Here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design professionals. And we work with companies and clients around Manchester, and the surrounding region, including Wigan and Southport, to provide stunning and effective web design solutions. As a result, we have produced this guide to everything you should know about risky typography in web design.
What is risky typography?
Risky typography can range across design styles and includes:
- obscured typography
- re-positioned typography (typography split up over different lines, or with letters divided in different areas)
- novelty typography
What are the important considerations for using risky typography effectively in web design?
There are a number of important considerations to take into account if you want to use risky typography in web design, and achieve the right visual and practical result. But what are these considerations? Well, there are several, including:
- The shape of the letters
- The amount of text
- The company branding
- The imagery
Risky typography and the shape of the letters
Risky typography that involves obscuring some of the letters or part of the word, or positioning the letters of each word in an unusual way, can still be perfectly legible. The main way to ensure that the writing is easy to read is to use a typography style that clearly emphasizes the shape of the letters. This will allow most website users to make an educated guess at the overall word, and understand the meaning, while skimming or scanning your website content.
Risky typography and the amount of text
For risky typography, it is often most effective to apply this design style to only a small amount of text. One word or a short phrase is about as far as you should take this typography style. Full sentences written with a risky typography style can simply be too complicated for your potential customers or clients to want to try and work out. Remember, they are looking for specific information, not to solve a puzzle.
Risky typography and the company branding
If you are a fun, quirky, or unusual brand, risky typography can be a very effective way to show this, and establish your brand identity. However, for other companies, like banks or solicitors, anything remotely risky in the design style would likely be off-brand, and counter productive to the type of image or persona you wish to present.
Risky typography and imagery
Images can portray meaning in a much more straight forward way than text. For this reason, you can support your risky typography with an appropriate or linked image that will help your website users, and potential customers and clients, grasp the meaning of the typography, even if the typography is more challenging to read.
Reading risky typography is going to be a little more challenging than normal for any website user, and this can increase the mental load of your website. As a result, risky typography is a risk for your web design, and should only be attempted where this is appropriate for your brand. For more information or professional web design support, get in touch with the team today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.