Typography 101 for Logo Designers – Tips and Tricks

Good typography makes a world of difference to your logo designs, and indeed to any type of communication. Learning typography allows you to see things you couldn’t see before.

With the rise of software, it has become easy to get typography wrong. I’ve even seen professional designers use display fonts in body copy. All you need to get it right is a set of rules and an eye for good practice.

The first rule is to always trust your eyes. Typography, like all good design, is an art and not a science, although applying a few simple rules to your logo designs will make them pop and give them the desired effect to the untrained eye.

This article is intended to help student and hobby designers, even some professionals, gain a clear understanding of typography for their logo designs. So things like widows (a word left alone on a line) and rivers (huge spaces that run through a body of text, usually caused by justified buttons in your text editor) won’t show up. ) or anything to do with body text, though I’ll cover this in a later article.

I’m writing this to help designers make informed decisions about typeface within their logo designs and brand identity guidelines.

Typography is everywhere, from digital to print, from pound coins to pound notes. It is the visual form of language. Anyone can write a sentence in a word processor, however there are certain elements to getting it right.

Rules are meant to be broken, but establishing a strict set of rules gives you consistency throughout your work. A logo must be readable and legible.

The capitol letters scream loud and can come across as aggressive.

Lowercase letters are much calmer and speak softly to your viewer.

Serif faces are very professional and business by nature – they are natural

calligraphy progression.

San serifs are very clear, simple, and precise, which is why we saw the modernists

from the Swiss era using them for clarity. We also see them in many headlines.
for this fact.

However, we can overcome some of these aspects. When using capitols, remember that we can give the logo a lighter typeface so it doesn’t scream. Although, having said that… keep in mind that when designing for screens, a lighter typeface is not recommended.

I am very old fashioned and picky about this next topic. The meaning of the font has changed quite a bit over the years. 12pt Helvetica Regular is a different font than 14pt Helvetica Regular. They are the same typeface but a different font.

Although we use a universal point size for typography: different typefaces vary in size even if they are the same point. There are no fixed sizes and they vary between certain fonts.

Uppercase and lowercase are named this way because printers enclosed capitols above the smallest characters.

The typefaces have their own character, no pun intended. They are the actors and it is your responsibility to cast them in the correct scene.

We wouldn’t want to use comic sans, although we should never use comic sans anywhere, in a corporate logo or a grunge typeface for a children’s entertainment company.

It is, without a doubt, that the choice of typography is essential in any good logo design. I see so many bad decisions. It is not a quick fix. You have to take your time and that is why it is imperative to know your Akzidenz Grotesk from your Helvetica. Getting familiar with your fonts will make this process go faster, however this comes from years of practice and study. I haven’t gotten there yet, myself.

Knowing their ratings will help determine the right typeface for the right client, brand, and logo design. Here is a list of sort types and an example for each:

old face – century

Transitional-Baskerville

Modern – Bodoni

Slab Serif – Clarendon

Sans Serif – Futura (geometric) Helvetica (grotesque)

Screenplay – Edwardian Screenplay

Blackletter – Fette Fraktur

Lampshade – Cooper Black (Old Style)

Monospaced – Messenger

Now, in my opinion, what really makes a typeface stand out within a logo and adds a bit
a bit of character to your entire logo design. The spacing.

Tracking is the overall spacing of a typeface. Kerning is the individual spacing of the letters. Most designers complain about tracking and especially kerning. However, I find this part amusing since, as I say, I feel like it gives character to the logo design.

Bold typefaces should have tight tracking and kerning and lighter typefaces should have loose tracking and kerning. How tight and loose is entirely up to the logo designer. As already said: logo design is an art and not a science, so it is essential to let your gut call the shots, and definitely not your client.

Always trust your eyes, but remember that space has to be considered for a decent logo to stand out from the rest. As designers we should never let space worry us, we should embrace it and use it wisely.

Smart use of tracking and kerning can help you accurately align smaller taglines.

A note of caution about spacing. As any logo design should work on a very small size… it also works on a very large screen size. Sometimes when kerning is applied, the logo will look great at a one inch size, but if it is enlarged to show the size, the space can become overwhelming. Take note of this when you space and look at your logo from both points of view.

There is nothing wrong with using a 70 point font, however the standard sizes with most computer programs are there for a reason. That reason is that sizes in between don’t really make a difference in how our eyes read the word.

A note about designer logo marks. We remember the shapes of words. We don’t read each individual letter that makes up the word: we read shapes. So when designing any mark we need to remember that it can be a powerful tool as we all read shapes and if your mark is in harmony with the type shape: your viewer will remember that shape as a whole making your design unique. much more memorable.

I see a lot of logos that I really have to study to see what they say. This is not OK. Although a brand can be a very important element of a brand identity: typography should never be neglected on this… each element within a brand identity should send a clear and memorable message to its audience.

With so many fonts to choose from, how do we decide which one to use? Good question, I hear you say. Some designers decide to illustrate their own typeface and this can be a great thing as it adds a custom touch to the logo design as a whole. Some designers customize the fonts. However, since I do both, I also have a palette, if you will, of typefaces that I never stray from. I like typefaces that have stood the test of time, although there are some pretty good ones that have only been around a few decades, such as: Bliss, Aktiv Grotesk, FF Meta, Gotham, and Mrs Eaves.

Remember, there have been specific typefaces designed for the screen like Verdana, designed by British type designer: Matthew Carter.

My font palette:

Helvetica

future
Noise
gil sans
Universe
Akzidenz Grotesk
Baskerville
Century
Times
optimum
thick to medium letters
final thought.

All logo designs need to be thoroughly researched to achieve their full potential. This means that the font and its appearance should not be neglected in favor of strong branding or any other element. Use whitespace within a logo design – it’s your friend. Never use elements like gradients or drop shadows, logos and typography work best when kept simple.