How to Choose the Right Typeface for Your Logo

Your logo will probably be one of the most consistently seen unique elements of your brand image. It will appear on your website, your letterheads, your promotional materials, your emails, your icons, your T-shirts, your social media, and almost everything you work with on a daily basis. It is therefore imperative to choose the best typefaces for its creation. Whether the impression it creates is good or not, it is the first impression that counts — and that impression will often persist over time. So if you are to be judged and remembered, you need to ensure it is in a positive way.

What You Will Find in This Article

When we talk about font choices in this article, it is not to discuss which one to use or avoid, nor even whether it is a good idea to use serif fonts in certain types of documents. Although some of these same criteria may also apply, we will focus on that singular element that appears again and again across your communications materials: the logo.

The difference lies in the fact that your logo (and its respective typeface) will be displayed everywhere. It will therefore serve as a kind of springboard and cornerstone for the rest of your graphic aesthetic. You will choose complementary typefaces and fonts for your website and promotional materials, but they may not be exactly the same. You will therefore find in this article some good ideas and starting points for your overall design concept.

With this in mind, let us begin by choosing the new face of your brand — namely, the typeface!

1. Consider Your Brand's Identity and Personality

When we say this, we simply mean thinking about what your brand stands for and how people perceive it. Fonts and typefaces can greatly influence the perception of a product or service, and you will use them to make people think about your brand in a specific way.

For example, imagine you are designing a logo for a new doctor in town. They want their logo to consist simply of the letters "Doc". How would you choose the right typeface?

First, you need to remember that this is a doctor. So using a font like Creepster, for instance, is out of the question — along with anything in that stylistic family. However, if they are a paediatrician, you could indeed choose something playful. And if they are a cardiologist or an oncologist, where a more "professional" image needs to come across, you would probably choose something that matches their personality and field. An elegant script or a clean, legible serif font, such as Corbel or Gabriola, for example.

Whatever the case, the typeface you choose creates an entirely different impression, and you must therefore consider who it is intended for and ensure that your choice matches the image of the structure or person associated with it.

That said, what do all the examples mentioned have in common? They are legible to the widest possible audience!

2. Keep Things Legible

When choosing a typeface, it is essential to ensure that people can read what it says. Take the Disney logo. We have all seen it thousands of times. We know it spells D I S N E Y. Don't we?

Actually, not quite. A number of people look at that calligraphic D and see a reverse, funky G. They simply cannot make out the D.

However, for Disney, modelling their logo on the founder's signature is worth more than a subset of the population misreading their logotype. But unfortunately, we are not all Disney. We therefore need to pay far more attention to the legibility of our typefaces.

Using a single ambiguous letter can indeed tip a logo from "memorable" into "forgettable". But rest assured — it is ultimately not that difficult to avoid. Simply keep a few things in mind when searching for the best typefaces for your logos:

• If the typeface has serifs, do not let them overlap or obscure other characters.
• Consider legibility at multiple sizes. Make sure you can read it at 5px, 12px, 500px, and so on. Some fonts become distorted when scaled.
• Ensure the kerning is correct (the adjustment of spacing between letter pairs in a font). This is a very important point for certain sans-serif fonts in particular, as the letters can overlap more easily.
• Check that each character in the font is unique: for example, the capital "I", the lowercase "i", and the number "1". If any of them use the same character, it fails the test and you need to choose a more legible typeface for your logo.

If you find a typeface that meets all 4 of these rules, you certainly have a competitive logo on your hands.

3. Do Not Go Over the Top

Extravagant typefaces can be ideal for individual promotions. They can add life and sparkle to everything you design with them. But if you are looking for the best typefaces for your logos, do not turn to this type. Flashy, on-trend typefaces quickly go out of fashion. In two years' time, your cutting-edge logo will seem outdated and your brand image will suffer — you will be seen as a company that is not keeping pace with the latest developments in your sector. As mentioned above, people will judge you on the first impression your logo makes. If you use a font like Sullivan, it may be charming and welcome this year, but could force you to completely rebrand in 5 years' time.

By using simpler, less "on-trend" typefaces for your logo, you ensure timelessness. And if you genuinely love distinctive fonts, use them in your images and promotional materials (as long as they serve only to complement your brand image or for a specific promotion). Use them to draw people's attention to something specific, and then let them judge your brand on a separate basis.

4. Numbers, Symbols, and Weights

A typeface is the appearance of the characters — the design itself. A font is the way in which you use the typeface. You can make it bold, use it in italics, and so on. Given the variable nature of fonts, you need to ensure that the one you choose can actually be used as a full typeface.

For example, not all typefaces you look at will support numerical characters. So if your brand name is "ExpressDev 5000", you might end up with "ExpressDev ▯▯▯▯".

The same applies to bold and italic variants, which may not be available. Sometimes you may also end up with lines that are too thin or too thick. You may also find there are no capital letters or no lowercase letters. And since changing the capitalisation can have a considerable impact on the result of a logotype, this matters significantly.

This problem tends to be more widespread when using free fonts — bear it in mind, as free fonts will be your main resource. However, if you decide to pay for a typeface, the designer tends to include everything you might need to justify the cost and the time invested.

In Conclusion

As you can see, choosing the best typeface for a logo is far more important than simply thinking "Oh, that one looks nice!" Taking the time to make an informed choice about what potential customers will perceive first about your brand will pay dividends over time. Think about it — a few extra minutes examining the size of the serifs could genuinely make the difference in landing that big client.

Freely translated from English: article Elegant Theme