The Typographic Hero of every Brand Identity
An interesting fact I was reading somewhere recently- did you know the most common typeface in brand identity design across the world and across every market is Helvetica (or it’s ugly step brother Arial)? Not only is Helvetica the most common typeface, but it is-so by a country mile. That alone should be cause enough for every self respecting brand identity designer to shy away from the font like a vampire from daylight.
When designing the visual language of brand identities we always pay particular attention to the typefaces we select to represent our clients. Imagine a world where every piece of type design was carefully considered, craftily engineered, and uniquely beautiful. “Preposterous! There aren’t enough typefaces in the world” I hear you shout. Perhaps, but perhaps it is more a case of there not being enough fonts on your designer’s hard drive, or enough hours in the day for the world’s designers to spend crafting unique typoheavenly concoctions. Spurred-on by this thought I raided my personal photo library for examples of unique type design from the most unlikely of sources. I’ve long been aware of my design infliction which is likely to see me on my family holiday zooming in on a piece of retro signage typography, whilst the rest of the world is facing the other way and shooting picture postcard shots of the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, or Trafalgar Square. Sad but true, just ask my wife.
Store Type_Barcelona_2009
So here is this rogues gallery of unlikely type design. Each image an uncompromised, unhelveticast, uncommonly curious, sideshow of type design.
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