Typographyand Its Significantto Memorizinga Logo
Typographyand Its Significantto Memorizinga Logo
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for assessment are roman, italic and reverse oblique, and from its design perspective [14]. Other studies concurred
“style” character category involved two types which are serif with Philips that when combined with uppercase, lowercase
and san serif in general. can have a more effective impression [24]. Degani also
agrees on this statement [14]. Hence, the theory of using the
TABLE I: THE CHARACTER CATEGORY IN TYPOGRAPHY combination of lower and uppercase put forth by Degani [14]
No. Character Remarks and Philips [24] is being indirectly applied in logo designing
Category
by many SME companies. Still, many companies choose to
1 Case uppercase and lowercase
use uppercase in their logo designs, perhaps to make full use
2 Weight light, regular & bold
of the impact uppercase has as stated above.
3 Contrast extreme contrast and modulation
4 Width condensed, medium and extended B. Weight
5 Posture roman, italic and reverse oblique Table II below shows that using bold and regular
6 Style serif and san serif typography is most favored by SME companies when
designing their logos. From the table, it shows that bold
typeface carries the most weight in helping a person to
Next, in the third stage, after the breakdown of each
remember a logo. This is followed by regular typeface. The
category was determined based on the literature review, three
two results (the frequency and its impression on the memory)
experts were referred to ensure the categories and its
breakdown is suitable in logo design context. The experts found from the typography weight provided a positive
endorsed all categories such as case, weight, contrast, width, response to the study previously conducted by Deeb, Ooms
posture and style. & De Meyer, that found out bold typeface is used more than
The categories were then tested for the second objective by light one [26]. The use of regular typeface is found to balance
conducting a survey on 500 Arts and Design students from 3 out the bold typeface. This is quite expected, as regular
local universities. The questionnaire contains 22 questions typeface is more average and appropriate to be used in
related to the 6 typography categories and 20 products and numerous occasions. Norgaard states that regular weight
companies logos under the SME category in Malaysia typeface is the common choice due to its modest
identified earlier. The questionnaire uses the scale of 1 to 5, characteristics that are not too intense [27].
to see how typography is able to help a person in memorizing There are many SME companies that do not make light
logo. typography their choice when designing their logos.
Nonetheless, Parker states that it has its own qualities [28].
Other than appearing soft and smooth, that light typeface
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION provides a positive impression on the mind. Referring to
Norgaard [27] and Leeuwen [18], bold typeface will be more
There are From the 500 questionnaires distributed, 457
pronounced when used with light typeface.
were collected. The table II below shows the descriptive
The conclusion that can be drawn under weight is that it is
analysis of the six physical categories of typography. All
important to know how effective is the weight feature in
categories obtained a significant positive reading, which
typography in helping a person remembers a logo. The result
suggested that in general, the physical aspect of typography is
found clearly supports the finding from the study previously
a significant factor for a person to remember a logo.
conducted by Deeb, Ooms & De Meyer that stated the weight
A. Case typography carries a significant positive impression to the
From Table II, it can be seen that SME companies use mind when helping a person remembers a logo [26].
uppercase more frequently when designing their logos. Arditi
C. Contrast
& Cho state that it is more cost efficient to print in uppercase
than it is with lowercase as the physical appearance of The finding for this category is depicted in Table II below.
uppercase makes it more economical [20]. Cartens agrees However, after discussing with experts on this topic, the
that the use of uppercase adds more emphasis on a message categories were brought down to only two. The contrast
[21]. Cartens also goes on to suggest that the use of uppercase category was removed from the questionnaire in order to
could heighten the readers‟ attention and attract them to the avoid confusion among the respondents. The categories
message [21]. Furthermore, when organized in a stylish „Extreme Contrast‟ and „Contrast‟ in Table II were combined
manner, uppercase can give the impression of sophistication into one, under the term „Extreme Contrast‟. Therefore, the
to a message [22]. As Table II depicted, based on Goldman‟s evaluation on the significance of contrast in typography
suggestion, the use of uppercase is more favored than involved only two aspects – extreme contrast and
lowercase as it projects a positive impact that it is often the modulation.
