Each one of us is fond of one or the other brand and have preferences for specific brands amongst all the sectors. What makes us choose those brands? The products and services they offer are definitely the obvious answer. But, what made you familiar to the offerings of those brands? What makes your mind draw the brand- quality perceptions for the products you choose? The answer is ‘brand identity’.Literally defining, ‘brand identity is how a business presents itself to, and wants to be perceived by, its consumers. Brand identity signifies the intention for which a company chooses it’s name, designs it’s logo, uses colors, shapes and other visual elements. The typefaces and font family a brand uses is definitely of utmost importance. We therefore did some digging and found out the font families used by some famous brands and the implications of the same.
Before listing down the results, let us know a little about branding and font families:
What is branding?
Branding is the way through which you establish an image of your company in your customer’s eyes.
What is brand personality?
A essential part of branding is creating a brand personality- which is almost like attributing humanly characteristics to a brand and personifying it.Think about it this way for a moment:
What if The Times Group was a person?
It would obviously be the serious student on the first bench who tops every subject. Right?
Now,
What if GUCCI was a person?
You can almost visualise a sophisticated lady with the perfect clothes and perfect hair shopping endlessly at a posh mall, carrying an exclusive handbag. True. Isn’t it?
Now, what makes us have such distinct thoughts about two brands and strongly visualise how exactly they would be if personified?
It is the personality they have created and placed in our minds.
How is typography important for a brand personality?
Font psychology states that each typeface and font family has a personality of its own and creates different implications on consumer’s psychology. Types of fonts are known to create and solicit different kinds of moods and emotions in a consumer’s mind. Using a particular font for the banner or bag of a particular brand can make people perceive the brand as reliable, elegant or futuristic. Therefore, brands carefully choose their typefaces depending on how they want people to perceive their brand.
Here’s a list of brand typefaces and fonts that we looked upon:
Apple- San Fransisco
Apple Inc. developed this Sans Serif typeface. All of Apple’s software, hardware products and the overall branding of the company use this font. They restrict the usage of the fonts and have a copyright on it. They have used Sans Serif to indicate most economical and modern choice. The fonts work for Apple Inc. because they are easily readable and known to work well on digital screens. It goes in sync with Apple’s brand personality because according to font psychology, Sans Serif typeface implies a modern and universal personality. Apple Inc.is a brand that is known for its sophistication and technically up to date products. Everyone sees Apple Inc. as a company that is universally eminent and standard in the same manner.
Vogue- Bodoni:
Giambattista Bodoni designed this Serif typeface. It had been stated as the most elegant typefaces ever designed. The typeface has wide associations to style and affluence. Font psychology states that Serif fonts imply a sophisticated personality and elicits a timeless and stable mood. The word ‘Vogue’literally means style in French and as we know, Vogue is a very popular fashion and lifestyle magazine which is highly influential. Vogue seems to be on the top in aspects like Fashion and lifestyle, elegance and sophistication . Bodoni has been a long loved font by designers and typographers and has been used for the logotypes of Calvin Klein, Armani and Elizabeth Arden.
Spotify- Proxima Nova:
Mark Simonson, an American font designer developed ‘Proxima Nova’. and the music streaming service ‘Spotify’ is using it. It has been used for over 25,000 websites and is known to work well for screens. The anatomy of font suggests that the characteristic ‘trendy’ can be associated with Proxima Nova. Also, Spotify focuses on the current trends and streaming of trendy music.
Dropbox- Sharp Grotesk:
A new york based foundry ‘Sharp type’ developed the Shrp Grotesk font. The typeface’s history dates back to 2010 when it was originally started as a hand drawn poster lettering. The font creates a bold and confident identity. While rebranding dropbox, the use of Sharp Grotesk enabled them to showcase the diversity of their clients and flexibility of their product. Sharp Grotesk generally indicates robust features. Drop-box undoubtedly stands hefty as it justifies the functionality of the app that is heavily storing all your data.
Walt Disney- Waltograph:
Waltograph is a Sans Serif typeface: There is a quite popular rumour of Waltograph being Walt Disney’s own handwriting. The Walt Disney Company as known to all,highly glorifies and emphasizes on ‘Imagination’ , ‘Fantasies’, ‘Visualization’ and Magic. Accordingly, to keep the fun and casualty element intact they’ve developed Waltograph with curves and twists. Also, as Sans Serif implies a universal personality, it is a win-win for Disney.
Airbnb- LL Brown:
Aurele Sack, a swiss graphic designer developed LL Brown- a Sans Serif typeface. If a company intends to project a casual and informal identity, Sans Serif fonts is the most wise option to choose. Airbnb serves in the hospitality industry. The customer of this industry expect trustworthy, reliable and friendly services. As a result, when Airbnb uses a Sans Serif typeface implying informality, their website creates a good phycological impact in the minds of their clients. Also, Sans Serif fonts work well for short section texts. And, the Airbnb website includes images and short descriptions regarding the place.
Google- Product Sans:
Google created ‘Product Sans’- a Sans Serif Typeface. The fonts were first witnessed in 2015 by a change in the Google logo. The main aim behind creating the new typeface and logo was branding and thus, Google eventually realized that their logo needs to be consistently apparent and be visible even in restricted constraint spaces. The design team at Google wanted the typeface to be simple, humble and approachable. According to font physcology, Sans Serif elicits a simple, sensible and straightforward mood. And that’s exactly how the top used search engine should ideally be like.
