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Simply defined, the concept of typographic hierarchies refers to the visual organization of content in terms of their relative importance. In other words, the manner in which we organize the text, the headers, the subheaders, the columns, the paragraphs, the callouts, and others on the page or space signify their importance.
That sounds easy enough, right? Yes, it does. The problem is that visually accomplishing this is more challenging than it sounds, especially for those unfamiliar with the nuances of typography. Everything in typography behaves like a domino effect causing a chain reaction of changes by the designer. That is why when a client asks for a “small change,” it is never small and never linear. Typography is symbiotic. Each element contributes to the other, even in a very small way.
These two words: typographic and hierarchies are not familiar concepts to those outside our field. In fact, even in the art and design field, fellow artists do not necessarily understand typographic hierarchy. The term typographic refers to matters related to typography: type choice, sizes, weights, how far or close we set the letters, and others. The term hierarchy refers to levels of priority or importance: what comes first, second, and third. Thus, when these two terms are put together, we mean to arrange content in levels of importance with the intention of communicating to the reader.