Choosing a Font for your Brand

A Step-by-Step Guide to The Creative Process of Branding: Part 1

Looking for a long-term strategy to help your small business or brand stand out from the saturated competition online and offline?
Branding is the answer.

Branding in the Hyper-Connected World Today

In our first part of our “Branding” series, we addressed the shift from old-school branding to what is now essential in the new hyper-connected society today. See article

Also, for those interested to embark on a branding project, we introduced a simple exercise on how to create your very own brand statement to kick off the process!

Next Step: Creating Your Brand Identity — Starting with the Logo (& Font)

Once you have your brand statement in place, the creative process of developing your brand identity is the next logical step — beginning with the most fundamental aspect of a brand, the logo.

How hard can it be to create a logo? Not hard at all. But if you are looking to create a distinct and memorable logo, then you have got to delve into the specifics — which is exactly what we will be addressing in today’s article.

To help you along the process, we have included a standard template of a creative brief for the development of a logo. In there you will find relevant and guiding questions to help you determine what is essential and relevant to your brand.

Picking the Best Brand Font

Of the many key considerations in the creative brief, picking the right font is probably one of the highlights.

Why? Because typography is critical in brand communication — whether in print or digital formats. Did you know that different fonts send across different messages about the brand and picking the right one can help you communicate the right impression of the brand to your consumers?

Interested to learn how does that work? Read on for our simple breakdown of popular font styles out there!

Serif

Serif fonts are some of the most classic and traditional font styles available. Think Times New Roman, Playfair Display,etc.

The name originates from the little “feet” also known as serifs that are present at the bottom of every letter.

What brands should choose Serif? The formal-ness and traditional style of serif fonts give off an air of elegance, sophistication, and trustworthiness normally associated with brands that are all about tradition, heritage, and trust.

Sans-serif

Sans-serif (without ‘serifs’) fonts are the exact opposite of their serif counterparts — a simplified, cleaner, and more minimal version. Some of the most commonly used font types in this family include Helvetica, Arial, and Open Sans.

What brands should choose Sans-serif? The simplicity and clean lines of sans-serif fonts tend to be perceived as more modern and approachable. This font style is typically preferred by brands that are all about youthfulness, modernity, and even creativity.

Script

Script fonts like the name suggests, are replications of cursive handwriting with adjoining letters and usually slanted. Some of the most commonly used font types in this family include Great Vibes, Allura, Scriptina Pro, and more.

What brands should choose Script? Like handwriting, script fonts tend to give off a feeling of uniqueness and stand out quite a bit for this reason. Depending on the strokes of the font, scripts can look austere and official, vintage, or whimsical, or even ornamental.

Because of its flexibility, many brands looking for a different look and feel can still choose to go with a script font — as you can see from the examples below.

Handwritten

A popular font choice in recent times, handwritten fonts are just like the name suggests — fonts that look like someone wrote it out by hand. Some of the most commonly used font types in this family include Shorelines, Autography, Shopping script, and more.

What brands should choose Handwritten? Fun, unique, and distinctive, handwritten fonts are typically associated with brands that are more youthful, non-traditional, and approachable.

How to Go About Picking the Font for Your Brand?

1. Decide on your budget — will you use free, open-source fonts or paid font licenses?
2. Choose a font category (or 2) that fits the personality you want to showcase.
3. Narrow down to a few fonts that you want
4. Check if the fonts will work well on every medium (across print, web, and mobile)
5. Do some mock-ups
6. Pick the best fit for your brand.

Congratulations now you have your brand font!

So, what is next? In the next article, we will be talking all about the icon design and color palettes — also key elements in not only logo design but brand identity. Stay tuned!

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