I just want to dance dance dance
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Taking breaks from work is a critical part of any lifestyle. Everyone on the studio team likes to think that they know how to let loose when the time comes. This poster piece is part of a weekly series of free for you to use, distribute, or whatever print designs that we are beginning. We don’t have a name for the series, but let’s just call it Wicked Or Wacky Stuff for You, or WOWS-YOU.
The first in the series is a tribute to the beauty of clean typography. Allow me to introduce to you what happens when you infuse a little Taio Cruz with Myriad Pro (that’s a font, mind you).
GOOD TYPOGRAPHY
As designers, typography is a staple in almost all of our works. While typography itself doesn’t inherently have a bad or good nature, it is absolutely critical to know when to use the right fonts. The Dynamite inspired graphic was created using only Myriad Pro as the typeface. Myriad Pro happens to be one of our favorite fonts here at the studio. More importantly, Myriad Pro is a modern typeface which by itself provides a clean-cut look, which can be bent for your own purposes.
THE MESSAGE YOU WANT TO CONVEY
When you are choosing your fonts, you want to consider what kind of impression you want to convey. Is your task to create a graphic for a dance poster? Or is it to create a poster for a Shakespearean play? Or is it to create a poster for a regional business conference? Handwritten fonts such as James Fajardo might look great if you need a little style or a classier look, but it’s probably not something you want to put on a health care conference poster. (Or maybe it is, depending on if there is a theme.) The bottom line is to make sure you are consciously aware of the fonts you choose for your works. Make the most out of them, and don’t be afraid to go out searching for more fonts.
Dafont.com is a great resource for free fonts. If you have some spending money to shell out, then we recommend you check out Veer.com. They have an amazing library of exclusive and premium fonts that will make any designer drool. But we are going to warn you right now: they’re a top-notch typography firm (in other words, don’t plan on doing much more than window shopping if you don’t have money).
KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE
Knowing who your graphic’s audience will be is a critical step to picking your typeface. Our Dynamite poster graphic was designed assuming our audience would be the younger generation of 16 to 28. The poster content focuses on lyrics from a (relatively) new hit by Taio Cruz called Dynamite (which is why we keep referring to it as the Dynamite poster). While Myriad Pro can be an age-neutral typeface, the colors we chose were intentionally used to simulate the positive colors that would encourage someone to dance. (We are told by researchers that particular shades of red and yellow have a tendency of causing stronger reactions to take action–wow that should be quote.) When in doubt, play around with the typeface and the colors, and then create multiple versions of your graphic. Then send those versions to some test subjects (we like calling them “interns”), and see how they react.
ALWAYS ASK YOUR CLIENT
Lastly, always ask your client what they think about certain typefaces. While it is true that the average layperson have trouble distinguishing fonts or knowing the difference between sans-serif and serif, most people can tell you which font they like better if you put them next to each other for comparison.
Myriad Pro comes pre-packed with all latest versions of Mac OSX, and is becoming an industry standard font. We think that it should replace Helvetica, but that’s our own opinion. Text to the graphic comes from Taio Cruz’s Dynamite. We are in no way affiliated with Taio Cruz, nor his hit single Dynamite. This graphic was created only as our personal project for fun. We are not using this graphic nor the song for any commercial use.
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