography, and use that as a catalyst to invent."

11 Think of typography as architecture
Hoon Kim
"Designing content with type is comparable to constructing and composing architectural elements. A piece of paper, frame or book is the space given to designers. To get the essence of an idea, typography escorts readers to explore and experience the surrounding spaces. You are a guide of the journey. Which direction, what order and how much time would make for great travels?"

12 Give added value
Panos Vassiliou
"Give more than expected. Add this extra value to your product without raising the price. But more is not always the merrier - it must be useful as well. Several of our typefaces are completed with symbols, which are handy to designers involved with branding and packaging. You may decide to add some ornaments or concentrate on some extra ligatures, but whatever you do, make sure it serves its purpose."

13 Polish your curves
David John Earls
"Practice drawing with beziers whenever you can. Trace letters or shapes you see and like around you - it will help you to understand beziers and help your typeface design. Aside from the technical considerations (fewer points will result in a smaller font - important for emerging webfont standards) the more points, the greater the chance there is for clunky, bumpy curves to sneak in."

14 Make your mistakes work for you
Adam J Evans, www.bunchdesign.com
"Don't stress too much over your type; relax, enjoy it and don't be afraid to get it wrong. For me, typography always seemed very academic, and the only thing in 'art' that did have a right or wrong answer. Because of this I avoided it, but as soon as I started taking positives out of my countless mistakes instead of dwelling on the negative, my work improved no end. Remember that it takes a lot of shit to grow a beautiful flower."

15 Be disciplined and interested
Hubert Jocham, www.hubertjocham.de
"Type projects do not usually go wrong - they rather dry out and you have to start again. The process of type design, for me, is very interesting when you design the lower case letter, some of the upper case letters and maybe the figures. But then it gets more and more hard work. The elements can look interesting, but the text looks boring. It needs a lot of discipline, but stay interested!"

19 Have a head start
Theo Aartsma
"When you start working, do everything as fast as you can. This works the same with brainstorming - it boosts your creativity. Learn to love little mistakes and coincidental solutions. Then, as you continue with your work, slow down until finally you're spending hours on the fine details. Also learn where your strength in the process lies, and exploit that to the best of your ability."

Top type tip
Do metrics by hand
Juan Carlos Pagan
"Take time over your typeface's kerning and metrics - don't rely on your software's calculations, do it by hand. Each typeface has its own nuances that automatic calculations can't hope to understand. Automatic kerning can help as a starting point, although just remember to factor in a good chunk of time to tweak and adjust your metrics to perfection."

20 Boredom is an important tool
Oded Ezer, www.odedezer.com
"The thing we fear most in our profession is that we will be bored of the job, bored of the client and of our life as designers. I say that boredom is a tool, just like play. Whenever you are bored, the first step is to say, 'I hate this'. Then you start to daydream, and this is exactly when you come up with stupid ideas. That's the moment you become original."

23 Customise using Fontlab
Peter Crnokrak
"Designers frequently crave rare typefaces that give a bespoke quality to their work. Instead of searching through type specimen books, customise your favourite typeface by using the powerful transformation tools in FontLab. Multiple Master, Interpolation and Actions tools enable the designer to create changes - subtle or dramatic - that result in a typeface that no one else possesses."

24 Scale up
Sam Harris
"At college, I once had to take the letter 'R' from a serif typeface and re-draw it on a large piece of paper. I then checked it to see how close to the original I was. It made me consider every curve, stroke and change in weight of the letterform. Collect and reference anything typographic that catches your eye - a logo, a typeface, a business card, a nice clean spread, and ask yourself why you like it; what's good or different about it? Keep asking questions."

25 Search far and wide for inspiration
Heist Toronto, www.heist-toronto.com
"Find inspiration from other sources: anatomy, music, architecture, fashion or beyond. Typography is about finding relationships, contrasts and underlying tensions between elements and concepts - one typeface we provided was inspired by fashion designer Rick Owens. Typography can be image, it can be three-dimensional, it can manifest itself in physical materials - there are endless possibilities."

Top type tip
Know your limits
Simon Page
"Typeface design can often be born from a single letter, but a good approach is to start designing or sketching your initial ideas with a few key characters ('n', 'b', 'o' and 'v' for example) or a specific word. Keeping early designs to a limited set - fewer than nine characters is good practice, as the design will evolve. This gives you something to reflect on, considering proportion and translation before you extend it further."

31 Start your families small
Panos Vassiliou
"Start with a very careful and detailed design of three to four extreme weights, for instance black, regular and light. Make sure they contain the same number of similar nodes. Use interpolation to generate the remaining weights. Interpolation does not translate into an automatic production of the other weights - in most cases an exhaustive amount of corrections and adjustments must be performed."

33 Experiment tirelessly
Alex Haigh
"When it comes to using typography within design, it's almost impossible to plan your outcome; it isn't a case of creating an idea and running with it. Tireless experimentation is where great ideas and great solutions come from. I can't think of a better way of working with typography than creating a vast variety of versions, taking each version forward and finally settling on a pleasant end result you didn't expect to reach."

