Choosing the font for your brand’s designs is a tricky thing. Most brands these days create a single font package to use across all their designs. They use it in the logo, the website, in flyers and papers, in social media, and more.
Font is a memorable design feature that can affect the mood, emotions, and decisions of those that see it. If people learn to relate your brand with a specific font combination, you need to stick with it at all times.
That makes choosing the perfect font combination very challenging. You can’t really make constant font changes in your designs without annoying the audience.
Choosing the perfect font package on the first try is possible, but only if you know how to do it. In this article, you’ll learn all about it.
Get Inspired by Ready Font Packages
Did you know that there are quality font packages ready to be used as they are or customized based on your choice? Tools like MasterBundles make this very possible. You can use the many ready packages to find the perfect combination for your design. Created by designers and tested by the audience, these combinations will save you both time and money.
Research the Font Characteristics
Typography is an entire field of design and as such, it requires tons of research and knowledge on your behalf. Before you make this important decision for your brand, learn as much as you can about different fonts and their characteristics.
Ideally, the characteristics of the font you’ll be using should fit those of your brand. As you know by now, font psychology indicates that people respond emotionally to your choice of typography. That being said, you should choose your fonts with the customer in mind.
Let’s take a look at the characteristics of the most popular types and categories of fonts:
- Serif: classic, traditional, refined and conservative
- Sans Serif: modern, trendy, simple, clean and geometric
- Slab Serif: vintage, rustic, and masculine
- Script: ornate, elegant, creative, refined, and feminine
- Display: funky, novelty, typewriter, and unusual
Which of these characteristics best defines your brand? You can choose one or two and based on it, pick the fonts in that category and combine them in a bundle.
Decide on the Font’s Weight and Style
Choosing a font category is just one step. Next you need to decide on the font weight and style. There are different variations of these features for almost every font you’ll ever use. This is why you can make a creative design even if you combine just two or three different fonts.
Fonts can be very thin or very thick, or somewhere in the middle. This is what weight refers to. As a rule of thumb, use thick fonts for short names to make them more impactful. Choose thin fonts for lengthy names and long messages, but restrain from using them in small spaces such as business cards.
The style and weight of your font gives your brand certain flair. With the right combination, you can make your message stand out and make your brand’s image more memorable.
Search for a Font Relevant in Your Industry
With almost a million different fonts in the world right now, your choices are endless. Even so, some fonts are more commonly used than others. They give people a sense of familiarity and are known to represent brands effectively.
Instead of opting for something that no one uses to make your brand unique and creative, stick to at least one or two fonts that are widely accepted in your industry. You have a responsibility to stay relevant with the niche you are working in. That being said, your main font should match the industry your brand is working in.
Take for example, serious businesses like law firms, consultant firms, accounting companies, etc. These usually use Serif fonts because they appear highly professional and very clean. Mechanic shops, on the other hand, are more likely to use rustic fonts. Script fonts are used by software and design brands.
If you want to choose a font that works in your industry, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What appeals to your audience? The font you choose should provide relevance and tell the users what type of brand they are looking at.
Pair Different Fonts Carefully
While it is recommended to use more than just one font to create your brand’s designs, you shouldn’t overdo it. Most designers use two to three different fonts for a single brand. If you choose more, the design will get messier and the users will be overwhelmed.
Since you can play with style and weight, as well as colors and sizes, you can use those two to three fonts to achieve all sorts of things. Your design can emphasize, inform, make things clear, create a memory, give a visual cue, etc.
Still, the pairing is not that simple, not even with just two fonts. You need to be very careful and choose your primary font – the one that is clearest to understand and will be used to share the name of the brand and the most important information.
The second and possibly third font should be very clear and look good even when in small size. Since the primary font usually comes with the largest size, the second and third fonts should look as clear as possible on screens of different sizes.
Furthermore, to make sure that your fonts are cohesive, you shouldn’t pick ones that are too different. While it isn’t effective to choose fonts that are too similar, picking entirely different typography is an even bigger error. Find something in middle, a harmony of fonts that complement each other.
Ideally, you should pick fonts in the same or similar category. They should have something in common, but also differ. Otherwise, your fonts will look too similar and this will make your design too plain. Or, they’ll look too different and confuse and distract the user.
Wrapping Up
These are all very important considerations to have in mind when choosing the font package for your brand. Keep in mind that you’ll stay with this combination for a long time. Branding a business with font and other design elements takes tons of time and requires a lot of money, so changing it every now and then is definitely not an option.
Your design elements including the font will be linked to your brand for a long time. By making use of these tips, you can create something great from the start.
The post How to Choose a Stunning Font Package for Your Brand
