How To Become a Typography Designer

Everyone wants to become an Expert or a professional in their field of work. There are approximately 300,000+ people employed as Designer. But rarely you will come across a Typography developer. An estimate suggests that the number of Typography professional is less than 5% of the total number of graphics dressings.

If you want to become a Typography professional you should understand all terminology behind it. Also you should follow every rule in the book, to become the best in this profession.

Why becoming a typography designer a good idea?

Well, because there are very limited professional typography experts available in the market and because of of today’s exponential growth in digital media, the demand is fairly high.

Now, let me list down all the major points you need to know in order to become a  “typographic pro” only if you follow them later.

First and Foremost, let’s start by defining Typography.

What is Typography?

It is derived from the word TYPE. This is the art/ technique of arranging or typing words ,letters, numbers to make written language legible, appealing when displayed and readable. It’s that Simple! Typography is one of the most important components of graphic design. As a typographic designer, it’s always helpful to keep reminding yourself about the principles of typography despite your experience.

It’s always advisable to read new things in order to gain more knowledge in design as well as broadening your mind. You have to keep on thrilling and surprising your clients with different and catchy ideas on your art. This is what will keep you relevant in the market! For you to break the rules, you got to learn, understand and master them and think out of the box!

Inspiration and passion!

Having inspiration and Passion for typographic design is very important.  When you do something that you have passion for ,you have a very high chance of succeeding as well as bringing out the best results. If typographic design inspires you, then you are in the right field.

You can find tons of articles online about design inspiration. Inspiration comes from different place and things; you don’t have to go the web to get you inspired. Your surroundings can your source of inspiration.

Here are some of the most important elements of typography.

1. Understand the basics

Typography is actually not as straightforward as most of the people think. The fact is that, it’s quite complicated because it’s a combination of art and science. It also requires a lot of creativity. Your art has to “speak” to your clients.  You have to always be keen on the very simple basics of the art that most of the people ignore. That makes you unique!

2. Font communication

Typeface selection is not a just a random process. Choosing any font you personally like will not always create a satisfying and efficient end result. When designing, you need to always ensure that your type is “speaking” or rather connecting to your audience/client. This is actually more than just making sure that your copy is exemplary written. It’s also about curtaining that the font you use fits your market.

3. Understand kerning

Kerning is the act of adjusting the space between two letters in the designated font. Do not mix this up with “tracking” which is adjusting the space between all letters simultaneously. Most of the designers’ tent to ignore to the kerning issue, thinking that it the program will auto fix it. Take note that programs like Adobe Illustrator don’t fix it properly. Keep your focus on the negative spacing between the letter more than on the actual letters as they are, and make the space visually acceptable within the word, so your typography will look properly spaced.

4. Limit your fonts

One of the most common mistakes designers do is using too many fonts and styles. In case you need more than one font in your art, make sure not to go beyond 3 fonts. The first font can before the body, the second one for the header, and the 3^rd one for the subhead. Don’t be reluctant on choosing fonts from different typeface families, as long as there is connection in the pairing.

5. Bring visual hierarchy into play

Typographic hierarchy is the way you actually stress a certain lines of type as opposed to others. In the end, you will have established and moved the order in which your audience will receive information from the art. Without using typographic hierarchies, it becomes slightly difficult for readers to notice important pieces of information within the whole design.

6. You have to work with grids

It’s very critical to understand and use a design grid in typography. This ensures that every character on the page is connected to the other in order to produce logical and visual harmony. It’s not a must to use grids every time you create something. However, it’s quite beneficial when you understand how and why grids are used, when typography is particularly involved.

7. Your Design should be Simple, understandable and readable

Whatever you design, make sure that people can easily read your message. Avoid contrast in your work. Make it simple and neat. You can have an excellent piece of work, but all your efforts might go to waste if you miss out on simplicity.

8. Avoid on “widows” and “orphans”

One of the easiest ways to take your design to the next level is by identifying and wiping out widows and orphans. This “widow” is a line of text in a paragraph, but has shifted to the next column. An “orphan” is basically the same with an exception that there’s only a single word left on its own. It’s almost inevitable for widows and orphans to show up in any type-centered designs, so you must know how to correctly deal with them.

There are several techniques to manage widows and orphans. You can do a manual text edit to modify the length of the lines to completely eliminate the problem.

9. Always utilize the empty spaces

White space is a distinctive and valuable tool that can bring out something special from your design. A smartly-utilized empty space brings out effects which are very beneficial to your art. It helps to focus on a particular part of your composition. It brings stability to the design. Utilizing empty space adds some sort of sophistication to the design.

10. Use and treat typography as art

Most of typographic designers think about it as just font(s) used on art designing. You as a professional, you have to avoid that kind of thinking mentality.  Fonts are carefully fashioned and thus require a level of artistry that becomes a valuable advantage to your design toolbox. This is beyond constructing plain text. It’s about treating fonts as a form of art. In order to produce a splendid design, think of how you can make eye-catching fonts as the design pro.

Also, don’t feel like you’re limited by the composition of existing typefaces. Do your search to find the right one that will meet your needs. Then add swirls, textures, lines, and anything else cool, quirky, or fun to elevate the look and feel of the font.

11. Work with the right tools

As a designer, you must know what tools fit the task. Even more importantly, you must know what tools you shouldn’t touch. There are so many programs available online like Adobe, which can help you determine the tools for certain procedures.

Keep in mind that paid tools can be a bit pricey, so make a product comparison to know which tools you need to buy and which ones you can bypass.

12. Your grammar has to be on point. repeat

Grammar can be a confusing and tricky design component since there are tons of hidden rules you may not be aware of. Making an effort to learn, understand and master the design-oriented grammar rules can help you create a professionally-looking piece of art.

The three grammar errors you must pay extra attention to are ampersands, double spaces after punctuation, as well as hyphens and dashes.

There are various guidelines for design-specific sentence structure. A grammatically correct art can elevate your profession to a completely different level as it displays how careful you are on the little details.

13. Practice makes perfect!

Constant practice brings perfection to your our skills. Now that you know the typographic rules and guidelines, you have to put them in to practice. Practicing over and over will help you familiarize yourself with them.

Just try these few tips and see whether you won’t be the next great typographic expert.

Good luck!