How to Choose Brand Fonts: 5 Questions Before You Install

The scene repeats itself. Someone opens an editor, tries fifteen fonts on the company name, picks the prettiest one and sends the file to the printer. Two weeks later the website uses another font, the Instagram post uses a third and the sales proposal goes out in Arial. None of it is wrong on its own. Together, it no longer looks like the same company.

People who search for how to choose brand fonts are usually at that point: there is a name, maybe a symbol, and what is missing is the lettering the brand will speak in. The choice looks like a matter of taste, and it is a matter of function.

Short answer: pick few fonts (one for display and one for reading is enough for most businesses), test both on long text and at small sizes, check the license for every use and write everything into the brand guidelines. The best font is the one that stays legible and stays the same on every piece.

Why the font weighs so much on a brand

Lettering is the part of the identity that shows up the most. The logo may be on screen for a second, while the text is there all the time: on the website, the proposal, the caption, the email. That is why, in our branding process, typography is born together with the symbol and the palette, not after. The visual identity stage brings together symbol, typography, color palette, graphic elements and the first real applications, so you see the brand working before you approve it.

Color and type also complete each other. If you have not settled the palette yet, read how to choose brand colors first.

The five questions that decide the font

1. What tone does the brand need?

A serif font (the small stroke at the end of the letter stems) tends to sound traditional and editorial. A sans serif sounds direct and current. Script fonts sound personal, and they tire the eye as soon as they become a paragraph. Before you open the catalog, write down three adjectives for the brand. The font has to agree with them, not with this season’s trend.

2. Can it carry a whole paragraph?

The most common mistake is approving a font by looking only at the company name in big letters. Paste in five lines of text, at phone size, and read them. If it tires you, the font works for headlines and nothing else. A brand needs a reading font too.

3. How many fonts are too many?

Usually, two. One for highlights and one for running text. Beyond that the brand starts to look like a collage. Variety comes from weights (light, regular, bold) and sizes, not from a new family on every piece.

4. Does it work where the brand will live?

Website, print, presentation, video, uniform. A font that looks great on a business card can be too thin on a phone. Test it on the hardest piece before you fall in love.

5. Am I allowed to use this font?

A font is software, and it has a license. A print license may not cover the website, and a website license may not cover an app or a video. In the studio’s brand projects, fonts are licensed and the typographic hierarchy is defined for each type of piece, precisely so nobody finds out about the problem after the storefront has already been printed.

How it went in our work

In the identity for M7 Group, a solutions hub for the healthcare market in São Paulo, the case study records a decision that is about typography: we designed the symbol and the typography of the name as a single piece, with the tagline locked underneath. The delivery includes positive, negative and outline versions, clear space and minimum size. That is what lets the brand arrive whole on the team uniform, in video, on the wall and on screen, with nobody having to improvise.

Looking at the cover of the M7 website, you can see the hierarchy at work: the headline in a strong weight, with the first word in orange, and the supporting text in a lighter weight right below. Two clear levels, and the eye knows where to start reading.

You can see the identity pieces in the M7 Group visual identity case study.

Brand fonts: what not to do

• Choosing only by the company name. Test on long text.
• Using five fonts “because they are all beautiful”. Pick two.
• Downloading from any site without checking the license. Check commercial use.
• Changing the font on every new piece. The brand loses its memory.
• Keeping the choice only in the designer’s head. Whoever lays out the next post needs to know which one it is.

What must be written in the guidelines

Choosing the font is half the job. The other half is recording it: the exact family name, the allowed weights, the hierarchy (which font is for headings, which for text, which for captions), reference sizes and what to do when the font is not installed. The brand guidelines we deliver include the typographic hierarchy alongside the palette and the usage rules, so the printer, the social media manager and any other agency can apply the brand without distorting what was built.

Without a record, everyone uses “a similar font”, and the brand drifts a little with every new piece.

Before you choose the font, decide this

Write down three adjectives for the brand and where it appears most. With that in hand, the choice stops being taste and becomes a decision. If it is still unclear what a logo, a symbol and an identity are, the difference between logo, logotype and visual identity helps sort the subject out.

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Typography is one of the pieces of our branding and visual identity design, which brings together strategy, symbol, colors, fonts and guidelines. If your brand needs a visual voice that stays the same on every piece, get a quote in four steps, with no meeting required to start.