Font Personality | What is Your Font Saying?

The most famous brands in the world are easily recognized by their font. When you see a commercial featuring a thin, sleek font and white space, you can almost immediately hone right in on the fact that it's an ad for Apple. Fonts have their own personalities and subconscious meaning that you may not even realize. I’m going to run through some common font styles and help you discover what it is your company/brand’s font is saying to your users.

	Formal/Elegant. These work well on wedding invites or with classy businesses.
	Do not use. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
	Friendly/Heartfelt. These fonts say we are sincere and just like you.
	Quirky/Decorative. Can be good for a variety of uses. Usually says creative or hip. The best uses for these types of fonts are for headlines only.
	Animated/Comic. Good for comics or illustrations.
	Modern/Sleek/Clean. You can see Google and Apple using thin, modern fonts to portray they are cutting edge.
	Respectable/High end. A lot of expensive clothing companies will use serif fonts to portray higher quality.
	Rough/Rugged/Artsy. Depending on the context, this font styles can be used in a variety of ways.
	Athletic. Obviously perfect for sporting events/athletics.
	Strong/Powerful. These work wonders with a bold statement headline.

These are more like guidelines than rules to follow because there are definitely rule breakers. Other things to think about when choosing your font are legibility and usage. Fonts best used for print are different from the web. If you’re designing for a very small space, you don’t want to use thick, oversized fonts. Below are some web examples that heavily display fonts as headlines on their website. Do their fonts match the message they are portraying with the images, colors, and content?