• Graphic Design
• Web Design

The Importance of Boring Text Liquidation: Some Examples of Modern Typography Design Trends

If you’re a dinosaur of the internet, you have to know about the total inanimateness of oldschool web sites. And it’s fair enough to say that they strike in one’s eyes with extremely monotonic and regular fonts (I believe even my text here is aesthetically more good looking). Nevertheless, we are happy to live in 2012, and nowadays our internet user dignity is not humiliated by bad taste typography. Every web designer knows (or should know in case he’s an unskilled wannabe-one) the importance of attractive and original fonts for a web site to gain popularity. Understanding of that gave a strong development in web typography domain in recent years, for example for today we have around 50,000 fonts available. Anyway, modern typography design trends are not only about the fonts and typefaces.

Interested in what’s going on in web design typography I have made a quick research about that. Some of the widespread and perspective web typography trends are listed and described below.

Large Huge GIANT Fonts

People became lazier and now need more comfortable navigation. Usually it means that buttons should be BIGGER for users’ eyes to see them clearly and for users’ fingers to click them with minimal efforts. And the typography of course keeps abreast of the web gigantomania, in fact a small size text has become some kind of a web design crime.

* * *

* * *

More big fonts.

* * *

(Pseudo) Handwritten Fonts

Popularity of handwritten fonts is extremely growing on the web. It brings some life and individuality to soulless typography design, and to my opinion that’s the main reason the handwritten fonts are so attractive for users. I believe some kind of skeuomorphism web design attractiveness mechanics take place here, because such style fonts link back to real life and real human writing. And as one could know, people like everything familiar. Internet users are not an exception.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Composite (Mixed) Fonts

This type may connect all the best features of the other fonts. As a composite bow it’s the most flexible to hit into the bull’s eye of originality. Due to having no exact limits in style mixed fonts may vary greatly, and indeed they usually look totally different, though classified as one typography trend.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Responsive Typography

For those who have no idea what responsive web design is: imagine there is a web site, which looks good and natural on your home 24″ monitor and on your iPhone either, because of changing its scale. So proceeding from that, the responsive typography means typography for responsive web design, where text changes its size according to one’s screen resolution. It’s more like a feature than an actual style, but it’s surely a trend. Following the increasing popularity of mobile and (handheld) laptop devices responsive typography is getting more and more widespread, so there is a certain tendency for this feature to become a standard or even obligation in web design typography during next few years.

* * *

More White Space, Please

Modern world is complex and fast-changing, people are getting tired of the extreme pace of life, so lately in opposite to satiety almost everyone tends for simplicity in almost all spheres of human life. Internet is also captured by this minimalist fashion, and in result we have dozens of web sites with the white space background. For the web typography that means designers are trying to get visitors focused on the text. And probably there is no better trick for that, but white space beyond the letters. Yes, just the white space and nothing else.

* * *

Also in the most cases such white-space sites are above-the-fold rule mythbusters. Indeed, people love to scroll, if the information is interesting.

* * *

Slab Serif Typeface

The common definition of the slab serif is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Slab serif typeface is gaining more popularity among web designers. The reason is most probably in their quite elegant look and ability to make text more clear-cut. Nothing above that as for me, but that just proves a statement “All genius is simple”.

* * *

* * *

In the end I can just repeat one more time that knowing and using of the latest trends in web design is actually not an option, it’s a rule for qualified web designers. Of course, if you’re okay with design like on the first pic in this article, no one will insist.

We can make a conclusion that typography is getting simpler. “Simplicity for comfortable usage” should be called the general line where the main trends are moving: from screen size comfort of responsive typography to easy-view white space.

* * *

About the author:

Art Rivera: Deeply interested in everything connected with Internet, I sincerely suppose the web is the only future reality for the humanity through its inevitable involving into every part of human life. I’m not a great fan of cyberpunk concept, but the world is keeping that certain direction of total connectedness. And of course there should be someone, who can write the history, who would describe and analyze and enter in the record all notable changes and tendencies on the web. Hello, it’s me.