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We’re back with the second part of the Stylescapes blog series, ‘Stylescapes in Design’. In this part, we will go over the process of selecting a typeface and color in detail, as it is critical to creating an effective design.
Let’s get started!
Selection of color and typeface is done only once we know the product we wish to create and its intended use. Since both of these are used to establish a brand’s identity, it’s critical to comprehend a product’s branding guidelines. If the product is new and has no branding guidelines, it’s crucial to establish the brand’s attributes, look, and feel through mood boards before choosing colors and typeface.
Typography
Typography is a design discipline that focuses on the use of typefaces and their organization to create understandable, usable & readable user-friendly interfaces or experiences.
A typeface consists of different fonts, & fonts consist of different weights which helps us create a hierarchy in design. While looking for a good typeface for your platform these are a few things to keep in mind
1. Font weights:
Using 5-8 variations of font weights ensures a balanced design with a clear visual hierarchy. Having a good weight distinction between headings, sub-headings, and body text leads to good readability and legibility.
2. Characters:
Individual characters in a typeface must also be tested before use on a platform. Some typefaces may have letters or numbers that are designed differently, affecting reading.
For example, in Camp Monk, payment pages require typefaces with clear, legible numbers. For a good user experience during the payment process.
3. Brand Attributes:
When selecting a typeface, consider the desired look and feel of your product. Your brand attributes play a major role in picking typefaces.
For example, Camp Monk markets itself as casual, friendly, modern, and fun. When considering these terms, we may select a modern typeface, i.e., a geometric sans serif typeface. These have characters with distinctive strokes that make them exciting and interesting.
The keywords above can help us filter out fonts & pick a few options that might work best for our platform.
Typesetting – Experiment & Explore
Before we finalize a typeface for our platform, we frequently test it by creating a few mock screens. Various elements such as forms and billing/statistics pages are used to test numbers and symbols. We also use content-rich pages to measure character readability and legibility, with a process called Typesetting.
We can create 4-5 variations, each with a distinct font usage. The next step is to compare them to determine which font is ideal for the platform. Here we try to go into depth by experimenting with different sizes & weights to achieve good hierarchy & balance.
Picking the right typeface
After we tested a few fonts using the process of typesetting, we picked Satoshi to be the most suitable.
Satoshi Font Family is a modernist sans serif typeface. Graceful circular curves and strong angular elements distinguish this font family, evoking a Swiss modernist aesthetic. It is a well-liked option for designers searching for a premium sans-serif typeface because of its contemporary appearance and adaptability.
The characteristics of this typeface were a unique combination of modern, friendly, and fun. The combination of these characteristics can help us define the brand’s identity with the right usage.
Typographic scale
We use the typographic scale, which connects various type sizes that expand by the same ratio. We can establish balanced and harmonious font scaling using this method. This approach will assist us in creating a scalable and adaptable type system.
We used this method to define consistent sizing of headings, sub-headings, body & caption texts for Camp Monk. Here is the type scale system we use for Camp Monk.
We meticulously created the platform using the previously described techniques. We mainly focused on details like letter spacing and character adjustments to establish a visual hierarchy. This also helped us enhance the design’s aesthetics.
Moving on to color, which is also an important aspect of design and defines the brand’s identity.
Color
A UI color palette is critical for achieving visual harmony, building brand identity, and influencing user behavior. A well-curated color palette improves the user experience by guiding them seamlessly across the UI.
A well-curated UI color palette is essential for creating visual harmony, building brand identity, and enhancing user experience. We typically categorize colors into primary, secondary, and tertiary groups, selecting the primary color based on the brand’s attributes and the product’s purpose. Complementary secondary and tertiary colors create contrast and balance, ensuring a seamless and engaging design.
Picking the right colors
For instance, we select yellow and brown as the primary colors in Camp Monk. Yellow symbolizes joy, energy, and happiness. Brown on the other hand represents nature. The colors perfectly aligned with the platform’s focus on outdoor experiences like serene campgrounds and adventurous caravan parks. We understood color psychology and its impact on user perception to create a modern, minimal, and cohesive design. Clean and contrasting shades of yellow and brown, balanced with neutral tones, effectively. This helped communicate the brand’s essence while elevating the user experience.
Colors & Symbolism
We may express a variety of concepts by using color. For example, red can stand for heat, passion, excitement, danger, and error. On the other hand, blue can stand for stability, clarity, security, and truth. When designing, we purposefully employ the right colors to establish a brand identity and evoke a certain emotion in users of the platform.
Additionally, we should remember that different colors have different meanings for different groups of people. For instance, we use red as a hue of mourning in South Africa, while it is considered auspicious in China and included on their flag. In Western regions, the hue symbolizes vigor and enthusiasm. When designing for users in different nations, we must carefully consider color usage, as it can impact how effectively users understand our intended message.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while many elements contribute to defining a brand’s identity, color and typography are key. Together, they not only shape the brand’s image but also enhance usability and create a positive user experience.
In the upcoming part of the Stylescapes series,
We’ll be back soon with part 3 of the ‘Stylescapes in Design’ blog. We will dive deep into other visual elements & their importance in this part. Stay tuned to learn more about stylescapes.
Have a look at our blog, ‘Stylescapes in Design: Part I – Importance and Process‘ if you haven’t already, to learn more about the process.
