Typography, in appearance and application, is said to be anonymous when it does not influence or color the meaning of the message it’s represents. In this way, the messenger is not part of the message, only its conveyance, without affirmation or contradiction. The careful placement of typography can also support its position of anonymity, by keeping its focus on the content of the message rather than the appearance of the text.
When the typography, or its arrangement, is manipulated to embellish the text, one of two conditions results. Less becomes more when the application technique, of the typography, overwhelms the content of the message. Or, more becomes less when typography is applied in ways that negates the meaning of the text.
Balance between just so and too much is achieved when the visual arrangement of the typography is supportive of the text. In this way typography contributes to the understanding and the acceptance of the content.
A Typeface is the design of lettering that can include variations, such as extra bold, bold, regular, light, italic, condensed, extended, etc. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
From a branding perspective a Typeface designed to reflect a trademark creates an opportunity to extend and support a unified and cohesive identification intuitive, when applied consistently over a span of time.
FYI: 26-26-13 refers to the historical assertion that the optimal length for reading a line of text, without having to move your eyes either right or left, is approximately two and a half alphabets.
A Logotype or word-mark is the arrangement of, or manipulation of, letters is such a manner as to capture a unique expression of a word or name beyond the grouping of the letters alone.
From a branding perspective a Logotype is an opportunity to create ownership, by way of trademarking a word/name in one or more commercial categories.
A letterform, letter-form or letter form, is a term used especially in typography, paleography, calligraphy and epigraphy to mean a letter’s shape. A letterform is a type of glyph, which is a specific, concrete way of writing an abstract character or grapheme. Letterforms also include monograms, acronyms, ligatures and the abbreviation of long-form names, titles and procedures,
From a branding perspective a letterform is an opportunity to collapse a longer more complected name to a simpler, possibly more memorial configuration. In the same way NBA, CBS and IBM are now more familiar and colloquial then their formal “spelled out” names.
