How to Mix Fonts and Colors to Add Depth to Your Design

The cornerstone of graphic design is all about mixing fonts and colors. To have a successful project, you have to first pick an excellent font and color that will mix well with the other fonts and colors. There are good reasons why using multiple of them is a great idea. You develop depth and variety to your creation, which is highly attractive and pleasing to the eyes. The font and color you choose should be recognizable, memorable, and appealing to your viewers or customers.

Let’s explore deeper on how you can mix fonts and colors to add depth to your design.

1. Complementary Fonts

One of the most crucial things you have to be aware of is that fonts have their own personalities. The purpose of your design should always match the personality of the font you choose. With that in mind, the primary font should mix well with the other characteristics.

For example, consider choosing different font categories because they work well together, such as serif typeface will combine well with sans-serif. For a balanced design, mix a strong personality font with something which is either neutral or conservative.

The more combinations you practice, the more comfortable you will become of which fonts combine well.

2. A Visual Hierarchy

A visual hierarchy is a technique where you combine fonts to visually separate texts such as headlines and sub-headlines. It involves various elements including size, boldness, and spacing, encouraging the eye to scan the page and select the more appealing text.

A hierarchy can be done for any design project and you have to decide the part where you want the viewers to look at first. The font size, style, and layout can be arranged depending on what you want to stand out.

3. Context Plan

The fonts to be used will depend on where you want your design to appear. The text has to be readable and clear, meaning the size of the text matters a lot. The font styles should be selected based on the type of message and the perceived characteristics of a typeface.

You have to decide whether you need to use strong personality fonts, more neutral fonts or combine some of them. In some cases, you might need context with a font that will not distract viewers, so you need to consider all scenarios.

It’s also important to do a background check on the origins of fonts in respect to cultural context for your design project as it will determine how people will assess your design.

4. Mix Serifs and Sans Serifs

If you are in a hurry to complete your project, pick one serif and a sans-serif because the two of these complement each other pretty well. While they are great to use in terms of their sizes, there is still an ongoing debate when it comes to their readability.

Serif fonts are believed to have better readability speed when it’s in print form. The case is different with sans-serif fonts which are considered to be more suitable for online or on-screen text as they display clearly at different screen resolutions. With high-quality content written in the best fonts and colors, your readers will be in awe of your content.

5. Contrast Creation

The best way you can create a great contrast is by using together serif and sans-serif fonts. The best part about contrast is that you create various concepts such as hierarchy. Here is how you can develop contrast:

• You can create contrast through font size.
• Contrast can be achieved through style.
• Spacing also creates contrast.
• You can use color and weight to come up with contrast.

6. Avoid Conflict

While contrast is ideal when combining fonts, you don’t want to create conflict. It doesn’t mean that different fonts will always work well together, so you have to be careful when choosing the fonts.

Typefaces that have similar characteristics such as size and weight might look great together despite having other differences. Once you have come up with various types of fonts and typefaces, you will need to add extra style elements.

It’s at this point that you should test text sizes and colors for each character to see how the design will pan out.

7. Too Similar Fonts

Using the fonts that have very similar characters has a downside part to it. You will have problems when making a hierarchy since the fonts are not that different from one another. People will look at deliberate differences you make as more like a mistake from your side.

It’s not only similar fonts that don’t work well together because even typefaces that are different but with similar traits can cause problems. Typefaces with the same weight, letter shapes, and proportions can also cause visual confusion if they are of the same size.

8. Fonts From the Same Family

The basic rule for fonts and colors is to use typefaces that are from the same family. It’s better to consider the families that have a good range of options such as weights and styles.

It’s only through this that you can have enough variation for your design project. But, make sure that you have a good plan when selecting those fonts so that you can have contrast.

Consider their font size, weight, and case which includes upper, lower or small caps. If you are using families that have additional features such as italics, then it will give you a chance to be more creative with your design.

9. Creativeness with Color Schemes

Make sure that you keep on testing the color schemes to come up with the best design. You can think out of the box by trying either a bold color or a large font size when making a subtext.

The idea is to have a visual variety which can only be achieved by ensuring that your imaginations are all over the place.

Some people like to sketch out what they imagine for their design work, helping them to be more creative by correcting the mistakes. Making mistakes is part of the learning curve and the greatest creations are born out of making such errors.

Conclusion

Mixing and matching fonts and colors is a creative process that allows you to practice the theory on graphic design. It’s supposed to be a straightforward procedure as long as you are aware of the graphic design basics.

However, it’s always important to get a second opinion on your work even if you are convinced that you have come up with a perfect design. It’s only through constructive feedback that you can improve your design skills.