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Typography And Brand Identity: Why Font Choice Matters
We focus on typography as a key element of brand identity, we provide guidelines for making the right font selection and discuss potential pitfalls.
In a previous article, we provided a comprehensive guide on brand identity. In it, we said that a brand’s visual identity consists of many elements: the logo, the color palette, the imagery, the typography and others. We discussed that all these elements must work together and support each other for the brand to work. If any of them is out of place, it could jeopardize the entire message of the brand.
One very important but subtle element of a brand’s visual identity is its typography. In other words, the font or fonts you use in your brand’s materials. In this article, we will focus on typography as a key element of brand identity, we will provide guidelines for making the right font selection and will discuss some potential pitfalls.
As with many aspects of visual design, typography often affects your customers’ perception of your brand in subtle ways. When done right, typography will increase your brand’s appeal, making customers and clients attracted to it and influencing them in subtle ways. Typically, they won’t even be aware of it. Most of them won’t be able to explain what they like about it, but simply that they do. This is the magic of design. For example, text on your website presented in the right font will make reading it easier. Most probably, your website visitors won’t contemplate how easy the text is to read, they will just read.
Now imagine that you run a high-end restaurant. Imagine the menu in your customers’ hands. See form their point of view how easy it is to browse it when the menu items are presented in the right font. Perhaps the dish name is written in one font and the ingredients in another. Perhaps the allergen information is presented in a third font. This makes it easy to distinguish between them, ensuring a smooth and frictionless experience.
On the other hand, when typography is used inappropriately, the effects are much easier to notice. Imagine, for example, that you’re entering a high-end luxury store. At first glance, everything is as expected – the setting, the lighting, the sign with the store name. Then you look at the price labels and see that they’re written in a funny childish font. How would you feel about that? At the very least, you would find the label font out of place. You would question if the store knew what they’re doing.
As all these examples illustrate, typography is an important element of a brand’s identity and getting it wrong can damage it. That’s because fonts are a powerful tool not only for making text readable, but also for communicating moods, evoking emotions, and ultimately shaping how customers feel about your business.
At first glance, the sheer number of fonts out there can be overwhelming. How can you ever choose the right one?
As an experienced graphic design and branding agency, a key part of what we do is to help clients choose the right fonts for their brands and projects. To do this, we take into consideration a number of factors about your business – the industry you operate in, who your competitors and customers are, what sets you apart from other brands. We then propose a few alternative selections of fonts for you to choose from. Sometimes a single font is enough, but most often it’s two or three.
That’s because fonts differ in a few key ways. Some are more elaborate and decorative, which makes them ideal for use in logos, but those same qualities make large paragraphs of text difficult to read. Some fonts look better on a screen, others are easier to read on paper. Some fonts are great for placing an emphasis on key messages, but you want to reserve them for these special occasions. When considering the particular strengths and character of each font, we typically present you with a font selection that allows you to display headlines and titles in one font, write large paragraphs of text in another, and in some cases place special emphasis in a third.
This can also be achieved by using different fonts within the same font family. For example, you can use the heavy bold version of a font for titles, its regular version for text paragraphs and its italic version for emphasizing important information. We make sure that the fonts work well together, form a cohesive image, support the overall message of the brand and fit in with all other brand elements.
Ideally, there should be clear rules as to when and where to use each font. This information is included in the brand book, a key deliverable in the brand creation process. In order to preserve the strength and impact of your selected fonts, creating rules on how to use them is key. For example, you don’t want to overuse your special fonts, keep them for select occasions. Some fonts might be used only in advertising materials, etc.
In this section, we will present a general overview of fonts. It is by no means exhaustive but instead an introduction into key concepts you might come across when working with a designer on your brand.
The two main terms you are likely to hear are “font” and “typeface”. Technically, a typeface refers to the overall design or style of a set of characters, such as Arial or Times New Roman. A font is a specific version of that typeface, including attributes like size, weight, and style (e.g., Arial Bold 12pt). In short, a typeface is the design, while a font is how that design is applied in a specific instance.
Serif typefaces are those with small lines or strokes attached to the ends of their letters, like Times New Roman or Georgia. This makes them easy to read, especially when printed.
These fonts have a timeless, classic appeal, and they’re often associated with tradition, professionalism, and reliability.
Many established businesses, like law firms, financial institutions, and luxury brands, use serif fonts because they exude trust and authority.
