Strong Silent Type
Web typography in 2015
Then
I studied Graphic Design at university. In which typography is king.
Then I took a job at a digital agency. (Not my current one for the record)
That was in 2006.
When web typography was… shall we say limiting, to put it politely.
Frankly, there was very little you could do to make your words look sexy. And to deliver a cohesive brand experience online, through typography, was near impossible.
The availability of well crafted web fonts was non existent, fonts rendered poorly on low res screens, and typography took a back seat to NICE. BIG. IMAGES. (and often texture… lot’s of texture!)
So there were plenty of dodgy, seemingly ill considered, typographic treatments on the web.
And though we web designers did our best with the tools provided, we inevitably focused our efforts elsewhere.
Now
Flash forward to today. Right here and now. I’m typing in Freight-Text-Pro Regular 22px. Line height 33px. With 0px tracking. And it looks lovely.
Well hello there readers, I’m a call out quote
My sub heads contrast beautifully in Jaf-Bernino-Sans Bold 36px. With a tasty call out quote in Freight-Text-Pro Regular Italic 32px. Look at it above. Can’t miss it can you?
I can’t take credit for this. It’s thanks to Williams and Stone’s design team, here on Medium. Cue applause.
But they were able to create this masterpiece because web typography times are a’ changin.
At long last
Now we have at our fingertips a great big dollop of FREE webfonts from the like of Google, Fonts.com and the marvellous Typekit.
Not to mention the availability of some (most) serious type heroes in their web friendly counterparts.
And furthermore now with OpenType advanced features, we can begin to finesse the treatment of our words, (almost) to the extent of our friends, the print designers.
But challenges for us digital designers still exist.
We must be cautious when Responsive Web Designing. The balance and flow of typography must be carefully crafted, at all sizes. So that our words look slick and appropriate, on every device.
The difference between acceptable and outstanding typography often rests in the final fit-and-finish
So finally typography is transforming communication on the web. And this year (and last) see designers grabbing this opportunity with both hands. And heart.
Type, take the stage
Here’s some beautiful examples, in case you didn’t believe me.
New Zealand based Sons & Co have gone a long way to proving my point with this website for Fletcher Systems, furniture design. Helvetica Neue in wildly varying sizes, and surprising alignment makes navigating the site a typographic treat.
This Italian webzine, Formagramma, uses Lato with generous tracking as a headline, paired with Sorts Mill Goudy Regular Italic (a free Google webfont) as a subtitle. The pairing gives the site a subtle design edge, that suits its design lead content.
And check this out. Alfred, the errand pairing app, greets you with a purely typographic landing page. And a nice one at that. Simple, well chosen fonts do a great job at communicating a (rather cool) service. This purely typographic approach is being used more and more, in an attempt to stand out from the trending large hero image. With text over it.
Finally, the below screen grab says it all. The Zut Alors site revels in bold, impactful type, making words the absolute boss. Delve deeper throughout the site to enjoy varying font sizes, working hard to tell the story.
So here’s to strong silent type
Because after all, we all know, good typography is merely a vehicle to communicate our message.
And thankfully now it can do so with the grace and consideration that well written content deserves.
Bravo.
