How To Pick Fonts For Your Logo And Brand

Crafting a logo concept doesn’t just mean ideating the image that’ll represent your brand. But the process of concept creation also involves any stylistic choice that will accompany the new brand identity. Lines, styles, mood and even fonts are fundamental components of a good logo concept. Fonts, in particular, are one of the most underestimated components of a brand board, yet they are such fundamental tools to position and represent the textual part of your logo and brand. But how to pick a font for a logo?

If you’re thinking “Well I’ll just use a couple of fonts I like”, you’re thinking wrong! Exactly as with your brand colors, you shouldn’t pick your brand fonts based on your personal preferences. Because fonts are powerful tools to support your business and help you communicate your message to the right kind of people. Pick them wrong, and you’d be harming your business instead.

Font styles and their meanings

Generally fonts can be categorized in:

• Serif: fonts using serifs (small lines or strokes that look like letters “feet”) with, usually, lines that play with different thickness. Serifs are elegant, classic, formal, sometimes romatic and luxurious.
• Sans serif: fonts which instead don’t use serifs and therefore look much more regular, linear and clean. Sans serifs are modern, geometric, precise, minimal.

Each of these macro categories can then be organized in more specific families.

In particular, serif fonts can be categorized in:

• Old-style: serif fonts that feel very classical and lack in high contrast in the thickness of their lines. They’re quite popular fonts even nowadays, generally used on print for books and manuscripts thanks to their optimal readability.
• Transitional: serif fonts between old-style and modern where the lines contrast is more noticable but not as much as in Didone fonts.
• Didone: serif fonts characterized by a high contrast between thin and thick lines. This makes them great statement fonts for headings, but not particularly appropriate for long paragraphs of text.
• Slab serif: serif fonts with very thick serifs, usually as thick as the letter itself. Very low contrast and quite geometric fonts, they’re great for both headings and body texts.

Sans serifs can be categorized in:

• Grotesque: solid thick fonts with very limited thickness variations and quite geometric lines. Mainly used for headlines and advertising.
• Neo-grotesque: an evolution of grotesque fontsamplifying their features. Limited thickness variations and quite regular lines.
• Geometric: as their name suggests, these are fonts based on geometric shapes, usually perfect circles and squares.
• Humanist: fonts inspired to traditional typography (serif and calligraphy fonts) in the form of sans serif. They feel more feminine and creative.

Besides the long list of typographical fonts, you could also choose script and calligraphy fonts for your logo and brand. Or even turn to custom hand-lettering for a completely unique result.

Choosing the right fonts for your logo and brand

As you can see, the choice of a font instead of another can’t be rushed by any means. Instead when you pick a font for your logo and brand you should always consider a focused brand study first. Then pick your fonts based on their main features and styles.

As an example, a serif old-style could be a great choice for a wedding business with a classic, elegant, romantic style. A didone instead will be more appropriate for a luxury brand. A geometric sans serif could be a great choice for an architect or interior designer, while a humanist might be a great choice for a feminine creative business.

Fonts help you define the graphic style of your logo and brand. They should accompany you in each stylistic choice in the future, and therefore they should feel focused, grounded and consistent to your branding. To pick a font for a logo or brand, I highly recommend you trust a professional designer and a strong brand study to begin with. But I trust that knowing that each font style has a specific meaning, and that you should pick your brand fonts consciously, can help you feel more confident in the branding journey and in proposing your own ideas and vision!