Have you noticed how much typography is used in the world around you? It is a part of the way your computer is presenting information to your right now. It is a part of the way this page looks, and it is even a part of how this article is talking to you. I am obsessed with typography. I love it and I love to play with it. If only I could do more and influence more people! I wrote this article because I love typography so much, in the hope those of you who have control over your own web design, online marketing, social media marketing, and SEO (search engine optimisation) will make better use of it.

· What is Typography? Typography comes from the Greek words meaning form and writing. It is the art and skill of presenting words and text with different fonts, colours, sizes and locations on a page to influence how that the reader reads information, and how the meanings of those words are influenced. Find a good advert by companies like Nike or Apple, and copy the text down into simple font, and compare the difference of meaning to you as a reader.

· Fonts. Fonts are a big part of typography. Have you stopped and considered how much a font actually impacts the meaning of what is being said. Words will mean what they mean, but they will have different levels of emphasis and influence over the total meaning. We can even break-up words and fonts to imply different meanings to.

· Size. Letter size has will also greatly impact meaning. These meanings are influenced by the way we see things. Size implies importance, and can change the nuance. Very small can be seen as important, and very big will too. The relationships between these will also influence the nuance and the meaning of the final statement.

· Colours. Colours have a lot of meaning no matter what culture or society you are from. They are not always the same, but there are commonalities that exist across the world. The best example of that I personally experience goes as follows. We were doing the research on this project, and were surprised to find the colour orange was the colour that no matter what culture you were from, you saw it as positive and a sign of a positive future. This was our recommendation to Hutchinson Wanpao and became the brand Orange, the global mobile phone network. And it has done extremely well since launch and has done nothing else but continue to grow. They have networks available in over 12 million customers in the UK alone and over 30 million customers worldwide. When we launched, it was the fastest growing operator for the 18 months to March 2001. I can only put that down to the colour orange, and the results we found – I could be wrong, and I am probably a little biased.

· Layout. Placement of words is very important. In normal writing, such as what you are reading now, our eyes follow as we are used to. With typography, whether that is for an advert, a written piece, or even a single message, by changing the location, we also change nuance and meaning.

Typography is more of an art than a science. It comes from practice and skill, and those who are skilled in it are those who are passionate about words and language. We can use it to develop our online marketing and Facebook marketing, and social media marketing in ways to influence how people feel about the words and language we use. I only have 18 years experience with typography, and this is my personal opinion. How you can make it work for you will be your own judgment and choice.

This is a Guest Post from Sachin