Ahh, the psychology of fonts…
In case you hang around right here as a result of you’re a model nerd like me 🤓, then this phrase in all probability will get you PRET-ty excited.
Perhaps you might have visions of serifs dancing in your head…
Perhaps you don’t (Ummmm, what’s a serif?), however you’d like some assist figuring out fonts which can be a match on your model.
Both approach, settle in for some geeky enjoyable, as a result of on this article I’m diving deep into the psychology of your typography.
I’m outlining the three differing types 😉 of fonts (See what I did there? 🤣) – and supplying you with recommendations on the place and methods to use them. After studying, you’ll be capable to make extra educated and intentional font alternatives on your model.
🎥 In case you desire a video lesson on the topic from yours really 😉 … click on to observe. If you wish to learn the article, stick with it! (Pssst… I’ve heard the most important branding nerds do each!)
People are wired to search for patterns.
To grasp why sure fonts are inclined to immediate sure feelings, ideas, and responses, it’s essential to look at how people understand stuff. Over time, our brains collect knowledge and set up it. Via our experiences, our consumption of media, our formal and casual training… and extra… we’re continually processing and organizing info.
Quite a few psychological research – throughout many disciplines – have proven that our brains are wired to search for patterns. ⬅️
In a single seminal 2014 paper on Superior Sample Processing (SPP), Mark T. Mattson writes:
“The elemental operate of brains… is to encode and combine info acquired from the setting by means of sensory inputs, after which generate adaptive behavioral responses.”
In different phrases, we glance to make associations with what we’re seeing – and join it to what we’ve seen prior to now. (The flexibility to do that was essential to the survival of our Neanderthal ancestors. It helped them to establish what crops have been suitable for eating, methods to hunt efficiently, methods to predict climate, and extra…)
So it’s now it’s a part of our DNA to search for patterns, and this tendency is highly effective.
The advertising lesson right here? Associations are constructed over time in our minds – and you may faucet into a few of them to ship indicators to individuals about your model.
Your prospects and purchasers have been seeing fonts all their lives… on newspapers, on indicators, in books, on product packaging… actually all over the place. Primarily based on the context through which they see them, they’ve some preconceived concepts about them.
In case you select your fonts based mostly on the psychological narrative that’s already current, the way you need individuals to really feel, and what you need them to grasp about your model, your alternatives will set off the responses of your selecting.
Fairly highly effective, proper? (I do know you’ll use your new-found energy for good – not evil. 😉 )
So, let’s go into the three sorts of typography – and the associations they carry.
(Observe that, in every class, I’m giving a nod to among the model archetypes which can be usually well-aligned with every font sort. These are very free correlations. You aren’t obliged to make use of those which can be usually related together with your sort! In actual fact, among the most attention-grabbing and compelling manufacturers are an suave mix of two archetypes – and incorporate intentional, but sudden, parts!
If you’re thinking about uncovering Y-O-U-R archetypes, you possibly can take my free Model Persona Quiz!)
Psssst… You may pin 📌 this text for reference!
Serif Fonts
Serif fonts have small additional strokes (known as serifs!) on the finish of every principal vertical and horizontal stroke.
In his e-book The Origin of the Serif, Edward Catich defined that serifs have been first utilized by stonemasons who have been carving letters into stone. Outlines have been painted as a information for his or her work. The stonemasons would then comply with the painted marks, and the paint would flare into the ends of their letter strokes.
(Sorry… I warned you we have been nerding out right here… 🤣)
You’ll discover serif fonts in most books. Additionally they grace the covers of a few of our tradition’s most venerable newspapers and magazines (like Vogue and The New York Occasions). You’ll additionally see them on indicators and logos for a lot of nice establishments (like banks, museums, and universities).
Historically ;), manufacturers which can be well-established and timeless have used them. For that purpose, we are able to get a number of completely different associations from serif fonts. They really feel very basic, trendy, dependable, conventional and generally even formal.
Extensively-available serif fonts embody Occasions New Roman, Georgia, Palatino, Garamond, and Abril Show.
Listed here are among the associations persons are prone to make for those who’re utilizing a serif font as your main model font:
- Your model is established and has endurance.
- You worth custom.
- You’re credible and educated.
- Individuals can belief you – it doesn’t matter what. You’re dependable and a known-quantity.
- Your services or products is definitely worth the reassuringly-high costs that you simply cost!
The model archetypes that serif fonts usually align with? Royals, Sages, Lovers… these may be just right for you!
Sans-Serif Fonts
The second main class is the sans serif. And… You guessed it! …Since “sans” means “with out,” these typefaces wouldn’t have the little additional strokes or flares on the ends.
In on a regular basis life, you’ll see these fonts on freeway indicators (the place readability is essential!), in logos of extra leading edge manufacturers, and on the covers of extra up to date magazines.
You’ll additionally usually see sans serif fonts on-line and on web sites. For that purpose alone, they really feel extra trendy to us. Additionally they are inclined to really feel extra informal and youthful.
Widespread examples of sans serif fonts are Arial, Montserrat, Proxima Nova, and Open Sans.
Probably the greatest issues about these fonts are that they’re very versatile. You may pair them with different fonts which have extra of an expressive character to provide them extra steadiness.
Listed here are among the associations persons are prone to make for those who’re utilizing a serif font as your main model font:
- Your model is recent, up to date.
- You’re no-nonsense.
- You’re on prime of the newest improvements – and perhaps even forward of the curve.
