Typography design may be a word you’ve heard uttered by those who are designers. For those who don’t know, Typography is “the style and appearance of printed matter”, and believe it or not, we have all partaken in typography design in one form or another. If you have ever created a bulletin cover, sermon presentation, or a flyer for your church, you have used typography design. We wanted to invite the Creative Director of Sharefaith to share the importance of practical typography design and how you can learn to take your designs to the next level by explaining the basics of fonts and where to find them.
The Importance Of Practical Typography Design
I have always loved typography. As a child, I would stare at the spines of books on my parent’s shelves and marvel at the beauty of Helvetica and Avant Garde.
Throughout the years, I have collected thousands of fonts, and trashed almost as many. I remember using almost every PC system font available while designing my first church bulletin. I admit, I have a checkered typographic past (Papyrus, anyone?). Over the past couple of decades, I have researched typography and graphic design ad nauseam, and have learned about the power of fonts.
Great typography is paramount to an effective design. Fonts tell stories, evoke emotions and show style. Bad type can give the impression that your organization is unprofessional, or that you don’t care about your public image.
In my internet travels, I’ve seen a number of designs from our library that have had the original fonts replaced. Sometimes the aesthetics of the design have been marred due to poor font choices. There are many reasons why you might need to change out a font, such as the cost of buying a replacement font, or simply not knowing how to find the needed font online and install it.
How Do I Know Which Font To Use?
You can always check the included font document with each Sharefaith design set to see which fonts are used. Below is a list of great sites where you can find many of the fonts that we use:
Free:
Paid:
(P.S. Creative Market offers 6 FREE items each week, make sure you check them out and download them)
How Do I Install A New Font?
You can find detailed instructions here:
How to instal fonts on a PC/Windows
What If I Don’t Want To Buy A Font?
There may be a time when you just don’t have the budget to spend money on a new font. In this case, study the font that you’re trying to replace. Is it a script, a serif or a san serif? Is it stylized or distressed? Try to find a font that is the same look and style as the font that you’re replacing.
Experiment with our designs and customize them for your audience. If you have problems or questions, please let us know. Our goal is to help you communicate, not only professionally, but beautifully with your community.
Questions? Ideas? I would love to hear from you! Please let me know if you have a series coming up this year and have a great idea for a graphic to go with it.