Fonts are not something that takes up a lot of space in people's minds. In fact, past a certain age, you barely even register what the words you're reading look like in an aesthetic sense, rather, most people would simply absorb the meaning. For writers, designers and advertising professionals, however, a great font can be a source of pleasure; an ugly font a source of great dismay. Even though font is something that only affects the public on a subconscious level, it is still a huge part of civilization – look around you right now, you can probably see at least a dozen different kinds of font!
People often make fun of Comic Sans and ever since American Apparel's controversial and iconic ad campaign featuring scantily clad young women, people joke that Helvetica is for hipsters. You may have a signature font picked out in Word that you feel reflects your personality, but let's be honest – most people just use Times New Roman. Like a note written in elegant handwriting, the font you use conveys a very particular mood – perhaps after reading this post, you'll be less inclined to leave that aspect of your writing to chance.
When a studio like Cosmic Design is putting together an ad campaign, a logo or a promotional poster, part of the process involves meticulously poring over fonts to hone in on the exact right typeface to complement everything else – it's no small matter!
One of the reasons that font is increasingly important is that handwriting seems to be on the way out – a rarity and a novelty these days. Children typically don't learn how to write in cursive, if a young person sees you scribbling a note in longhand, they may experience a sense of awe at this archaic ability. In university classrooms, virtually nobody takes notes on paper anymore; students peck away at their laptops instead.
The reason your signature is a way of authenticating your identity is that it is completely particular to you. Losing the art of handwriting means losing a subtle means of self-expression. This is a little bit sad, but also inevitable as progress and the digitization of society marches on.
Watching this documentary about the Helvetica font may help you understand why some people are obsessed with the quest for the ultimate typeface – while handwriting may become rarer and rarer, in the future, as in the past, there will still be design and font geeks.
Geometric Sans-Serif & Futura: A Simple Font for Complex Times
To tie this all together, let's look at the hottest font in branding right now: Futura. Futura is an example of a geometric sans-serif font. These kinds of fonts are so appealing because they are clean, simple shapes that go well with a minimalist aesthetic. It's geometric because its mostly composed of simple shapes from geometry – an O is a perfect circle, M's and N's are made up of triangles – and sans serif because the serif detailing is trimmed off. It's telling that such an unassuming font is so hot right now; Futura is oddly calming to look at and contrasts the incredibly complex and fraught times we are living in.
Hopefully this post has inspired you to think about fonts, now that it's on your mind, you'll notice the effects of typeface everywhere! Keep typography and design in mind when building your brand.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post about the fuss around fonts and typography for marketing and branding.
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