Typography and Titles: How you do it?

[Panda007]

Hello dear creators!

I'm here with an inquiry that has taken my mind in the last few days: How do you, creator, choose how to letter the title of your comic?

Why did you choose that font?
Did you even use a free font or drew your own? If you did your own, how?
Does it compliment your art? Is it attractive or do you think you can improve it?

I have a hard time dealing with fonts and typography, so I wanted other people's views on the matter!

[keii4ii]

Mine is a mix of free font and hand-drawn letters. It looks cool and conveys the right vibes for the story, but IT'S STILL A HORRIBLE LOGO/TITLE. Why? Because it's really hard to recognize at a glance when shrunk down. It'd be hard to put it on book spines, tiny ad banners, etc.

;_;

[Panda007]

I guess that's a problem with longer titles? I'm trying to make mine compact, but it's already hard to make it look good (I still haven't posted it in the header)....

I can't think of a solution for that

[nelmathyria]

I'm a bit of a nerd for typography and logos so i had a lot of fun making mine! I actually just finished updating it last night.

Here's my original:

And here's my slightly revamped one:

They're not super different (mostly a lot of small adjustments that only I would notice lol), but I did adjust the kerning (made the letters closer together) which I think gives it more of a cheesy superhero comic feel, which is what I'm going for. Even though I was really proud of the first one at the time, I feel like my new logo is a big improvement! And a year from now I'll probably want to change it again, haha.

So to answer your questions, I drew the fonts myself. The "shenanigans" font is actually one I made with my handwriting, and I use it for all of the dialogue in my comic. I knew I didn't want to spend a ton of time looking through fonts to pick and possibly have to pay for one, so that's why I opted to make my own. Plus I feel that my own handwriting meshes with my drawings in a way a font I didn't make probably wouldn't.

[abbastudios]

I went to college for graphic design and learned about typography.

That knowledge helps me to choose a typeface or create one for a title that communicates what I want.

[AnnaLandin]

I have different approaches to different titles.

Grassblades is a mix of a free font and some hand-drawn elements to tweak the font into looking the way I wanted it to. I dug around until I found a free font that looked as though it was written with a brush, as that's the writing-technology used in the world of the story; they have no pencils. It could do with a bit more polish, but for my first serious attempt at a title, I'd say it's not too shabby.

Wishlight is all hand-drawn, mostly because I couldn't find a font that fit. I wanted something that communicated the feeling of a fairytale, without being too twee about it, so in the end I settled for hand-drawing it, even though my handwriting is atrocious. It's not perfect, but it does what it's supposed to do.

Stranger Things has a font that I've just tweaked a bit by adjusting the arc of the letters; I chose it because it reminded me of the lettering and typography used on the labels of tea-tins, and tea is kind of central to the story, so I wanted to make a title (and a cover!) that was reminiscent of those tea-tins. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, even though it's the least involved title-typography I've done.

[Rueleer]

Lol, we're in the same boat! X"D

I'm pretty uncreative when it comes to fonts, so it's extra work for me to come up with titles/logos.

My method is to binge through free fonts to find something I think I like, and then alter it to my exact tastes. (Load it into Clip Studio, play with spacing, width, tilt, etc. Sometimes I'll combine multiple free fonts together.)

How I select base fonts is pretty straight-forward; I have very defined themes and atmospheres for my comics, so I just need to match the font's aesthetic to the rest of the comic. (So if you're having trouble, try to identify your comics genre, atmosphere, etc and pick a font that hints to these aspects.)

Some examples:
- For fantasy or oldish era stories, serif fonts or fonts with flourishes and details tend to suit.
- Slice of Lifes or Romances which are cute in nature might benefit from rounded, bubbly san-serif fonts.
- Conversely, fancy, decorative or cursive fonts may work well for darker Romances or Dramas.
- Dystopian, noir or futuristic comic titles often have very straight lines/angles, bold fonts and are minimalistic. If the title is apocalyptic, grungy textures are also common.

Ok this went on for wayy longer than I thought it would, and I haven't even touched on colour schemes, but oh well. :'DD

Good luck with developing your title! It's just a matter of trial and error; keep your ears open to feedback and you'll work it out eventually (hopefully!). X"D

(All this said, I haven't actually finalised any of my own titles yet, so take this advice with a grain of salt! X"D) I'll also second what @keii4ii mentioned; good titles should be easily identifiable even at small sizes! Though it's not always possible, it's a good rule to keep in mind.

[joannekwan]

Here was my response to a similar topic.

Comic Title Creation

[Shanny8]

Same here @abbastudios. I went to school for graphic design as well...

The fonts for my comic title Ray Thunder- used the fonts Kill Switch from Comicraft, and Susurrus from Blambot. I felt both fonts captured the essence of the comic itself. The main word balloon font that I use to letter the comic is Meanwhile via Comicraft- another font I felt "fit" the comic.

I have a print comic, The Clique- The logo for that title was hand created; I tightened it up digitally, using Illustrator. The main word balloon font I use for lettering in this comic is Wildwords via Comicraft.

That's the one constant I try to do all the time with lettering and the logos- make sure they "fit" or compliment the essence of the comic that I'm using it on. I also try to encourage all comic creators to do so as well, because I see so many comics that are ruined by bad lettering/logo styles and decisions.