Goal

Estab­lish a defined set of col­ors that sup­port the breath of com­mu­ni­ca­tion essen­tial to a visual brand iden­tity across a con­tem­po­rary range of media forms.

Objective

Cre­ate a list of type­faces, fonts and glyphs use­ful in doc­u­ment­ing a brand’s typo­graphic iden­tity, and doc­u­ment the nec­es­sary specifications.

Background

• Every­thing You Need to Know About Choos­ing Brand Fonts
• Choos­ing type – Fonts Knowl­edge — Google Fonts
• Find­ing your type: How to pick the right font for your brand.
• https://​drop​boxde​sign​stan​dards​.com/​f​o​u​n​d​a​t​i​o​n​/​t​y​p​o​g​r​a​p​h​y​/​i​n​tro
• Styles — Mate­r­ial Design 3
• Tik­Tok Brand Guidelines
• Typog­ra­phy | Instagram’s Brand Refresh | About Instagram
• Add fonts to your website
• Get Started with the Google Fonts API  |  Google for Developers

Exercise:

Using efforts from pre­vi­ous course assign­ments, gen­er­ate a range of type­faces choices use­ful for cre­at­ing the arti­facts and expe­ri­ences typ­i­cal of the the breadth of con­tem­po­rary brand. Text choices should cover a wide range of uses, com­mu­ni­cate effec­tively, as well as meet Amer­i­cans with Dis­abil­i­ties Act (ADA) com­pli­ancy. The appli­ca­tions are almost end­less, but a basic set will include the fol­low­ing for both print and dig­i­tal applications:

• A main head­line style, type­face, font, weight and style
• A series of sub-head­lines, mir­ror­ing H1-H6
• Body type set­tings, for read­ing var­i­ous paragraphs 
• Type choices for cap­tions, fine-print and bylines
• Head­line and body text col­ors, pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive backgrounds

Good type selec­tions will work any­where, and serve the far reach­ing, and multi-lin­gual needs of our con­tem­po­rary cul­ture. While a spe­cial­ity, or dis­play face may be part of the logo-type, a more func­tional selec­tion will need to match or will require adap­ta­tion to the logo­type. A work­horse, well respected type­face and fam­ily will give all the vari­a­tions and spe­cial char­ac­ters. Like­wise, a pro­fes­sional type­face will likely come in an Open­Type file for­mat and have well tested spac­ing met­rics for proper use. 

The choices are valu­able guide­lines to under­stand­ing the func­tion of type in prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions and design solu­tions, regard­less of media form. 

Part One

Select a few choices based on the tone and com­mu­nica­tive value of the brand research and brain­storm­ing. Con­firm any pre­vi­ous selec­tions and con­sider some clas­sic rec­om­men­da­tions. Once basic choices are made, select a com­mon, default type­face for use on more tra­di­tional pro­grams, such as word-pro­cess­ing and pre­sen­ta­tion pro­grams for use by staff with­out expen­sive software. 

Using the pro­vided print tem­plates and the in-class instruc­tions, replace the type­faces and cre­ate PDF’s and or prints to sub­mit to the appro­pri­ate course dropbox.

Part Two

Using the pro­vided HTML and CSS tem­plate and the in-class instruc­tions, test font choices from Part One in a dig­i­tal media form. If nec­es­sary, find alter­na­tive options for paid fonts if ser­vices are not avail­able. Archive (.zip) the par­ent folder and sub­mit to the appro­pri­ate course dropbox.

Assessment

• The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine exer­cise score: Exer­cise Grading

Materials

Adobe Illus­tra­tor or other vec­tor draw­ing pro­gram, font ser­vices, Dreamweaver or HTML author­ing program