does google think I'm hiding text?

Hello all,

First time posting here. Forgive me if this has been answered a hundred times. After a brief search I realized that it's hard to word this generally.

I am a graphic designer by trade and while I want my client's websites to succeed in SEO I also want to deliver them a website that looks awesome. I have tried a few of the font replacement programs but they are shakey at best still.

I prefer their company name and main headline be graphical in nature. But I still want to utilize the h2 tag for the headline on home and so on.

So text indenting has always been a good way to have the text there, but way out of the way.

But before I start using that I was wondering whether Google thinks I'm trying to manipulate viewers. Sometimes tricks like this are used to stuff a page or trick people to click things.

In the long run am I making a bad move trying to utilize this method?

Assuming you mean text indent for hidden divs, you're probably ok as far as the algo goes.

A hand check may be a problem though.

Yes that's what I'm referring to. If there are other methods of hiding text that aren't considered "bad" I'd love to know about them. As I said, my goal is not to misdirect my audience but to simply provide both a well branded site and a viable method for competing in SEO (doesn't hurt that blind people can still read the site as well).