right choice when used properly [22]. Goldman [22], Cartens According to Samara, contrast refers to craftsmanship of a
[21] and Arditi & Cho [20] view that uppercase is deemed to typography design whether it is prominent or otherwise [2].
have more significance than lowercase when it comes to The two categories stated are interrelated as a prominent
helping a person to recall a logo. typography (extreme contrast) can only be identified if there
Having said that, the significance of lowercase can‟t be is a typography that is not (modulation). From what is shown
entirely overlooked. Hartley [23], Philip [24] and Poulton [25] in Table II, it can be seen that Malaysian SME companies
have proved that lowercase is easier to read. Moreover, prefer the use of extreme contrast to modulation in their logo
lowercase possesses more distinct characters than uppercase designs.
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International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 4, No. 3, May 2014
According to Kea, the application of uncontrolled or Pektas states that since each posture category provides
unstable contrast could leave a negative impression in a logo distinction and gives certain meaning to a typography design,
[16]. Contrast is used in typography to provide emphasis on the use of italic and reversed oblique should be combined
the typeface so it can be recognized and remembered, while with roman posture [15]. The function of italic and reversed
in the context of logo design, it would assist a person to oblique is to emphasize certain parts or elements of a
remember a logo as a whole. message; therefore it is vital to ensure that its use befits its
purpose.
D. Width
The majority of the SME companies employ medium F. Style
width in their logo design, as Table II shows. Medium width Seen from Table II below, the style category indicated that
typography is deemed safer and the often the ideal choice as many of the SME companies‟ logos contain stylized form of
it does not require much space and can stand out just the typography. The adaptation includes the incorporation of
same. several types of typography into one design. In this study, the
Extended typography, on the other hand, possesses a wider most important element is to study how typography can help
proportion than normal. Its use will require extra space and a person to remember a logo.
therefore have been considered in many cases as unsuitable
for logo design. Leeuwen states that in this context, the main TABLE II: RESULT DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS FOR TYPOGRAPHY CATEGORY
purpose of width is to show space [18]. Furthermore, when
used correctly, width can give a maximum impression. A
wide extended typography proved to be more striking and
effective when combined with medium and condensed
typography.
Additionally, medium typography is deemed to have the
most significance in terms of typography width when helping
a person to remember a logo. As for logo designs by
Malaysian SME companies, medium width typography is
often applied with other widths to obtain the maximum
impression [18].
From the result in Table II, medium width typography
proved to be important. This finding shows that Malaysian
SME companies have used width in a positive way in
designing their products and logos that in turn, will help to
increase the chances of people remembering their logos.
E. Posture
Under posture category in Table II, many Malaysian SME
companies are not using reverse oblique while only 3 out of
944 logos employed typography in their designs. Reverse
oblique is the opposite of italic. Though Damico believes that Table II shows that not many SME companies use
posture in typography possesses a strong character, due to the typography without making any adjustments to it even
physical style of reversed oblique typography is seldom though a neutral typography is believed to be more efficient
found, its uses becomes even rarer, especially more so in logo in helping a person to remember a logo. According to Kea, in
design [29]. this case, the use of style in typography is to ensure that a
The case is very different when roman posture is design can become better known [16].
concerned. Roman is the most frequently used typography Based on this statement, we are able to see that in order to
posture compared to other postures. This has got to do with make certain typography design better recognized and in turn
the perception of the posture itself. Italic and reversed easily remembered; any aspect that can create confusion
oblique are seldom used, as the posture is associated with needs to be avoided. Changing the look of a typography style
limited usage. According to Hamilton, italic and reversed can result in it being harder to remember. While it‟s true that
posture is used when putting emphasis on important things a neutral design is more easily remembered, many SME
[30]. Also, from another perspective, the purpose of italic and companies choose stylized typography so they have a design
reversed oblique posture is to help in text and writing, and that is different from other companies.
this is what Hamilton means [30].
