Typography Tips: more than two is too many

Modern typography is blessed with an embarrassment of riches. There are literally millions of different typefaces out there from which to choose. However many of them serve very little purpose.

I recently ran across a font where the letters were formed by cartoon versions of Pittsburgh Steeler fans and the numbers were designed to look like players' jerseys. How many uses does this font have? It serves a niche market to say the least. 

Because there are so many different faces to choose from it is becoming more common to see fonts used inappropriately. Display fonts, those with bold designs or detailed decoration, should never be used for body copy. Likewise, san serif fonts should never be used for paragraphs or large areas of body text. 

The most prevalent problem is the use of too many typefaces on one project. Good typography requires either a concordant typographical design, meaning one font family is used throughout, or a contrasting typographical design, meaning two contrasting font families are used throughout the project. You see contrasting design in newspapers where they use a bold san serif typeface for headlines and other short bursts of information, and a more modern font with serifs for the body copy.

It is never good typographical design to use more than two font families on a given project. Look for examples of designs that break this rule and make sure you don't break it in your own work.