There’s much more to words than just some letters and symbols. They convey emotions; they’re the lifeblood of history, and different words, written in various styles, would have different emotional responses. If you don’t believe me, then just look up the internet and see why we have countless fonts for the same language. 

When it comes to your branding, your typography also matters. Have a look at Coca-Cola’s custom font that calls for party time. Or Disney’s custom typography that opens up the mind for whimsical wonders. These are perfect examples of brands that packed up their whole personality in fonts. 

In this article, we’ll learn more about fonts and typography and how it matters for your branding. 

How Fonts Influence Your Brand Voice?

Before we go any further, let’s revise some concepts and see what’s meant by brand voice. 

Simply put, a brand voice is the unique personality, vibe, or voice of your brand. It’s the way you communicate and engage with your audience across different platforms. Whether a brand’s voice is friendly, professional, humorous, or authoritative, it’s paramount that your branding assets reflect that in the best possible way. 

In every interaction—whether it’s a social media post, a blog article, or customer support—brand voice ensures cohesive and union branding. Consumers will perceive your brand just as you show it on platforms. A coherent brand voice makes it easier for consumers to connect and relate to your brand. 

While brand voice is often associated with written content, visual elements, especially fonts, reinforce it. With this logic, you can define typography as a silent communicator. It defines how the audience will perceive your brand, even before they read a single word. 

For instance, a playful brand with a lighthearted voice should avoid overly formal or rigid fonts like Times New Roman, which might create a disconnect between visual and verbal messaging. On the other hand, a law firm or financial institution may choose serif fonts that exude professionalism and trustworthiness to match their serious and reliable brand voice.

Tools like Ethos can assist in managing your brand assets, helping ensure that fonts and other elements align seamlessly with your brand’s overall voice and message.

Font Categories and Their Impact on Perception

Now that we know about fonts, typography, and how they influence your brand’s personality, let’s have a look at some font examples that can be used for different brands with distinct personalities. 

1. Serif Fonts: Traditional, Formal, Trustworthy

Serif fonts have a sense of tradition, stability, and formality to them. These fonts have been around for centuries now, and they’re the main printing fonts for books, news, and magazines. They are often used by brands in industries like law, finance, education, and publishing, where trust and authority are key values.

Examples of Serif Fonts: Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia

• Times New Roman is the quintessential serif font, often used in formal publications and professional environments. It communicates authority and trustworthiness.

• Garamond is another popular serif font, slightly more elegant and artistic, often used in high-end editorial design and literature.

2. Sans-Serif Fonts: Modern, Clean, Straightforward

With the design world shifting to a more minimalist approach, Sans-Serif fonts have been used increasingly. These fonts are easier to read on digital screens, and you’ll see them on most mobile and website interfaces. Overall, these fonts communicate modernity, clarity, and directness.

 Examples of Sans-Serif Fonts: Helvetica, Arial, Roboto

• Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif font known for its neutrality and clarity. This font is ideal for branding, user interfaces, and corporate communication.

• Roboto is a modern, geometric sans-serif font popular in digital interfaces and mobile apps. It’s both clean and approachable, often used in the tech industry.

3. Script Fonts: Elegant, Creative, Personal

Script fonts mimic the fluid strokes of handwriting and calligraphy. They fall in the artistic designs and convey a personal, creative, and elegant feel. However, these scripts are sparingly used due to compromised readability. Overall, they add a personal touch to branding and are often used in industries where aesthetics and individuality are the pain points, such as art, fashion, and beauty. 

 Examples of Script Fonts: Pacifico, Lobster, Brush Script

• Pacifico is a casual script font with a fun, friendly, and witty vibe. It is often used in creative contexts like cafes and lifestyle products.

• Brush Script has a more artistic and hand-painted feel to it. It’s ideal for design studios or fashion boutiques. 

