The most essential role of graphic design is clear and effective communication. You must use all the tools at your disposal to create beautiful-looking work to ultimately serve its purpose: to transmit the desired message to your viewer. Using different typographical methods, you can ensure your audience knows what’s essential and in what order they can get the information from your layout.
All of this is crucial; your design may be trying to sell a product to an audience that can only view it briefly, or it may need to impart detailed instructions that the viewer must follow correctly.
Visual hierarchy is arranging your text so your audience can instantly identify the most essential information. It gives your text a roadmap, helping to guide your viewers’ eyes on where to go first and then how to navigate the information. If you get it right, your message will be much more clear and impactful. Always remember that the message is the reason for your design in the first place.
Here are some of the essential tools and principles to follow which are adaptable to any design context:
Size and Scale
The bigger, the better, well, for headlines, at least. Large text can grab attention first, so keep these concise and to the point; newspapers always use this tool. Then, go down in size as you go down the importance ladder. Subheads should be smaller than headlines but more prominent than the body text; these stand out as markers in the main body of information. The body text should balance its smaller size with its quantity and be sized to read comfortably. The body will make up the core of your message, with the headlines and subheads guiding the viewer through it.
Weight and Boldness
It’s not all about size; you can utilise all the weights of your typeface family. Use bold for your subheads against the light for your body text to create the same visual contrast that two different sizes could have done. Italics can emphasise text within your copy, too.
Colour and Contrast
Not just for looking pretty, your choice of colour can create areas of high contrast for your information, can help your text stand out and can reinforce your brand if used consistently in your work.
Spacing and Proximity
Let everything breathe. The space around your elements can make them clearer and give your viewer a clear route to follow the information order. Spacing after paragraphs instead of an indent can make the text feel more approachable and accessible to read as digestible sections rather than a wall of text. Group related information closer and space unrelated items further apart.
Alignment and Position
How you align your text and position it in the space is also essential. In the West, we read from left to right and top to bottom, so left-aligned is the most natural way for us to read. Centering text can draw attention to it, but reading lots of dense copy in this format can be difficult. Right-aligned is the hardest to read, but if used sparingly, it can draw attention to a piece of text and is a valuable way of balancing a layout. Your design should let the reader’s eye scan down the page from the top left.
Type Contrast
Mixing styles is also a good tool for creating contrasts. Pairing a traditional serif and a modern sans serif typeface (see our blog about this here) can help define the sections of the text. Keeping the styles consistent throughout your design, i.e., using the same font and size for each section of text so that body copy, subheadings, and headings are always the same, gives the reader a guide to navigating the information.
There are no set rules, and each design will require its own approach and consideration. The feel of the design is as important as the tone of voice used in the writing to communicate your message effectively. Play around with size, weight, colour, spacing, and contrast to enhance your message and make beautiful layouts; your readers will always appreciate it. We are always here and happy to help you get the most out of your graphic communications, and we can help you make a visual hierarchy guide that compliments your brand. The following visual of hierarchy illustrates all of the above typography tools.
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