The importance of typography in branding

This is a guest post from Monique Craig, marketing specialist from Oneflare  .

If you think a detail such as typography won’t influence how consumers view your brand, you better think twice. Typography is nothing short of an extension of the brand’s voice and tone – and yet many marketers and web designers choose to ignore it and settle for classics like Times or Verdana. Here are the most significant reasons why typography should become a part of your branding strategy.

It reflects brand personality

Typography communicates the style, tone and voice of your brand – in short, its entire personality. Unique typography conveys a clear message about your brand as one that cares about details and has a strong appreciation for aesthetics.

It looks professional

Let’s be clear – body text written in Times or Comic Sans will send one message: this brand is unprofessional. This negative feeling will be extended to your products and services too – and that’s probably the last thing you want.

It helps your brand to be consistent

The same font and typeface in both digital and paper marketing materials will help your brand image resonate stronger with your clients. A characteristic typography can become a feature to enable consumers to immediately recognize your brand.

It helps consumers to remember your brand

Both in logos and text bodies, typography can become integrated with your brand in the public imagination. It can be about shape, but also about colour – take cue from Kinder and their characteristic red and black logo that gets repeated on all products and is now present in the consumer imagination.

It’s there to set the right tone

Typography will help you create the right atmosphere and invoke a set of associations you want consumers to have with your brand. Whether you go for eccentric and playful or serious and reliable, your brand values can be reinforced with the right typographic setting.

It creates a context for your brand

Every typestyle has its own unique history and you can use this to your advantage to situate your brand within a context your target audience will appreciate. Use it wisely – a typography that alludes to the classic print ads from the 1950’s will push a brand identity in a completely different direction than a typestyle inspired by graffiti tags on the subway.

If you’re still in doubt as to the power of typography, listen to Steve Jobs in his famous commencement speech  – if not for its investment in typography, Apple would have never become the giant it is today. The success of Apple’s brand shows that today, the medium is just as important as the message – how you write counts as much as what you write.