“ Type is saying things to us all the time. express a mood, an atmosphere. They give words a certain coloring.”

– Rick Poyner,

Typography Tips: • Try to use only use two at a time. • Sans serif fonts may be harder to read than serif fonts (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Serif vs. Sans Serif.

• It’s usually best to use a serif with a sans serif font for contrast. • These typefaces allow for a variety of combinations, but at the same time, they also allow for a distinct and uniform look for St. Mary’s School. • Think of typography in terms of “applying type in an expressive way to reveal the content clearly and memorably with the least resistance from the reader” (White). • All caps are harder to read than lowercase; three or more lines of all caps should be avoided. • Italics are harder to read than regular type. Use italics briefly for emphasis. • 10-pt. type is the smallest you should set the size for web and print. • Type that has a funny shape (e.g. Burst My Bubble, Zapfino) draws attention to itself rather than the content, which is a hindrance to the reader. Thus, use these fonts as titles and not passages of text.

1 Font Families

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Serif fonts are very traditional because their roots are in the old-fashioned printing presses’ moveable type. Fonts containing serifs are known for their readable quality, and Book Antiqua is a serif font intended for print materials (e.g. newspaper advertisements, brochures, flyers) and is aesthetically pleasing alongside Zapfino or Helvetica. St. Mary’s prides itself on tradition, and this traditional is not only versatile but also readable, and it’s intended for either body paragraphs or headings.

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Helvetica, which means the “Swiss typeface” in Latin, is a very nuanced typeface that has quite a history. It finds itself at the intersection of two schools of thought:

Typeface should not express emotion at all; the meaning is in the text alone (modern).

vs.

Typeface should express emotion in conjunction to the text (post-modern).

Helvetica is a product of 1950s idealism. The Swiss type designers debuted this rational typeface in 1957 and lauded it for being intelligible and legible. Today, Helvetica proponents claim the typeface creates order - the ascenders, descenders, and horizontal terminals are even; in the same vein, it’s neutral, clear, readable, and straightforward. The figure ground relationships between and within the characters make it appear firm and immovable. Government agencies use Helvetica to seem more transparent, socially responsible and accessible; for example, the EPA uses it, and tax forms are in Helvetica. On the other hand, ABH (anything but Helvetica) designers say it was a good type from the 1950s-1970s, but it’s outdated and doesn’t have contrast. ABH designers also claim the letters all look the same so it’s like an army; thus the Helvetica font family will be used to complement the selected serif and script fonts. Helvetica is suited for St. Mary’s text in print and on the web because it represents “a badge” that we all share the same ideas and that these ideas are safe.

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRUSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrustuvwxyz Though many schools may view handwriting as a dying art, handwriting is a lucrative skill for personal and professional correspondence. St. Mary’s School prides itself as one of the few schools in the CSRA that teaches penmanship in elementary and middle school. The Zapfino font family embodies the other unique elements of a St. Mary’s education: a rigorous, traditional education based on reading, writing, and arithmetic. This font is not intended to be used as body text but for headers and titles because it is difficult to read beyond a few words at a time. The font is intended to be used in print or on the web.

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Similar in function to Zapfino, the Burst My Bubble font family is meant for special occasions and is intended to be used as a header or title font because it’s difficult to read in blocks of text. It’s reminiscent of and should be used sparingly. This font can be used for events and occasions that promote family fun and involvement such as Grandparents’ Day and Gingerbread day as well as promotional events such as A Morning @ St. Mary’s and ice cream socials. Overall, this font aims to express, “We like to have fun at St. Mary’s.”

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Fertigo Pro is readable and can be used as either headers or body text. It will pair well with the sans serif font, Helvetica, and it’s not intended to be used alongside serif fonts (e.g. Book Antiqua) or handwriting fonts (e.g. Zapfino and Burst My Bubble).

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28 Days Later is a “grunge” font that appears in Figure 2 in the portion that states, “Come See Us.” The lowercase letters in this font are just smaller version of the uppercase letters. Thus, this font should not be used for long passages of text, since text in all caps is more difficult to read than text in sentence case.

Grunge typography, in general, is nostalgic of the 1990s, and the famous typographer David Carson popularized this style of typography. Carson is famous for saying, “Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible, doesn’t mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing.”

Figure 2 (left): The ad from the Alumni & Friends Hospitality Room at the 24th Annual Chocolate Festival.

4 Works Cited

Helvetica. Dir. Gary Hustwit. 2007. DVD.

White, Alex. The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type. [New

York]: Allworth, 2002. Print.

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