Fonts have a major role when designing a logo. But, how should a company choose a font for its own logo, when there are thousands to choose from?
This post will cover the process that lead a fonts company in choosing a font for their own logo design.
This is the second one in our fonts series. Usually this blog is all about job interviews and tips for junior developers, but this time we focus on fonts once again.
In the previous post Developer, you are surrounded by fonts! we spoke about the role of fonts in our lives, why they are great and why good developers should care about them. This time we will dive into a story of one company.
Cover image by annayozman from Pixabay. To be clear, this man is not me. This is me.
Finding the right logo for a company is hard
Can you imagine how it feels to decide on your logo if you were the CEO of a design oriented company who specializes in fonts?
It’s like choosing the website design for a design firm, building a house for an architect or preparing lunch for a chef. There’s a lot of pressure.
In this post, we’ll dive into the process that made AlefAlefAlef fonts company choose its own logo and signature font.
How does a font company chooses its font?
Meet Avraham Cornfeld, the founder and CEO of AlefAlefAlef fonts, and a professional typographer.
His company creates and sells fonts to advertising agencies, web sites, news papers, magazines and more.
Some of the clients are well known in the area of user experience and design, so they know a thing or two about design. Imagine how creative you should be to impress designers with your own design.
Recently they changed their logo, and I thought it would be interesting to understand their way of thinking about graphics, design and fonts.
This is the logo we are talking about
What is the message this logo conveys?
It’s a good mental exercise to have a look at a logo and think about the first thing that comes to mind. Now that you have a first impression in mind, please proceed and read the actual values the author MEANT for it to have.
According to Avraham, the logo should send a message of freshness, curiosity, playfulness (in their site the cube moves while hovering with your mouse), as well as professionalism.
Can a logo make you feel “at home”?
One the logo’s goals was “to make our customers and readers feel at home”. That made me think, is it possible? What are the conditions that can make me feel at home by looking at something?
For me, there are things that can make me feel at home, things that I am emotionally attached to. The old ninja turtles logo that was all over my toys as a child, my daughter’s drawing of a unicorn, the sign of the local grocery store in my town. It’s about the history and emotional connection I have with the thing I am looking at.
So, yes. A logo can make you feel at home, but it might take a while.
Disagree? Comment away! 🙂
Which font did they you choose for the logo?
As they are a font company, they have hundred of fonts to choose from. This doesn’t make the task easier. In fact, according to this guy, there are more than 60,000 font families out there.
The used font is one made by their own designer, called Synopsis font, which he describes as dramatic and charismatic.
This font is a member of the Serif family, which usually have pointy edges and change widths. It is inspired by the stone carved letters the Romans used.
So, from now on, when you see this:
font-family: 'Sans Serif';
Think about the Romans and their pointy edges.
Why did they changed their logo?
The logo that appears above wasn’t the first logo the company had.
This was:
copyrights: alef alef alef
Like all good things, nothing works on the first try. It takes time, persistence and iterations. Avraham said that once they decided to change it, everything else went smooth, and because they know their fonts, they had no problem deciding on one.
The consequences of changing your logo/branding
However, in most cases, changing your logo creates a landslide of surprising consequences.
Think about swag for a moment (branded cups, pens, T-shirts)
When the company I worked at changed its logo and branding, the entire office had a makeover. Starting from the wall stickers, the neon sign outside, the branded envelopes and coffee cups. Everything.
That’s not an excuse to stay with a logo that doesn’t fit, but it’s something to consider.
Can you imagine google’s logo without it’s font?
We are so used to look at fonts. So much, that we don’t realize they are there. However, not all sites has the same font, therefore, the font is part of the site’s identity.
Can you imagine google’s logo with a slightly different font?
Font plays such an important role in the brand’s identity, so that companies often choose to stay with their current font in their logo, in fear of upsetting the public.
When Google did change their logo (a bit), it created lots of interest in the world, the video below has more them 10,500,000 views! (Almost like this post :))
Conclusion:
I find fonts fascinating. It is something used everywhere, by everyone, and it has both psychological and artistic aspects.
Telling the story of a fonts company that chooses its own fonts was a fun experience for me, hope you enjoyed.
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