Typography can mean the difference between a brand being totally unheard of, or a roaring success. Most graphic designers have a few favourite fonts that they love to use as much as possible. Saying this, it is important to select the right font to express the brand characteristics, or the theme of the design piece. With millions out there to choose from, its hard to know where to start.
Step 1: Where to Find Fonts
Behance is top of the list regarding beautiful (and free!) fonts. Packed with amazing creative individuals, Behanceprovides many alternatives to your font library (which are often completely free). Ensure you check the usage rights before making it the primary typeface for your latest business enterprise…?
Typekit comes with many of the Adobe Creative Cloud bundles and is the perfect place to find the more popular, perfectly designed classics. Some tried and tested designer favourites are available here. The site has a well-designed filtering system to make your life even easier. Whether you’re looking for something that suits web or print, a serif or sans serif, or something a bit quirky but adaptable, Typekit is the place to go.
DaFont is a staple. Whilst it may not have some of the most beautifully designed typefaces in the world, it boasts an enormous database. It might be able to churn out just the right hideously decorative font you need for your next event announcement, themed blog post, or video introduction.
Step 2: Choosing the Right One
There are a couple of basic questions you need to ask yourself to help you narrow down the initial search for a font:
- Is your brand modern or classic?Modern tends to lean more towards sans serif typefaces.
- Do you want to be subtle and sophisticated or loud and proud?A heavy blocky font will have power. Lighter weight fonts may allow the imagery in your brand to speak more for itself.
- Is your brand quirky and relatable or serious and stoic?Quirkier brands can branch out to some more decorative, or abstract, fonts and can even play around with readability. However, serious brands need to make sure they have clean, readable fonts. You don’t want your local mortuary using a cartoony sparkle font now, do you?
Another important thing to ask is whether your brand is going to be heavily web based or print based. Finding a font that satisfies both whilst staying on brand is difficult, so it may be sensible to choose one for each medium.
Step 3: Check the Latest Trends
Staying on trend is important, and easy to do. Just google the latest font trends and try to keep up with the ever-evolving tastes and trends of the design world. Check out Creative Bloqor 99designsfor the latest font trends.
After reading this 3-step guide, we hope you have a better understanding regarding font selection and reliable sources to use. These steps will help benefit your brand and help establish a particular style.
