5 Easy Steps To Pick Your Own Brand Fonts

Are you wondering about the ins and outs of typography, and wanting to learn how to choose brand fonts yourself?

I’m going to teach you what you need to know to successfully pair your brand fonts together in a way that looks good and gets attention – as if a pro did it for you.

Of course, you might want and appreciate the help of a designer, but the information I’m going to talk about here is for anyone that is starting a brand, has a brand, or wants to re-brand. With a little knowledge, you actually can choose brand fonts all on your own. It’s true!

PS- This is also a great guide for graphic designers that are wondering what a good process is to help their clients choose brand typography!

Grab your coffee and your favorite way to take notes, and let’s go through this together, workshop-style!

brand fonts - choose them in 5 easy steps

By the way, did you know you could create your own style guide? I show you my process, and walk you through each step – no design experience needed, and this simple method is free! >>Click here to learn how!<<

All About Typography

In order to learn how to pick your own brand fonts, there are a few things you should know about typography, first. I personally love this kind of stuff, but I know it’s not everyone’s thing, so I promise I’ll just give you what you absolutely need to know in order to pair your brand fonts well!

Different Types Of Typography

There are a few main categories of typography:

  • Serif
  • Sans Serif
  • Script/Handwriting
  • Monospace
  • Display

And here are some examples of each:

examples of the different types of fonts

To keep it short and sweet, we’ll just focus on the first three: serif, sans serif, and script.

Serif fonts

These can be used for body copy, copy headings, and in your logo design. These types of fonts can be designated as your Primary or Secondary brand font.

Sans-serif fonts

These are used for copy headings, body copy, and your call-to-action (CTA) items. These types of fonts can be used in your logo design as well, and designated as your Primary or Secondary brand font.

Script/handwriting

These fonts can be used in your logo design, copy headings, or, what I really like to use them for, your Call-Out font. These are things you want to point out – like if an item is on sale on your website or you want to direct attention to a big statement you’re trying to make.

Here’s an example of these fonts in action on a webpage (yes, it’s Amy Porterfield, and – not an affiliate – I just love her stuff!):

amy porterfield website header used as an example

Different Styles Of Fonts

Besides the different types of typography, there are several different styles that might be available with your font choices, such as regular, bold, italic, and so on. 

These are variations within the “font family”, and you don’t necessarily have to use all of them for your brand (more on that here).

Using different styles of your typography gives you freedom to make your messaging more interesting and call out certain words or make statements – while still keeping consistent with your branding by using your brand fonts.

What To Watch For When Pairing

You may not be a designer, but there are cues you can pick up on that can help you figure out what types of fonts naturally pair well together. There are also great resources I’ve linked below that can help you decide whether the fonts you’ve chosen actually look good next to each other.

Using the basics of typography we just talked about, I’ll teach you some trade secrets on how I pair them: What goes well together, what doesn’t, and exceptions to these rules.

There are also a few things you’ll want to watch out for when pairing your brand fonts:

Font Weight

When looking to pair brand fonts, you’ll also want to take note of the weight of your favorite fonts. Do they look thin, or thick, or somewhere in-between?

If you pick a thick-weighted font as one of your choices, try to make your next choice a thinner font. This will not only be appealing to the eye, but give you variety to work with when it comes to your brand typography.

Here are some examples of different weights of typography:

When you put two different font styles together that are both thick-weighted, they can look not-so aesthetically pleasing, and your eye doesn’t know what to focus on first. It can be kind of a blob. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:

examples of bad brand font pairings

Of course, this can be subjective, and it depends on what the fonts are being used for, but for the purposes of choosing typography for your branding package, stick with trying to pair thick- and thin-weighted ones together.

examples of good brand font pairings

Font Types

One more thing to take note of when pairing brand fonts is the different types of typography that we already talked about (serif, sans-serif, script, etc.). You’ll want to make sure you’re choosing two types of fonts that are different from each other. This isn’t always the case, depending on how each specific font looks, but generally speaking, you’ll want to pair a serif with a sans-serif, or a sans-serif with a script, or a script with a serif.

To give you some visuals, here are examples of do’s and don’ts:

good vs not-as-good brand font pairings

Side Note Before We Get Into It…

Before we start on the 5 steps, I want to address the fact that there could be a few places you’re starting from right now:

A) You’re just starting out, so you don’t have a logo or fonts chosen yet, but are looking to get that done. If this is you, it’s a great place to start. You’ll work with your designer to choose typography that will be used in both your logo and other elements across your brand, like website, ads, and social media, to keep things consistent.

B) You have a logo, but you need to find fonts that work with it, because it was custom-made by a calligrapher or hand-letterer. If this is you, you’re probably on the lookout for fonts that pair well with the logo you already have and love. It’s a great place to be as well!

C) You don’t know what fonts were used in your logo, and you need to find some that pair well with what you have and love. This is not a terrible place to be, it just might be a bit harder than the two above, because you kind of already have brand fonts within your logo chosen, so matching or pairing other fonts to them might be just a tad bit harder – but it can be done, so don’t worry!

5 Steps To Choosing Your Own Brand Typography

Now that we have all of that out of the way, we’re ready to get into the fine details and the steps I take when helping my clients choose their brand typography.

Step 01: Use 3 Words

Pull from your brand messaging. This is very similar to how you choose colors for your brand. You want your brand typography choices to match the messaging, brand voice, and ultimately, the feelings you want your brand to convey or your audience to walk away with when they’ve interacted with you in any way.

