We’ve talked about why it’s important to grab your prospects by the eyeballs. We’ve covered what you need to know about your audience before you start marketing. And we touched on how delivering your message with stories is a great way to sell.
Enough with the prep work: you’re ready to get those marketing pieces set up! The first place to start is your typeface, because your typeface choice tells a lot about your business and what it stands for. Marketing guru Seth Godin talks about it here.
Before you decide what you want the typeface to say, let’s review the two main typeface categories.
Serif Typefaces: Classic, Timeless, Easy to Read
Serif typefaces have little “feet” at the bottoms of the letters. You probably have the typefaces Georgia and Times Roman on your computer, and those are both serif typefaces. They are classic, timeless and make your business look established. Serif typefaces are good for long blocks of text, too, which is why most books and magazines are set in serif typefaces.
Sans Serif Typefaces: Streamlined, Modern, Contemporary
Sans means “without,” so sans serif typefaces are “without” the little feet that serif typefaces have. You probably have Arial and Verdana on your computer, and they are both sans serif typefaces.
Sans serif typefaces are streamlined, modern and contemporary and make your business look cutting-edge and modern. Sans serif typefaces are good for instructions, or any time clarity is important. Sans serif typefaces look great on the web, and many sites use them as text typefaces.
To make your job easier, I recommend you use no more than two typefaces. Pick full typeface “families,” with regular, italic, semi-bold, bold, etc. That will give you lots of options for headlines, subheads and captions.
For maximum versatility, pick a serif and a sans serif typeface that work well together. This can be tricky to get just right. Here’s one way to do it:
Use Your “AGE”
To combine a serif and sans serif typeface, look for similar letter forms. The best letters to try to match up are lower case “a,” “g,” and “e.” Let’s take a look:
See the typeface sample to the left? Notice the shape of the letter “a.” Now look at the “g” and “e.”
Which of the following sans serif typefaces will combine well with the example above?
The lower case “a,” “g,” and “e” in Example A are the best match. The
letter forms are similar. These two typefaces will combine well without clashing.
In Search of Type Resources
It’s easy to find typefaces on the web at low or no cost. Be careful, though: many are low quality, and will make your business look unprofessional. A quality, full-family typeface that represents your business is a great investment, and since typeface technology doesn’t evolve as quickly as software, your typeface should still be as usable in 20 years as it is today. Fonts.com and Myfonts.com are two good resources where you can invest in typefaces to represent your business.
For no-cost typefaces, try these links. Remember, go for quality, readability, and a full family of weights if possible:
searchfreefonts.com | dafont.com | urbanfonts.com
These two links from Smashing magazine feature beautiful no-cost typefaces:
Smashing magazine 40 fonts | Smashing magazine 15 fonts
And just for fun, a type joke. This site from Pentagram, a top-notch design studio, purports to help you figure out your “type.” Type in your name and use the password “character” to access the site: What type are you?
Have a question about type? Need some help picking yours? Ask away in the comments.
Design 101
This is the fourth in a series of ten lessons called “Design 101.”
The next lesson will be about how to make color decisions that reflect your business and “speak” to your audience.
Get this series delivered to your email inbox so you don’t miss a lesson: enter your name and email at the top of the right column and blog updates will be delivered automatically.
Did you miss the other lessons? Find them all here:
1] Design 101: Marketing Begins with the Eyes
2] Design 101: How to Daydream Your Way to Marketing Success
3] Design 101: Storyselling for Fun and Profit
4] Design 101: 7 Typographic Resources, and 1 Type Joke
5] Design 101: Harness the Power of Color in Your Marketing
6] Design 101: Make it Easy to Consume Your Information with White Space
7] Design 101: Toe the Line: The Lazy Way to Design
8] Design 101: Successful Design: Who’s In Charge Here?
9] Design 101: Don’t Write a Thousand Words, Use an Image
10] Design 101: A Cheat Sheet That Will Keep Your Honest
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
tried to use your “What Type Are You Link. asks for a pass word I don’t have one and how do i get it
Hi Michael,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I’ve changed the post to include the password, which is “character.” Enjoy!
Pamela, thanks for this post. I’ve worked with type for years, but never knew about evaluating the a, g, and e when choosing a serif and sans serif to use together. Appreciate your sharing one of the insiders’ tricks to making good type decisions…makes me wonder what else I don’t know!
Sandy,
Stick around: there’s lots more information to come!
Thanks for dissecting this topic a bit.
I spent some time initially comparing the fonts available to me through my blog theme and eventually chose Verdana. Now I’m questioning my decision. When I use Verdana in word processing programs, I really don’t enjoy looking at it! It’s better on my website, but I’m wondering if I made a bad choice for my site.
I didn’t realize that there was a whole world of fonts available to me beyond what was being offered.
I also just read a poor “review” of Verdana because its sizing is so different from others. What are your thoughts on this specific font?
Hi Emily,
I must admit, I do not love Verdana. I know a lot of people use it, and I think you’re right: it’s definitely better on the web than it is in print. To my eyes the letter spacing is too uneven, and that (very subtly) slows down the reading process. Of the sans serif fonts that are 100% web compatible, I prefer Trebuchet or Arial.
The whole world of type on the web is about to change soon, due to a new technology called Typekit, which I’m using on this site for the main headline.
With this technology, typefaces are hosted elsewhere and “served up” on web sites. I’m willing to predict that within a year or two, we are going to have many more options for typefaces available to us.
Thank you for this article! Without a designer budget at the moment, I struggle constantly with trying to make my sites look just good enough. At the very least, I feel more comfortable with my use of Arial now – I can handle “contemporary feeling”! I look forward to reading your other articles!
You’re welcome, Shayna.
Type on the web is about to explode with options, which is a good thing. Compared to using type in print, using type on the web right now feels like I’ve been given a box with only eight crayons in it and asked to create a masterpiece!
Pamela,
Nice educational post, thanks for that. Your readers might also enjoy FontSquirrel, a searchable source of free fonts. It’s really handy!
FontSquirrel is a great resource: thanks for sharing it, Joel!
Combining the easy-to-understand tips from this article, I think this should also be a little intuitive, but I’m having a tough time. Maybe it’s because this is my first try!
I’d like to build a palette with two or three voices, starting with this curly retro font as my main one. It is called “Isla Bella”. Here’s a link to it:
http://www.dafont.com/isla-bella.font
So I’d like to creat an overall feel that says “antiques combined with modern creativity”. Thanks so much for any suggestions you can give!
That’s a typeface with a very specific personality, Mary. You might want to use it for the company name, and then combine it with one other typeface, perhaps a sans serif. You could try Arial or Tahoma, or another streamlined, “neutral” sans serif. That way the company name will stand out, and any additional information (like a tagline) won’t compete with it. Good luck!
Hi, I came across this post in a big google search.
When you show the two fonts to choose from, is there a term for the “a” and “g”? I’ve been trying to describe the difference to someone and I keep saying “the funny wiggly old a and g” and “the ones that look like kids writing”
there must be a better way!
Hi Samantha! Believe it or not, that funny, squiggly “g” and “a” are called a “double-story lowercase.” The plain versions are “single-story lowercase.” I don’t know how helpful that is: I think your description might work better!
My way might make more people understand, but it’s good to know the proper terms! Thanks!
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