Lessons Learned as a Graphic Design Intern Part 2 [repost]

August 14, 2010

Note: this is a repost from my previous blog that mysteriously broke. This post was posted on July 16, 2010.

Original Note: This post was originally posted on the Intern Edition Summer 2009 blog, in a post calledLessons of a Graphic Designer: Font Continuity. Seeing as I was the sole writer, I don’t see the problem with reposting it here. I have edited the post for clarity and grammar. The original post can be found here. I thought it would be interesting too look back on some of the thoughts I had while I was interning at National Public Radio.

In my previous post, [fix link] I talked about the importance of a graphic designer to “let go” of their designs and accept that many of their designs might be rejected, regardless of quality.

This time, I want to emphasize the importance of sticking to something once it is chosen, no matter what.  I’m talking about fonts.

Fonts and font continuity are extremely important for brand recognition.  When companies choose a font to represent their brand, they stick to it.  FedEx does not use Arial one day and Helvetica the next, they continuously stick with Futura Bold, with of course the little modification to create that hidden “arrow.”  Likewise, Disney also sticks to their famous stylized Walt Disney signature, and does not substitute Comic Sans or Papyrus (though that would be HILARIOUS).

When designing early versions of Intern Edition material (logos, posters, banners, etc), I made the mistake of not choosing a standard font.  Early posters featured INTERN EDITION in Arial Black, while the logo was based off of Futura.  Eventually the Ariel Black poster evolved into the design for the t-shirt.

As the weeks passed, the design of the style and branding of Intern Edition Summer ‘09 was refined, and a new standard was set.  The logo remained unchanged, but the bold INTERN EDITION text changed from Ariel Black to Impact, and almost always had a slight gradient to imitate a silvery shine.  Also, fonts Futura and Rockwell were adopted as secondary fonts for accompanying text.

This resulted in a slight discontinuity between the early Intern Edition branding (web logos, T-shirt) and later branding (posters, premiere invites).  While a switch from Ariel Black to Impact isn’t as drastic a switch as it could be, it still caused a disruption in the branding of Intern Edition.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with fonts, but once you have taken the leap and associated a font with a brand, you should stick with that font.

Additional thoughts from an older and hopefully wiser ex-intern:

Rereading this post, I cringe just a little. My typeface choice of Arial Black and Impact make me feel a little ashamed nowadays. In my defense, I had not taken a single typography class before I became an intern at NPR, so my knowledge of appropriate typefaces was unfortunately very lacking. With a typography class and extensive research and reading under my belt, I feel I am a bit wiser when it comes to typeface choice. I know I won’t be touching certain typefaces ever again.

Posted in Graphic Design, Internship