From design perspective, however, posture serves a TABLE III: SUMMARY OF REGRESSION ANALYSIS BETWEEN TYPOGRAPHY
AND MEMORIZE
different purpose. Because italic and reversed oblique uses
are very seldom, it helps greatly in making a logo easily Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model R R Square
Square the Estimate
remembered. This is still effective even though the original
purpose of posture is to emphasize. Having said that, a solid
1 0.560a 0.313 0.312 0.47533
reason is duly required when choosing to use a rare posture
such as italic or reverse oblique in logo design. a. Predictors: (Constant), Avg_Typo_All
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International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 4, No. 3, May 2014
The following table III, which shows the regression context, style means both the original physical design as well
analysis conducted between typography and logo as the modified version), while the style element are divided
memorization supports the result in Table II. From the table into old style, transitional, modern, san serif, slab serif,
III below, we can see that the Pearson correlation value is graphic/custom and combination.
0.560, which shows that typography has a substantial For case category, the importance of upper and lowercase
positive association with memorizing factor, and at the same is undeniable. However, as Goldman suggests, the use of
time prove the hypothesis of this study. In addition, this result uppercase should take precedence if there is only one word
also enforces the findings from the previous studies, and in that is used [22]. Uppercase is believed to have more
addition, shows that in the graphics design context, significance in influencing our memory compared to the use
typography has a strong impact on a person to memorize a of lowercase. From another point of view, using lowercase
logo. would be more practical if it involves long sentences as
lowercase is much easier to read. Therefore, taking into
consideration the strong points of both upper and lowercase,
V. CONCLUSION it is recommended by Degani that a combination of upper and
Case, weight, contrast, width, posture and style are the lowercase should be employed with the uppercase used in the
physical categories and aspects of typography and from these, first character of each word [14].
uppercase (case), bold (weight), modulation (contrast), Next, when it comes to choosing the right weight for
medium (width), roman (posture) and neutral (style) are the typography, bold is given priority, as it is the easiest to
viewed as more significant in helping a person to remember a remember. Typography doesn‟t necessarily need to be
logo compared to the other elements in the categories. extreme to be prominent but simply modest in the aspect of
Condensed (under weight category) was deemed as on par or contrast. As for width, typography will be more pronounced
of less significance. Leeuwen views width as the proportion when medium and extended are used. The posture aspect of
of a typography used when putting emphasis [16]. Since the typography needs a little more attention because different
purpose of width is to make typography more prominent, type of posture carries its own meaning and significance.
condensed does not satisfy that criteria as its proportion is too While in general, italic and reversed oblique has its own
narrow. If condensed is not being applied with typography of purpose, in order to produce a logo that is easily remembered,
other width category such as extended, it will prove the it is recommended that roman posture be used. As the
typography design to be less dynamic. physical typography style analysis proved, an unaltered style
The theory of this study is based on the large potential is more effective in making a logo easier to remember.
factor of typography. Typography and logo design goes hand Therefore, it is recommended that a typography style
in hand and are inseparable. Henderson & Cote confirms the shouldn‟t be altered.
significance and the ability typography carries in helping a For typography style, there are four general styles that are
person to remember a logo [5]. However, due to unknown serif, san serif, graphic/custom and combination. It is
reasons that weren‟t mentioned, their study did not include recommended that the style of typography shouldn‟t be
the aspect of typography. Other than that, a psychological changed. That is to say, if serif was chosen as the style to be
study conducted by Wrede concludes that typography has a used and therefore only serif should be used exclusively.
very important role in conveying the right message because if Both serif and san serif are proved to be the style of
used inappropriately, typography can have a negative typography that is easily remembered.
impression on its readers [7]. However, the results from this paper are very limited in
The theory in typography is not only significant from its terms of the scope where the physical aspect of typography
psychological perspective, but other fields such as medicine, was tested only on art and design students from three
logistics and engineering have also come to realize the Malaysian universities. Thus, since this research is at its early
importance of typography. Based on this reason and using the stage, it is important that a research on this topic to be further
suggestion by Henderson & Cote, the theory that „typography expanded in the future by looking into other aspect of
is an important predictor of a person when remembering a typography and a bigger scope.
logo‟ was constructed [5]. This theory is used in studying the
relationship between typography and logo design. This ACKNOWLEDGMENT
hypothesis on typography proved to have obtained Muhammad Abdul Aziz Ab. Gani and colleagues would
encouraging findings of Pearson Correlation value for each like to thank to the Department of Human Resources
design character that is studied. Development, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia for
sponsored and financial supported for submitting and
presenting this paper.
VI. RECOMMENDATION
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