Each experience with typography is a study that builds upon prior knowledge. Regardless of your skill level, the field of typography is so vast that you always manage to grow when you work with type.
Even when combined with the core design principles, a single typeface has limits. That’s why it is crucial to develop your ability to successfully pair typefaces together.
With thousands of typefaces to choose from, there’s clearly more than one way to pair typography. One of the most reliable approaches to this task involves studying the contrast between to typefaces. Selections that are too similar OR too different won’t likely work out. Typefaces that are visibly different from one another while still maintaining similar structural features like x-height or stroke contrast will generally work well together.
Resources for review
Tools to use
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Wordmark | Tool for type discovery |
| Better Font Picker | Font display tool for Figma |
| Google Fonts | Typeface repository hosting thousands of fonts |
| Adobe Fonts | Typeface repository for Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers |
| Skyfonts | Tool for font file management |
Exercise
Length: Around two hours to complete
For this two-part assignment, you’ll create type specimens that you will later utilize to complete the exercise.
Part one: Using the Figma template provided, create four type specimens. Among the four specimens created, please include at least one serif and one sans serif option.
Part two: From the four typefaces, choose two typefaces to pair together. Apply your selections to the information provided — detail why your type selections are suitable for pairing.
Once complete, update your Program Journal with links to the assets produced for this exercise. Post your Journal in the #Feedback-Loop channel for review.
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