Retailers Can Save Money With Typography Knowledge For Their Graphic Designers

Christmas is near and retailers are bombarding household mailboxes with catalogs for last-minute shopping,

Unfortunately, many of those catalogs go unread. Only 48% of households typically read catalogs, and 24% discard them without reading them, according to the 2011 USPS Household Diary Study.

One way retail companies and their design departments can capture interest faster is to create clarity in their product offering with typographic hierarchy.

“Typographic hierarchy is a visual system for organizing type that establishes an order of importance in data,” commented TypeEd Co-Founder and Instructor Michael Stinson. “It helps the reader easily find what they are looking for and navigate the content.”

Encouraging reading through design, not only boosts sales, it also increases the performance of print budgets. Companies can print less collateral and gather more views if effective typographic hierarchy is used.

Not every graphic designer will know the best method to establish this system for their specific content. Ongoing education classes in typography for design departments and freelancers can be found at local colleges and art schools.

“Holiday sales only succeed if retailers respect their customer’s time,” Stinson said. “It makes smart business sense to use the typographic knowledge at hand to help readers and give them the visual tools needed to find what they are shopping for.”

About TypeEd

TypeEd is an educational program of typography and typesetting courses for designers, students and practitioners. Spearheaded by the partners of the Los-Angeles design studio Ramp Creative, TypeEd offers ground level training in the craft of typography—a fundamental skill for anyone working in print, web and motion design, and advertising. For more information visit https://www.Type-Ed.com or follow @TypeEd.