Typography is everywhere – the menu at your favorite restaurant, the magazine you read last week, the website you are looking at right now. It is defined as the art or procedure of arranging type or processing data and printing from it. In the modern era this is not limited to just printed media but also how the type is arranged on a website for PCs, laptops and mobile devices.
How typography is set out is often overlooked as many Real Estate Agents and other non-design professionals do not pay attention to it, but it can make or break your website’s effectiveness, as well as the presence of your brand as a whole. The exact same content can appear elegant and easy to read, or it can appear pedantic, ugly and ignored by your visitors.
#1 The Look and Feel of Your Typeface
The kind of typeface you choose for your branding and logo requires careful consideration. Font styles vary widely. The most well-known categorization is serif and sans-serifs. Beyond that, there are many other styles of fonts such as slab-serif, brush, handwriting, etc. You can find more details on the families of fonts here. Some are taller, some are wider. Some feel heavier, while others lighter.
Re-using a font that hundreds of other Real Estate Agents are already using (such as the infamous Trajan Pro Font) can result in your brand blending in with the others, thus not helping your brand become memorable at all.
#2 Don’t Repeat Your Logo Typeface Over and Over
One important element of branding is not over-repeating (if not at all) the main brand typeface. By doing so, you dilute your brand rather than enforce it. In fact, repeating a fancy and specialized logo font in the body copy, phone numbers and taglines is considered a very amateur mistake (and it happens too often due to lack of guidance by professionals).
#3 Upper Case and Lower Case
Studies have shown that headlines and titles are best kept when capitalized on the first letters throughout the sentence (source: moz.com blog). In fact, landing pages have been shown to convert better when such method was used for capitalizing the titles (source: wishpond blog).
Another strong case to keep most of the body text in lower case (with the exception of some headings, special graphic elements or logos) is that the top portion of lowercased letters contain the most distinguishing traits of each letter, allowing the human brain to read the copy quicker. Take the following visual, for example – it’s the same sentence, but the top portion has the top half of all letters blanked out, while the bottom portion is the opposite. When you can see just the top half of all letters, you are able to surmise the words much better than the opposite scenario (source: A List Apart Article):
The natural height differential flow of lower-cased letters also make reading the text much eaiser, as you can see in the following graphic (source: A List Apart Article):
These basic tips on typography can greatly improve not only your website and blog articles, but also your everyday communication in emails, letters and other routine tasks that real estate agents perform. Communicating better with your clients is one of the key strategies to success as a sales professional.
And of course, when it comes to creating professional grade marketing material, always consult your professional graphic designer or web designer who understands typography for great design and communication.
In part two of this article, we will cover three more typography factors that Real Estate Agents can consider to improve their visual communication on both web and print.
