Ever heard: “I’m looking for a typeface to use for
a brochure about my company’s line of automated
sheet-metal cutters—you know, something masculine,”
“I need a happy font for a party invitation,”
or “I love Zapfino—but I’m concerned that it is too
feminine for this project.”
It seems we are continually trying to assign personalities,
emotions or other human traits to typeface
designs. Perhaps it is a way to make sense out of the
seemingly unending array of typeface designs. Maybe
we assume a “personality style” is part of every typeface
designer’s standard design brief for developing
new typefaces. Maybe we do this because font marketers
have learned that “humanizing” a design makes
it more appealing and accessible to font purchasers.
The problem is, 99 percent of all typefaces do
not have personalities—or any other human qualities.
Sure, the typeface Party, as a result of its name
and distinctive design traits, is used to set lots of invitations and festive announcements. But this
pigeonholes the design and can prevent it from being
used in other applications. Party is as appropriate for
an ad for women’s shoes as it is for a brochure for
educational toys.
In the 1970s, the typeface Souvenir was generally
regarded as a “happy, friendly” design and gained
the reputation of being the “smiley face” of type
among sophisticated graphic designers. As a result, it
became one of the first typefaces that designers loved
to hate. Consider the fact that Souvenir first made its
mark as the corporate branding typeface of a major
airline. Think the design team behind the airlinebranding
project picked the typeface because it was
cute? Probably not.
SUITABLE VS. SENTIMENTAL
A certain amount of typeface categorization is a
good—and helpful—thing. Assuming typographic sentiment, however, is not. While it makes sense
to classify typefaces into stylistic categories like
serif and sans, or Old Style and Didone, it does not
make sense to assume that certain typefaces are, for
example, “feminine” or “happy.”
Although some typefaces, like Chiller or ITC
Willow, were clearly designed with a particular sort
of use in mind, most were not. Bible Script would be
equally at home in an advertisement for male toiletry
products as it would be delivering a spiritual message.
And Musclehead is as suitable for a poster for a
gamers’ convention as it is for the logo for a brand of
strength-training products.
QUANTIFIABLE CATEGORIES
Most typeface design categories are defined by
specific design traits. Humanistic sans serif designs
are typefaces without serifs whose proportions are
based on roman inscriptional capitals and renaissance
minuscule letters. Glyphic typefaces are
distinguished by triangular-shaped serifs or flared
stroke endings.
Having typefaces organized by design category
can be useful when solving design problems. If you
think a clean sans serif would be a good choice for a
brochure you are designing, but want to use a typeface
other than the omnipresent Helvetica, a quick search
through a listing of other 19th-century grotesques will
reveal alternatives like Soho Gothic or Beret. Stylistic
categories of typeface designs can also help graphic
designers avoid the dull and commonplace. Want a
Didone but not Bodoni? Try ITC Fenice from the
same design category. Looking for a humanistic sans
but don’t want to use Myriad or Frutiger? Slate or
Legacy Sans might be the perfect alternative.
The potential problem with having typeface categories
is some foundries and font distributors provide
too many categories to choose from. Although
three categories—serif, sans and script, for example—are too few, a listing of 20 or more becomes cumbersome
and difficult to work with. For example, it is
not helpful to work with a listing of typefaces that
distinguishes between Textura, Fraktur, Bastarda and
Rotunda blackletter typefaces. To complicate matters,
some lists classify designs using objective traits like
slab serif and formal script as well as subjective personality
traits like “funny” and “scary.”
Effective typeface categories are based on specific
and quantifiable design traits. They are about organization.
Emotional labels for typeface designs are
based on assumptions. They are about sentiment.
WHY ASSUMPTIONS HURT
Although it might be fun to believe that typefaces
have personality traits, this perspective can get in the
way of creating effective graphic communication. It can stifle creativity, send stereotypical messages and
limit brand development.
Optima is a beautiful typeface. It is a graceful
design that is predictable and pretty much foolproof
to use. However, Optima is also overused to the
point of ubiquity in advertising for women’s cosmetics.
If your goal is to create an innovative and
unique statement about a women’s cosmetic product,
Optima is not the typeface to choose. Neither, for
the same reasons, should Bodoni or Didot be your
choice. Try to find a women’s fashion magazine that
isn’t slathered in Bodoni and Didot. A creative—and
more distinctive—choice might be Carré Noir or the
light weight of Felbridge or Linotype Caron.
If you were asked to create a logo for an antique
store, Old English is probably the last typeface you
would want to use. It has become a cliché for “Ye
Olde Antique Shoppe” signage. But what about a
menu for the health food restaurant in your neighborhood?
Would you use Papyrus? Or an ad for a
florist … would Bickham Script or Zapfino be the
first font you reached for? Maybe not, but too many
graphic designers will pick the stereotypical typeface
design and, in the process, help further yet another
typographic cliché.
Want the brand you are developing for a client
to be memorable and stand out from the crowd?
Then don’t assume typefaces have personalities. If the
client is a tire store, you may gravitate to bold sans
serif typefaces. They’re masculine, right? Maybe, but
they are also overused for automotive products. What
if the client is your local Unitarian Church? A nice
calligraphic typeface like Zapf Chancery might be
good for their logo—and it would be about as distinctive
as a glass of milk. A typeface like Perpetua Titling
or Humana Sans would be just as appropriate—and
would give the church a distinct visual identity.
SEARCH ENGINE SHORTCOMINGS
The more search-friendly font-store websites provide
stylistic searches of their offerings. But their results
are no more typographically sophisticated than the
people who assign the keywords to the typefaces.
The good news is sometimes true typographers
are the ones assigning keywords, thus providing
sensitive and accurate guidance. The not-so-good news is, most of the time, type designers are the
ones creating the keywords for their own typefaces.
Sometimes they are helpful. Often, they are
not. And the bad news is marketers—who have no
appreciation for type and just want to move product—too often are the keyword decision makers.
A quick seach on the website of a major font
store under the category “German” returned the
typeface Bank Gothic. And a search under the classification “sexy” yielded a typeface called Soap (clean,
maybe—but sexy?).
If you really do need a typeface that says “scary”
or one that will complement a futuristic poster
design, start with the search engines and keywords
provided by the font distributors. Then run the
resulting typefaces through your own filters by asking:
Are the choices fresh? Will they set your design
apart? Are they appropriate for your message? Are
there better alternatives? After this analysis, choose
the typeface that is best for your project. And
remember: Bold is not necessarily for boys.
