Font is a very important link in design, and it is also an important link for new and old designers to understand the design deeply. When we turn on the computer, we will find all kinds of fonts. So the question is, will you choose and use fonts? Looking at the font below, do you feel that you have no choice?
Chinese characters are the characters with the longest use time, the widest space and the largest number of people in the world. The creation and application of Chinese characters not only promoted the development of China culture, but also had a far-reaching impact on the development of world culture. Chinese characters originated from hieroglyphics, and originated from pictures at the earliest. Because the process of drawing is quite complicated, they are constantly simplified in the process of slow change for the convenience of transmission. From the earliest hieroglyphs and inscriptions we know, to the big seal script, the small seal script, the official script, the running script and the regular script, and then to the traditional Chinese characters, the song style and the bold type that are commonly used so far. (Note: The above list does not represent the development of writing. In a specific period, various styles coexist for a long time. I hope you are careful not to misunderstand. I suggest that you'd better consult the relevant historical materials of font culture. )
The change of fonts in the evolution process is due to the simplification and modification of fonts for the convenience of writing and communication. The same Chinese family has Japanese and Korean, and the traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan Province Province and Hongkong in Asia are called conventional Chinese characters by people in Taiwan Province Province.
The 5,000-year history of the Chinese nation is recorded in words, which is not only an important way of information transmission, but also an important element of beautifying the picture, processing and designing in the design process. Excellent fonts include Founder, Great Wall, Hanyi, Kang Hua, Siyuan, Founder's recently published new fonts, Founder Lanting series and so on.
Classification and characteristics of Chinese fonts;
Chinese characters mainly include boldface, song style, cartoon characters and calligraphy characters.
blackbody
The characteristic of black body is that the lines are relatively uniform, without too much decoration, and the lines are basically the same thickness. The black body is also sans serif, which is relative to our serif. As the most popular font, bold is widely used in web pages, modern science and technology, women, food, nature, literature and art, men, cosmetics, drama, children, health and other fields. It can be said that boldness is the modernity of the masses.
Black body mainly has the following characteristics: capable, scientific and modern, square, rough, concise, concise, unadorned, visually equal to the thickness of the pen, the head and tail of the pen are square, even black and white, so it is very eye-catching and widely used. Many big names will use it, and both web design and current interactive design will use bold and isoline (derivatives of bold).
Black body has strong black, strong black, super thick black, medium thick black, standard black, fine black, fine black and so on. From strength to simplicity, from simplicity to technological fashion.
Bold is almost omnipotent in the process of modern application, with the characteristics of health, children, science and technology, food, nature and youth. Chanel, Innobi, Xiaomi mobile phone, iPhone and other brands also have their own special fonts. So the iPhone page is not only very beautiful, but also shapes its own brand value, which I think is one of the reasons why their products are very popular.
Song typeface
Song style is characterized by serif, and there are corresponding decorative lines at the beginning and end of its strokes to beautify the font, showing a completely different style from bold. According to the historical data of China font, it is made by block printing, which is similar to the Roman style of English (a kind of English serif).
Song dynasty has culture, luxury, high-end, female and small audience. Because of its characteristics, it is widely used in culture, characteristics, high-end luxury goods and cosmetics. It can be said that Songti is a delicate petty bourgeoisie.
There are three styles of songs: rough songs, middle songs, standard songs, newspaper songs, published songs, elegant songs and simple songs, all of which reflect their unique, petty bourgeoisie and aristocratic atmosphere.
Circular object
A round body generally refers to a black body with a round tail. Because it is round and full, it is lively and lovely, close and feminine. Mainly used in cosmetics and children's products.
The round body and the black body have the same boldness and lightness. The difference between thickness changes is that the thinner the font, the stronger the sense of modernity and technology, and the thick round body has the lovely characteristics of MengMeng.
Calligraphy style
The characteristics and temperament of calligraphy style, literally, are the fonts produced by writing in daily life. Mainly official script, regular script, running script and so on. Unique temperament, can not be misused, with a sense of history, artistic conception, momentum, atmosphere, culture, China and depth.
