In my second year of Media Design I was assigned to write a paper, presentation and collect examples of Type as Information for my design 2 class. I think it was a really interesting topic and brought up design methods I haven’t thought about or made me think twice on.
I thought I would share some of the information I learned from reading about this topic and share some examples.
The most important task of a designer is to give information that the viewer can easily navigate. Information can appear in many different parts: callouts, captions, and sidebars. All these parts couldn’t exist without the other. This is called the “informational hierarchy,” which is based on the level of importance of each part of the text. The most important text part, which is most often the title, should be read first. The hierarchy in type is like a design hierarchy and usually supports one another. The most important thing in the hierarchy should be the biggest and boldest, and it gradually gets smaller with the importance of information. Our eyes will naturally follow that order. You should ask these series of questions before developing your information: What are the distinguishable parts of the information? Which part(s) should be the focus for the reader? How do they relate to images that accompany the text elements?
All text is important and serves their point no matter where they’re placed. We can create an even greater importance by using the space around the text. Grouping text that belongs together will create unity and allow the reader to continue reading rather than jumping all around. It will also lead them to some of the more “important” information.
Another way to enhance text spatially is by using colors and typefaces. Using typographic color will separate elements and make them stand out much more. Typefaces are the usage of different fonts. Text in the same font or color may be uniform but sometimes it causes the reader to lose interest.
The way the text is structured is also extremely important. Structure helps readers navigate and easily connect information. As previously mentioned, grouped text will indicate to the reader that that information is related and goes together. When there’s a break in between the grouped text, it should lead to a different set of information. This text can be aligned in vertical or horizontal columns. Vertical columns will create a sense of continuity downward. Using both horizontal and vertical columns of text and alignment of lines, clusters, and columns will create a path for our eyes to flow naturally to. It is the designer’s job to guide the reader and use this path to their advantage.
Lines, dots, and shapes are all elements of design. Text can also be seen as a collection of those elements. We can use bullet points as dots to take advantage of the surrounding space. Lines are very similar to lines of type, horizontally or vertically, which can navigate, separate, or emphasize text. These lines could also be angled, curved or wavy to add flow and interest. Lastly, clusters of text can be a placeholder for shapes in design. This type could be inside or follow the outline of the shape. Or create a vague shape within the cluster of text.
All these elements are important to make type in design visually interesting and simple to understand for everyone to navigate.
Here are some examples that I found that represent type as information well.
