It seems like an obvious one – but few people often stop to think about what the typeface of your corporate identity says about your business.

With thousands of different fonts to choose from, even designers appreciate that selecting the best typeface for a design project can be a tricky process. Getting it right can make or break a piece of design work. But why does it have to be so difficult – a letter form is just a letter form, isn’t it? Well yes, it is – but every typeface has its own unique personality and character.

Different fonts evoke different emotions. For example, a serif font tends to portray tradition, reliability, principle and authority, whereas a sans-serif font has a more contemporary, orderly feel. A script font is elegant, feminine and flamboyant, and a display font is attention grabbing – good for headlines, but not to be overdone!

It’s been said that choosing the right typeface for your brand has been compared with choosing the right outfit to wear – it depends on what you’re trying to say about yourself. Imagine turning up for an event or function and being completely inappropriately dressed for your surroundings: it would likely leave a negative impression on your hosts. The same can be said of choosing the wrong typeface: get it wrong and it can say the opposite about your brand.

Choosing the right font for your company’s visual identity can be quite a tall order: after all, it has a very important job to do. Not only should it reflect the tone and personality of who you are as a business, but the reality of using that font further down the line needs to be carefully considered. For example, make sure that your chosen typeface is available as a webfont – not all fonts are compatible online.

If you’re struggling to choose a typeface, or if you’re considering refreshing your corporate fonts, it’s worth considering a professional design agency to help you through the enigma that is typographical design. At Think! we use our years of experience and extensive knowledge of typography to guide you through this process of choosing a font and discerning which typeface is best for your brand.