Selecting the proper font is one of the most important decisions in crafting an effective design. Choose a simple, effective font and your information is conveyed crisply and cleanly. Your potential customer will be grateful for the ability to understand your materials quickly and easily and an engaged, interested reader is always more likely to become a paying client. On the flip side, use a highly-stylized, challenging font that sacrifices legibility for “sophistication,” and your materials will more likely be glossed over or discarded entirely.
For longer texts, consider a basic, serifed font likes those in the Times, Century, Goudy or Palatino families. There’s a reason why an overwhelming number of magazines and newspapers use serifed fonts - quite simply, they’re easier to read.
For banners, headlines and shorter text, or if you’re looking for a more “casual” feel, you might consider a sans serif font but keeping it simple is still key. Try Helvetica, Univers, Futura or Optima, all of which come in a variety of options that offer plenty of design versatility and all of which are well-suited to signage, display and brief copy.
By the way, if you’re creating materials for electronic distribution (website, email, etc.), you’ll likely want to stick with a web-safe font so as to ensure that your materials read and print consistently on anyone’s home printer.
Remember that it’s not just what you say. It is how you say it. Picking the right font is the first and most basic way to always ensure you get noticed.
For more information or questions, call 718-820-0688 or visit www.advantages.net.
Fran Biderman-Gross is President of Advantages.
