Introducing... Typography!

Typography is an important aspect of a message that can enhance storytelling. Typography is a visual art that arranges text to make it fascinating and legible. A storyteller must choose between different fonts, text sizes and spacings.

Image: Wix

Typography Games

Typography games help teach users the intricacies of the art form. The games promote the different aspects of typography and their importance to storytelling. As users progress throughout the games, they gain a greater understanding of the importance of each aspect of typography.

Typewar is an online game that showcases the different typefaces. Typewar promotes the importance of choosing a typeface by comparing letters in different fonts. Typewar presents the user with a letter, and you must decide the font from two choices. You level up as you progress throughout the game and get different typefaces correct. Each level comes with a new typeface added to the mix. Examples include Times New Roman, Helvetica Neue, Futura, etc. After each question, Typewar reveals the correct answer and the percentage of users that got the question right. The software keeps track of your score and answers streak so that you may evaluate your skills in identifying different typefaces.

Image: TypeWar by Lexie Oliver

Kern Type is an online game that helps you build skills in identifying correct letter spacing for different typefaces. Kern Type presents users with a word in a particular typeface. You must arrange the center letters of the word into the correct spacing. Each typeface has a different style of letter spacing. The user must recognize the overall difference in space in the word and evenly divide the letters to create a balanced and readable word. After submitting your letter spacing, Kern Type shows the difference between your spacing and the correct spacing of the word. Your score is ranked on the closeness of the solution and your spacing.

Image: Kern Type by Lexie Oliver

Importance of Typography

Typography is critical to design by ensuring that a story is easily read and visually interesting. Typography can help an author communicate tone and emotion to the reader. It also creates an aesthetic across the design piece that can be used to promote the brand. Public Relations is essentially the promotion of a company or personal brand. Intentional design is a good way to promote a brand, and typography is key to design and message.

While playing the typography games, I learned just how important the aspects of word spacing and typeface are to design. A bolded font can promote a message that requires immediate action. In contrast, a font like Times New Roman promotes a serious message. Both of these typefaces are easy to read and important to getting the message across. A more quirky font, however, could attract more attention and reach a larger audience. Typewar helped me understand how much of an impact a different font can have on a message. Kern Type showed me the importance that letter spacing has in readability. Larger spaces between letters are often more legible, and bold letters need larger spacing.