Typography
In today’s digital landscape – more than ever – people are aware of typography, it is key that we maintain a consistent use of type throughout our brand.
You might think our family of typefaces is pretty basic, but it's how we use them that creates impact. We use a range of contrasting weights to denote hierarchy, from our loud and proud headlines in Helvetica Now Display Extra Black, to the gossamer Helvetica Now Text Light in our body copy.
We love how flexible the Helvetica Now family is but, in order to ensure consistency across campaigns, we've provided detailed guidance on what to use and when.
Our typefaces
Primary Typeface: Helvetica Now
Our primary typeface is Helvetica Now. Clean, legible and optimised to work at any size in digital and print contexts, Helvetica Now expresses both contemporary and classical qualities.
Helvetica Now is available in a range of cuts and weights. The guidance below is intended to guide you through achieving consistency across our communications, but may not apply to every scenario. For specific guidance, please contact Marketing and Communications.
Helvetica Now Display Extra Black
Helvetica Now Display Bold
Helvetica Now Text Light
System font: Arial
When Helvetica Now is not available – for example in Word, PowerPoint and in some online environments such as emails – Arial should be used as a replacement. No other typefaces should be used, and care should be taken to change default fonts to Arial where possible.
Arial Bold
Arial Regular
What to use and when
The guidance below is designed to help creatives use typography to enhance our communications. Staff briefing creatives may wish to be aware of this guidance, but are not encouraged to follow it themselves. It's important we leave design to the designers, as any attempt to replicate key brand components without sufficient skill or resource can be damaging to the brand.
Headline messaging
We use headlines for big, confident, emotive statements, typically in campaign materials and seperated from other body copy. All headlines should be set in Helvetica Now Display Extra Black with tight leading and tracking, and use colour and layer ordering to highlight a key word or two at end of the statement. Headlines should always align to our tonal principles, be short, direct, and resonate with our target audience.
Check our guidance on colour to ensure you are using the right colour combinations for the audience.
| Typeface | Helvetica Now Display Extra Black |
|---|---|
| Alignment | Left |
| Case | Uppercase |
| Leading | Around 75% of the type size |
| Tracking | -20px with manual kerning as required |
| Minimum size | 50pt |
| ✅ You should always | ⛔️ You should never |
|---|---|
| Ensure headlines are around five words or fewer | Set leading too loose to too tight |
| Follow the guidance on typesetting | Set tracking too loose or too tight |
| Use appropriate campaign colour to highlight key, emotive words at the end of the headline | Use Helvetica Now Extra Black in lowercase or outside of headlines |
| Use layering, when paired with an image, to create depth and impact | Use the headline style for document or page titles |
| Size and position headlines with confidence | Attempt to recreate the headline style in Arial Black or any other typeface |
Document and page titles
Document, section and page titles should be set with confidence in Helvetica Now Display Bold, picking out an accent colour from the page, or in white against an image with sufficient contrast. Leading and tracking should remain tight, but watch out for clashing ascenders and descenders in the text. Care should be taken to maintain title size across any single document or document section, ie consider a standard size for all section titles, all page titles etc.
Our document titles can often be quite dry, so we should strive, where appropriate, to bring life to the pages within with emotive and inspiring page titles.
| Typeface | Helvetica Now Display Bold, or Helvetica Now Text Bold if smaller than 50pt. If unavailable, use Arial Bold |
|---|---|
| Alignment | Left |
| Case | Sentence case |
| Leading | Around 80% of the type size, taking care to avoid clashing ascenders and descenders |
| Tracking | -20px with manual kerning as required |
| Minimum size | 30pt |
| ✅ You should always | ⛔️ You should never |
|---|---|
| Set titles large and with confidence | Vary type size in the same document or document section |
| Consider using accent colours | Confuse titles and headlines |
| Set titles in a neutral colour when overlaying an image | Place titles in boxes or shapes |
| Keep titles short and to the point |
Headline or title?
If you are unsure what's a headline and what's a document title, use the checklist below and treat the text accordingly:
| Headlines | Short, emotive and inspiring statements |
|---|---|
| Often a call to action | |
| Generally five words or fewer | |
| Always aligned to our tonal principles | |
| Document titles | Highly descriptive, rational and literal |
| A signpost to further information |
Standfirsts
Standfirsts are introductory pieces of text that help establish or summarise subsequent content. They should be concise and engaging, rarely more than 40 words in length, and in accessible language.
Our standfirsts should be visually distinct from the page title and body copy through use of size, weight and, where appropriate, colour.
Care should be taken to maintain type size across any single document or document section, varying size only to indicate hierarchy.
| Typeface | Helvetica Now Text Bold / Helvetica Now Text Light. If unavailable, use Arial Bold / Regular |
|---|---|
| Alignment | Left |
| Case | Sentence case |
| Leading | Around 100% of the type size, taking care to avoid clashing ascenders and descenders |
| Tracking | -20px with optical kerning |
| Minimum size | 14pt |
| ✅ You should always | ⛔️ You should never |
|---|---|
| Ensure there is clear hierarchy with respect to titles and body copy | Set the standfirst against images unless there is sufficient contrast |
| Use clear, accessible language to convey key points | Use more than 40 words |
| Use engaging language to encourage the audience to read on | Vary type size in the same document or document section |
Body copy
Body copy refers to the text forming the main content of a piece of communication. We use this to tell stories about the University.
Body copy comprises both paragraphs of text and signposts such as paragraph headings. Care should be taken to ensure typographic hierarchy is clear, and is useful to the reader in scanning a large amount of text.
Where possible, paragraph headings should be used to introduce clearly defined concepts within a thread of text, and regular paragraph breaks should be used to make this text easy to digest.
| Typeface | Body copy: Helvetica Now Text Light. If unavailable, use Arial Regular. Paragraph headings: Helvetica Now Text Bold. If unavailable, use Arial Bold. |
|---|---|
| Alignment | Left |
| Case | Sentence case |
| Leading | Around 120% of the type size |
| Tracking | -20px with optical kerning |
| Minimum size | 8pt |
| ✅ You should always | ⛔️ You should never |
|---|---|
| Set body copy in Dark Grey | Fully justify text |
| Consider using an accent colour for paragraph titles | Set body copy in any colour other than Dark Grey |
| Use paragraph titles to break up long threads of text | Vary type size in the same document or document section |
| Use tracking to counter widows, orphans, rivers and rags | Hypenate words at the end of a line |
| Use multiple columns to keep line length short | Have a line length of over 70 characters unless critical to the design |
Related guidance
Get in touch
If you have any questions please contact a member of the team:
| Contact | |
|---|---|
| Studio team, Marketing and Communications | studio@herts.ac.uk |
| Jak Kimsey, Head of Digital and Creative Experience (he/him) | j.kimsey1@herts.ac.uk |
| Marketing and Communications Business Support | marketinguh@herts.ac.uk |