In some traditional festivals, in terms of representing a few audiences with cultural atmosphere, in special food and real estate advertisements, in order to make real estate culture, calligraphy style will be used to show deep artistic conception culture.
The above introduction completes the classification of large fonts, and there are some branch fonts, such as isobar, thin line round, money, amber, Yao and so on. We should understand and use fonts according to their different characteristics.
The difference and usage of the two most commonly used fonts: bold and song.
Song has a special style and a certain cultural temperament. Compared with the uninhibited style, the audience is less and the temperament is more special. In terms of food, black body is suitable for mass food, and Song style can be used for western food and some special meals; Cosmetics are noble and elegant, boldly representing modern technology, and some modern cosmetics represent high-end culture. If you express your sense of technology, it is more appropriate to change your life through technology with boldness. So if you mean pure natural, what should you use for natural green? (qianzi can be used as an option, representing fresh, Mamonde);
In terms of commercial advertisements, bold has a strong sense of business. Small advertisements such as Taobao and mass advertisements choose bold, and businesses that convey cultural characteristics and streamline choose to use Song Style. Mercedes-Benz is a typical representative of using Song Style to reflect quality. Bold bodies and bold faces give people a sense of manpower and weight, and bold fonts are used in sporting goods, outdoor sports and sports. Some clothing brands choose Song style to express their taste and personality; It is easy for us to give him a bold material with high recognition, while the recognition of petty bourgeoisie in Song Dynasty is relatively low. Song style has a feminine fashion with the characteristics of ethnic minorities, and its bold face is relatively less used in daily design work; Bold is also widely used in the interaction of Internet mobile phone interfaces, which reflects its strong sense of technology and futurity.
Cartoons are mainly lively and lovely, children's products and pet products, and pet shops choose cartoons, which are similar to cartoons and are round.
The thin and round fuselage has the feeling of fashion and modern technology, and fashion black belongs to fashion fuselage.
Chinese fonts are very important to designers. Every plane contains characters except pictures. The structure and strokes of Chinese characters are worth studying and studying. If the designer has a certain understanding of font proportion and stroke position order, then the proportion is perfect when doing other designs.
Today, fonts in China have developed rapidly in recent years, but they have developed slowly in the past 100 years. There are forty or fifty excellent Chinese fonts, totaling four or five hundred. There are 26 letters in English fonts, and there are tens of thousands of fonts in neighboring Japan, far exceeding China, which shows that designers have a lot of cultural space, which is also worthy of reflection.
Introduction to English fonts
English fonts are mainly divided into three categories, one is serif, similar to caslon and times.
New Rome; One is sans serif, such as arial and helvetica, which are the same as bold; There is also handwriting, similar to our calligraphy. (usage is similar to Chinese, and the specific situation needs to be considered)
There are nine fonts in the picture above, which are as old as China fonts. The first four fonts are serif fonts. There are some decorative fonts on the corners of the characters. Song style is characterized by fashion personality, and English serif also has this feature. The middle Helvetica font, many well-known brands directly use it as the logo. As the first computer font, Myriad font is the first representative font used for electronic display. The following fonts are a bit long, which is equivalent to the bold category, similar to Arial and Helvetica, with their own characteristics and long history.
If you are interested, you can check the history of 9 fonts, and many fonts have been produced in the process of evolution. These 9 fonts are recommended as common English fonts.
Question: How to match fonts, and how to match English fonts and Chinese fonts? How to match Chinese fonts with English fonts?
Nothing more than using black body with English black body, sans serif with sans serif, with serif, China calligraphy is best with English serif. Then I often use English calligraphy as decoration to set off the atmosphere.
When we design Chinese and English mixed arrangement, English often plays an auxiliary role in the picture, because English is small and linear in the arrangement process, which enriches the picture. In graphic design, the composition of points, lines and surfaces is needed in the picture to have a sense of design. Usually we can consider translating a suitable line of Chinese characters into English as a decorative line to match the pictures. On the other hand, if English fonts are simply enlarged or treated with special effects, they will have a prominent effect, which may not be a line, but in the form of body, face or other forms.
I think it is very necessary for graphic designers to find some fonts they like in their daily life and form their own commonly used fonts.
