How To Chose The Right Font For Your Logo

Hello and welcome newsletter readers. Inspired by a logo I looked at today, I have decided to write about the use of typography in your logo.

Logos are always a hotly debated topic - more often than not because small business owners tend to place little importance on them and have a go themselves rather than use a designer.

I've written before about logos in fact, in a more general overview, something you can read if you are keen!

I can't even scratch the surface of what there is to know about typography here in this newsletter and unfortunately there's no easy answer as to what font to use.

Good typography choices come from understanding the type you are using, the message you're trying to convey, and often years of experience in working with type. However, I hope to touch on some points I think are important to consider when choosing a font to use in your logo and in turn help you if you've decided to go it alone and not employ the services of your friendly local designer (you bad person you).

First things first you need to consider who your audience is. It's the designer's job to bridge the medium between the client and their audience and clarify the message, meaning, tone of voice and feeling. A good designer knows how to give necessary elements visual importance, explanation and clarity.

Once you have thought about your audience you need to consider the history and longevity of your company, your values and most importantly, the message you want to give. The type you chose has to interpret all this and be appropriate to the message, otherwise it turns out looking, well, a bit naff really.

Good design is all about effective communication.

Using the right kind of type to convey an image and connect with an audience is often more difficult than people realise. This is evident from the rather large volume of bad design floating about on the proverbial tinterweb today. In order to communicate effectively you need to understand the messages that type conveys and you need to be able to manipulate those messages to work for the logo.

Good designers know what fonts have evolved over time according to various fashions and know that each has their place in history according to the rules, standards and guidelines at the time. It's important to know where type has come from. Most people don't realise this history and whilst you might say that it doesn't matter since the majority of your audience probably doesn't realise the history either I don't think that's entirely true. Because on some level subconscious or not people associate certain style types and characteristics with things they know, such as old newspapers or retro gaming or 1940's propaganda posters.

Just as images and words can attract an audience, type can too.

Just as we get feelings from colours (think reds and oranges for warmth) we get feelings from fonts too. Take a look at the width of the strokes in your typeface, their proportions, style, form and shape. Are they bunched up or are they spaced out, rounded or square. It's especially important in logos to consider the overall form that the typeface gives the logo. Align elements and be consistent. Consider the weight of your type. If you are a construction company would you want an elegant and pretty font? Similarly, if you are selling beauty products you don't want thick and heavy font.

With logos you can afford to be more adventurous with your letterforms because there won't be a great deal of text for the audience to take in and so legibility is less important. Some good examples are the Dell and Fedex and Revlon logos.

They have changed the spacing and moved the letter-shapes to fit into each other to create something unique and memorable. However, don't be so abstract as to confuse your audience, align elements and be consistent. Put things in grids if necessary whilst you consider the spacing and make it fit well - think in shapes, horizontal and square. The mistake people often make with their logo is to write the name of their company and then plonk some random abstract symbol on, and it just doesn't fit. If you're going to add an image to the type then link it in and make sure they unify into a single entity.

Another mistake people often make is the use of effects in the logo. All they've done is randomly chosen their font and written their company name, so they feel the need to show off the fact that they can use a drop shadow in photoshop or create some beveling and it just ends up looking awful because it's been used for the sake of it rather than to express appropriate meaning.

People also often make the mistake of using more than one font but rather than complimenting the company name they use a contrasting font which just confuses the message.

If you use two fonts in your logo a good tip is to choose types that have the same shapes.

Finally, with the vast amount of fonts that are available for all on the internet today, make sure you pay attention to how well they are made - just as my 13 year old cousin can design very poor websites, he can also design very poor fonts and give them away. If a random font does catch your eye get them onto your PC and enlarge them. Any mistakes should be glaringly obvious. Another important thing to check here is that you've got the full set - a mistake I've often made in the past is to create something with a font I got for free only to go back months later to add something extra only to find that that particular character is missing and I have to start again.

Well as much as I could talk to you for hours about the benefits of Helvetica Neue over Gill Sans, I think I'm going to have to stop there. If anyone has any questions, mumblings, comments or abuse, please get in touch I'd love to hear from you.