Since I talked about white space yesterday, I thought it made perfect sense to follow with typography today. Since most if not all marketing materials have some amount of text, it’s important to understand how the hierarchy of fonts aids in delivering a message.
Whether you’re creating a brochure or a website the use of titles and sub-titles is how you will start various sections and capture attention. In the case of a website the titles will have a H1 tag and be styled in a larger or bolder or fancier font. In print we don’t necessarily use tags but we do use styles. Titles need to be short and obvious so the reader can quickly scan to get an idea what information is about to be revealed.
Subtitles are not as prominent as titles but do show the reader they are still pretty important. The rest of the copy is body text (or paragraph text on web) and is much smaller in size.
Having a proper hierarchy of text creates flow, highlights main points and breaks up sections to allow your brain to digest things in pieces. Regardless of how much information your including in a piece, the visual presentation does make a difference and typography can actually be something of an art.
Next time you look at your website or marketing materials see how your hierarchy of typography is working and if there may be some room for improvement.