We can see that the above two permanent words are very representative. As the most important character in calligraphy, there is a saying that the eight-character method is used. To practice calligraphy well, we must first write the word well, which shows the importance of strokes to fonts. Seeing the characteristics of Song Dynasty, there are decorative lines and some prominent decorations at the corners, and the bold characters are consistent with the strokes.
Feel the temperament characteristics of words through pictures.
The above picture is the print advertisement of Lancome, and the following are the characteristics of song style, fashion, taste and high end. As can be seen from the picture, because the bottle is made of serif, it also shows that Song's style and serif are very suitable.
The pictures of Cartier, a famous jeweler, are high-end and expensive with English serif words.
The above three are real estate advertisements, which use official script in calligraphy style and convey cultural temperament. The picture uses the traditional picture atmosphere, and some elements are modernized, which well matches the overall cultural atmosphere, that is, the tonality of the picture. The combination of fonts determines the temperament and characteristics of culture, and calligraphy fonts have cultural charm.
The above two pictures are the covers of Mr. Fashion and foreign fashion magazines, using serif. English serif is as fashionable and modern as Song Ti.
The above two are Samsung's print advertisements. The pictures are lined up in bold. White, concise and clean pictures, together with bold words, give people a sense of technology and future.
The above two posters are Chanel's. The picture is fresh and concise, with the noble tone of Leng Yan and the isobar font similar to the black body. But Chanel's own fonts look very high-end, and it can be seen that the black body has a sense of modernity, technology and fashion.
The picture above shows above the fold of real estate advertisements, shopping advertisements and web pages. There are many typesetting and text applications. We should master the temperament and characteristics of fonts and use them skillfully. There are horizontal, vertical, thick, thin, large and small fonts on it. There is nothing very good about this, just explaining some basic problems.
In the poster in the upper left corner, the main part of the text is that great people never know what to do. Song style is used to highlight the cultural temperament, and some European patterns and fonts are used in calligraphy to embellish the atmosphere and have a sense of culture. European decoration plays an auxiliary role. The words we are talking about now, except the words themselves, are understood as an object and a picture. "Big shots can't do it" is the main part of the whole page, and here is bold English, which gives the poster a certain sense of modernity. Except for the main text and the auxiliary text, other words are very small embellishments and decorations. In typesetting, there needs to be a primary and secondary relationship. The largest text above is the main title, the second-level text below is sans serif English, and there are other small characters to supplement the main information, which are used to introduce the theme and have an embellishment effect. Pay attention to the font proportion of this page, and consider how to deal with the relationship between theme and level when making posters and the top screen of the new website.
Text typesetting with small icons, text price and discount information on small icons, and simple text design typesetting (again, information is not optimal);
In design, the only purpose of putting characters on icons is to highlight them. The above characters are of different sizes, and the quantity and price information are mostly discounted and snapped up in the largest font, while other fonts are smaller. As the basic part of text typesetting, the significance lies in learning how to treat good design and poor design from very simple things. It is not easy for this simple thing to be perfect, which involves the proportion of words and the scale, proportion and color of decorative lines on small icons. You can consider putting beautiful fonts on the small icons or buttons on the pages promoted by Taobao and Alipay. When you see each word, you will have an idea and understanding of the typesetting, selection, color matching and position size of the word, so as to achieve your goal. Through ordinary understanding, you can raise it to a higher level, so that this word can be used by me and not kidnapped by this word.
I remember that Hanyi and the word-making workshop have both introduced very strong fonts suitable for titles. The designer is just following the trend and has never thought about how to match it. Strong black and thick black fonts are only suitable for outdoor sporting goods and have a shocking effect. It's no problem to make the opening credits. Bold fonts are more powerful, and it is still possible to attract attention as a title.
When making posters and single pages, bold and bold can be used as slogan's main editing font, which is rough and suitable for editing. You can also add some effects to express your emotions, such as fonts with metal bubbles in some materials and wood to achieve the desired effect, instead of being kidnapped by the font library. Many fonts in the font library have not been studied how to use them. We should learn to appreciate fonts and achieve the sublimation of design by learning fonts. We should learn to understand graphic design from font design and practice, so I think font is the first step of graphic design.
