Brand typography selection

Typeface roles

Character and readability

A distinctive heading typeface helps recognition, but the same typeface may be tiring in a long paragraph. Many brands therefore pair a characterful heading face with a quieter text face, or use one family with enough weights to cover both roles. The test is practical: set a real page of your content, a web page, a quote and a social post, and read it at the sizes customers will see.

Pay attention to details that affect reading: clear distinctions between similar characters such as capital I, lowercase l and the number 1, generous spacing at small sizes and legible numbers for prices and data.

Practical checks before choosing

Licensing in plain terms

• Commercial typefaces

  Licensed from a foundry; terms often differ for desktop, web and apps.

• Open-licence typefaces

  Free to use under their licence terms, which are worth reading.

• Fonts bundled with software

  May be licensed only for use within that software or on that system.

• Fonts from unknown websites

  Often unlicensed copies; avoid for brand use.

Planning for when the brand font is missing

Brand fonts are not always available: email programs, shared documents and some office software substitute their own. If no fallback is specified, each person picks one, and documents look inconsistent. Choosing a widely available fallback with similar proportions, and building it into document templates and website code, keeps materials looking close to the brand even when the primary font cannot load.

How typefaces are selected

1. 01

   Brief

   Brand character, languages, channels and readability needs agreed.

   Output: Typography brief

2. 02

   Shortlist

   A few pairings set in real content.

   Output: Shortlist

3. 03

   Test

   Pairings checked on screens, print and at small sizes; licences reviewed.

   Output: Chosen typefaces

4. 04

   Specify

   Hierarchy, sizes, spacing and fallbacks documented.

   Output: Type specification

A clear hierarchy

Choosing typefaces is only half the work. A type hierarchy sets the sizes, weights and spacing for each level, from main headings to captions, so documents and pages look organised and readers can scan them. Recording the hierarchy in guidelines and templates means everyone uses the same levels, rather than inventing sizes for each new item.

Typography and accessibility

Readable typography helps everyone, including people with low vision or reading difficulties. Practical steps include a comfortable minimum text size, sufficient line spacing, avoiding long passages in all capitals or italics, and making sure text colours meet contrast guidance against their backgrounds. On websites, text should be real text rather than images of text, so it can be resized and read by assistive technology.

None of this prevents a distinctive brand voice; it simply keeps the brand readable.

Avoiding short-lived choices

Some typefaces become fashionable quickly and then look dated just as quickly. Since brand typography is expensive to change, it helps to ask whether a choice expresses something lasting about the business or mainly reflects what is popular now. A distinctive but well-crafted face, used consistently, usually ages better than a novelty one.