Does Your Font Match Your Nashville Brand?

In the past we discussed matching the right typography for your promotion and the definitions of typeface and font. Now that you know what these two things are, how do you use that knowledge to chose the correct font for your brand?

Let’s talk about font perception. In a study conducted by Wichita State University, audiences attribute personalities to fonts they see. This is important because your company could be sending mixed signals with the font chosen for packaging, website text, and emails. For example, according to their findings, the Courier New font is most associated with a “conformist” personality. If your brand wants to be viewed as “creative” or “free-spirited”, the GiGi or Kirsten font was preferred over other options.

It is important to note where these fonts are used as well. Some fonts were viewed better as website text while some performed in print. Note their results here:

Sans Serif Fonts. Users preferred Sans Serif fonts for Website Text (62%), Email (60%), and Online Magazines (56%). Sans Serif fonts were least preferred for Digital Scrapbooking (32%), Computer Programming (34%), and Math Documents (36%).

Uses for Serif Fonts. Users preferred Serif fonts for Business Documents (71%), Website Text (67%), and Online Magazines (63%). The three uses that were least associated with Serif fonts were Scrapbooking (28%), Children’s Documents (34%), and E-Greetings (38%).

Script/Funny Fonts. Digital Scrapbooking (61%), E-Greeting (60%), and Website Graphics (53%) were rated as the highest uses for this group of fonts. The Script/Funny fonts were not preferred for Computer Programming (2%), Scientific Documents (3%), Spreadsheets (3%), and Math Documents (3%).

Modern Display Fonts. The three uses rated the highest by users for Modern Display fonts were Website Graphics (47%), Website Headlines (44%) and Website Advertisements (44%). The uses least often chosen for this group were Online Tests (9%), E-Books (9%), Spreadsheets (10%), and Online Assignments (10%).

Monospaced Fonts. Users chose Technical Documents (45%), Computer Programming (40%), and Math Documents (40%) as the highest uses for Monospaced fonts. The uses receiving the fewest votes were Digital Scrapbooking (18%), E-Greeting (21%), and PowerPoint (22%).

Of course there are many factors involved in choosing a font, but these examples should give you a good start!