Explore the world of visual design and typography with Abigail Rudner, a content creator at Noble Desktop. Learn about the different classifications of typography and how a strong understanding of typefaces can enhance your design work.
Key Insights
- Abigail Rudner is a visual design and education specialist who creates design-related content for Noble Desktop.
- The video series focuses on the principles of typography, which includes both the style and appearance of text and the art of designing with type.
- Typography, a ubiquitous aspect of design, is essential in a wide variety of fields, including app design, web design, TV and film production, packaging, signage, and more.
- Understanding the personalities of different typefaces can significantly improve your design skills and work.
- Traditionally, there were considered to be two main categories of typefaces (serif and sans serif), but currently, eight categories are recognized: Blackletter, Serif, Slab Serif, Sans Serif, Script, Monospace, Handwritten, and Decorative.
- While the video series does not primarily focus on the history of typography, it's worth noting that the history of typeface design dates back to the 1450s.
Major Type Classifications
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Serif
Letterforms with projecting feet (serifs). Times, Garamond, Georgia.
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Sans Serif
Clean letterforms without serifs. Helvetica, Arial, Inter.
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Slab Serif
Thick, blocky serifs. Rockwell, Roboto Slab.
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Display & Script
Decorative styles for headlines and ornamental use.
Video Transcription
Hello there everybody and welcome, my name is Abigail Rudner and I am here for Noble Desktop where I am a content creator focusing on design-related topics. My background is in visual design and in education and I thrive on sharing information in and around the design space with people like you.
Since so many people are jumping into the world of visual design and design-related fields with only a minimal amount of background, we thought it would be a good idea to offer a collection of tutorials in and around the visual design principles space. So this first set of videos, I’ll be sharing with you the principles of typography.
The term Typography not only refers to the style and appearance of text but is also the art and practice of designing with type.
Since this can be a very large topic we’ll break it down into several short segments.
In this series, we’re going to be talking about the topic known as classifications of typography or type categories.
When you stop and think about it, type and type design is everywhere. You can see it in apps, on the web, on tv, and in films, packages, signage, and much more.
So, no matter what you are designing, typography is an essential element that can really make or break your design work.
As such, it stands to reason that a strong understanding of the different personalities of typefaces is key to being able to think about, design, and work well with typography. Becoming familiar with the classifications of type will help you know what typefaces to use where and this will make you a much better designer.
In this introduction and in the upcoming tutorials, we’ll be looking at a variety of different typeface examples and getting to know their particular aspects and characteristics.
So let’s jump in here…
It used to be said that were two main categories of typefaces, these being serif and sans serif.
However these days we consider that there are actually 8 different categories.
These being…
Blackletter
Serif
Slab Serif
Sans serif
Script
Monospace
Handwritten
And Decorative
With this in mind, we’ll start our exploration with a bit of background information. Just to note, however, while this talk does not center around the history of typography, there is a great deal of history behind typeface design, starting around the 1450s.
Now that we have completed our quick introduction to the classifications of typography, I invite you to join me in the next video. We’ll now go further into our first type category known as Blackletter.
