Using certain fonts on your label designs communicates to your audience much more than just words. The font style, size and colour you choose all express a certain mood, emotion and personality for your brand and is just as an important step than choosing your brand colours and label design.
Take an expensive wine bottle, for example, sat on a supermarket shelf reaching out to a particular audience wanting to purchase a premium wine for a special occasion. If there are 2 bottles to choose from and one has elegant, fine, script style fonts in metallic colours versus one with big, bold, black bubble font, which one are they going to likely choose? The one which oozes elegance and class as the label is their first impression and the font says a lot about the brand.
Your Brand Personality
When it comes to choosing what font is right for you, your business wants to establish what your brand story and messaging is to create the brand personality. Are you a fun, cool brand? a modern brand? sophisticated or corporate? Who is your target audience? This will all help you whittle down a decision on the font style.
- Understand your market and select certain fonts which are most appropriate for your target audience.
- Select fonts which work well together. If you want a script font don’t pair it with another script font, it will be way too fussy, instead choose a more simplistic font to help each stand out.
- Always make sure whatever font/s you choose that they are easy to read straight away. You don’t want that deterring your customers away.
- Test Test Test! Try out different fonts, play around with your designs and keep testing until it is right for your brand.
Choosing your fonts
If you are not really a font nerd who knows there Serif (traditional) from their Sans Serif (modern) then keep on reading. Different font styles can really transform the look of your brand, product, website or image believe it or not so it is an important step in building your brand.
So what kind of image do you want to set for your brand?
Elegant & Sophisticated
If your brand oozes sophistication and your target audience look for this within your products then using very fine, detailed or scripted text is a great route to go down.
- Dancing Script
- Julius Sans One
- Playlist Script
- Snell Roundhand
- La Parisienne
- Ostrich Sans
- Caviar Dream
Modern & Bold
Many brands are opting for a more modern look with fairly simplistic fonts which stand out easily and look fresh. Modern fonts tend to be more rounded sans serif styles which do not have any decorative detailing to distract the eye.
- Open Sans
- Montserrat Classic
- Futura
- Raleway
- Helvetica
- League Spartan
- Avenir
Fun & Playful
If your brand is colourful, fun and on the quirky side then a more playful looking font will compliment it perfectly. Fonts with bounce and irregular styles create a fun feel and work well with bright colours and cool images.
- Carlsons Script
- Oregano
- Ribeye
- Jeepers
- Lobster Two
- Cabin Sketch
- Life Savers
Craft Feel
Many companies selling craft produce such as honey, jams, craft beers and other condiments opt for a font which has a rustic look and a friendly feel. Using handwritten or typewritten looking fonts helps customers warm to a brand and is ideal for craft companies reaching out to local communities.
- Waiting For The Sunrise
- Homemade Apple
- Crafty Girls
- Shadows Into Light Two
- Anonymous Pro
- Art Nuvo Stamp
- Vintage Moon
Classic
For a more classic look which is easy on the eye, there are many font options to choose from which remain timeless. A classic font looks professional and can sometimes add a vintage feel to the brand depending on the classic font selected.
- Playfair Display
- Garamond
- Bodoni
- Oswald
- Clarendon
- Aileron
- Gill Sans
Fonts, Typeface and Typography
All these different terms can become confusing, so what is the difference between them all:
Typeface: Creates a set of letters that carry the same design features eg. Calibri
Typography: Arranges a typeface so they can be displayed with legibility eg. Setting the size of letters and spacing between letters to create a unified set.
Font: The specific size, style and weight of a typeface eg. Calibri Bold 12pt
Fun & Playful
Craft Font
Elegant & Sophisticated
Classic & Vintage
So now you have a bit more of an understanding of the importance of choosing your brands fonts and what message a font can give your audience take a step back and look at your current brands fonts and ask yourself if they are portraying the right message. A simple tweak could make all the difference and should be carried out across all the businesses marketing collateral including website, labels, logos, email signatures, social media, business cards and letterheads.