How to find the best fonts for your business - 5 Step Guide to Brand Typography
Communication is a big part of our lives. Through communication, we understand each other and express our thoughts, and when it comes to business, sending the right message is essential to create trust with our ideal customers.
However, language itself is not the quickest way to show feelings and attract customers with the values your brand represents. According to "29 Incredible Stats that Prove the Power of Visual Marketing" published by MovableInk, most people only read 20-28% of the words on the page. So how can you set the right mood without requiring your customers to read every single detail on your website? By selecting the right colors, images, and (drum roll please) FONTS.
You may have already done some research such as "What are the best font combinations for a business?" or "Where to find cute fonts?". But, let me tell you, this won't help you reach the customers you want to engage with the most.
So, let's get to the nitty-gritty.
How to find the best fonts for your business
Step 1: Know Your Values
Businesses can have the same offerings. Knowing what characteristics your brand wants to convey is crucial to set you apart from competitors. Are you friendly, fun, and family-oriented? Or maybe serious, strict, and professional?
To find your values, ask the following questions:
What is your brand culture?
What is the tone of voice you communicate with your users?
What do you want to communicate to your users?
What impact do you make on people's lives?
What do you stand for?
Step 2: Understand Font Psychology
That's right. There is not only color psychology but font psychology. Designers learn it in school in a course called Typography. When you know your values and understand the feelings different fonts can evoke you, my friend, are ahead of most DIY business owners.
Learn more about Font Psychology:
Step 3: Pair The Right Fonts
Pairing fonts is an art form. However, there are no set rules you can follow some basic principles to create visual balance in your copy such as:
Combine a Sans Serif with a Serif
Avoid similar classifications
Assign distinct role to each font
Contrast font weights
Don’t Mix Moods
If you want to dive deep into these principles, I highly recommend reading Smashing Magazine's article on Best Practices Of Combining Typefaces.
However, in case you don't want to become a Typography expert, I included some tools below that will assist you in pairing fonts.
Tools to help you match fonts:
Step 4: Know Where to Get Your Fonts
Knowing your brand values, understanding font psychology, and learning how to match fonts is not enough to select the best fonts for your business. You also have to know, where you can get these fonts as well.
My go-to sites to get fonts from:
Step 5: Establish a Type Hierarchy Guide
Once you found the perfect fonts for your brand it is time to create a guide that will establish the distinct role of each font. This guide will help you and your team members to create consistent text layouts in your digital and printed marketing efforts. You can also download my Brand Style Guide example that includes a section for Type Hierarchy along with other elements to help you create a consistent branding.
Feeling overwhelmed? You don’t have to!
