Practical Usage of Typography in the Corner of Explanation

In 1979 Bruce Brown examined “The Graphic Triangle” which was made of 3 elements, 'explanation', 'persuasion' and 'identification'. These were the only values he believe should be adopted when attempting to communicate ideas or messages. As far as we know nowadays there is a variety of different typographies. What kind of typography can be used effectively in a design in the corner of explanation? Referring to Bruce Brown “The Graphic Triangle”, the corner of explanation is clearly for health, safety and welfare. To put that in a design it should teach or explain how to do something. This should be very easy to understand and catch people’s attention, because health, safety and welfare designs are often used in a tight situations when people get nervous and cannot think straight. For example when there is an urgent need to escape from a strange room, to extinguish a fire or to put a life vest on. On the other hand it could also be a design on a noodles package in order to teach the consumer how to make the noodles properly or a manual on how to put together a piece of furniture. That leads us back that explanation designs should be easy to understand.

Typography which can be used in the corner of explanation should then be simple, easy to read and also eye-catching. To start with, a graphic designer from North Yorkshire, Christian Bailey has said how typography is used in a design is deeply rooted in its overall theme, tone and message. It works with layout, grid and color choice to create a well-rounded design. In order to make an effective explanation we can have a look at health, safety and welfare designs. We can see the similarities immediately. Colours which are used already have a meaning, for example red shows us danger or prohibition, yellow is a warning, green is connected with emergency or first aid and blue shows us that something is mandatory. Lots of symbols are used as well to make it easily recognisable. Text is whether white or black to keep it simple and clear. “Typography thereby extends from letters and words to the full scope and significance of information design and different environments.” (Rennie, 2017).

As we can see most of the text on the designs is in black or white to make it easier to read. Typography used in explanation designs is mostly sans serif types, such as Helvetica, Arial or Univers. Serif fonts are preferred when the font size is small, as it tends to be less fatiguing than sans serif fonts. Larger fonts usually are easier to read and catch attention. A mixture of upper and lower cases are used, because they are easier to read than all uppercase letters. To come further, explaining designs also have to hold accurate information. For example the health care signs which are hard to read, incomprehensible or have mistakes in the text could lead to someone’s death. The medical error is an internationally recognised problem and to prevent that designs in health care should be very well finalised.

To conclude, in order to make an effective explanation design we should pay attention to the main things such as: accurate information, easily readable typeface, mixed case letters, colour and using symbols or pictures which could help to understand. To make a good design in the corner of explanation so it would have an objective, it needs to be kept clear, simple and easy to read. Less is more.