- You’re straight-forward, direct, and sensible.
Innocents, Mavericks, Heroes… Sans serif fonts may be nice selections for you.
Script Fonts
The third main class of font is the script font – or the handwritten fonts.
A few of our favourite manufacturers use scripts fonts – and are fairly recognizable due to that selection! Kellogg’s cereal, Instagram, Coca-Cola, Virgin Airways… their logos all characteristic script fonts.
These are usually extra informal and really feel welcoming. Generally they’re extra pleasant and much more female – however that’s not all the time the case. (For instance, a graffiti-style script font will elicit completely different feelings than a script that appears prefer it was written on a love letter – or by a baby.)
Some script fonts you might know embody: Playfair Script, Allura, Pacifico, and Mr. Defoe.***
⚠️ ***WARNING: As a result of script and hand-written fonts are so distinctive and recognizable, the same old suspects (like these above) can begin to look fairly over-used and pedestrian.
In case you actually need to choose a script font, you may must go looking for one thing that’s recent (and legible). Tread fastidiously, lest you find yourself a cliche! ⚠️… (Simply ask Ryan Gosling and the solid of Saturday Night time Reside… 🤣🤣🤣 … I can’t cease laughing.)
If our sans-serifs are the versatile ones, then our scripts are kind of the alternative! They’re just like the talent gamers. They’re explosive and impactful – however they have to be used extraordinarily sparingly, for a few key causes:
They are often fairly loud, psychologically. They inform us so much as a result of they carry with them a whole lot of additional context.
They’re not often very readable, so that they don’t lend themselves properly to lengthy headlines, and so they undoubtedly can’t be used for physique paragraphs.
Typically, script fonts work properly as an addition to your principal fonts. They’re nice for including flare or emphasis – and to provide your model a really distinctive taste and a few curiosity.
Hand-written and script fonts can work as accents for lots of the archetypes… however Lovers, Caregivers, Mavericks, and Creators? These may be particularly aligned for you.
Okay, in order that’s it. That’s my font article. Three sorts of fonts…
BUT, WAIT! Psyche!
I’m throwing in a BONUS class – only for Y-O-U. 🙂 Right here you go…
Ornamental or “Show” Fonts
It’s true – most branding students will say there are three sorts of typography…
However there are some fonts which can be simply so distinct or distinctive that they don’t reeeeeaaaallly fall into one of many three buckets we’ve outlined above.
These are those which can be simply… properly…type of bizarre. (And we like bizarre round right here, so we need to acknowledge them!)
These are those that look very ornamental. those… I’ve seen some that evoke the outdated west – or incorporate flowers proper into the letters. Equally to script fonts, they need to be used very sparingly – however they are often an efficient method to infuse a giant dose of character to your model.
⚠️ Show fonts come together with somewhat extra baggage although, so I have to give you one other caveat right here. ⚠️ They are usually fairly fashionable – which implies they will exit of fashion comparatively shortly.
It’s an essential lesson I train purchasers and college students… We need to base your model on fact, not tendencies.
By defining and leaning into the reality about who you might be and the way you present up on this planet, you possibly can construct a model that may stand the check of time. (And also you gained’t must re-brand each six months!)
As a result of we worth timelessness, we don’t need to do something that’s too fashionable within the main expression of your model. In case you use show or ornamental fonts in any respect, my suggestion is to incorporate them for a marketing campaign or a particular product that you simply’re releasing now – for a finite interval.
In order for you your principal model property to serve you for a few years, persist with the serif fonts, the sans serif fonts, and the script fonts for something that’s going to be central to your model.
Including Dimension
When you’ve chosen candidates on your principal model fonts, needless to say you possibly can add dimension and variation by means of kinds, too. And, these type selections will convey various things as properly.
A really daring font – or a primary font in daring – will really feel very sturdy and durable. In the meantime, a very skinny, dainty font will really feel extra ethereal, trendy, and light-weight.
Fonts which can be very squished collectively and condensed (Nerd alert: 🤓 The time period for the area in between letters or characters known as kerning!) can really feel very frantic and high-energy. Whereas typography that’s very unfold out could have a extra luxurious really feel – a extra relaxed, assured really feel.
In case you use the ALL CAPS model of your fonts in your principal paragraphs, it will possibly really feel such as you’re shouting at individuals. 🙉 However when used for headlines, capitalization feels sturdy and assertive. Plus, generally – relying on the font that you simply’re utilizing – the all-caps can simply look extra clear – nearly mixing into the background. So, if in case you have a whole lot of different loud design parts, selecting all caps may be a pleasant method to look clear or a bit streamlined.
A development I’ve been seeing of late is to make use of all lowercase in textual content – particularly in headlines or logos. Whereas it’s somewhat fad-ish (and you know the way I really feel about THAT! 😐), it does add a playful, sudden really feel. Or, it will possibly subtly convey that you simply’re not following the foundations. (Is likely to be excellent for an Harmless-Maverick archetype mix!)
Fonts are enjoyable. (Weeeeee!) And, there’s much more to them than simply 26 letters and a few symbols! Keying into the emotions they convey – and the concepts they stand for within the minds of your prospects? Fairly genius. 🤓
Whether or not you’re completely geeking out alongside me – otherwise you’re new to the language and character of typography – I hope this text gave you some new insights into the psychology behind how we use fonts in our manufacturers.
Remark under… Do you might have favourite fonts? Have you ever chosen them on your model? I might like to see what you might have chosen – and listen to why you chose them.
