Fonts and typography is usually a topic that has been reserved for the graphic designers and people that are particularly interested, and mostly ignored by the rest. Fortunately this is starting to change. The use of type and fonts are more important when it comes to branding than one might think.

No free rein with fonts

Comic sans is often brought up as the font people love to hate – or simply love. In any case, it is a font that most people have strong feelings about. Otherwise, generally speaking, the majority of typefaces or fonts are often reserved for designers and others with a special interest in these. As a designer, I am fortunate to be able to say that this is an area where I have noticed a change over the past few years. There are not as many questions marks around the table when the subject of fonts crops up.

“Choosing a font is like dressing the right way depending on the impression you want you make”

But is this really important anyway? It's just letters.

Type font, typeface, font...a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. These are names for more or less the same thing: a set of characters, figures and letters that can be used in text. The English name "font" has its basis in the word "fount" (stamp) and has its origins in lead technology. Ever since Gutenberg introduced the printing technology, fonts have also existed. We could also say that calligraphy and handwriting are also fonts, but we won't go into that just now. What I would, on the other hand, like to expand on is why fonts are so important for a brand and why you then need to pay for this?

Fonts play a much bigger part in people's lives than we actually realise. Gary Hustwit has made a documentary about how Helvetica touches many people's lives on an everyday basis.

So why are fonts so important for a brand?

People argue that, despite everything, it is the content - what you actually write that is important - not how it looks. One can say that choosing a font is like dressing the right way depending on the impression you want you make. Regardless of how good a text you have, people will nevertheless, consciously or unconsciously, also judge the content by how it looks. The choice of font can determine if your text communicates with authority or honesty. Perhaps it calls out to, whispers or even flirts with the recipient. In other words, the choice of typeface can be most crucial when it comes to how your communication is perceived. For example, political election campaigns are very careful about what they choose to communicate their message with. You will probably never see campaign posters written in soft script type. It would be more suitable for a wine label than trying to get a strong political statement across.

Learn more about the relationship between identity, brand and branding.

In the process of creating a brand, a great deal of work is invested in values and the core of the company. The visual tools then need to be in harmony with the values and keywords arrived at. Different fonts express different things. If you want to appear modern, classic, more personal, perhaps a bit youthful, more mature, traditional ... all these keywords will require a different choice of typeface. In addition, the typeface chosen will play a part in creating recognition, so it is important that a brand is loyal to only using its chosen typeface in all communication. If, for example, Apple were to suddenly launch a campaign using historical Gothic letterforms, people would simply fail to recognise them. Big companies often design their own typeface to ensure that they have a unique font that no other competitor can use it and to reinforce their identity in the market.

Specialised niche work

Font design is a niche in the design industry, and those who are experts in this are a small but important minority. Drawing a new font requires meticulous concentrated work where you are completely dependent on focusing on details and being embarrassingly accurate. It does not take much "error", as an ordinary person in the street would not even see, before a font will no longer flow and or work well. My colleague, Karl Martin Sætren, has interviewed one of Norway's best font designers, Magnus Rakeng. In the interview , Rakeng talks about what it means to design a font. Once you understand how much work and often further development lies behind a font, then you also understand why you have to pay for it.

You see, it isn't the case that you can simply share fonts as you like. We often get questions from customers and partners asking "can't you just send me that font?" There is a group of standard typefaces implemented on all computers but, apart from these, you need to purchase a user license to get access to other typefaces. Typefaces are protected by the law of intellectual property in the same way as photography , illustrations and other creative work. So you are not purchasing a product, you are buying the rights to use them. The price is then set on the basis of a specific number of users who will be using the font. This then applies to the use of printed material. Fonts to be used on websites have been covered by a few other considerations and they are usually priced on the basis of the number of visitors the website in question gets in the month.

I hope I have given you a clearer idea of what a a font is and why it cannot simply be shared with just anyone. But, most importantly, perhaps I also given you a bit of inspiration to look a little more closely at and appreciate fonts and the typography we surround ourselves with every day. At Mission we always consider very carefully the choice of typeface for each brand and project we work on, making sure that it is suited for the client.