Why Top Designers Use Uppercase

The fashion and function of uppercase in your design (without all the yelling)

Read time: 2 minutes

Imagine your design was more neat and tidy, balanced, and attractive.

Handsomeā€¦

Beautifulā€¦

Perhaps a ā€œnot badā€ šŸ§

Uppercase Enters the Room

Using uppercase in things like titles, headings, buttons, and small details gives your design more:

  • emphasis

  • alignment

  • balance

  • contrast

  • hierarchy

āœ“ This is an arrangement of desirable (alluring, if you will) qualities in design.

Pro tip: Sans serif fonts in uppercase usually look way better than serif fonts.

Examples of Uppercase in the Wild

Gary Veeā€™s designer makes great use of uppercase on his website, including every word in his opt-in CTA.

Simple and confident ā€” just like the man himself.

Aries Moross is a creative director and designer who knows a thing or two about using uppercase.

BTW, these big words scroll across the screen like news tickers.

In 2021, Ad World launched this campaign for their conference ā€” and thereā€™s not a single lowercase letter in their ads.

Ad World has such kick-ass design šŸ”„

How Can Uppercase Be So Amazing?!

Simple.

Itā€™s organized, self-assured, and has lots of nice straight lines.

Uppercase letters look similar, and they all have the same height.

This creates an aligned and unified appearance.

Uppercase text is a nice contrast to lowercase text, which has more ragged edges.

Uppercase is also great for bold titles on multiple lines.

Lowercase letters require more line height, and they generally donā€™t look as good when using thick fonts.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Want to grab your viewers immediate attention?

ā†’ Use a thick, bold font.

We see this in ads, sales, announcements, and warningsā€¦ pretty much any text that says, ā€œYou need to look at me now!ā€

Want something a little more modest and sexy?

ā†’ Use a slender font.

Just look at nearly every fashion brand ever.

Even Small Type Gets In on the Action

Uppercase does a great job of drawing the eye at small sizes.

So your viewer gets all of the important details.

Lowercase in the same places would mean increasing the font size.

Magazine-style sites like Wired have tons of little headings, labels, and author names.

ā€¦uppercase is the right answer for these.

The Layout Hero We All Need

Uppercase is so versatile, you can use it almost anywhere:

  • Site navigation

  • Hero titles

  • Subtitles

  • By lines

  • Buttons

  • Section titles

  • Product names

  • Form labels

  • Diagram labels

  • Table headings

Donā€™t Be Yellinā€™ at People Now šŸ¤Ø

The one place you shouldnā€™t use it is long body text.

Anything longer than one sentence is a no-no.

That would be yelling at your viewers.

And it hurts to read.

MY FREEAKING EEEEEEYES!! šŸ˜³

Try using MORE UPPERCASE!

Itā€™ll make you look more professional and organized.

And help associate your brand with clarity, competence, and style.

This is why the worldā€™s top designers use it.

Got any brand design questions?

Reply to any of my emails or find me on X.

šŸ¤– Robert

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