Page 24 - final flipbook

(June 2005.Color Research & Application
30(3):235 - 24

Jill Stansfield &T. W. Allan Whitfield)

Typography has long been a vital part of promotional material and advertising.

Designers often use typefaces to set a theme and mood in an advertisement (for
example, using bold, large text to convey a particular message to the reader). Choice

of typeface is often used to draw attention to a particular advertisement, combined

with efficient use of color, shapes, and images. Today, typography in advertising
often reflects a company's brand.

A brand may use typography to express it’s theme, personality, and message.

Just by looking at the typeface, viewers can get an idea about the message and
personality of the brand, which the brands are fully aware of and are tapping into the

power of good typography.

Typefaces used in advertisements convey different messages to the reader:

classical ones are for a strong personality, while more modern ones may convey clean,
neutral look. Bold typefaces are used for making statements and attracting attention.

In any design, a balance has to be achieved between the visual impact and

communication aspects. Digital technology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
has enabled the creation of typefaces for advertising that are more experimental than

traditional typefaces.

Although extensive political communication research considers the content

of candidate messages, scholars have largely ignored how those words are rendered –
specifically, the typefaces in which they are set. If typefaces are found to have

political attributes, that may impact how voters receive campaign messages. Our
paper reports the results of two survey experiments demonstrating that individuals

perceive typefaces, type families, and type styles to have ideological qualities.

Furthermore, partisanship moderates subjects’ perceptions of typefaces:

Republicans generally view typefaces as more conservative than Independents and
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Democrats. We also find evidence of affective polarization, in that individuals rate