Building Your Brand’s Visual Properties
When creating a corporate image for our clients brands, we focus on building unique brand properties that can be leveraged to become brand assets. A brand’s typeface is one of the visual properties we incorporate into the brand design process, both because type can be a powerful and unique part of a brand’s visual messaging, and because for most brands, the potential of type is entirely overlooked.
Don’t Get Me Wrong, We Love Helvetica
The most common typeface in current brand design is Helvetica or one of its close relatives such as Arial. Whilst Helvetica is a beautifully designed contemporary font, it is what we call a ‘Neutral Face’ – Neutral because it is a clean font with little personality one way or the other, and Neutral because it is found so commonly representing such a range of brands that it is almost impossible to imbue it with distinction or individuality.
Such a Shame
The shame it is that there are infinite type possibilities for brands – restricted only by the creativity and consideration of your brand’s creative agency. Usually this is the result of brand design being left to those more skilled in other areas such as advertising agencies or traditional graphic design studios. Specialist brand agencies with the skills to translate brand strategy into brand identity understand the role customized typography can play in the creation of unique and memorable brands.
Aiming for the Sky
Whilst the examples we’ve collected of the 25 best custom-designed typefaces wont be suitable for all brands in all markets, they do provide a powerful challenge to all brands to ask themselves the big question: “How hard are our brand’s visual assets working for us?”
Dripping Chocolate font by Kimberley Reynolds
Ants in Pants font by Steven Vanscoy
Come Together font by Satoru Nihei
Alfabet in huid (typeface in skin) by Thijs Verbeek
Egg font by Superscript
Fingertype by Jonathan Looman
Folded font by B.U.S.K.
Bent font by Avraham Cornfield
Toyota’s IQ font by Pierre & Damien
Hairy Alphabet by Craig Ward
Thread font by Am Tm Mitsuko
Leaf font by Bawk Bawk
House Number font by Superscript
Jonana font by Jennifer Stucker
Bodyface font by Kiyoka Katahira
Mojave by Rudy Vanderlans
Touchy-Feely by Rick Valicenti
Pixel-It by Jessica Nebel
Value Pack font by Robert Bolesta
Take a Seat by Amandine Alessandra
Sock Alphabet font by Tony Venne
Sweet Alphabet font by Unknown Designer
Wearable Type font by Amanda Alessandrine
Karamel Sans by Marta Maštálková
PantyRaid by Jennifer Mahanay & Gina Vieceli-Garza
David Ansett, Brandamentalist
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If you’d like to find out more about how to build your brands visual assets, give us a call – we’d be only too happy to help you out.
Some great creative typefaces here. Wearable Type by Amanada Alessandrine by Amanda Alessandrine is mt favorite. Great stuff!
Thanks Tim, there are designers doing amazing things with type all the time – it’s a real task tracking them down to find them though.
Cool – the typefaces can layer a whole new depth to the message – Jonana ‘Healthy’, pantyraid ‘sensuous’.
You’re right Malcolm – a whole lot of personality too. The panty raid font is cheeky/mischevous/develish/naughty. They’re packed full of brand meaning.
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Brilliant. Can’t wait to create my own.
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Sick. Wicked.Some would even cover up my spelling mistakes!
For those interested in cool T-shirt designs: http://www.redbubble.com/t-shirts/featured?page=1
[…] Following on from David Ansett’s post 25 Killer Custom Typefaces – A Brand Design Asset, who better than a font-house to lead the way with custom typefaces. Veer Ideas devotees have been […]
Thanks for sharing!
But my name is actually Amandine Alessandra;
Amanda Alessandrine is my Flickr name!
Would it be ok to change it?
Hi Amandine, sorry about that, post corrected.
25 Killer Custom Typefaces – A Brand Design Asset…
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Marvellous !
I would love to use two of them (dripping chocolate and value pack) for the eating disorder part of our german website. See:
http://www.nhw-ev.de/index.php?article_id=35
1000 thanks for answering me !
Hi Manfred, glad you liked the type design post – such a critical part of information and brand communications design. Those fonts you mention will add stacks of meaning to your article on eating disorders. The best approach is to follow the links under each typeface to the designers of the fonts. If they have turned them into typefaces they’ll be able to help you with that and also permission to use them.
Hi! these typefaces are amazing! I’m working on a presentation for an exam about a fake chocolate brand and i’m looking to a “chocolate font”. Is it possible to download or use the Dripping Chocolate font or the Karamel one? I do love them!
Hi Valeria, you’ll need to contact the font designers directly – though I believe those two fonts are conceptual only and have never been created as real, live typefaces.
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