By looking at the works of the master, I have some superficial understanding of the works:
Japanese Mesozoic world-class graphic design master, representative of Japan Design Center, Professor Musashino, artistic director of (MUJI). The field of design is widely used in the commemorative album of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Nagano Winter Olympics and the propaganda design of the 2005 Aichi World Expo, which shows the design concept deeply rooted in Japanese culture. In the renovation design of Matsuya Department Store in Ginza, the overall design direction should be practiced from space to plane. In the design of the indication sign of Meitian Hospital, the possibility of tactile sensation in visual communication is reflected.
The Japanese are very humble, because they live on the island, and naturally they can't change the status quo about natural disasters, earthquakes and tsunamis. They are afraid of nature and life, and they can see pessimistic ideas in their works. The works they see are all empty, and the corresponding fonts are matched in the feeling of emptiness.
The font is very particular. In the first work, regular script is used with serif, and the size changes rhythmically. It is composed of Chinese characters and katakana, with changes written on it and a rhythmic picture. The picture is empty and pessimistic.
When matching words, you use regular script, which is a regular calligraphy style with serif. At the same time, you can consider whether the serif italics in your works are italicized.
Japanese is characterized by different sizes, but Chinese characters are not. When typesetting text, change the size and material to show a sense of rhythm.
The understanding of Japanese design is very similar to the feeling of traditional Chinese painting and China ancient style. China's ancient style is enjoyed by mountains, wise men and benevolent people. However, Japanese design works are pessimistic.
In the second work, the colors of black and yellow are still pessimistic, and some symmetrical structures are used, which have the appearance of a house. It is necessary to understand the layout of patterns, colors and characters only from the perspective of graphic design, and only from the feeling of the picture and the information conveyed. This idea is expressed through pictures and graphic characters. Traditional Japanese elements are used in the picture. Japanese wood structure is a bit like China's, with a little flat font, orthography and serif. The characters are scattered and orderly, and the picture is balanced. The color tone still maintains a pessimistic feeling.
This is Japanese sake. It's very small. The main feature of the picture is that the texture of the bottle has the feeling of ink and wash, and the white bottle is followed by a hazy feeling, which shows the cultural sense and charm of the wine. There is a long and old feeling, with a strong sense of picture and a pessimistic color.
You can see that there is only one subject in the picture: the bottle, and everything else is tone, the title is the text part, and nothing else. We can learn from it. When making posters and home pages, we can put a product directly and take the product as the main body of the picture, which can also achieve the effect of beauty and information transmission. It can be done in Taskmaster without too much design.
This photo is a poster of the 2005 World Expo in Japan. The page is white and there is an octopus in it. The theme of this Expo is to protect the environment, realize the coexistence of man and nature, and love the earth. From the font point of view, the serif is similar to the Song Dynasty, which has a deep sense of culture, and the tone is the same as the previous picture. This tonality has also become a typical representative of Japanese design style, with a typical oriental aesthetic color.
The work above has a rounded rectangle with a small ball in the middle, which is very artistic. It looks for a breakthrough in symmetry and shows a stable effect. There is a sense of breakthrough in it. It uses sans serif and pays attention to the contrast of font size and the position of font placement. The ball in the picture is close to the right and tends to roll down to the right. Putting the font on the lower left of the page complements the trend of the ball moving to the lower right, making the picture more balanced.
When typesetting and using words, whether the size and proportion of words can match the balance of the picture, because the words on the picture are unbalanced, one side is heavy and the other side is light, and the position is not suitable as the main information transmission position, so we should consider whether to make them more balanced in order to achieve the purpose of communication.
You can see a very artistic work in this work. The arrangement of characters accounts for a small part, and the rest are white. It is the design of a matchbox, which gives people a very artistic feeling, clean and quality. The font on it is small, but the typesetting is beautiful. What you can learn is that when fonts are arranged, they form lines, not neat endings, but a sense of disorder. Japanese has a natural size change, and the character size is different. It is conceivable that the natural contrast and rhythm are very beautiful, which is worth learning in typesetting. Our words should be arranged horizontally. If you arrange a page, the feeling of your words is not strong. It is suggested that line spacing and font size are more comfortable than golden section. Typesetting can be operated according to specific conditions.
