Todd RoethTodd Roeth is an Assistant Professor, Graphic Design. School of Fine Art.
04: Type Hierarchy

The document’s typography should mirror the relationship between information.

Establishing Visual Order

The contrast, alignment, and proportion between type should visually address the order of importance of what is being read. The goal of typography is not only to make things easier to read, but also easier to understand.



Epson Paper Sizes

In the example above, the information has been organized via typeface, size, and positioning both spatially and by line to explain the paper dimensions, name, and store product number.

Type Hierarchy

Though graphic design often relies on more than typography alone to commuicate order, information, and sytems, the foundation for creating an informational structure is a a strong typographic hiearchy. As in the examples below, typography is used to create line, shape, value and color. Often secondary elements (lines, arrows, grids) are also used to aid in this effort.

London Underground Map

Old Example of Type Hierarchy

Font Families


Some fonts have a family of weights like Helvetica

Font families are important because they give designers a variety of choices while still remaining consistent. Good typefaces usually come with a variety of weights, as well as italicized and condensed weights.

Stereotype Design

In-Class
Create a typographic tree to illustrate Student’s personal relationships.

Start with your name as the dominant visual anchor on an 11”x 17” landscape document in Illustrator. Use 10-12 names of family, friends, or colleagues who are closest in your life. Just like familial relationships and friendships, information has particular dynamics. Categorize your relationships into a hierarchy and illustrate their connection to your life (i.e.: your name on the page), and perhaps address the relationships between others in your layout (sub-categories). Use nothing but typefaces and their positioning and alignment to illustrate your relationships.

Explore different typefaces. They too have ‘family members’ that may be similar to your own.

Also See: Thinking with Type

Assignment: GRPH210-assignment3.pdf

Last Updated 18 September 2006 by Todd Roeth

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02: Anatomy of Type | 05: Typographic Grids


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