The typefaces you choose make a big difference on the overall consistency and message of your brand. For instance, I recently did a project with the Barbie brand. The Barbie body copy font is ITC Avant Garde Gothic, however every "e" must be manually skewed so that it fits Barbie's brand. See below.
Skewing the "e" makes such a big difference in Barbie's font and keeps with the brand identity. I could talk about fonts all day, but here are some of my favorite fonts I've been using lately!
Serif Fonts
Serif fonts are a classic and timeless category of typefaces that have been widely used in print and digital media for centuries. They are distinguished by small lines or strokes, known as serifs, that extend from the ends of the main strokes of each letter. These small embellishments add a touch of sophistication and elegance to the overall design of the text. Serif fonts are often perceived as more traditional, formal, and readable, making them ideal for body text in books, newspapers, and long-form content. They are believed to improve reading comprehension and reduce eye strain, especially in printed materials. Some popular serif fonts you've probably used include Times New Roman, Georgia, and Baskerville. With their rich history and versatility, serif fonts continue to be a favorite choice for various editorial and design projects, adding a touch of classic beauty and refinement to any written work. I love using serif fonts in headings, making bold statements, and mixed with script fonts.
Four of my favorite serif fonts that I've been in love with right now are Buttershine, Corporate A, Mermaid, and Vogue. In my opinion, Buttershine and Mermaid are perfect if you want to have that professional feel, but still include a little bit of whimsy. Corporate A is classic, I prefer the regular versus bold weight to the font. You can read about Corporate A's story here. Lastly is Vogue. If it's not obvious, I fell in love with this font so much I've used it in my rebranded site identity and logo. I quite like that it's an all-caps typeface, single weight. It scales easy, and looks so good when paired with script fonts, which is exactly what I did.
Sans Serif Fonts
Although it's traditional to use serif fonts in print and body copy, I prefer to read in sans serif typefaces. Sans-serif typefaces, unlike their serif counterparts, lack the small decorative strokes at the ends of characters. They are characterized by clean, modern, and straightforward letterforms, making them widely used for digital content and contemporary design projects. Sans-serif fonts exude simplicity and readability, making them ideal for titles, headings, and digital interfaces.
I have been using the same few sans serif typefaces for quite a while, I simply haven't found anything else that'd I'd rather use. I've been using BEBAS since college and was introduced to it in my first job on campus. It works great for both titles and body copy. It's easily manipulated and despite being all-caps works great. If I have a hard time matching a body copy font to a header font in a project, often times I'll try BEBAS.
Freight Sans Pro and Gravity are my favorite body copy fonts. I love gravity. It's simple, clean, and classic and definitely my go-to for body copy.
Dream Orphins is like a subtle 20's title typeface in my opinion. I have yet to use it as body copy, because it just exudes authority in the hierarchy, I've only used it as headers.
Script Fonts
I'll be honest with you, for some reason when I started out on my graphic design path, I hated script fonts. I could never find one that I liked, that looked professional and was also legible. I may have been scarred from the use of MS Curly Q back when I was little. Therefore, I am definitely the most picky when it comes to picking a script font (there's just so many terrible scripts out there). Of course as I did more and more work, and found perfect instances where I needed a script font. I started to land on a few that worked out perfect. Script fonts are elegant and fluid typefaces that mimic the look of cursive handwriting, adding a touch of sophistication and personality to design projects.
I found Asmelina Harley, and Charlotte in college. I won't lie to you, I have only used Charlotte in a project once, but was primarily determined because... well.. it's my name and therefore makes it cool... right? It's not a bad font. Asmelina has come cute little characteristics and gives me fairytale vibes.
Better Caramel reminds me of a southern recipe blog website. I love it. I think it's versatile and cute, it could be used in a logo or as headings.
I actually found Darling Modern when I was designing my wedding invitations. I absolutely love it. (You'll notice it was also included in my rebrand). It's elegant, yet still legible. The only thing I would change to it is add more variation in weight, so as needed I'll add a .25 stroke.
Where Can You Get These Fonts?
I get most of my fonts from four main sources: Dafont.com, Monotype.com, CreativeMarket.com, and Fonts.Adobe.com. Dafont.com has free downloads with optional donations to the creators. You can have access to Adobe fonts with their creative cloud subscription. Monotype and Creative Market sell fonts both on an individual and subscription basis.
Typeface | Source | Price |
|---|---|---|
Buttershine Serif | Free | |
Corporate A | Free with Subscription | |
Mermaid | Free | |
Vogue | Free | |
Bebas Neue | Free | |
Freight Sans Pro | Free with Subscription | |
Gravity | Free | |
Dream Orphans | Free | |
Asmelina Harley | Free | |
Better Caramel | Free | |
Darling Modern | $23 | |
Charlotte | Free |
I hope these fonts are helpful in your design work! Happy typing!