More companies are investing in custom typefaces, embedding their voice and values into the letterforms they use. We find out why it can save businesses money, and how to turn type into a brand storytelling tool
Helvetica. Times New Roman. Comic Sans. Papyrus. You don’t need much design expertise to identify a roll call of the world’s most famous fonts. Such is the invisible influence of type - it has a power that we’re not consciously aware of, but that has a significant effect. One research study even suggested it has a measurable impact on our emotional state.
In the last decade, more and more brands have woken up to its expressive potential. Companies of all sizes and sectors have invested in bespoke fonts – individual designs or whole families created exclusively for that brand, and that embody its values.
As Chris Nott, co-founder and Creative Director at brand and type design practice Studio Drama, puts it: “If you can own the words in which you speak, then why wouldn’t you do that?”
“So much real estate gets taken up by type that you might as well try and own that as much as you can,” he continues. “Brand is now a lot more than just a logo – you have to think about various touchpoints where type is part of the toolkit. If you can personalise it, it strengthens your brand presence across the board.”
“More often than not, when you experience a brand you’ll experience their copywriting far more frequently than you do their logo.”
Will Richardson - co-founder and Creative Director, Studio Drama
“Type can act as an extension of the logo,” agrees co-founder and Creative Director Will Richardson. “More often than not, when you experience a brand you’ll experience their copywriting far more frequently than you do their logo.”
"If each of those letterforms has been carefully considered and is intricately tied to the brand, over time the audience will start to recognise the brand by type alone. When thinking of out-of-home campaigns, approximately 50% is often occupied by some form of copy line, while only 5% features the logo. This presents a missed opportunity for brands to craft a typeface that distinguishes them from the multitude of others using off-the-shelf solutions."
Richardson and Nott should know – they’ve played a crucial role in the creation of custom typefaces for companies including Coca-Cola, Shiseido, Vogue, Costa Coffee and Ocado; and they’ve made it their mission to spread the good word about bespoke fonts. Historically, the skills to design fonts were held by a relatively small number of people, and type creation often seemed like some kind of alchemy. But things are changing.
The tools to make type are openly available, people are speaking more about the process and the general understanding of type and its influence is higher than it’s ever been. "If we show people examples of a typeface on its own and ask them to identify the brand, the majority can do it,” says Richardson.
"There are some brands that have immediately recognisable custom typefaces. Think Nando's and Macmillan, they both use custom typefaces which are brilliant extensions of their logo and are instantly recognisable. Perhaps even more so than the logo itself."
More prosaically, brands are asking questions around what typefaces cost. There’s a tacit assumption that going custom, rather than off-the-peg, is going to involve huge budgets – but that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, in many cases, the upfront cost of a custom typeface is preferable to the long-term, recurring commitment of licensing an existing font or family.
“If your brand has been significantly increasing in value, and the business is growing larger and larger, you can expect an email from the type foundry saying your limit has now been reached, and you’ll have to pay a lot more to licence that font,” explains Richardson. “A big brand we were talking to recently licences one weight of a 300-year-old typeface, and it costs £100k a year.”
According to Studio Drama, custom type can be made more affordable through different options including adapting an existing typeface, licensing a bespoke font for a set period of time or looking at commissioning a reduced character set that nonetheless offers a lot of options for expression. “It doesn’t have to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds,” says Nott. “I think that’s a complete myth, and we are here to dispel that myth and show that it can be far more manageable.”
“When we talk to brands and show them the cost of what they’re spending on a licence – versus how much it will cost them to invest in a custom design that will probably be bought outright and owned in perpetuity – it’s an easy decision,” adds Nott.
“When we talk to brands and show them the cost of what they’re spending on a licence – versus how much it will cost them to invest in a custom design that will probably be bought outright and owned in perpetuity – it’s an easy decision.”
Chris Nott - co-founder and Creative Director - Studio Drama
So how does commissioning a bespoke typeface work? Much like any other creative project, it starts with a brief. Brands considering a custom font or family of fonts need to ask themselves a few questions to shape that brief:
- How should the typeface align with the brand’s visual identity?
- What feeling and characteristics should it have?
- What kind of characteristics?
- Where will it be used - what environment and countries?
- How many styles or weights do you need, and what character set?
Creating a custom font is a highly collaborative process, but once a studio has a good understanding of what a client needs they can start to design a character set. Simpler elements, like a semi colon, are likely to be more straightforward, while a more expressive and complex character like a lowercase g might need some extra discussion.
Once finished, the studio will share beta files with the client for testing and then further refine the nitty gritty of spacing and other details based on their feedback. It’s undoubtedly an involved process, but Studio Drama encourages businesses to think of typeface creation in the language of storytelling.
“Brands love to tell stories,” says Nott. “For those with a rich archive or legacy, mining the past for characteristics becomes crucial. Infusing these elements into a custom typeface not only reinforces the rationale behind having one but also cultivates a distinctive, authentic feel that resonates uniquely with the brand."
“Custom type isn't a luxury; it's a strategic necessity,” says Richardson. “We believe it’s an investment in distinction, ensuring a brand becomes truly unforgettable."
