Typographics

I was introduced to this video earlier today by a one of the designers on my team at work. The speaker, Jason Santa Maria, is a graphic designer living in New York (check out his site for some background on him; it's pretty impressive). The video is almost an hour long, but well worth the time if you're at all interested in typography. (Read below for my take-aways from the video).

Achieving a thorough grasp of typography can take a lifetime, but moving beyond the basics is within your reach right now, as Jason Santa Maria explains in this hour-long design presentation captured live at An Event Apart Boston on June 18, 2012.

My Take-aways

Jason emphasizes the idea of contrast in typography—stroke contrast within a single typeface as well as contrasting the size and/or weight of typefaces within a larger collection of text to denote hierarchy and organization of information. I think a lot of designers understand this idea, but don't necessarily understand that subtle contrast can sometimes be the most successful. You don't always need a drastically different typeface; sometimes a bold version 2pts. larger than the original will work the best.

He also suggests that designers find their own "personal palette" of typefaces. As he mentions—I have experienced this in my own career—designers often feel pressured to use different typefaces for each new project. While it's good for designers to explore, understanding the beauty and affect of typefaces is often achieved through repeated use. I'd like to add that designers should make sure they're re-using the typeface because it works best for the project and not out of laziness or personal bias to the aesthetic, however.

I'd also like to point out Jason's explanation on how the human eye reads through bodies of text. Around the 22:05 marker, he talks about a rapid movement of the eye while reading, known as a saccade (pronounced "suh-cod"). The eye "jumps" through the text, only stopping on certain points throughout, know as "fixation" points. The length of these jumps is determined by the reader's familiarity with the context of the text. The more familiar the reader is with the context, the larger the gap their eyes can span while still absorbing the information. He mentions this as a reason why designers don't always have to harp on the details of a typeface design. For the most part, especially at smaller sizes and in larger groups of text, the reader is only seeing a small portion of the typeface.