Smashing Logo Design: The Art of Creating Visual Identities

Chapter 8: Turning to Typography

Typography is the art of creating, arranging, and modifying type. Relating to logo design, it’s the way in which you visually display the letterforms or characters.

Typefaces have great influence over people’s decisions, helping to further emphasize the message of a brand. The typefaces that you choose can effect whether the right message is being communicated to the viewer. Handling typography correctly is such an enormous subject that I can’t explain the ins and outs of its theory and best practices within one single chapter—entire books have been written on the subject. However, this chapter does give you a greater understanding of working with fonts and adjusting typefaces to help improve a logo design.

If you’re interested in delving deeper into typography, I recommend the following books:

• Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works, by Erik Spiekermann & E. M. Ginger (Adobe Press)

• The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst (Hartley & Marks)

• Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type, by Ina Saltz (Rockport Publishers)

Note: You’ll frequently hear people use the terms font and typeface interchangeably, but there is a difference. A typeface is the particular design of a style of type; a font is the physical element in which the typeface is created to apply the typeface. A font is the file that you acquire and then go on to use in your work.

Designing your own typefaces

In an ideal world, you wouldn’t ...