Let’s imagine you’ve just launched your brand new business, and you’re super excited to create your own graphics. You’ve spent hours buying up tons of fonts on Creative Market and can’t wait to use all the beautiful fonts.

I’m hoping I caught you before you spent too much money because fonts can get really expensive really quick.

I’m looking at you, Bodoni, with your $5k price tag!

There’s a few things you should know before you go font shopping for your brand.

• Know the difference between serifs, sans serifs, scripts, and display fonts.
• Identify what emotions a font will invoke in your readers.
• Know how to pair fonts together and not go overboard.
• Learn how to determine which fonts best represent your brand.

I’m not going to lie - this can get deep into the concepts and elements of design and you could easily feel like you’re getting in over your head, but there’s no need to fret.

If you’d like to learn more about type, I highly recommend that you read Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton.

Typefaces vs Fonts

Before we get too in-depth, I’d like to start by explaining the difference between a typeface and a font because these terms are commonly misused.

For simplicity’s sake, think of a typeface as a family unit; the fonts are the individual family members.

A-ha! This analogy paints a picture that is easy to understand.

But to elaborate, let’s use an example…

Montserrat is a typeface, and Montserrat Black is a font.

You can choose fonts for your brand that are of the same typeface, but don’t stress too much over the semantics of the words as they’re used interchangeably nowadays....

Serif

Serif fonts make awesome, eye-catching headlines (like the Bree Serif font I used for this headline), but they can be slightly difficult to read when used in the body text on a web page due to those pesky little ‘serifs.” They’re commonly referred to as ‘flags’ because they resemble little flags attached to the letters.

Serif fonts come with a handful of subcategories because hey… designers don’t like just keeping things vanilla.

The Serif font family includes slab serifs, old-style serifs, and neoclassical serifs - just to name a few. The only thing these fonts really have in common are their ‘flags.’ As you can see, there are many different styles that give off different vibes.

Sans Serif

Sans serif fonts are simple, clean, and modern-looking fonts.

They’re easy-to-read making them perfect for the body text on a web page. They can also make great headlines if you add a heavier weight to the font.

The main difference between these and serif fonts is that they don’t have the flags. However, that’s not to say that all sans-serif fonts are equal.

The Sans Serif font family includes styles that are grotesque, geometric, and humanistic. There are several more styles, but these are pretty common and after a bit more studying of fonts, you’ll be able to quickly spot the difference.

Script

Script fonts will give your web pages tons of personality but should be used sparingly.

It’s best when they have room to breathe - such as graphics or headlines.

If you the Serif and Sans Serif families had a lot of variations, you’ll find the Script family to be even more diverse.

You can easily spot the difference between a formal and casual Script font, but I bet you didn’t expect to see the blackletter fonts in the Script bucket.

Script fonts have big personalities and invoke more emotion than the others. Be careful and take your time when deciding to use one in your visual branding.

If you choose the wrong Script font, you could easily misrepresent yourself and your business.

Although there are many other families, these are the big three and the most commonly recognized. It’s important to have a general understanding of the differences between them before you go on the hunt for the perfect fonts to represent your brand.
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Understanding Emotional Design

Fonts have the ability to elicit specific emotions, and it’s important to understand this concept when choosing fonts to represent your brand.

The shape of the letters will often dictate exactly how someone will read and interpret them. If your brand is sleek and modern, you’ll want to veer away from any chunky Serif fonts that look like they belong on a western movie poster.

Just the font used in a headline can make someone feel a certain way before they even read the copy of a sales page or blog post.

It’s important to step back and contemplate all the visual aspects as a whole to make sure everything aligns to accurately portray your brand....

Think Like a Professional Designer

One thing professional designers do that not all entrepreneurs do is analyze everything they see.

They judge books by their covers, movies by their posters, and even candy bars by their wrappers.

These things can kill a designer’s interest in something if the style isn’t cohesive or it sends the wrong message.

Even if you don’t realize it, you subconsciously do this as well - on a smaller scale.

You may not have the knowledge of design to see how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together, but these things are designed from a psychological standpoint with the ideal consumer in mind.

They’re specifically crafted to evoke particular emotions in the viewer without them even realizing it.

Representing Your Brand

When designing the visual assets of your brand, fonts are just one piece of the design puzzle.

It will take time to personalize every design element and make sure they fit together seamlessly to best represent your brand with the image you’ve envisioned.

This is just a brief overview of fonts. Seriously, you could spend years studying various typefaces and fonts and probably still have more to learn.

The point is that with a little basic knowledge, you can DIY your visual branding without dropping thousands of dollars on a professional designer (but I’m always available if you need me. 😉)

Want to learn more about designing websites and branding? Check out Website Warrior - the course for those that want to DIY their website without the headaches.