Helpful Tips To Choose Beautiful Font Pairings & Brand Fonts

When designing, there really are no hard and fast rules, so much is situational and based around the context of your design’s purpose. That being said, there are some general guidelines to follow, and choosing the correct font pairing is more important than you think when beginning a project. Just because there is a seemingly never-ending number of great possibilities, doesn’t mean that bad ideas don’t exist.

But first, let's establish some basics:

Font Families (or typefaces) are made up of individual fonts – each font has a unique weight, spacing, and distinction. Helvetica, for example, is a Font Family that consists of the individual fonts – Helvetica Bold, Helvetica Light, Helvetica Oblique, etc.

1. Serif Fonts

A font that has small strokes or feet at the edges of each letter – usually a more traditional / classic font aesthetic.
Examples: Times New Roman, Baskerville, Georgia, etc.

2. San Serif Fonts

A font that does not have small strokes or feet at the edges of each letter – usually a more modern / contemporary font aesthetic. Examples: Helvetica, Arial, Gotham, etc.

Here are additional delineations of font types, such as Slab Serif fonts, Monospaced, Handwriting/Decorative, etc, but we won’t go into those here.

Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind when choosing font pairings and Brand Fonts.

4. Avoid off-balance hierarchy and contrast

You might assume that if you pair fonts that look similar, you’d be safe, but it’s just the opposite. Combining fonts that are similar makes it likely they will conflict and the visual hierarchy will be unclear. Instead, we usually opt for complimentary font pairings – ie. if your headline font is Sans Serif, an italics font, or serif font might work great for a supplementary font. Here are some examples of how to great clear balance and contrast with font pairings.

5. Don’t use too many fonts

There are thousands of fonts to choose from, some free and some with paid licenses. Rule of thumb is to pair no more than three different fonts for your project. Nothing is ever set in stone though. There are plenty of elaborate designs that use more than three, but there is such a thing as overdoing it. If you go beyond three fonts, be sure that they work in harmony, not in chaos. You want all your fonts to work together to create clear, effective, and compelling messaging. If you use too many fonts, you could create more confusion than clarity.

6. It’s okay to combine typefaces from the same family

A collection of related typefaces are called a font family. As an example, Helvetica is a font family, and it contains different font weights and styles (Bold, Medium, Light, Italic, Condensed, etc). When you stay within a single font family, you can usually pair a couple of variations without any risk. If your project doesn’t call for any obscure fonts, this is an easy way to create variety without using too many different fonts.

7. Pair distinct with ordinary

Fonts are an art in themselves but implementing them effectively requires a bit of visual discipline. For example, if your primary font has a lot of flare, make sure your secondary font is more grounded and complimentary. Decorative and script fonts should rarely be used for body text, if ever. If you choose to use them, save them for the headlines or sub headlines. It’s important to remember that behind all the dynamic fonts are the words that you want your audience to be able to read. You never want to overshadow the actual content  and messaging.

7. Weight and size

Visual hierarchy is a huge part of effective font usage. You want the viewer to follow the flow of information in the correct order of importance, make sure to use font weight and size to your advantage. Headlines should be the largest and most prominent piece of information. When you look at your design, are you able to clearly label what information is the most important? The second most important? And the least important? If not, then take a look at your font weights and sizes, you might need to adjust accordingly.

Feeling overwhelmed still? Here are some great resources to help you get started on your next project.

Font Pair a typography website tool that assists designers. You can scroll through their featured pairs or hone in and research specific font types. Font Pair also allows you to download the font pair right from their website.

Typespiration features font combinations contributed by designers who have used them in their projects. Every sample includes a list of the fonts that the designer used, along with color palette, and the CSS code to use in your own website.

Typ.io is a website that gives everyone access to some of the top landing pages and how they created their backend, including the fonts used, and how they are executed on the page.

Having an eye for effective font pairing is a valuable skill! There isn’t a right way to go about it, but there are some key things to avoid. Don’t be afraid to experiment and take advantage of the resources above, or reach out to us if you have specific questions!

We would be happy to help. Feel free to shoot us an email, website message, or slide into our social media DM’s! 

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