How to choose the perfect font combination for your business
Did you know that choosing the right font or combination of fonts can make a huge impact to how your brand is perceived. It could even mean the difference between your ideal customer engaging with your brand or thinking that what you have to offer is not for them!
Each font has a unique personality and purpose and it is essential to know which font will communicate your intended message and set the right tone. Choosing fonts that reflect your brand's values and evoke an emotion can easily help attract the right kind of customers. Whether your business is well-established, unusual, conservative or fun there is a font out there for you!
Most typefaces can be classified into one of these four main groups:
Serif – have decorative tails and strokes called serifs. A good fit for brands that want to appear reputable, established or trustworthy.
Try: Bodoni, Baskerville and Sabon.
Sans Serif – don’t have serifs and tend to have clean simple lines that are generally the same width throughout. A good fit for brands that want to appear modern, friendly or approachable.
Try: Lato, Din and Avenir.
Script – tend to look like modern cursive hand writing or old Roman cursive form writing, script fonts can often look hand drawn like they have been painted with a brush or quill. A good fit for brands that want to appear graceful, elegant or feminine.
Try: Maryland, Autography and Baysoir.
Decorative/Display – are unique and bold, used to make strong typographic statements used for headlines, pull out paragraphs or statement graphics . Decorative or Display fonts can be three dimensional and have unusual characters and extreme proportions. A good fit for brands that want to be distinctive, quirky or stand out.
Try: Bauhaus, Jazz and Misto.
Pairing fonts together
One font alone will never give you the interest or variation that you will require within your marketing. I always recommend selecting no more than three contrasting fonts. Try to pick fonts that are not too similar, for example two san serif fonts or two bold fonts. Pick a hero font for main headings, a serif or sans serif for sub headings and a font which will work for larger paragraphs of text at a smaller size. If it suits your brand personality consider adding a more decorative script that can be used for pull out words or sign-offs.
My top tips
Choosing the right font combinations can make the difference between average design and a considered unique approach to your typography. My tips for pairing fonts like a pro:
+ Pick fonts that contrast each other, look at the font weight and try to pair thicker (bolder) shorter fonts with thinner (light) taller fonts.
+ Experiment with headings by tightening and loosening the tracking (the spacing between characters in a font) of headings to create interest.
+ Use a mix of uppercase and lowercase to create impact or italicised words to pick out key points.
+ Mix traditional and modern fonts for a stand out creative clash.
+ Avoid using fonts that are either too different or too similar to each other.
Most of all, have fun with your typography choices, try breaking the rules and experiment!
Thanks for reading, if you found this blog post useful please share. ～ Mechele
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