In contrast, sans-serif typefaces, like Arial or Helvetica, don’t have the little strokes or "feet" that serif ones do. This makes them more appropriate for use in digital media.
These fonts are generally perceived as sleek, modern, and simple, which makes them great for companies that want to appear approachable, contemporary, and forward-thinking.
Tech companies, startups, and lifestyle brands often favor sans-serif fonts for their clean, minimalist look.
Finally, as the name suggests, decorative fonts mimic calligraphy, cursive handwriting, or otherwise place an emphasis on how letters are drawn. This makes them ideal for logos, for example. In all other cases, we believe they should be used sparingly.
Imagine, for example, that you’ve opened a French patisserie. A beautiful, elaborate, decorative font where each letter is drawn in thin curves may be ideal for the logo or the title of the menu, but you wouldn’t use it to write the entire menu. It would be nearly impossible to read.
As we said earlier, it is usually a good idea to choose a few fonts for your brand to benefit from the strengths and particular look and feel of each. Typically, this involves choosing a font for titles and headings, a font for larger bodies of text and a third for special cases. But where can you look for fonts to choose from? There are a few possible approaches, each with its own pros and cons. We will now go through each of them it turn.
The cheapest option you have is to use free fonts. There are a number of great looking free fonts out there.
Perhaps the best library to look through is Google Fonts. The fonts provided by Google are all completely free. Because of that, they are widely used and easily recognizable. In other words, they probably won’t help your brand appear unique, but they are an ideal choice if you’re looking for the cheapest option.
You can also find free fonts on Font Squirrel and similar websites. Unlike Google Fonts, fonts found in these libraries may differ in terms of licensing. For example, some fonts may be entirely free to use, even on commercial projects, while others may only be free for personal use. Our recommendation is to check the specifics of the license listed for each individual font to avoid potential problems in the future.
Another option is to buy paid fonts with a commercial license. This is a great option if you’re looking for something very specific which is unlikely to be found in a free font library.
You can look for such fonts on Creative Market, Envato Market and other places. You will be astounded as to the quality and premium feel of some of the fonts found there. Most of them are not outrageously expensive, either. Because they are paid, these types of fonts are used less frequently and are therefore a step above free fonts in terms of brand differentiation.
Finally, if you want a truly unique font for your brand, you can commission a designer or agency to create one from scratch for you. This is typically the most expensive option, because making a font is a complex and time-consuming process.
As the font has been created exclusively for you, it can become a core brand asset in itself. It represents the highest level of commitment to your brand and attention to detail. It signals that you’re ready to invest to make your brand stand out.
Equipped with all of these options, we as an experienced agency advise our clients as to what might be best in their particular case. It could be that a paid font exists which is close enough to their vision. In that case, it is often enough to buy a license for it instead of creating a font from scratch. Better yet, a free font may be substantially similar to a paid one to avoid buying a license altogether. We check the available options in each case.
There are also other factors to consider. If you plan to use multiple languages in your marketing material it needs to be checked if the chosen font supports them. A common experience is to find the perfect font, only to be disappointed that it doesn’t support one of your core languages. It can also happen that while a font looks great when used for English text, it looks entirely inappropriate for other languages, even though it technically supports them. In that case, one solution is to find a similar font that covers all languages or to use different fonts for different languages. Both approaches can work, both have pros and cons.
As we have shown, typography and font selection are a crucial yet subtle aspect of a strong brand identity. If done right, typography can strengthen a brand, make it more appealing and increase its value. If done poorly, it can damage it.
The font selection depends on multiple factors that need to be examined for each individual case. They include your brand’s desired positioning, your business’ industry, who your competitors and customers are. Based on this analysis, a selection of fonts is made for the brand. Ranging from one to several, they typically include a headline or title font and main body text font. A font may be added to the selection to place an emphasis on special items, such as slogans.
Fonts differ in a few key ways. Some are easier to read on paper, others on screens, some are complex and elaborate, others are basic and simple. A main distinction between fonts is serif vs sans-serif.
You can choose among free, paid and custom-designed fonts for your brand. Free fonts are the cheapest option but are commonly used and easily recognizable. Paid fonts are especially great if you’re looking for something specific. Finally, custom-designed fonts are typically the most expensive but most brand-enhancing option.
Should you choose to work with us on your next brand project, we will walk you through the entire process of font selection. We can also design custom fonts for you!
Get in touch today!
