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Type Design2024

Typography Exploration

Typography studies exploring font pairing, hierarchy, and expression across digital and print. From display experiments to body text optimization, building type systems that work.

Typography Exploration
Client

Personal & client work

Role

Typography Designer

Duration

Ongoing personal practice

Team

Solo

Process4 phases
01

Font Curation

Built a curated library of 50+ typefaces across serif, sans-serif, slab, and display categories. Tested each for Khmer script support, web availability, and print rendering quality.

02

Pairing Studies

Explored 30+ font pairings, documenting the principles behind successful combinations: contrast in structure, harmony in proportions, and complementary x-heights. Created a pairing reference for client projects.

03

Hierarchy Systems

Designed modular type scales using the 1.25 and 1.333 ratios. Tested readability at 14px, 16px, and 18px body sizes across desktop and mobile. Documented line-height, letter-spacing, and paragraph spacing for each scale step.

04

Display Experiments

Created experimental typography pieces exploring expressive layouts: kinetic type, variable font animations, and editorial drop caps. Published 12 studies as a personal typography journal.

Challenges & Solutions

Khmer Script Support

Few high-quality fonts support Khmer. Tested 15 Khmer-compatible typefaces for rendering quality across browsers and operating systems, documenting fallback stacks for web projects.

Web Performance

Custom fonts impact load times. Developed a font loading strategy: preload critical weights, use font-display swap, and subset fonts to reduce file size by 60% without visible layout shift.

Outcomes

50+

Typefaces Tested

30+

Pairings Documented

2

Type Scale Ratios

12

Studies Published

Deliverables
Type SpecimensPairing StudiesHierarchy SystemsDisplay Experiments
Tags
TypographyTypeExploration
Skills & Tools
TypographyFont SelectionHierarchyKerningPrint DesignWeb Typography