How do graphic designers use different fonts to change the way consumers view a brand or product?

   

Images taken from Oogazone, Wikipedia, and BL Lighting

     To be able to answer how graphic designers use different fonts to make consumers view a brand in certain ways, first you have to know what goes into making a font. To make a font a typographer must take into consideration multiple factors before choosing or creating a typeface such as the weight, spacing, size, complexity, and the height of the letters and the overall feeling a company wants to invoke. If a company wants to feel more exclusive and expensive a designer will go with a font that is thinner, slanted and cursive, to invoke that feeling of luxury. There are endless combinations of types of fonts and it’s up to the designers to find the right one. Fonts help create a personality for a company that interacts with the customer before they even enter the store and while there are a lot of font types with unique personalities, designers tend to stick with variations of the same like Helvetica, “Deviate too far from the norm and you risk alienating your audience.”
     A goal of a font is to create a sense of familiarity between the company and the consumer, when you look at a font, you know exactly what to expect, and this goes for any logo that uses text. Think of the company PINK, its font is big bold and pink but more importantly it mimics the lettering on a letter-man jacket, that college/university font and there’s a reason for that. PINK has their main logo, PINK, but they also have a crest and a puppy mascot, all things colleges and universities have. PINK’s target audience are women going into or attending colleges and universities, imitating a sorority, having their logo on everything and giving away tote bags, perfect for heavy textbooks, with purchases, and that is very clear with a simple glance at the font they use.
     Now take Supreme, a very different company that uses the same techniques to create its own niche audience. Supreme’s intended audience was skaters and now has pull in not only skating but also hip hop and rock circles, essentially the rebels of society. Now take a look back at Supreme, the logo is a solid color block with thick heavy and bold lettering, it’s in your face and its impossible not to look at, much like the fashion of Supreme’s target audience. Making the logo bold white letters surrounded by red font the perfect font for them, the visual portrayal of a rebellious, anti-capitalist message which further caters to their audience.
     Every designer has put extreme thought behind the design of the lettering of a logo, from Google’s simple and easy to read print font to Disney’s fun and recognizable cursive font. Next time your at the mall or just on instagram, take a moment to notice the logos that are everywhere, and you’ll be able to see exactly who is the target audience and what the company is trying to tell you they are. Now the font type it just the very first part of what goes into a logo and next comes a major yet oftentimes overlooked aspect of a logo, color.