How to Choose the Right Font for Your Brand

There’s a lot more to choosing a brand font than scrolling through a library of typefaces until something catches your eye.

The right typography can give your brand bags of personality, make your business instantly recognisable and help everything from your website to your packaging feel like it belongs together.

Get it wrong, though, and even the best-looking branding can project the wrong message, before a word has been read.

So, how do you choose a font that looks the part, works everywhere it needs to and still feels right for your business five years down the line?

1. How do you choose a font that reflects your brand Identity?

Before you disappear down a rabbit hole of fonts, get a few things straight about your brand. Who are you? What do you stand for? And who exactly are you trying to impress? Are you a sleek and modern tech company, or a vintage-inspired artisanal brand?

Your typography should feel like a natural extension of your brand identity, giving people a little glimpse of who you are before they’ve even read a word.

2. Why is font readability important for your brand?

It’s easy to get distracted by a fancy font that looks the bee’s knees, but if nobody can actually read it, what’s the point?

Your typography needs to look just as good on a whopping great billboard as it does on a tiny phone screen. Personality is all well and good, but not at the expense of getting your message across.

A good place to start is testing your typography at different sizes, particularly on mobile devices. Think about the contrast between your text and background, how much space sits between your letters and whether that lovely decorative font is still readable when it’s used for more than a few words.

3. What are the different types of fonts for branding?

The four main font categories used in branding are serif, sans-serif, script and display. Each has different visual characteristics and can create a different impression depending on how it’s designed and used.

• Serif fonts: Recognisable by the small strokes attached to letterforms. Often associated with heritage, elegance and tradition, although contemporary serifs can feel strikingly modern.
• Sans-serif fonts: Without those additional strokes, these typefaces are often chosen for their clean appearance and versatility.
• Script fonts: Inspired by handwriting or calligraphy, these can bring elegance, informality or a more personal feel.
• Display fonts: Designed to attract attention, often through expressive or unconventional letterforms. Particularly useful for headlines and short statements.

The trick is knowing which one suits your brand, rather than simply picking the prettiest of the bunch.

4. How to test fonts across different brand touchpoints

Once you’ve whittled down your font choices, it’s time to see how they hold up in the real world.

Try a few different combinations, play around with the sizing and see how everything looks across your website, social media, packaging and printed materials.

After all, a font that looks fantastic splashed across a billboard might be a complete nightmare to read when squeezed onto a phone screen.

It’s worth paying attention to the intricate details too, like spacing and letter shapes, because they can make all the difference.

Of course, choosing the right font is only half the job. Making sure it’s used consistently across your website, social media and marketing materials is just as important. We’ve got a few handy tips on keeping your visual brand identity consistent, too.

5. How to choose brand fonts that stand the test of time

There’s nothing wrong with wanting your brand to stand out, but don’t get too carried away chasing the latest font trends.

What’s all the rage today might look a little questionable in a few years. The trick is finding something with enough personality to make your brand memorable, without losing sight of what makes it yours.

Brand typography in action: our work with Glaze

When we partnered with Glaze, the challenge wasn’t the product. Their handmade ceramic cups already had plenty of character. The brand just needed to do a better job of showing it off.

We wanted to create something that felt adventurous, personal and full of personality, combining a little retro nostalgia with a fresh, modern feel.

And typography had a pretty important part to play.

Rather than relying on one font to do all the heavy lifting, we brought together three different typefaces, each with its own job to do.

• Acme brought the character, with its playful display style helping give the brand a distinctive look.
• Aktiv Grotesk kept things clean and easy to read, making it a natural choice for body copy.
• Alkaline added a handwritten touch that made everything feel a little more human and personal.

Alongside a curved logo inspired by vintage travel posters and luggage tags, the typography helped bring Glaze’s modern-retro identity to life.

Different fonts, different jobs, but all working together to tell the same story.

Do you need a designer to choose your brand fonts?

With all those things to think about, it’s easy to see why choosing the right typography takes a little more than good taste. That’s where a good brand designer earns their keep.

They’ll look beyond what simply looks nice, considering your audience, positioning and how the typography will work alongside the rest of your visual identity. After all, you’re not just choosing a font for your logo. You’re choosing something that needs to work across your entire brand.

What should you know about font licensing?

And don’t forget the less glamorous bit: font licensing. Not every font is free to use commercially, and some require different licences depending on whether you’re using them on a website, in an app or across printed materials. Worth checking before you fall head over heels for a typeface.

Where can you find fonts and typography inspiration?

If you’re ready to start exploring the wonderful world of fonts, here are a few handy resources we use ourselves at Giant Peach:

• For a little inspiration: Fonts In Use and Typewolf are great places to see typography out in the wild.
• For finding the perfect pairing: Fontjoy helps you experiment with different font combinations.
• For finding your fonts: Google Fonts and Open Foundry are worth a browse.

A great brand is about more than picking the perfect font. It’s about bringing all the different elements together to create something that’s unmistakably yours. If your branding could do with a little attention, we’d love to help.