In an increasingly visual world, it’s imperative that we never underestimate the power of typography. Designers have a virtually inexhaustible reservoir of fonts to choose from, so for inexperienced designers, choosing the “perfect” font to communicate a brand’s message can be a stress-inducing process.
Books on typography, like Simon Garfield’s Just My Type and Steven Heller’s Scripts, tell us that typography goes far beyond the litany of two-dimensional fonts occupying space in your Adobe Typekit. Typography includes photography and visuals that convey a message through language. After all, typography; whether you take a traditional or modern approach, is all about translating your message to your audience as clearly as possible.
Unfortunately, not all fonts are created equal. Certain fonts have been future-proofed through widespread adoption over time, like Times New Roman and Arial. These fonts are Typekit-essentials suitable for a wide breadth of tasks, but when selecting fonts for visual content, it’s important to consider adding these five timeless fonts to your repertoire.
Helvetica
Italicized Helvetica can be an alluring typeface, but as seen here, its standard form is a neat font for conveying your brand’s message in a variety of ways.
You can’t talk about typography without bringing up Helvetica. With a diverse array of applications for writing and advertising, Helvetica is arguably the most popular font in the world. Since its inception in 1957 by Swiss typeface designers Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman, Helvetica has a reached cult status among advertisers and marketers. Helvetica is notable for being inspired by the neo-grotesque typefaces designed in the 19th century by German and Swiss designers.
Today, Helvetica is an integral part of every designer’s Typekit. It has virtually unlimited uses and always manages to leave an immutable impression on the viewer. Helvetica’s popularity is universally recognized in the design community. In fact, there’s even a documentary film called Helvetica that chronicles the rise and sustained popularity of the iconic typeface.
Lato
In this faux indie film poster, Lato’s simplicity and readability was utilized for the slogan and the copyright information.
The typographic classification, Sans Serif, is reserved for casual, easy-going, and personable fonts. In Summer 2010, Warsaw-based designer Łukasz Dziedzic introduced the world to the Lato typeface family. The standard Lato font can be best described as a remix of Arial focused on leaning out each letter into a more elegant proportion. Lato fonts are open source and can be used without any limitations. It is a very neutral font that is well-suited to a variety of tasks including text overlays for visual content, infographics, brochures, and even business cards.
Roman Antique
In this shareable quote, Roman Antique makes for a compelling typeface whether accompanying an image or not.
Timeless fonts receive the namesake for one of two reasons:
Reason 1: they have been used regularly throughout time.
Many fonts have proven their efficacy in a variety of roles whether strictly as an appropriately stylized alphabet or to help immortalize a brand such as Coca Cola’s iconic Spencerian Script used by Frank Mason Robinson starting in 1885.
Reason 2: they transport the viewer to a past time.
Victorian and Gothic fonts are two classic examples of fonts that leave an invariably historic impression on the viewer. Typewriter fonts are equally effective when you want to leave an indelible imprint on the viewer. Roman Antique is one such font.
Roman Antique is a murky, typewriter-style font that maintains legibility regardless of scale. The further you increase the font size, the more intricate the detailing in this font becomes. Roman Antique is versatile among typewriter-style fonts, but it’s also effective when used in conjunction with visual content. This font possesses a unique sense of gravity that is readily apparent to the viewer. Whether you want to add depth to a quote aimed at inspiring your audience or need to dress up a piece of content with a classic aesthetic, Roman Antique is a flexible, typewriter-style font that can be used to satisfy an array of typographic objectives.
Bellfort
Bellfort was the perfect, attention-grabbing font for this employee introduction featuring a simple quote.
When you need a cohesive font family that spans an array of distinct styles and ideologies, Bellfort is your best option. The dense Bellfort family of fonts features 7 sub-families including regular, rough, press, shadow, press shadow, shadow only, and script which are also divided into four different weights.
The standard Bellfort font is characterized by thick lines and bold verticality. It is a caps-friendly font that looks attractive as informational text, a title, a quote, or something else entirely. When you need to get your message across clearly to a wide audience, Bellfort is a universally lauded font that can help you bring your brand closer to its target audience.
Raleway
Raleway is another versatile Sans Serif font. We used Raleway Heavy to create a bold, eye-catching message with a white drop shadow in the first image. In the second image, we reverted back to a single color version of Raleway Heavy and added a CTA using Raleway Standard.
Raleway is a striking font with a strong sense of symmetry and a few unexpected design nuances that help elevate your typography to the next level. Raleway is defined by its balance and boldness. This font is a treat for the eyes and has as many applications as you can imagine. Raleway helps enhance visual content on platforms like Instagram and Facebook by providing a dynamic typeface that is suitable for nearly any tone, motif, or message. Adding a drop shadow to Raleway fonts greatly increases their visual aesthetic and helps create a significant sense of depth to separate your image and typography.
Regardless of the platform, when you publish visual content, you want to be certain that you are conveying your brand’s message as clearly as possible. An in-depth understanding of typography can help you boost engagement with your target audience and convert prospective customers into dedicated followers. By building familiarity with a handful of timeless fonts, you can equip yourself for any future design projects on the horizon.
Are you concerned that your brand is failing to reach its target audience? Does your visual content fall by the wayside without any real engagement? At Leverage Digital, our in-house team of content strategists can help you reach your objectives by evaluating your brand’s goals, developing a personalized content strategy, and executing a 360-degree content campaign. Whether it’s compelling written copy, aesthetic visual content, witty social media posts, or informative videos, our team is equipped with all of the tools you need to boost your brand’s online visibility.
