Your brand is an integral part of your digital marketing plan. People recognise a company and its product by its brand. A brand is the sum of all characteristics that help identify a company. You see the famous ‘tick’ on a pair of trainers and automatically you know it’s Nike or you spot the trademark yellow “M” on a bag of chips and immediately you recognise where it is from. That is the power of a well-built brand. Depending on the company, its brand can convey many different positive connotations such as reliable, tasty, comfortable, trustworthy and so on.

There are many characteristics of a brand that contributes to the overall brand image, such as specific colours, images or designs. Something that is perhaps not spoken about as much as is the typeface of a brand.

A typeface is the parent of a font. A variety of different fonts will come under a single typeface – fonts of different sizes, weight (boldness) and other styles. Let’s take a look at three specific typefaces and how different organisations have used them to add value to their brand and what it could do to your brand!

Serif

Companies that use the serif typeface on their branding include Sony, Volvo, Canon and The New York Times. These organisations are from different industries, therefore it is not the case that a typeface is only applicable in a specific business sector.

Characteristics

Serif screams the following characteristics: honesty, tradition, safety, history, and authority. Organisations that have been around for decades or even centuries, such as print media or retail organisations want to project themselves as an authority in their field – the fact that they have been around for so long is a testament to this and so serif is the perfect fit as is for timeless companies in any field.

Sans-serif

Sans-serif is like the younger sister of serif. It projects a more modern look and is inevitably used a lot by organisations that have made a significant impact in the 21st Century such as Netflix and Samsung

Characteristics

San-serif is like a new haircut – it projects a clean and cut look as well as being stylish and elegant therefore it’s no surprise if modern brands look to a font that sits under this typeface. Organisations whose target audience is the younger generation naturally turn to sans-serif. Examples include Nike and Adidas.

Script

A script is a bit more flamboyant and has more flair than serif and sans-serif. Brands such as Cadbury, Coca-Cola and Pampers use script. You’ll notice that script does not conform to the traditional rules of straight, strict and rigid lines.

Characteristics

A script is a feminine font and is, therefore, a playful font and is associated characteristics along similar lines. It is more of a casual typeface that looks similar to handwritten text but can also project sophistication.

Choosing the right typography for your brand

Iconicfox takes us through typeface memory lane looking at the origin and development of the three typefaces, the different fonts that sit under them and how organisations and brands have used them over the course of time. All this in an easy to follow infographic that you can see on their website.