Sanjay Sarma, CEO of Design Worldwide, a brand advisory firm, feels that typeface and fonts are extremely critical elements in conveying a brand’s character. “Both are different,” he explains. “Typeface is the visual look of the typography that can be clustered as a homogeneous set, and font is the actual weight and size of a type within the set.”

There is a psychological and cognitive pattern in which we recognise brands. And how the word-mark is written has an imprint in our minds as a visual. “Think the wavy Coca Cola. Or the clean lines of Apple. At the recent Apple event in September, they used a comic sans kind of font in some parts of their presentation and they immediately got called out for it. It’s just not Apple’s DNA to use such a font,” says Sarma.

“A font can convey a mood and trigger emotions. And that helps build brand character and associations. Therefore it is very important for any brand to go through the drill — mind mapping, mood boards, etc, before settling on a particular typeface and a font. It’s complex, layered and not just about looking pretty. But first and foremost, it is about clarity and legibility. How easy it is to register determines how long it gets remembered.”

comment COMMENT NOW