Typography in branding

Member lesson

Typographic tone of voice

Lesson 8 of 8 in Typography in branding.

Fonts are voices — better brands video · TypeTogether Foundry
Lesson

Two brands can use the same typeface and sound nothing alike, because tone in typography comes mostly from how a face is set rather than from which face it is. Size relationships, leading, measure, case, alignment and how much space surrounds a block.

voicewho the brand isthe sameeverywheretonehow it sounds in each momenta welcomean errora receiptbad newsseriousplayfulthe tone changes with the moment. the voice never does
A brand's voice stays the same everywhere, while its tone changes with the moment: playful for a welcome, serious for bad news.
Two posters on a brick wall are made of the same letter shapes, one crammed with huge tight blocks that startles a passer-by and one sparse and small that draws another passer-by in.
Two posters use the very same letters, one packed tight and loud, the other small with room to breathe. How type is set changes its voice more than which font it is.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    A brand book says the typography is confident and human. Why does that not survive contact with a design team?

    • It leaves every designer to interpret it, and interpretation is what makes two pieces from one brand look unrelated
    • Adjectives cannot be written into a stylesheet, so developers ignore them
    • Warmth is a property of the typeface, so the brand would have to buy a new one
    • It commits the brand to a tone it will have to abandon when the audience shifts
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “What the setting says, separately from what the words say.”

    • Tofu
    • Type scale
    • Webfont licence
    • Typographic voice
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Leading equal to the size. Reads as dense, urgent, poster-like.”

    • Set solid
    • Typographic voice
    • Text face
    • Language coverage
End of Typography in brandingMembers onlyNow play it5 games from this module at four levels, and a stamp for your ticket book.

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