Every day, new companies start up with the hopes of making it big, but how will they surpass the wall of ads already saturating our lives? How can we make it big without pulling out all the stops? The answer is simple – it all starts with a well thought-out design. Your brand image is the first thing someone will recognize about you, so make it memorable for the right reasons.

Defining Your Image

As a company and as a brand, what do you want to represent? Taking the time to define your brand will help you to further define your image and design. Things to take into consideration include:

• Personality
• Styles
• Future applications & edits
• Color Palette

Personality

This is how people will relate to your brand and is based highly on your mission as a company.

Who is your target market, and how do you envision relating to them? Let’s consider a financial institution. A neon color palette with curly-cue typeface likely wouldn’t be your go-to. You would likely want something bold, classic and trustworthy – that would convey that people are safe and secure in trusting you with their finances.

Styles

Aside from the variety of fonts and typefaces out there, there are other styles to take into consideration. The size and weight of the font is one thing (specifically when used for headlines, titles or logos), as well as whether the font is being used as body text or display font.

Text fonts are used for body text in articles and documents, whereas display fonts are used as headers and logos. Making sure that these separate fonts work cohesively and respond to size variances (print advertising vs online use) should form a major part of your plan.

Calendas Plus is a fantastic display font example.

Planning For the Future

Just as you take styles into consideration, you should also think about how you would like your brand to grow and expand in the future. Just because you’re starting out with an online brand doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about how one day you may want to expand to offline formats.

Some fonts are designed to be purely web fonts and some are designed for print – so if you have big dreams to take your logo or brand offline in the future, you will likely want a font that is a combination of the two.

The Genericons Icon Font.

It may take only a few simple tweaks to make the font appropriate for other channels, but knowing ahead of time can save a lot of extra work down the line. When searching for fonts, it may also be useful to find a font that has not only lettering, but symbols/glyphs included as well. These extra design resources can be helpful when adding a bit of flair to your work, and will keep the designs fluid. You can browse a variety of fonts and bundles online – so spend some time finding your perfect fit.

Color Palette

Color plays a huge part in the design of a brand. Color and design, while intertwined, work hand in hand to create a memorable experience. Let’s take Apple for example – not only do you picture the apple logo (which is easy to recall), but a clean white design also springs to mind. Their brand is based around clean simple design – which spreads throughout all of their products, stores and website and is quickly recognizable.

Choosing a palette that represents your company – be it shades of green for an eco-company, primary colors for children’s toys, or perhaps neutral colors for a financial institution – helps to further convey the personality of your business and brand. Using colors that instil a memory or emotion in your audience will make your brand more recognizable.

Concluding

Whether you’re a firmly established business or just starting out, you’ll be striving for brand success. We need to put in the work to make good font choices in preparation for their success.

By taking the above points into consideration, you’ll be well on your way to choosing the best font for your business. Taking care to relate each element of your brand strategy to the overall plan for the business – including future plans – will increase the staying power of your brand and prevent the often hindering re-branding process that many companies find themselves in only a year or two into their launch.

Put the time in to create a timeless brand, and you’ll save yourself a lot of effort and money in the long run.

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