How to Pick a Font for Your Brand: Guide to Choosing Fonts

Serif fonts are typefaces that have serifs, which are extra strokes on the ends of their letterforms. These typefaces evoke feelings of history, tradition, honesty, and integrity. There are many fonts that fall into the serif category containing different shapes, thicknesses, and lengths. Some different types of serif fonts include:

1. 1. Old style: Old-style serifs have wedged ascenders in the serifs and high contrast between thick and thin strokes in the letterforms. This is the most traditional and classic of all the serif categories. Garamond is an old style of font—named after the sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond—characterized by slanted counters or scooped serifs, and are seen often in body text and book publishing.
2. 2. Transitional: Transitional serifs contain more contrast between stroke thickness and wider, bracketed serifs evolved from the old-style serif typeface. Times New Roman is a transitional font and a frequent choice for plain text reading because the letterforms make economical use of space. Libre Baskerville is a traditional serif letterform designed specifically for digital body copy with wider counters and less contrast than the traditional Baskerville font.
3. 3. Slab Serif: Slab serif fonts like Clarendon are distinguished by their thick, blocky serifs that are sometimes as thick as the letter strokes themselves. Other slab serif fonts include Courier, Excelsior, and Rockwell.
4. 4. Didone: Fonts in the Didone family—also known as Modern serifs—are characterized by high contrast in stroke thickness. These fonts are not meant for body text or long-term reading but can evoke a sense of luxury or elegance. Fonts like Didot and Bodoni are considered Didone fonts.

Sans-serif fonts are typefaces that do not have serifs on the ends of their letterforms. They are considered more modern and minimalist, and are known for their high legibility. These fonts lack additional flourishes and have a more orderly and clean appearance. Some different types of sans-serif fonts include.

1. 1. Grotesque: Grotesque sans-serif fonts don’t vary much in their stroke widths and uppercase letters are relatively uniform in appearance. Franklin Gothic is an example of a grotesque sans-serif font with an extra-bold design.
2. 2. Neo-grotesque: Neo-grotesque sans-serif fonts emphasize neutrality and simple legibility. These fonts have fewer strokes than standard serif typefaces and are more refined letterforms than traditional grotesque fonts. Arial is a neo-grotesque typeface with fewer strokes than standard serif typefaces. The curves in Arial sans-serif fonts are fuller and softer, with terminal strokes cut on the diagonal. Helvetica is a dense letterform with high x-height and tight spacing between the characters.
3. 3. Geometric: Geometric fonts have letterforms that are influenced by geometric shapes and have a more modern look. Futura is an example of a geometric sans-serif typeface with letterforms that carry more weight. Avant-Garde Gothic is another example of a geometric font family.
4. 4. Humanist: Humanist sans-serif fonts are inspired by traditional letterforms that may alternate between thin and thick strokes. This font is characterized by loose letter spacing, wide counters, and a large x-height, making it easier on the eyes for smaller text. Verdana is a humanist sans-serif that was created by a type designer who specifically wanted to make computer viewing easier.

Script fonts are font types that resemble cursive handwriting or calligraphy. Formal scripts like Hummingbird, Kuenstler, or Malbec evoke a classical or contemporary feel. Casual script fonts like Kaufmann, Vladimir, or Brush Script are more playful and stylized than formal script fonts.

When it comes to choosing the right typeface for your brand or design project, there are a number of different factors to consider.

1. 1. Understand your brand identity. Understand your brand personality before you choose a font, which will nonverbally communicate your company’s tone. Start off by brainstorming a few words to describe your brand identity. If your business is “authoritative” or “educational,” you may want to choose a transitional serif typeface. If you’re “quirky” or “whimsical,” a script font might be for you. If you’re “innovative” and “modern,” consider choosing a sans-serif font.
2. 2. Take note of the brand fonts you admire. Look up brands you admire and take note of their typeface branding. Notice the impression that different lettering styles can have on a viewer. You may want to pair the quirkiness of one brand’s typeface with the modernism of another brand’s typeface.
3. 3. Research typography. Study the anatomy of letterforms, how to distinguish between different fonts, and how different lettering shapes or styles can evoke particular feelings. All of this information will help you make your final choice.
4. 4. Make sure that the font is versatile. The font you choose should be consistent across your branding, from out-of-home advertisements to desktop web design, to mobile interfaces. If your logo design contains a phrase, choose something that is highly legible. If it’s something meant to go on billboards or signage, you’ll want something that is bold but legible at larger sizes.
5. 5. Choose a few fonts to start. Narrow your choices down to three different fonts for your brand and compare how your brand text looks in each. Look at them alone, and also side by side.
6. 6. Consider the typographic hierarchy. A typographic visual hierarchy refers to how letterforms are displayed and where they can draw the viewer’s eye in the most effective way. If you’re selecting a few fonts for your brand, make sure to consider how they look together. You want the typeface for your headers to complement your subheaders, and vice versa. Configure your font pairings like which lettering should be the display font style and which should be the body text. Swap your styles around to see what has the best structural layout.
7. 7. Ask for feedback. Show family and friends some mock-ups of your prospective brand fonts and ask for feedback. Since your branding is meant to target an audience, ask people you trust to be an honest sounding board for your ideas.

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