How to pick fonts like a pro
How to pick fonts like a pro
When you first started your business, did you expect to play so many roles to keep it running? I know I didn’t! Eventually your goal might be to hire a team, but in the beginning you’re doing all the tasks yourself. My goal today is to help relieve one of those many hats you are wearing and make picking your fonts easy. Picking fonts is a huge part of the design process of your website – they help create brand consistency. Here are a few tips to help you pick your brand fonts like a pro!
1. Pick 2-3 Fonts – MAXIMUM.
Your entire brand should only have 2-3 fonts. Any more than that makes your brand look pieced-together and it lacks in professionalism. When picking your fonts, keep in mind what platform you use to create your graphics. If you have Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, you’ll have a ton of options to choose from! If you don’t have those platforms, you can use Canva.com, which is a free online graphic design tool that has a lot of great fonts and can be used to create any graphics you need. If you’re using Canva to create your brand graphics, make sure the fonts you pick are ones that are available through Squarespace as well. You don’t want to create your entire brand only to realize that those fonts aren’t available in the platform you’re using to build your website in. Of course, you can always purchase them and code in your font.
2. Pick Fonts That Go Well Together
Before you can pick your fonts, it’s important to understand the three main font categories:
Serif – Serif fonts are more old-fashioned or premium looking fonts that have little “feet” on them, like Times New Roman. Think editorial fonts.
Sans Serif – Sans literally means, “without.” So, sans serif fonts are the fonts without “feet” on them. They’re more modern fonts like Arial or Helvetica.
Display – Display fonts are any fonts that don’t fall into the two categories above, and include fonts like handwriting or calligraphy fonts that are really popular right now.
It can be super overwhelming to try to pair fonts together, because honestly, some fonts just don’t look good together. The easiest way for you to pair fonts on your own is to use Pinterest to search for “font pairings.” You’ll find TONS of fonts that look great together!
3. Use the Right Fonts in the Right Places
Not only is it important to find fonts that go well together, it’s also important to use your different fonts in the right places. Your Body Font needs to be something simple – either serif or sans serif. The Body Font is what is used for large paragraphs of text, such as your website content, or a social media post with a lot of text. The Body Font will be the main font for your brand.
Next, you’ll want to find a Headings Font. You’ll use this for any headings, sub-headings, titles, etc. You’ll want this font to be something different than your Body Font, but you’ll still want it to be simple and easy to read. A lot of calligraphy or handwritten fonts are sometimes difficult to see, so you’ll still want to stick to serif or sans serif for your Headings Font.
If you want to incorporate a third font into your brand, such as a calligraphy Display font, you’ll want to use it mainly for emphasis in your graphics. For example, if you have a social media graphic and you want to emphasize one word, this is where you would incorporate your third font.
4. Make Sure Your Fonts Match Your Brand Message
You want your fonts to communicate the “feel” of your brand to your clients. When picking your fonts, think about the adjectives that describe your brand. If your brand adjectives are words like, “minimalist” “simple” “clean” then you’ll want to pick minimal, simple, and clean fonts and mostly stay away from the scripty fonts. Whatever your brand is, make sure you know how you want people to feel when they see your brand graphics, and pick your fonts accordingly.
5. BE CONSISTENT!
Once you’ve picked your fonts, be sure to use them the same way. Every. Single. Time. Don’t stray away from what you’ve picked! Consistency in your graphics helps creates a loyal following because your clients will remember who you are and what your business is by what they see. That’s the biggest goal in creating a brand! Using fonts consistently means using the same size font, using one font for your body text and the other font for your headings, and using the same color for your body text and another color for your headings every single time across all platforms. Everything you do – whether it’s your website, social media posts, workbooks, etc. – it should all look the same. You want your customers to recognize your brand from a mile away!
