Typography & Branding

Before you can determine the look and feel of your typography, you'll need to make sure you have a strong definition of your brand's personality. You should also come up with key mood words that reflect that personality and your brand's values.

Is your brand whimsical? Serious? Happy? Formal? Informal? Modern? Or something else entirely? Come up with 3 or 4 keywords that fit your brand's mood. Keep these in mind when choosing your typefaces and arranging your typography. For example, if your brand is supposed to be whimsical, you'll want to keep your typography from feeling heavy or formal.

You can also use these keywords while searching for typefaces. Many typeface directories allow you to search by mood. There are also countless articles online that compile some of the best typefaces according to mood or style. If you know your keywords, finding these resources becomes much easier.

Serif typefaces, being some of the oldest typefaces still in common use, are associated with tradition, formality, and authority. If any of those words describe your brand's personality, then serif typefaces are a good place to start.

Beware that not all serif typefaces will have those characteristics. Alice, for example, offers a more whimsical, feminine take on the traditional serif typeface.^[1] The same is true for other kinds of typefaces. It's possible to find a sans serif typeface that's formal and traditional. Take Roboto, for example.^[2] When formatted in the right way, it can appear just as serious as something like Garamond.

Sans serifs are, in general, more modern and stylish than serif typefaces. One of the most well-known — Helvetica — is what one might call timelessly modern.

If your brand wants to come across as less formal and traditional, and more contemporary, then sans serif typefaces are the perfect place to start. Granted, you can certainly find serif typefaces that have a more modern style, but it generally takes more effort to make them fit that mood. Even the more modern serif typefaces, like Didot or Bodoni, still give an impression of being vintage and traditional.

Script typefaces are often considered to be more playful or flamboyant than other typefaces styles. They're an excellent choice when designing the typography for a brand that fits those keywords.

There's one big caveat about using script typefaces, though — they're unsuitable for body copy. Script typefaces are perfect for things like wordmark logos or large headings, but they become very difficult to read at smaller sizes. You'll want to pair them with serif or sans serif typefaces for the body of your content.

Big brands, especially those that are content-focused, sometimes commission entirely custom or bespoke typefaces for their designs. It's a subtle way to make their brand stronger, as people come to recognize that unique typeface with that brand's content. The downside is that commissioning entirely custom typefaces can be very expensive.

On a smaller scale, you can customize typefaces for things like logos and wordmarks without breaking the bank. Subtly changing the shape of letterforms, adding things like swashes or serifs, or otherwise customizing the appearance of an existing font can be a solid way to create a unique logo that cannot be easily copied. Just be aware of the licensing for the typeface you use as a basis for that customization.

No matter what, a brand's past plays a big role in how customers perceive it. If a brand has always been known for its cutting-edge technology, suddenly using an old-fashioned typeface might feel strange to some customers and create confusion.

You don't have to stick to the same old typefaces forever. Knowing the brand's history can actually help avoid any uneasiness among its followers when a change happens. Just think about the key aspects of the brand's previous typography, like the overall style, shape, or mood of the type, and use that as a guide for any updates.

Whether a person is familiar with the intricacies of typography or not, the style of type will convey subliminal communication. There are a number of factors that can contribute to that communication: the contrast and modulation of the strokes within the typeface, how the stroke terminations are shaped, and the proportions between the height and width of glyphs. If you've ever looked at a typeface and found it to feel warm and inviting or cold and mechanical without really being able to put your finger on why, it's due to the subliminal messages that typeface is conveying through these subtle details.

Pay attention to the keywords that come to mind when you view a particular typeface. Pay attention to the feelings the typeface evokes in you. Then consider that many of your users will have the same feelings that you do when viewing the typeface. Even if a typeface is supposed to be "modern" or "formal" or "whimsical," if it doesn't evoke those feelings in you, it's unlikely to do so for most others.

The direction of stress in a typeface can have a remarkable effect on the mood of that typeface. For example, diagonal stresses feel down to earth, familiar, welcoming, and even invite users into the text. Vertical stresses, on the other hand, feel more refined and austere.^[3] They work well for headings and large-scale types, but they can prevent users from really diving in to read the text at smaller sizes.

So how do you tell the direction of the stress in a particular typeface? The easiest way is to look at the letter O. If the two sides of the character are a mirror image of each other (particularly with the sides thicker than the top and bottom), then the stress is vertical. However, if the bottom left is thicker than the top left and the top right is thicker than the bottom right (or vice versa, although that's less common), the typeface has a diagonal stress.