The study of typography is something that concerns both print and digital designers. Asa Berger focuses his chapter on Typography on two principles, effective communication and reader pleasure, while outlining the specifics of design within typography. I’ve chosen an email advertisement from Territorial Seed Company to analyze using those principles of design. The email is divided into 4 sections, with images being the primary focus of the advertisement. In the first photo is a large block of text, with a header and a button under it that says “shop now.” The subsequent photos have a smaller header and a “buy now” button. Typography not only conveys the advertisement’s message within this email, but it also guides the reader through the information and urges the reader to action.

To begin with, the email advertisement uses typography to guide the reader through the information. At the top of the email, the navigation headers, in a lightweight, sans serif font, are eclipsed by a larger point, heavyweight header in all caps, “Favas for Fall.” Because of the emphasis of the header, the reader is guided first to this information—though it does make the advertisement feel a little top heavy.

The paragraph of text that follows is in a much smaller font, and the leading is shortened to contain all of the information. This paragraph is followed by the “shop now” button, significantly reduced in points from the header, but bolded and still effective to lead readers along. This section is followed by three others, all very similar in typography and style but still designed to lead the reader through to action.

The headings and buttons within this new section are white against light photographs, which makes it difficult to see some letters when they fall into too light of an area. The font is less crisp and more free-flowing, in a medium-weight with several ligatures, making it resemble handwriting. The “buy now” buttons are in a different font than the headings, but in the same font as appears in the first section. They are a medium-weight and capitalized, which distinguishes them from the headers above, but only just enough.

Finally, as a critique, the designer could think about the relationship of the font weight to the photographs. The first section utilizes a gray, slightly transparent box to distinguish the typography from the photo, but the other sections do not utilize this design scheme. If the designer increased the weight of the type in the following sections, it could help distinguish the headers from the buttons and make it more readable.