Most people don’t notice good typography, when the typeface choices in a brand identity are working properly, they’re invisible, felt rather than seen, shaping how someone experiences a business before they’ve consciously registered anything at all. But get it wrong, and something niggles. The brand feels a little off, doesn’t quite hit what you’re trying to communicate, like it doesn’t belong. Typography is one of the quietest decisions in brand design, and one of the most impactful.
Common typography mistakes
Most small business owners choose a font the way they choose a paint colour, by feeling or by what looks nice in the moment. That’s not a character flaw, it’s just that nobody tells you there’s more to it. This extremely important aspect of branding which will have impact on the connection to your audience and the growth of your business, is rarely taken seriously enough.
When we chase trends or copy off competitors or use pre-made templates in AI software, the font used has no real connection to your business values. There is no depth to design decision, no strategy behind it and over time it will keep tripping you up. Without looking at real life application – how does it render on mobile, is it print friendly, is it clear enough used alongside your colour palette – something that looks beautiful on a mood board can become completely illegible.
Understand your brand first
Look at your brand strategy. What emotion do you need to convey based on your values, positioning and brand promise? Are you young-hearted and fresh thinking, are you complex and technical, are you humble or elegant or rooted in traditional? The nuances between fonts are plenty so you can afford to be specific here. And look at your practical application, is your main channel viewed through mobile apps or do you display at events requiring large scale graphics or is your audience hard of sight or need translation into different languages? Font choice absolutely matters for all these things.
How to choose and pair fonts
Build typography with the rest of your branding in mind, there needs to be a balance between all the elements – typography, colour, logo, illustrations – working together so nothing is fighting and the font(s) fit in seamlessly. Beyond just the font choice, look at letter-spacing, justification, weight use, case, size and placement. Each of these small changes have a huge impact on the perception of your text. For example, adding +50em letter-spacing to a Sans Serif font can help it breathe when their are tightly spaced terminals or adding +200em to an uppercase Sans Serif font can give it a premium feel because you are being so generous with empty space.
Rarely will a business just need one font and this is where font pairing is required. A well-considered brand identity typically uses two to three typefaces: a primary (usually the wordmark or headline font), a secondary for body and supporting text, and occasionally a third as an accent, often a script or sans serif variation used sparingly. These fonts need to work together in harmony and the relationship between them is often what actually creates your overall brand character. For example, your word mark might be a Serif because your brand is more traditional but for body copy you use a Sans Serif for legibility.
Another consideration is the availability of your chosen typefaces. What software or applications will you commonly be using them on? You can license and install any font when working through professional applications like Adobe, but on Microsoft products, platforms like Canva and your website builder, the choices can be narrower. Some will allow you to add fonts you’ve purchased or open source fonts like Google fonts. It’s always worth checking first to avoid frustration further down the line when you can’t use the font you want in a space where you regularly design.
What typefaces are actually communicating
Personality, era, weight, warmth, precision – typefaces carry associations whether you intend them to or not. Even within each of the categories below there are so many variations to consider. Take Sans Serif for example: You can have wide or narrow Sans Serifs, rounded or hard edged and allographs on individual letterform like looped g’s or double/single story a’s. Once you’ve found the category that best communicates your brand, refine down further by these choices.
Let’s look at the most common typography categories. Below here are quick guides to show each in practise, the character and feeling it evokes.
Sans Serif. Most businesses will have a Sans Serif in their brand kit as its open clearness make it the most legible style for body copy on websites. Sans Serif can be divided into the further categories; Grotesque (old style), Neo-grotesque (more streamlined curves), Geometric (angular and shapely), and Humanist (calligraphic flourishes).
Serif. Created from Roman stone carvings, Serif fonts are considered and rooted in heritage. They tend to pair beautifully with sans serif but can sometimes fight with handwritten or script fonts. These can also be divided into four main categories; Old Style (warm, low contrast), Transitional (higher contrast, upright), Didone/Modern (extreme contrast), and Slab Serif (thick, block-like).
Slab Serif. An emboldened serif, it was designed specifically for the demands of commercial printing, posters, and advertising where impact mattered more than refinement.
Monospaced. Equal and precise. Born from the mechanical constraints of the typewriter in the 1860s, later adopted by coders. Can be really effective when used sparingly as an accent font.
Handwritten. A font category that emerged with the digital age as designers tried to reintroduce the human touch that printing had removed. Be careful of over use – the repetition of letter shapes isn’t in tune with real handwriting and therefore can sometimes look too artificial.
Script. Not to be confused with handwritten, based on calligraphy Script is refined, flowing and more formal often with clean letter edges.
Blackletter. Bold and historic, Blackletter was the script of Gutenberg’s first printed Bible in 1455 and it was the dominant typeface in Europe for over two centuries.
Decorative. The most easy to misuse, this can look cheap or tacky. It works if the brand personality is strong enough to support it, but use with caution.
If you’re still stuck on font choices it might mean you need a brand audit and guidance to find the right typography to fit your audience. I help small business owners get really clear on their strategy to help them make better design decisions, guiding their creative direction and connecting to their brand values.
