I'm Hua, a designer and bootstrapping founder building Typogram, a brand design tool. As part of running Typogram, I create this digestible weekly guide with fonts, colors, and design ideas to help founders, creators, and makers step up their game in marketing and get creative!
Welcome to issue 33 of FontDiscovery!Ā I hope you had a nice weekend. If you are new, I am so glad you are here!
This weekend, my co-founder Wenting and I did our first ever launch on Product Hunt. If you didnāt know, Product hunt is a website for tech product makers to show the community what we are working on. As product hunt newbies, we had a lot to learn. The launch went well, and we learned a lot in the process, which was the original goal.Ā We are grateful to everyone who supported us.Ā Thank you so much!Ā You canĀ see our launchĀ hereĀ andĀ read our learningsĀ here. The adventure continues š¾.
This week, our theme isĀ Strictly Business.Ā We go over a font with a classic vibe, brainstorm about creativity in emojis, and look at IBM Corporate Identity. Letās dig in!
img: sample of Cormorant.
In a previous article,Ā we introduced EB Garamond. If you like the classic vibes of EB Garamond but want more weights and styles, Cormorant might be the font for you. Cormorant is an old-style serif. An old-style serif has a ādiagonal stress,ā which means that the thinnest parts of letters are at an angle. The serifs are also bracketed: they are connected to the strokes with curves.
img: graphic showing bracketing and diagonal stress of old-style serif
What I love most about Cormorant is its versatility. LikeĀ Plex,Ā it has many variations and depending on your project needs. You can determine which one you want to use. Cormant has three styles: normal (Cormorant Roman), italicĀ (Cormorant Italic), and a straight version of italicĀ (Cormorant Upright). Today, weāll focus on Cormorant Roman, which has two interesting variations: Cormorant Garamond and Cormorant Infant.
img: chart of the Cormorant font family
Cormorant Garamond is convenient for blog sites, e-books, or text-heavy projects because this variation offers large counter spaces to achieve more reading comfort. On the other side, Cormorant Infant is a less grown-up version of Cormorant Garamond; the lettersĀ a, g, yĀ are replaced with single-story shapes to make it feel more gentle. If you want a slightly less classic and more friendly tone, Infant can work for you!Ā Other noteworthy variations: Cormorant SC and Cormorant Unicase. Both are small caps, which are great for labels and captions.
img: graphic showing difference in counter space (spaces like the circular space in theĀ a)Ā Ā between Cormorant Roman and Cormorant Garamond. As you can see, the Garamond has larger counter space. This means that when text is at body size, Cormorant Garamond will be more visible.
img: double story of lettersĀ a, g, yĀ in Cormorant Garamond and single story of the same letters in Cormorant Infant
Cormorant communicates classics and traditions. Itās perfect for brands that are looking for a more classic voice.
Because Cormorant has many weights, it is perfect for landing pages. Cormorant Garamond is better for readability, so its Regular or Medium weights are better for body copies. The bolder weights have larger contrast and are more suited for large copies in headers and subheads. If you want a slightly more warm tone, give Cormorant Infant a try. Cormorant pairs well withĀ Raleway.
img: Cormorant being used on a fashionĀ website. Source:Ā FontsInUse
"Thereās a whole generation of children who ālearn to read and writeā emoji before they can read and write." Jennifer Lee, the founder ofĀ Emojination, a nonprofit advocating for representations in Emojis. (source:Ā VoxĀ )
It is no doubt that emojis are changing the way we communicate with each other. Among the ones we use, the pointy finger emoji is one of the most popular ones on Social media for people sharing their content.
š But where does the pointy finger motif come from?Ā Printers made original illustrations, like the pointy finger motif, calledĀ printerās cut back in the day. It was a signal and command for people to read whatever it was pointed to. The pointy finger became a staple in posters, bills, and ads.[1]Ā in the 19th century US.
Creating original emojis, emotes, and reaction gifs as part of your brand can be memorable for your businesses. Streamers are already doing this on Twitch and having successes. Their fans have access to premium emotes and unique gifs.
img: printerās precut illustrations, source:Ā the Arm letterpress
img: Hikaru Nakamura is a popular Twitch Streamer. He uses his face as emotes in his community. Source:Ā GMHikaru
This older brand identity is one of the most well-known corporate identities created by Paul Rand, who is sometimes known as the father of graphic design. He convinced businesses that design, especially Corporate Brand Identity (consistent logo and systematic visual assents for companies), was vital to help enterprises communicate their values to the public and create brand awareness.
Img: Paul Randās initial IBM logo made the public aware of IBM as a brand.Ā source:Ā qz.
A set of fonts that share design styles. For example, Helvetica Bold and Helvetica Regular, both of these are in the Helvetica Family. Another example, Cormorant Roman and Cormorant Italic are in the Cormorant Family.
Create your own emoji or gif! If you need a little technical tutorial, here is a quickĀ video. I would love to see what you create via Twitter or Email!
Thanks for being here for another week. Cormorant is availableĀ here.Ā It is designed by Christian Thalmann.
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Have more questions about design and fonts?Ā
Please email me [email protected]Ā or find me on Twitter atĀ @HuaTweets.
You can also read the past issues on Typogram's blog.
Additional Sources:
1: Steven Heller, 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design