How to Choose the Perfect Brand Fonts for Your Business
A key component of successful branding for a small business is finding the right brand fonts. The fonts you use play a vital role in your brand identity design. Your brand fonts will be featured prominently on your logo, website, business card, and all the materials used to promote your brand.
Do you feel that the fonts you currently use truly represent your brand?
If not, there may be fonts that are a better fit for your brand personality. But how do you select the right one with so many different fonts to choose from? It can be a daunting task, but I’ll share some of my tips to make the process much easier.
Choosing the perfect fonts for your brand may take time, but once you find the right ones and you use them consistently, your audience will begin to associate those fonts with your brand resulting in greater brand awareness. I think you’ll find that when you take the time to select the font that truly matches your brand, you’ll attract more of your ideal clients.
Picture this for a moment: if you are feminine and elegant, what type of outfit do you wear?
Most likely you’d be wearing a soft dress with pumps. You wouldn’t be wearing a t-shirt and short pants with sneakers; that would convey a more boyish image, rather than a feminine one. If you want to attract people who are like you — feminine and elegant — then you would select outfits that are consistent with a feminine and elegant appearance. Your brand fonts work the same way.
Just as every brand has a personality, every font has a personality too. But how do you select the right font for your brand?
I will show you, step by step, how to choose the perfect fonts for your brand.
The basic font types
There are six basic font classifications (serif, sans serif, slab serif, script, handwritten, and display). Normally, serif and sans-serif typefaces are used for headlines (titles, subtitles, etc.) or body copy, while the remainder of the font styles are used only for headlines.
Serif
Serif fonts are the oldest of the font styles. This font has small lines or strokes (also known as “feet”) attached to the end of the larger strokes in a letter or symbol within a particular font.
Font personality: classic, traditional, corporate, trustworthy, luxury, sophisticated
Font examples: IvyOra Display, Playfair DisplayBaskerville, Bodoni, Lora
Sans serif
Sans-serif fonts don't have the small strokes or feet that serif fonts have. They look much simpler in form, and we tend to perceive them as more modern.
Font personality: clean, simple, modern, stylish, chic, minimal
Font examples: Avenir, Roboto, Proxima Nova, Montserrat, Lato, Open Sans
Slab serif
Slab serif fonts have thick, square-shaped serifs (feet).
Font personality: masculine, bold, confident, quirky, rugged, impactful
Font examples: Rockwell, Clarendon, Museo, Adelle, Arvo, Egyptian
Script
Script fonts consist of fonts that appear handwritten or calligraphic. They are based upon the varied and often fluid strokes created by handwriting.
Font personality: elegant, formal, classic,feminine, soft
Font examples:: Loop, Bickham Script Pro, Petit Formal Script, Snell Roundhand
Handwritten
Handwritten fonts look like they’ve been written out by hand.
Font personality: artistic, casual, friendly, fun, informal, playful
Font examples: Mistral, Pacifico, Sacramento, Mellanie
Display
Display fonts include unique shapes, forms, or proportions for a highly distinctive look. Their shapes can be specific to a particular time or style.
Font personality: friendly, fun, casual playful, expressive, unique
Font examples: Phosphate, Cheap Pine, ITC Bauhaus, Abril Fatface, Monoton, Codystar
How to choose brand fonts for your business
Before choosing your brand fonts, it’s important to know who your ideal clients are. What do they like? What is their style? What values do they have? If you haven’t already done so, define your target audience first.
Define your brand personality
Once you know who your ideal clients are, you need to define your brand personality.
What type of clients do you want to connect with? Remember your logo, brand voice, brand colors, and brand fonts should all align with your brand personality. If you haven’t defined them yet, spend some time researching and thinking about how you want your brand to be perceived.
If you are not sure how to define your brand personality, pick three to five adjectives from the list below.
Adventurous
Artistic
Beautiful
Bold
Calm
Caring
Casual
Creative
Chill
Chick
Classic
Clean
Clever
Confident
Cosmopolitan
Conservative
Corporate
Dependable
Distinctive
Elegant
Edgy
Exclusive
Feminine
Fine
Formal
Friendly
Funny
Outdoorsy
Peaceful
Quiet
Quirky
Rational
Strong
Secure
Simple
Sexy
Sweet
Serious
Secure
Sleek
Sophisticated
Silly
Stylish
Traditional
Trustworthy
Trendy
Unique
Worldly
Warm
Witty
Whimsical
Young
Youthful
Zen
Glamourous
Goofy
Gentle
Handy
Helpful
Healthy
Honest
Humble
Humorous
Innovative
Imaginative
Luxurious
Modern
Masculine
Neat
Old-fashioned
Plain
Playful
Polished
Professional
Rational
Relaxed
Spiritual
Mature
Mysterious
Modest
Modern
Choose font styles
Once you have selected the three to five brand adjectives that best describe your brand personality, choose your two to three font styles from the six font categories. Depending on the brand personality and target audience, I usually pick from two different font categories (for example, a sans-serif font and a serif font for contrast). If my client would like an additional font, I’ll add a display or handwritten font to use as an accent.
If you’re having trouble deciding how to pair the fonts, visit my prior post, Clean and elegant Google fonts, which includes some of my favorite font pairings.
Choose primary and secondary fonts
Once you have chosen your brand font styles, you are ready to determine which ones will serve as your primary and secondary brand fonts (typefaces).
To decide which font should be your primary and secondary font, keep your brand personality and target audience in mind.
For example, if you own a luxury interior design consultancy, you may want to use a modern and elegant serif typeface as your primary font and a sans serif typeface as your secondary font.
If, on the other hand, you own a tech-related business, you may want to use modern and clean sans serif typefaces for both your primary and secondary fonts.
If you want to get more font inspiration or find some fonts that truly speak to your brand personality, here are some great font resources.
PRO TIP: When you select your fonts (typefaces), make sure they have a font family (light, light italics, regular, regular italics, bold, bold italics, etc.).
Conclusion
You should now have a better idea of how to choose the perfect fonts for your brand. Knowing your brand personality and who you want to connect with is key to finding the right font for your small business. I know it can feel overwhelming at first with so many different fonts available, but if you use a step-by-step approach to define your perfect brand fonts, it won’t be so difficult. And once you discover your perfect brand fonts, remember to add them to your brand style guide so they are used consistently throughout your organization.
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