When to diagonally tilt your text

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📝 Intro

Is diagonally tilting lines of text just a design choice with no consequences?

Science says it’s not.

The direction in which you tilt text can hurt or improve your sales and customer satisfaction.

Here’s how, and why.

P.S.: The style of design you use can also portray your brand as either effective and reliable (straight lines and structured shapes) or fun and exciting (curves and incomplete shapes).

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Tilt your text or logo upwards to signal energy and downwards to convey calm

Topics: Ads | Messaging & Copy
For: B2C
Research date: January 2016
Universities: Foster School of Business, University of Washington

📈 Recommendation

Tilt your logo and text on your ads and marketing materials based on how you want your product to be perceived:

• An upward diagonal tilt (tilting from the bottom-left to top-right) gives the impression of activity and energy

• A downward diagonal tilt (tilting from the top-left to bottom-right) portrays calm and relaxation

People will be more likely to say they will buy your product, be satisfied with it, and rate it higher.

🎓 Findings

• People are more likely to buy a product, more satisfied after using it, and give it a better rating if the brand’s logo or text in its ads and packaging is diagonally aligned with the right product context.

• As part of a series of 4 experiments and an analysis of 256 Amazon products, researchers found that:

  • People thinking about exercise said they were 44.5% more likely to buy an exercise-related product and liked its logo 18.6% more when it was tilted upwards compared to downwards.

  • When a resort was advertised as adventurous with an upward-tilting logo, people liked the resort 23% more and said they were 20.6% more likely to book a stay there

  • When a resort was advertised as relaxing, people liked the resort 17.7% more when the text tilted downwards

  • Energizing products with upward-tilted designs were rated 19.4% higher than those with downward-tilting designs or no tilt.

• The effect holds for both brand logos and text - it did not appear when images were tilted.

🧠 Why it works

• When we see static text and images, based on their orientation and how they appear, we associate them with types of motion.

• If we see something oriented as going upwards, we consider it as energetic and requiring effort, since moving upwards (e.g. walking up a hill) requires energy and symbolizes striving for something better. 

• Conversely, going downwards (e.g. walking down a slope) is easier and more relaxing, so it has the opposite effect.

• When a product’s context matches the orientation of its logo (e.g. an energetic brand with a logo that is oriented upwards), we consider the message more favorably.

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✋ Limitations

• The research didn’t look at whether there are any characteristics promoted by keeping a logo flat (e.g. straight horizontally). However, if neither energy nor relaxation is being promoted, horizontally flat logos perform better than upward-tilting logos.

• The study looked at diagonal logo designs in isolation. In reality, other factors, like the use of colors, size, and other surrounding elements would likely amplify or detract from the effect.

• The research mostly tilted text and images by around 45 degrees. It’s unclear if the angle of the tilt would impact how strong the effect is. For example, while a sharper tilt may make the effect more pronounced, it may also impact readability.

• The research looked at three categories of products - drinks, supplements, and hotels. It’s not clear if the effect would be as strong for products with less clear associations with either energy or relaxation, like household products or services.

🏢 Companies using this

• The research’s analysis of 133 beverages and 123 supplements on Amazon found that brands mostly use straight horizontal text. 34% use text that tilts upwards, and 9.4% have either the main image or graphic tilting downwards. 

• None of the brands analyzed used text that tilted downwards. Energy drinks like Sting, Prime Energy, Spike, and Rockstar Energy all use upward-tilting logos or design elements on their cans. Similarly, beverages like 7Up and Mountain Dew also slant their logos upwards on their packaging.

• Household cleaning products also use upward tilting logos extensively, including Tide, Bio Tex and  Radiant detergents, Pledge polish, and Sunlight dishwashing liquid. This may be to position themselves as active, high-energy cleaning solutions.

Pre-workout drink Disorder Energy creates stronger associations with energy through its upward-tilting logo.

⚡ Steps to implement

• Tilt your logo or the text of your branding materials to create unconscious associations with your product in your customers’ minds.

  • Use an upward tilt (bottom-left to top-right) for products promoting energy, activity, or effort

  • Use a downward tilt (top-left to bottom-right) for products promoting relaxation or calmness

  • If you’re not trying to portray your brand as either energetic or relaxing, you can leave your logo and text horizontally flat

• You can use this in your packaging, ads, and across marketing materials, but make sure that tilted text can still be easily read (~45-degree tilt).

• Keep your images horizontal - tilting them doesn’t trigger any associations.

🔍 Study type

Lab experiments and market observation (analysis of 256 products on Amazon)

📖 Research

The ups and downs of visual orientation: The effects of diagonal orientation  on product judgment. Journal of Consumer Psychology (January 2016)

🏫 Researchers

• Ann Schlosser. Foster School of Business, University of Washington.

• Ruchi Rikhi. Foster School of Business, University of Washington.

• Sokiente Dagogo-Jack. Foster School of Business, University of Washington.

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