34 Get your (side)bearings
Panos Vassiliou
"Things like the spacing or kerning of characters, as well as the proper position or shape of accents, are very important for a demanding customer. If letters are not properly spaced, the text will be hard to read. Start by adjusting the sidebearings of capitals 'H' and 'O', as well as lowercase 'n' and 'o', which you will use as your reference. Then, for every new character created, adjust the sidebearings based on the similarities of its straight or round strokes to the letters used as reference."

05 No pedestals please
Cardon Webb
"Don't put type on such a pedestal that it becomes untouchable. Too many designers are afraid of creating, customising and altering type. The most beautiful type treatments you see are often drawn, altered and pushed by the hand of a designer. Ask what you can bring to the typeface, not what the typeface can bring to you. Words have a look and sound, so amplify them."

08 Make sketches your springboard
Robin Snasen Reng¥rd
"When illustrating type, I usually sketch the techniques beforehand. Experimenting enables me to work without constraints, and it's always nice to have a library of ideas and shapes to fall back on. These sketches often serve as a springboard for the work, and they let me focus on the things that work in the design rather than experimenting the client's budget to a pulp."

12 Let the reader fill in the gaps
Sean Freeman, www.thereis.co.uk
"I've had some great requests recently for headline treatments that need to look organic and natural but still legible. It can be tricky to get to that special place of balancing legibility with a beautiful treatment. One thing I've found you can do is not necessarily make every single letter perfectly legible on its own, but [emphasise] what the key letters are. The reader's mind does the rest."

Top type tip
Don't ask permission
Juan carlos Pagan
"I always get a great feeling about design when I view work that makes me think twice about my own preconceived, purely subjective notions regarding the relationships between form, space and colour. This feeling is only heightened when it's combined with strong concepts. Don't forget to start making the work you want to make now - don't wait for anyone to give you permission to start. It won't come."

15 Pay attention to texture
Michele Angelo
"A process I really like is using textures that make the type block more organic and 'alive'. I'm not saying I don't respect the rules of type, but the classic rules of legibility, which I admit I never really studied at school but I had to learn in recent years, don't always apply to my headers and lettering. Sometimes a good result is about a visual balance and an interesting development of the letterforms."

18 Be consistent with your concept
Jrmie Nuel
"It's difficult for us at Atelier Aquarium to regard letters as decorative elements, so we rarely use type illustratively. Even when we arrive at a solution, we try to choose the form of the letter and the type of sign that will support the meaning of the whole document. In the case of letters drawn by hand, more often than not it works well. This choice needs to be consistent with the concept behind the entire project, and not a mechanical action."

22 Use a pencil
Robin Snasen Reng¥rd
"Starting out with a pencil and paper before you throw yourself at the mercy of Adobe Illustrator is a quick and organic way to start building a typeface. There is something about the flow of sketching by hand that I find very useful as opposed to starting designs directly on a computer. This applies for both rigid font making and free, organic illustration work. You can't beat the precision of Illustrator, but using a pencil can create new approaches and angles to create the type."

Top type tip
See type as shapes, not letters
Peter Crnokrak
"When designing display type, it is a common predilection to design recognisable letterforms as opposed to intriguing shape/shape relationships. Even if the intention is to retain a functional level of legibility, designers have quite a lot of room to engineer visually arresting forms. The Non-Format team are masters in this regard. Many of their display faces retain a pronounced experimental and playful quality."

25 Shaping your composition
Alex Trochut
"When working with a composition for a particular display text or headline, looking at the shapes of the letters for that particular context might help you to choose one type or another, or help you to determine the best way to play with the composition of the words on the page. If there are lots of 'V's, 'K's, 'A's or 'M's you might want to play with diagonal composition; for 'P's, 'Q's, 'O's and 'R's you might want to focus on the round shapes."

28 Be hands-on
Yomar Augusto
"It is essential to keep in mind that the handmade process is the main thing. Today, with all these digital processes, I think it is important to keep hold of the 'hands on' thing. I'm currently trying to design typography illustration installations, and I'm realising how much work must be put into designing even one single character or glyph. It must be done calmly and firmly."

29 Be a matchmaker
Simon Page, www.simoncpage.co.uk
"There's a fine line between making the type legible without sacrificing your design idea. When you are designing a type illustration that you know is going to be difficult to read, it can help to break the design down into some of the key letter pairs. When you realise what these key shapes are and how they influence the type's legibility, you will be able to push the boundaries."

Top type tip
Intentional mismanagement
Jonathan Calugi
"When cataloguing your typefaces in your clean and perfect archive with too many foundries and too many styles, make a mistake! Just put some crazy font inside your nice, clean folder. Then, when you have to work on a new project and you think, "I want to search a basic font inside my sans serif folder," maybe you'll find a new solution using your crazy font."

07 Avoid toenail fonts
Adam J Evans
"I like to keep my essential fonts close to hand and not mix them up with bizarre freeware fonts that I might use once in a blue moon. When you're looking for something sleek and sexy for a business card, you don't want a typeface made up of toenails popping up in your list. There are a lot of free font management applications out there that enable you to categorise your fonts and turn certain folders on and off, so you're never overloaded with the ones you simply don't need."

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.

Get the Creative Bloq Newsletter

Related articles