Typography design
Creating the perfect brand can be tough, especially in today’s business climate where so many companies are competing with one another to get noticed. Your brand’s identity is something that you should take extra special care when creating, and every little detail counts—including the font you choose. What many people don’t realize about typography and fonts is that they have personalities, just like humans do. And if you don’t choose the right personality for your brand, you might find yourself losing potential customers because of it!
How fonts influence feelings
In addition to conveying a mood, fonts also impact how we feel. Typography design is more than just selecting a font type. It’s important to think about what you’re trying to convey and understand that different fonts can have vastly different effects.
As designers we think about your project and what message you want it to convey before deciding which font will work best for you. We take into account not only your brand’s personality but also the demographic that you’re aiming to reach.
The most successful brands take typography design very seriously; Coca-Cola has its own custom-designed font called Coca-Cola Signature Type. Apple also has its own font, called Apple Garamond. Typography design isn’t limited to word choice or size alone – one needs to consider style, placement and readability.
Typography design is all about conveying emotion through typefaces, which are just as important as colour or imagery when it comes to making your brand or design come alive! The style, weight and spacing of each letter can change the mood entirely. Take a look at the example on the chalkboard below. Notice how the innocent looking phrase in “Example 1” suddenly becomes more sinister in “Example 2”.
Legibility vs Style
As typography designers, we are constantly weighing style and legibility. For example, when designing a logo for an old-fashioned sweet shop, choosing an ornate font may match the aesthetic of the brand and add authenticity as opposed to using a clean modern sans serif typeface which would most likely give the wrong perception of the brand. However, when choosing a font for large body of text, like a blog post for example, fonts that have been specifically created with readability in mind should be used, ornate fonts would be distracting and difficult to read. Take a look at the example below. Notice how the same body of text is a lot harder to scan in “Example 2”
Putting it all together
When we read words, our inner voice is also giving them tone and context based on the typeface selection and how they are presented. Beyond their literal meaning the appearance and emotions that particular typefaces evoke could change the intended message completely. This is a powerful mix of art and psychology. Understanding all of these subtle distinctions will allow you to tap into an entirely new way of thinking about emotion and marketing. With such simple design choices like fonts for text, for example, you can take your messaging to an entirely different level.
