It’s easy to underestimate the importance of typography to your brand. The fonts you choose for your brand – such as for inclusion on its website, social media channels and print publicity materials – don’t necessarily just augment your brand; they can even be your brand.
Choosing the right fonts, though, entails knowing which fonts you should give a wide berth. Here are just a few examples of typefaces you should keep off your logo, for a start…
Comic Sans
Like Jar Jar Binks, the Comic Sans typeface has become strangely iconic exactly because of how often it is publicly disparaged. It’s also arguably attracted so much criticism for much the same reason as Jar Jar: the perception that it is childish, unprofessional and, as a result, frequently out of place.
Even if you run a creative business, such as an art studio, you should avoid using Comic Sans simply because it has an awful lot of negative connotations that could thus stain your brand’s image.
Papyrus
You might recognise this particular font from its use in the logo for James Cameron’s blockbuster 2009 film Avatar. However, the increased profile the film’s popularity gave this font has ultimately fuelled a massive backlash against it – including in a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2017.
The year after this sketch first aired, a new Avatar logo – now shorn of the Papyrus font – was unveiled. You could do even better by keeping Papyrus well out of your logo in the first place.
Calibri
What is exactly ‘wrong’ with Calibri? Perhaps ‘boring’ would be a better descriptor for it than ‘wrong’ – as, however much Calibri might suffice for the main text of a business document, you should think again about using it in a professional branding context.
There are plenty of other, more interesting sans serif fonts – such as Helvetica – from which you could choose for displaying on your marketing channels, so don’t be afraid to dig deep.
Brush Script
There’s no shortage of logos based on signatures – such as the Disney logo, which is a stylised version of legendary animator Walt Disney’s signature. Similarly, the Cadbury logo is based on the signature of William Cadbury, the grandson of the chocolate brand’s founder John.
A graphic designer from our team could weave your own signature into your logo, if you wish – leaving you with no need to simply type your brand’s name in the Brush Script font instead. It’s a font that, though sometimes used for faux signatures, isn’t always easy to read.
Times New Roman
Yes, Times New Roman is very familiar – but that can also make it too boring when it’s used for, say, the main text copy on your website.
It’s worth emphasising, though, that the words’ meaning – rather than just their physical appearance – could ultimately prove a much more important factor in how much (positive) attention your website attracts. That’s why we have digital copywriters who would be happy to edit or entirely rewrite your web copy in order to make it more immediately engrossing.
