Sep 29, 2024
The Art of Playful Typography.
The Art of Playful Typography and how it can transform your website. This is a curious and important topic that's often overlooked and taken for granted—especially now that we have tools to assist our creative process. As I type this using Grammarly, I'm intrigued to understand more about how, why, and when typography became an important part of our world. Furthermore, how does it help or hinder us when building content for our websites?
It's clear that all designers—from brand designers to UI designers to dedicated typographers—can benefit from expanding their knowledge of typography and typeface classification. Being willing to learn and keep learning is an art in itself. We all work hard to understand how Google uses links as a signal when determining page relevancy and finding new pages to crawl. We've learned to make our links crawlable so Google can see other pages on our site, and we've improved our anchor text to make our content more comprehensible for both people and search engines. However, in this process, we may overlook the nuanced attitude within our words, potentially undervaluing the meaning behind the writing and letting quality slip through the cracks. Therefore, this discussion is more vital than ever.
As AI-generated content becomes prevalent, a new consumer sales trend is taking shape. It's more than just using a tool that matters—it's the artist's interpretation of the text, focusing more on that than on how the words impact your Google rankings. At this stage, you need to invest valued effort into this process. More human checkpoints and focus are necessary to ensure the voice remains natural and organic.Let's look at the types of typography and briefly explore the history of how we write and print words. Research shows that the oldest typefaces, called blackletter, date back to the 13th century. These early typefaces resembled handwritten calligraphy. After this came the first serif typefaces. Serifs include slight projections that finish off the strokes of their letterforms. This then moved through old-style transitional serifs, which first appeared in the 16th century. Jumping forward a few steps, the 18th-century neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces were designed to be more legible than their earlier counterparts. Helvetica and Arial are both examples of neo-grotesque sans serifs.All this history aside, how we use typefaces on our websites is a real skill and consideration.
The content we create, no matter how busy we or our clients are getting now, remains a vital component of substance, growth, and reader experience—ensuring we build on wider skillsets.
Some useful questions;
Which style do you like most?
What is your preference - hand written or digital print?
How do you write mostly - and where?
Does an iPad work for you?All these questions and more - are helpful to explore.