You can start by gathering up your brand vision, values, tagline – all of the messaging you have for your brand currently. If you don’t have anything right now, that’s totally fine! Just answer this simple question:

What do you want your customers to feel when they’ve encountered your product or service, or have worked with you in any way?

Pick 3 words that describe what your brand is – not physically what you do or sell, but the feeling you want people to have when they buy from you or work with you, such as: upbeat, joyful, or supported.

examples of 3 words to describe your brand

Use your 3 words and brand messaging as guidelines for picking fonts that you think portray what you’re trying to get across to your audience.

Step 02: Get Inspired

Using the ins and outs of typography you just learned, along with your 3 words and brand messaging notes, get ready to gather some inspiration for your brand font choices.

Create a Pinterest board like mine, or just open a document to paste links to fonts you love. Screenshot images if you need to, and put them into your document next to the corresponding link, or add them to a folder on your computer so you can review later.

Try to grab 6-10 fonts that you think you absolutely love, and might go well together.

Step 03: Play Around

After you’ve gathered plenty of inspiration, use Google Docs (or your preferred document app) to play around. Put some fonts next to each other, then hit enter to create a few spaces, and put a few more together, and repeat.

This is the fun part, where you get to make typography pairings and see how they look together! If you need a little extra visual, here’s a walk-through of what this could look like:

As you work on your own pairings and play around, you see any pairings you absolutely love? Or, any you’re not a fan of? Make note, keep your favorites in that Google document, and let’s keep going!

(PS – I’ve also linked some more resources at the bottom of this post to help you download fonts to your computer to play around with, get inspired from typography pairings that I love on Pinterest, and more.)

Step 04: Choose Your Brand Fonts

Now, you’re going to decide on your brand fonts! 

Look back at your brand messaging, your 3 words, and what you gathered for inspiration… then, make some choices!

Narrow your top picks down to your top 3, making sure your three choices pair well together, and also include a variety – like one sans-serif font, one serif font, and one script font – this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s a good place to start, especially if you’re new to this.

Choose the fonts that convey the message you want your brand to get across to your ideal audience, and of course, choose fonts that you’re excited about!

Step 05: Assign Your Brand Typography Categories

If you’re on this step, congratulations! That means you’ve picked your 3 brand fonts, and now all that’s left to do is assign each a category: Primary Font, Secondary Font, and Call-Out Font.

This is an important step, because it tells you what font to use in what instance, and it overall contributes to your brand aesthetic and brand consistency (more on that in the future).

Your Primary Font is what will be used the most in your brand – it’s going to most likely be your body copy, and used in some headings. This can be a serif font or sans-serif font.

Your Secondary Font is going to be what you use some of the time, like in copy headings and buttons on your website, and for your Calls-To-Action (CTA’s) – remember what a CTA is? This is usually a sans-serif font, but can also be a serif.

And finally, your Call-Out Font. There are other names for this, but this is the font that, in my opinion, is mainly used to point things out – or “call” them out – like if you have a product on sale, or you want to make a certain point on a download you’re creating.

I’ve also seen Call-Out Fonts used to create visual interest, such as using it as a design element for certain words in a download. Call-Out Fonts are used more sparingly compared to your Primary and Secondary Fonts, because they are meant to catch your eye – if you use it too much, it loses its luster.

Here’s what your Call-Out Font along with Primary and Secondary Brand Fonts can look like in action:

amy porterfield website header used as an example again

Another Side Note: Your Call-Out Font is not to be confused with a Call-To-Action (CTA). A CTA is when you’re asking someone to do something – make an actionable choice – like “download today” or “buy now”. Your CTA is usually a certain color, and the font used for this is usually your Secondary Font (I talked about this in detail before here if you’re interested).

amy porterfield website header used as another example

However, your Call-Out Font is more of just a “hey, look at this right here”. It’s a marker for something on sale or a quote or a bold statement you’re making.

Not every brand has a Call-Out Font, and I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to have this category filled in order to move forward with your brand, but a well-rounded brand will have this as a typography category choice in their brand guide.

Yes, Prepping For Your Designer Is A Game Changer

If a client came to me and had done this work previously by implementing the strategies we talked about, and had a list of fonts they’d love to see used in their branding, it would be a no-brainer to work with them.

If they went a step further and also used my tips to figure out their color palette, or at least a number of colors I could work from to help them choose their palette, it would be amazing.

Of course, a true designer can and should be able pick these things for you – and most of the time, we do – but doing your homework on some of these things beforehand first of all helps you to get to know your brand better: your likes and dislikes, and even what your audience expects.

And second, it helps us as the designer get to know you and your vision better. It helps us know how we can better serve and guide you in this whole branding process.

Is it absolutely necessary? No – but it is very helpful.

Is it what you pay a designer to do? Well, yes – but in the end they’re still going to need your input and okay to keep going forward with their ideas for your brand.

All I’m saying is, this process totally gives you brownie points if you come to a designer having done your research beforehand, whether you’re wanting a custom or semi-custom branding package.

Are You Ready?

All that is left to do now is to grab your Style Guide Cheat Sheet and get to work! If you have any questions or want to know more about brand fonts, reach out via my contact page here on my website, or message me on instagram, @designwithclarissa.

Need To Choose Your Brand Colors, Too?

Are you wanting to know how to choose your brand colors, too? I’ve got you covered here. Creating a style guide is also a very important piece of your brand identity, check out The B.Y.B. Toolkit to learn how (templates and videos included)!

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All. The. Resources.

(These are not affiliates, I just like using them!)