Your prospectus is designed to be read by a collection of different people, including prospective parents, students, teachers, and members of the school community.
With this in mind, the number one focus across the entire design should be split between aesthetics and accessibility – ensuring that every reader is able to understand and takeaway your key points of information from the prospectus. The way we achieve this isn’t just through visuals and colour, but through typography and the layout of information across the entire prospectus.
Font is one of the focus points of a prospectus, and yet far too often it is overlooked. In fact for many schools, font isn’t often discussed and may simply default to a standard font such as Arial or Calibri. In this content piece, we will be sharing a few reasons why font is so important within the design of your school prospectus, introducing some of our core services and how impactful typography is not just for aesthetics, but for accessibility too.
Why School Prospectus Fonts Are Such An Important Part of Design
Fonts are highly important in establishing a tone or mood within your copy. The style of font you choose provides a great deal of insight into the type of content being shared, and underpins the visuals and branding elements within the prospectus.
From the static edges of Times New Roman, to the rounder simplicity of Calibri, through to the creative sprawl of Lucinda Handwriting and Bradley Hand ITC font, the typography you select helps convey style and formality. For a school prospectus, keeping it plain and simple is key and dictates your professionalism from the very first impression.
Font is also key in helping to establish some form of hierarchy of information – creating and separating headings (larger) with key facts (bolder) and little side notes (often in italics or printed smaller).
But what about the accessibility and readability of font, both in a printed prospectus and online?
Did you know that around 1 in 12 men are colour blind, and 1 in 200 women are colour blind? For designers, clean cut colour schemes and a focus on plain black and white text keeps the important information in a prospectus user friendly for all readers. You can also include patterns and textures to help differentiate between different colours, and can even use online tools to view your website through the eyes of someone living with colour blindness – to see how it would be presented to them.
Other important factors relating to the font and typography of your prospectus include:
- Highlighting key pieces of information and differentiating facts from instructions and ‘Call to Action’ statements
- Dictating headings and main body of text sections
- The presentation of key school statements and philosophies
- Introducing different subjects in a visually stimulating way
- Adding interest and design flair to the prospectus
Getting it Right for Every Reader
From establishing your professionalism to relaying key information to all readers – colour blind or not – keeping the fonts in your prospectus both clear and on-brand is key. If you’ve already read our blog on the evolution of the school prospectus you will be aware of the focus placed on a prospectus to present a strong first impression to prospective parents and students. After all, while visual are a great way of showcasing your areas of focus, it’s the text that will underpin this and let future families know if they are right for the school and will guide them towards the next steps they need to take.
With a focus on creating beautiful school prospectuses for every corner of the education industry, our team at Cleverbox understand the importance of font, both in aesthetics and accessibility. We will work with your team to carefully express the visions and values of the school through the terminology used, and the way in which it is presented. For more information on our bespoke prospectus design service get in touch with our friendly team today.