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When deciding on typography for a client’s business, it’s more than just picking a serif or sans serif; it’s about creating a personality for the brand, and generating the building blocks to help to apply this personality across all relevant media, from print materials such as brochures and stationery to its website and online presence across multiple channels. This presentation is a simple exploration and demonstration of typefaces and fonts. If you'd like to learn more about how designers make their choices, see http://www.helloevery1.com/blog/brand-design/choosing-typeface-brand/
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Common typefaces and fonts
An overview of styles
Typefaces and fonts possess unique characteristics and subtle connotations that can enhance (or if poorly chosen, hinder) your brand’s digital and print work.
Here, we use ‘Typeface’ to describe the broad category of fonts – serif, sans-serif, slab-serif, display, decorative and script fonts. It also defines a font family – eg Helvetica, Times.
‘Font’ refers to the individual style used – eg Helvetica Light, Times New Roman.
We’re going to look at the most common categories/sub-categories, how designers use them, and why.
Your choice is important
Serif and sans-serif are the most widely used typefaces. Choosing which of these two is the most appropriate for your brand is one way to filter through thousands of potential fonts to find the perfect one.
A serif is a line detail at the end of a stroke that forms a part or whole letter. Sans is French for ‘without’.
Serif and sans-serif each have a distinct personality and attributes that can be used to communicate your brand message through typography.
Serif & sans-serif
Slab-serif and display typefaces are commonly thick, bold typefaces that are usually used for headers because they draw readers’ attention and create impact.
These often work well with a lighter typeface for body copy, as they generate a nice contrast and visual hierarchy that leads the reader naturally through a page design.
Slab-serif and display
Decorative and script typefaces have similar stylistic characteristics.
These can both be used for purposes besides being read and are often used in conjunction with sans-serifs to strike a visual balance between decoration and legibility.
Decorative and script
Typography and choice of fonts is a huge topic. To find out how designers work out which fonts to use for a particular client or project, see this article.
There’s more
David Vesty is a senior designer at every1, an integrated marketing agency whose services include branding, design, website development and search marketing. You can see more of the creative team’s work on our portfolio page.
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