4. Display Fonts: Bold, Attention-Grabbing, Unique

 Just as the name implies, display fonts are designed to stand out. They make your text pop out in the entire paragraph. These fonts can be highly stylized, experimental, or decorative. However, due to their bold nature, these fonts have restricted use in headings. Taglines, or CTAs.

Examples of Display Fonts: Impact, Bebas Neue, Futura Display

• Impact is a thick, bold font. It immediately grabs all attention and is commonly used for headlines or bold statements in advertising.

• Bebas Neue is a clean, all-caps display font. It’s often used in modern advertising or nold logos for a strong visual identity. 

How to Choose the Right Fonts for Your Brand?

Choosing the right font is crucial for your business, as it communicates emotions and shapes perceptions. With this insight, it’s time to find a font that resonates with your brand personality and establishes a cohesive online identity across all platforms. 

 The following factors will help you make a decision: 

Know Your Audience

First of all, you have to know your audience. Who are you targeting? For example, if your target audience is old-aged people, they’ll likely encounter inconvenience reading bold modern fonts. So, choose simpler San Serif fonts in this scenario.  

On the other hand, if you’re targeting creative people who appreciate art, you can play around with your fonts and choose Script fonts. 

Know Your Industry

Audience is more important than your industry. But still, to follow certain industrial norms, you have to know what’s considered normal and traditional in your industry. For example, going for a too-frank font for a relatively formal sector like medicine, law, or finance will breach trust and credibility. 

In some cases, you can go out of the box and try a bullzie—after all, these fonts and industrial norms restrictions aren’t absolute. You can play strategically and differentiate your brand. For example, playful script font in a traditionally formal industry (e.g., legal or financial consulting) could communicate that your brand is approachable, innovative, or disruptive. However, this approach requires careful consideration and it can backfire as well.  

Be Consistent across Channels

Your Instagram audience loves you for your script fonts. But as soon as they open your website to place an order, they’ll lose all interest if your online outlet displays serif fonts. This is because people hate two faces of the same thing. 

Having different branding across different channels will compromise brand trust and credibility. Moreover, it ensures you have a consistent font and typography on online as well as offline publications. Establishing brand guidelines with instructions (e.g., which font to use for headlines vs. body text and how to use the font on different platforms) will help ensure that this consistency is maintained in all scenarios. 

Be Readable

Don’t be too invested in looking unique and artistic. For example, if you choose a font like Caveat, your audience will know your brand personality. But they won’t be able to know anything else besides that: what you’re selling, your brand values, or whatever. Your message will remain vague, and your leads will be minimized. 

No matter how creative or bold a font is, readability should never be compromised. Avoid overly decorative or intricate fonts for body text, especially when there is a lot to read. 

So, Can I only Choose one Font from the Brand?  

Not at all! It’s not advisable at all to choose only one font for your entire identity. Your headlines or pain points should stand out from your body. Choose at least 3-4 different fonts for your brand. Your headlines or titles can have a font like Oswald or Playfair that pops, displays, and draws the viewer’s eye immediately to your key points.

Clean, sans-serif font like Lato or Montserrat can serve as a great option for subheadings, as it provides clarity and structure without overpowering the main heading. Fonts like Roboto, Georgia, or Merriweather are great for body copy because of their simplicity and ease of readability. As for your call to action, they should be appealing and readable at the same time. Fonts like Poppins or Raleway will work well as they balance readability with the ability to catch attention without being too decorative.

Cherry on the Top!

Fonts can be rather hard to choose. There are around 300,000 fonts to be estimated for only the English language, and there may be much more than this estimation. With such a burdensome number of fonts, you’ll likely face trouble deciding which font will convey your brand’s personality effectively.  

Ethos is an innovative Brand Asset Management platform designed to streamline your branding efforts. Its AI features assist you in making font choices, and you can even create compelling headlines and slogans for your business that not only convey the whole personality of our brand but also act as a subtle call to action and increase leads.  

Start with a 30-day completely free trial today and discover the endless potential of Ethos. No credit cards are required for the trial!