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Tip #3: Choose fonts that compliment your brand. Chances are you’ll need several fonts in developing brochures, flyers and other collateral. Generally, only one or two fonts should be used in a logo. Pick a font that is clear to read and has all of the elements you need (some fonts only have alpha letters without numeric figures, some fonts do not have punctuation marks, etc.). You can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on fonts alone…but you don’t need to. Two free font sites I like are DaFont and Font Space. Both provide great features where you can view what your text will look like before you download and install the font. Just be careful with the usage guidelines for any font you download and plan to use for commercial uses. Most fonts will provide guidelines for usage of each font in the download package, or on the downloading site.

Technology and cutting-edge brands typically use sans serif fonts. Brands attempting to attract c-level customers usually default to a serif font. Edgier brands tend to use designed fonts. Just as colors and design dictate your brand, your font is equally as important to set the mood for your brand. If your font is too distracting, it can detract from the message written.

In addition to fonts used in logos and in designed materials, you should also choose a font that is common to most computers. If you send a presentation or document to someone, the body copy should be formatted with common fonts so the display on an end user’s computer is the same as yours. If you want specialty fonts in these documents, it’s best to imbed them in an image within the design.

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Small businesses rarely have the marketing and creative resources to provide appropriate brand building or brand management to ensure their brand maintains consistency and strength as business grows. While it’s always good to have a trained marketing eye to guide you along the way, this list of 10 quick tips will help provide added support for your brand building and management — just a few small items entrepreneurs and small businesses can do to get a jump above other small brands with big ideas.

Originally, I intended to post all of these tips together in a single post, however each tip is a different topic in itself, so I’ve opted to separate them out. As each new item is released, I’ll include links to previously posted tips to make things easy. Enjoy.

Previous tips from this series:

Tip #1: Color Choice

Tip #2: Logo Design

Filed under: Branding, Design, Marketing Tagged: | brand, branding, Design, Font, logo design