DIY design tip: Let's talk typography

Websters describes typography as:
1 : letterpress printing 2 : the style, arrangement, or appearance of typeset matter

I describe typography as my favorite thing about design and also the one thing I get frustrated with when I see "bad typography". What makes typography bad? Well to each is their own.. but I tend to live by the words "less is more" when designing that is.

So lets start with FONTS.
Before we start, remember... Less is more..
With that being said when choosing fonts for your DIY pieces try and pick two different fonts. For invitations I like to use a script an non script. Two commonly used "invitation typefaces" are bickham script and copperplate gothic. One thing to keep in mind when laying out your type is that sometimes script fonts can be difficult to read if used too much.

Next...spacing/leading
How your designs are laid out will effect how it's perceived. The spacing between the lines (called leading) is very important it can make or break a design. If the LEADING is too open (spaced out) your design could feel disconnected, if it's too tight it will look clunky... and if everything is EVENLY spaced exactly the same throughout the whole document it could just look like a big block of print.

Here is a little test... print your design, prop it up on something and walk across the room and squint while you look at it. Does it look like a big hunky block of print?? a rectangle?? if it's a perfect rectangle everything even, then maybe you should re-visit the spacing... I like to break things up... Here is an example of an invitation I recently gocco-ed. (Click on it to make it larger) You can see how I broke up the invitation by adding spacing between the top part and then the names, then the date and reception information.

Ok now ready to see my mistake? See the top three lines... the leading is off between the second and third line. There is a bit too much space between those lines.

So the two tips of the day are.. don't go overboard with fonts and be conscious of the spacing in your designs.

Now if I could only get the type in this blog to look perfect! :)

Hope this helps! Enjoy your day!