This cover is very concise, maintaining the unique characteristics of Japan and putting a traditional pattern with a sense of culture. The picture itself conveys a sense of culture. Fonts are serif and arial. No matter Japanese, letters and numbers are the same font, while maintaining a pessimistic tone.
The above represents my personal understanding of the work. This set of drawings is a typical representative of the design field, representing a tonality and atmosphere. Japan has led the design in Asia, and everyone likes this atmosphere and style. In recent years, there have been many similar works.
The following is a similar picture with tonality for the exhibition works:
You can carefully understand the design similarities and differences with Japanese masters and experience the cultural atmosphere and depth of Songti. The materials are exquisite, exquisite and related to the theme, and the words are song-style, with strong cultural sense, exquisite and elegant. In fact, design is a process of starting with fonts, choosing appropriate screen materials to create an atmosphere, and conveying feelings and design purposes. Through sharing, you can have a deep understanding of design and fonts.
Abstract part:
Through the understanding of fonts, their temperament and usage, we know the importance of fonts to design. Only by remembering the basic knowledge of fonts can we use them flexibly and finally design fonts.
Mainly a simple understanding of fonts, which types of fonts are divided into, and master the different usages and characteristics of each type of fonts:
First of all, it is bold and has the natural characteristics of being close to young, capable and versatile food. Modern, with a strong sense of science and technology. Widely used in daily design and rapid sales, it is suitable as a text font.
Recommended fonts: Founder Lanting Series, Siyuan Black Series and Hanyi Black Series.
For young designers, the control of fonts is not strong. Similar fonts have been introduced, such as Microsoft Yahei and Bold. As long as the proportion is properly adjusted, the spacing between lines, the size and color of texture can be mastered, and good results and design purposes can be achieved.
Next, I will talk about the Song style, which is relatively small and shows the personality of science and fashion. It has some characteristics of its own niche, beautiful, petty bourgeoisie, small and exquisite compared with others, and what everyone likes is not so popular. Generally, it is widely used in food, cosmetics and commercial advertisements.
Then there is the calligraphy font, which is very distinctive, historical, artistic, imposing and cultural, can express China, and has a strong sense of art and depth of knowledge. Because of its own characteristics, it is widely used in folk customs, traditional festivals and ethnic minority restaurants, such as Italian food, Japanese food and Korean food, and is widely used in the catering industry.
The round body belongs to the intermediate state between the bold body and the cartoon body, and has two characteristics, one is a sense of science and technology, and the other is a silly state. The feminization of technology is used in cosmetics, and the silly state is widely used in pets and children.
Cartoon fonts are used for cartoon making and for children and pets. They are lively, lovely and free, but not completely free. It is very difficult to design a set of fonts and fonts by yourself. Although strokes are free, it is very difficult to ensure freedom and regularity. I hope you can explore and apply it in this respect.
Next, nine English fonts with a long history are introduced, which are nine similar fonts highly praised by designers in China. When choosing fonts, they are all close to these nine fonts.
English fonts are mainly divided into three types, serif and sans serif, also known as iso-serif, similar to boldface. The most important font is helvetica, the classic representative, and the very popular English bold arial.
Then there is how to match Chinese and English fonts, such as bold and bold, sans serif and sans serif, serif and serif. Calligraphy is mostly serif. When you see big-name and excellent advertisements in your daily life, observe what fonts are used and what characteristics and tonality the fonts convey here. Through this accumulation, we can design fonts after mastering the basic knowledge.
After that, there are some pictures to show and the understanding and application of fonts. What do you think when you see something similar? Font has a long way to go for China people. I hope every designer can explore fonts and add points to the design, because fonts in China are very cultural. Font design needs to look at the materials and historical materials of Chinese characters for 5 thousand years and use them more.
I hope to change people's views on the font library in computers. It's no longer that you can't find a good-looking and suitable font every time you want to use it, mainly because you haven't studied these fonts, and they are very classic and practical.
The following pictures are a little knowledge of Hanyi fonts: