Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
Page: 224
206-233 03171.indd 224 9/24/11 10:08 AM
Text
Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
Page: 224
224
Typography, Referenced
W
hen diff ering elements on a format look
like they belong together, designers call
it unity. This togetherness across multi-
ple documents, such as pages found in
books or magazines or areas of a website, tells users
that they are interacting with something whole and
complete. Many designers use the term Gestalt—
meaning an organized whole perceived as more than
the sum of its parts—to explain unity in design com-
positions, whether printed, digital, or experiential.
Repetition is one way to achieve unity through color,
shape, size, placement, arrangement, order, or depth.
Typographic variety is one of the primary tools
to create hierarchy () by varying, for example,
the typeface’s size, tone, color, texture, placement,
weight, width, and position. Too much repetition
isn’t always necessary, and sometimes it can
fragment a design’s message or worse yet, frazzle the
reader. Just enough variation between typographic
elements can go a long way to diff erentiating levels of
information at both large and small scales.
Unity and Variety
These three bottles for FdeC sherry each have diff erent color
contents and identifi cation labels. However, the consistent
visual treatment of the typography—in terms of size, weight,
and placement—tells shoppers that the bottles come from
the same product family. Design Bridge, United Kingdom.
As readers page through the Westminster School’s Vision magazine,
they encounter a range of weighted spreads that include photo-
graphic content, as well as all text. (These pages include the typefaces
Akzidenz Grotesk, Garamond, and .) One added feature in this
design is the use of matte versus gloss inks, to give it a subtle but appre-
ciative fourth level of variety. Creatives, United Kingdom.
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TYPOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLES