What's Your Font Flavour?
There are many occasions here at Beyond Your Brand when we receive pre- existing logo images for branding or website design purposes, and we ask the question, “What font did you use?” The reply often comes back, “Ooh, I don't know! I’ll have to contact the old designer.”
Your typography, and the fonts you use in your branding will be part of your company's DNA. Think of them as the extra sprinkles of chocolate on top of your cappuccino. They’re the first thing you see and a taste of what’s to come; giving you a first impression of what wonders lay ahead. As such, it's important to remember what you use. This is particularly useful when using various different companies to produce your marketing materials.
It may sound a little far-fetched, but picking a font can make or break a web design in seconds. Something that's difficult to read, too large on the page or even put in the wrong colour could put visitors off reading what your website has to offer.
This is why a sensible font choice for your typography is important. Not only does it need to be readable, but it also needs to distinguish the company's personality. Picking appropriate font types and assigning them in the right places will leave visitors happily viewing your sites and reading your blogs.
Serif and Sans-serif
A lot of websites today choose a sans-serif font such as Arial or Helvetica as the primary body font. This is generally because they are familiar and easy to read on the screen. Also the benefit of these types of fonts is that they come as standard on most devices, so you can be assured the font will be the same on every screen.
Serif fonts usually contain a stroke or line at the end of the symbol such as Times New Roman. They have very traditional look and feel to them and are used in such ways. Some modern sites can use this style for a more classic or traditional look and feel.
Today there are hundreds of fonts available for designers to choose from and with the internet improvements, we no longer need to rely on the basic fonts installed on the computer. You can view such sites as Google Fonts and Font Squirrel for other great font ideas. These allow you to download font packages of your choice, provide them to your web developer, and run them off your current hosting provider. Google Fonts can also stream directly from Google.
Your Flavour
Picking a font or fonts for your brand can be difficult. Your designer can help with this and will have a good idea of what fonts compliment each other. For example, your headings and large font could be something quite brash and creative to stand out, as they are only used in a limited fashion on the page, whilst the body and article font could, as mentioned before, be something that is more easy on the eye.
If you are looking for inspiration for complimentary fonts, try these for size:
Just remember, the font that you use on your website, represents your identity, so what type of business are you looking to portray? At Beyond Your Brand we are always happy to guide our 100 Club members with these ideas and consult with what fonts could work and what won't with your brand.
Rest assured we won't be recommending “comic sans”.
