Typography is the art and technique of type to create a written language. Photography is the art of recording images. Both are things that we look at, but how much do we see or notice the details of each? When you look at a photograph, do you look at the depth that the photographer has managed to catch in the photo or do you see the lines and the balance the photographer is showing you? When you see an article, do you see the work that went into the choice of font? When creating a layout, the choice of weight, color, and structure of the font sends a message to the reader that is almost as important as what the words say.
This layout can be found in the November 2018 issue of HGTV magazine on pages 94-95. This feature was styled by Sunday Hendrickson and photographed by Lisa Romerein.
Typefaces
The typefaces of this layout is made up of slab serif fonts and sans serif fonts. The slab serif (circled in red) can be identified by its slight thick to thin contrast in the strokes of the letters. The letters have serifs which are the projections off the side of the capital letters and the flat lines across the top or ends of the lower case letters. The other typeface used is sans serif. The group of fonts circled in orange show sans serif which can be identified with the lack of serifs and the consistent thickness of the lines.
The typefaces are different from each other which shows a contrast. However, there is also contrast within the sans serif typeface. The title Tile So Nice has contrast with the thin lines in the words Tile and Nice while the word So is a bold and thicker line. The bold is carried through to the subtitle with a contrasting blue tone in all lower case letters.
Rule of Thirds
The photographer shot the kitchen using the rule of thirds with the vertical and the horizontal lines dividing the photograph. This is shown in the following drawover with red lines.
Alternate Images
Each of the following images shows the original and the draw-over with the rule of thirds. While different than the kitchen shot in the HGTV article, these photographs use similar proportions to show use of the rule of thirds. The kitchen window and the cabinets draw the vertical lines while the counter top and the top of the cabinets show the horizontal lines.
On another side of the kitchen, the rule of thirds is shown with the sides of the cabinets surrounding the hood and the top and underside of the cabinets.
This living room shows the vertical lines running up the shelves and down through the couch while the horizontal lines are shown along the couch cushions and one of the shelf lines.
All in all…
The title of the article brings you in with the combination of the thin sans serif and the bold sans serif typefaces. When I read it, I automatically accentuate the word SO in “Tile So Nice.” The addition of the blue subtitle invites you to revisit the title again and to read it as a whole. The contrast in the title is nice, but the contrast in the body of the page adds to the readability of the piece.
The rule of thirds that is used in the photography helps draw the eye and keep the page looking balanced. The center of the kitchen and the focus of both the body of text and of the photography is the tile on the back splash and on the floor of the kitchen.
Chantel's Place 