A corporate identity is not just a logo and colour but an important element in your corporate identity is typography. The visual custom font design of text, and no, this is not only for your logo, but also for use on your website and in your printed matter.
It’s more important than you might think, in fact it’s essential for your brand identity. You can often recognize a brand with a strong visual identity by the font alone. Just think of the recognizable font of Coca Cola. Typography expresses your personality and is thus an unmistakable part of your identity.
Rules for creating the right typography
Yes, there are also rules that you should take into account when creating the typographic style. The way you build the alignment, the fonts you choose, the way you arrange letters, all give a certain character to your identity. Typography allows you to create a certain atmosphere and exude a personality. You can be modern, vintage, romantic, shy or tough just by choosing the right font and combining it. Be different but specific, choose fonts that you will be recognized by.
Typography determines readability
The content can be easily understood by your readers, but only if the text is also sufficiently readable. You are freer with posters or titles and so on , but for running text there are some typographical factors that determine readability . Such as the font and size, spacing, leading, contrast, alignment and length of the paragraph relative to the support. For example, if the line of text is too long, your readers will likely give up quickly.
While reading a text, nothing is more irritating than feeling busy due to letters that are too small or too large. Letters that are too close together or just too far apart. Do you sometimes recognize the feeling that you have to read the text 3 times to understand everything? It’s not always about content.
Dealing well with typography exudes skill
All better and well-known designers have one thing in common: they have the gift of good typography. You can usually tell quickly if someone is a good designer just by looking at how they handle typography. Awareness of typography is not just the placement of text, it is an understanding of design that is also applied to all other aspects of design. Typography is attention to both detail and the big picture, connecting function with aesthetics. It requires thinking and understanding of the formal.
Typography in websites
It is not the case that when a font looks good in print, it will also look good on a screen. It is therefore also necessary to think carefully about whether the text remains legible on a screen, both large and small (just think of a smartphone).
Since a lot of information is searched on the internet, paying attention to the typography on your website is really important when you buy fonts. It must communicate what you do or offer and this completely according to your fixed identity. Typography is communication. You can bring the typography to suit your goals. The text can really scream in the design, or whisper very subtly. It can affect the mood and emotion of the readers and elicit responses. Online you can even play with an extra typographic element and that is movement. The subtle emergence of titles, for example, or a pulse in a button or CTA. Everything is part of the visual communication that usually passes unnoticed by the reader, but does work. And that’s actually the art of a good typo.
Summarized
So, choosing a font is not something that happens in a few minutes. It needs to be thought about and several factors taken into account. In addition, the house style must be used consistently, it is important to always keep it to guard. Corporate identity must always be applied correctly. From MAQUINA we often create a brand book after creating a (re)branding. This is a handy reference, because this way you can immediately find out in this book how to use the logo in, for example, black and white, which font is used, how to photograph and so much more …