June 7, 2005

The Simplest Way to Enhance Communication: Stylized Type

A number of roadblocks prevent us from making communication more visual: lack of time, a strained budget, limited access to professional designers, etc. We’re often left with a sea of text that employees, with their short attention spans, are likely to ignore. But you have more control than you realize to get employees’ attention. Using only your text, you can create visual interest. Here’s how.

Why type matters
“Typography” is the balance and interplay of text that helps readers understand, absorb and navigate content. Page after page of dense text makes it hard for readers to cut through the thicket. But when type is used well, there is a balance—among blocks of text, headlines or subheads and the surrounding white space—that draws readers in.

Six tips for making type more visual
It’s time to make friends with your formatting palette; apply these methods to Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and e-mail to get your messages noticed.

1. Use more than one typeface. Varying your font is a good way to create visual contrast. Perhaps the most important rule of good typography is don’t overdo it. The standard is no more than two fonts per article, but be sure to check your corporate guidelines to see if your company has a standard typeface and specific rules on usage.
   
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2. Bold headlines and subheads. Headlines and subheads indicate the hierarchy of your content. They act as starting cues indicating where sections begin and what the sections are about. Therefore, headlines and subheads should always be clearly visible. Try bold, two or more point sizes bigger than your text. If your body text is a serif, we suggest using a san-serif for the headline or vice-versa. If you’re using all the same font style, make headlines and subheads a different color.
   
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3. Vary your type styles. Use your formatting palette to emphasize words or an important sentence. Bold and italic, used together or separately, attract the eye. In a block of text, they help employees navigate the content, acting as road signs and suggesting importance. Making key words and phrases bold is an effective way to break up the monotony of straight text.
   
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4. Paint your article with a little bit of color. Color isn’t just for headlines. If there is a paragraph or two that you want to call attention to, apply a legible color that offers enough contrast from the rest of the text but can still be read against the background (i.e., blue, red or burgundy against a white background). Test legibility by making a photocopy of your page. If your colored text is too light, go for a darker color.
   
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5. Use callouts. A callout is an easy editorial design method, used often in magazines, and a real effective way to break up copy. Find a sentence that sums up your objective and make it four to six points bigger than your body font size. Make sure to leave adequate white space around the sentence and voila! You’ve got yourself a callout.
   
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6. Use all capitalized text for short statements only. Large blocks of text set in all caps are uncomfortable to read and can slow reading. It can also be construed as conveying anger. Use all caps for short statements to MAKE A MESSAGE SHOUT. Limited to a short call to action, headlines or subheads, all caps can be effective.
   
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Be careful not to overdo it. Less really is more. You control what you want employees to pay attention to—what should stand out and what should disappear. The goal is clarity so keep it simple.