What’s Your Personality Type (face)?
I’m not referring to whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, but instead whether you might prefer to use sans-serif or serif. Typefaces are a lot like people. They come in various shapes and sizes; they can be friendly, reserved, unusual, familiar, joyful or gloomy. Many times in design, choosing the right graphic, copywriting or color palette takes precedence over other visual aesthetics, but choosing what and how you implement the right typeface can really make or break a project.
Also like people, some fonts are better at some things than others. Here’s five things to consider when choosing a typeface to make your piece the most successful:
- What’s its purpose? When it comes to body copy or headlines different fonts work better for different situations. If you need a font for a massive amount of type for example, you might want to consider using something simple and readable like Times or Arial. If you’re designing for a poster with limited type you could jazz it up a bit with Bauhaus or Cooper Black.
- Know the time period. Does your piece need to suggest a certain era? Like fashion trends, typefaces for the fifties look A LOT different than the eighties.
- Are you designing for web or print? Certain typefaces work better for each. The web can’t always use the same typefaces as print, so again it’s best to stay simple especially with your body copy. Verdana and Georgia are two popular typefaces for web pages.
- Is there a theme? Take movies for instance. You’d use a different font for a romantic comedy than you would a horror flick.
- Know your audience. Typefaces can be trendy or classic. Make sure you know what your audience expects. A 45 year old business man doesn’t want to open up his newspaper to see ITC Edwardian Script swirling all over the pages any more than a 20 something bride wants something generic like Courier in her wedding invitation.
Many fonts have become recognizable by the consumer without them even realizing they’re familiar with it. Everywhere from BMW to Target, Helvetica speaks for the brand. Times New Roman says classic whether it’s for the cover of TIME magazine or National Geographic. Typography makes the opening credits for movies worth watching and can create visual pictures with more imagination than a photograph. So use your type wisely and appreciate each font’s individuality.
