Like the Sans of Time: The Importance of Font Selection

To most people, fonts are just another useless choice in their Word document, 'gimme a default typeface and let me type'. To designers however, fonts are an integral element in communicating ideas and emotions.

There are thousands of fonts, thousands of beautifully created fonts, each designed with a feeling or purpose in mind - some are very versatile and some are very pointed as to their use. When a typeface is used in design, an association is made by the consumer on the look of the product or brand and how it makes them feel about it. Consumers when presented with a consistent looking visual that is associated with a brand will come to remember it and the feelings they have of that brand will be rekindled, in some small way.

 The image above contains 9 words all with different word marks. Most of these word marks have been derived from actual fonts and then modified by a graphic designer to better suit the brand and what it represents. What's cool about this, is that without even saying the brand (or band) names on this document, most people could tell you the names of all 9 brands represented here.

If this does not demonstrate the importance of proper font selection and graphic design as part of brand building, I don't know what does. A good graphic designer should take great care and spend a good amount of time in learning about your brand and what it represents in order to craft a word mark or logo.

One of the first things that a designer will do is select the fonts to be used on the project (for use in logo, stationery, packaging etc.) this can take several hours to select the right fonts for each of these.  The result of this meticulous time in font selection, is an effective part of your communications strategy - putting across information is important, but good design and proper font selection can associate emotions to that information.

Graphic designers are trained to communicate ideas and information in a visual way, utilizing fonts is part of this process.

So, please remember this the next time a designer presents you with a design or word mark for review; ask them to explain why they chose the one they did - you may be surprised what went into their descision. As a client, you should challenge the rationale behind the design to ensure the designer really understands what he/she is communicating - with a professional creative team and good creative direction, a design is rarely wrong unless the rationale and understanding of what needs to be communicated behind it is wrong.

Bottomline: A well crafted brand comes from understanding the customer then taking the time to ensure all visual elements align with what needs to be communicated.

Please note that I found the image above online and it appears to be credited to Headlineshirts.net, however, I left the file name intact so that whoever put it together can find it on my blog and request proper credit.

There's No Eye Without Team

Communicating your company image effectively and professionally is not only important, it is crucial to the success of your brand and your company. We all know this. So, why do so many companies try to cut corners when approaching design and creative for their marketing campaigns?

I believe this can be broken down to one key element, they don't understand the value a creative team brings to the table.

Value comes in many ways, and most creative firms have trouble explaining this value to their clients. Clients assume that a designer can 'whip up' something quick and it will be effective. Good design takes time, it takes research and it takes an understanding of what the goals of any project are. Couple this with how the interaction between the 'target' and the 'message' is formulated and you could have a well thought out campaign.

Creative teams work together to look at all angles of a campaign - each member of the team bringing expertise and years of experience. This 'collective eye' on a campaign is what ensures it is resilient and effective. This is how you get results. You'll find that most creative teams are composed of a number of disciplines; creative director, copywriter, illustrator, designer and a project coordinator... each working closely with the client.

What confuses some clients is design creative, they believe that the design is what they are paying for, when it's only a portion of what they get when hiring a creative team.

Generating design creative the last part of the equation and is quite often the easy part of coming up with a proper campaign. Of course, that is if the discovery, ideation, brainstorming, research and analysis is done properly. When a creative team is involved in this process, a creative brief can be generated and given to any designer to complete the design process. This provides clarity and focus on the deliverable. This is how you create a campaign that generates results.

Creative teams need to be better at communicating their 'collective eye' - they can't assume that clients understand the difference between hiring a creative team and hiring a designer. Design is important and designers have a role in the creative process, but don't mistake the plate for the food - design is the by-product of a creative process, not the process itself.

The real value for your marketing dollar is in the creative process, the thought, the ideas, the expertise, the execution... that is what you are buying when you hire a creative team.

Why Creative Is Important

In the advertising and marketing field, the word creative is used to describe the work produced by the creative team at an agency, typically in the form of concept, copy writing and graphic design.

For example, if we were to design a poster for you, the artwork would be called the 'creative'. You would say, "Let's see the creative...", and we would show you a proof of your poster.

This is advertising jargon.

At Francomedia, we describe ourselves as a boutique creative agency, meaning a relatively small group of very talented people that produce creative for various purposes. We are not an advertising agency, although that's the best way to describe us to people that don't understand our vernacular for the word 'creative'.

Many people have trouble understanding when or why they need creative supplied by an agency. A good example of this is the good old-fashioned power point presentation. Nearly every working stiff with a mouse can create a power point presentation, which is why so many companies don't see the need to hire a creative agency to supply creative for such a common item. Especially, since they can have their most junior person do it.

So, why hire a creative design agency to do your power point?

Everything is marketing. It doesn't matter if you are presenting something internally or to a crowd of investors, your power point is your marketing. And, when it looks like a grade school kid made it for you, how does that reflect on you? I have seen many corporate power points, and honestly, my kids make better looking/working ones than I've seen by some big companies, and they're in grade 3.

Great creative can do a lot of things for your power point (or anything else for that matter), and, it doesn't have to be expensive. Here's what professional creative will do for you:

1. Make you look credible. If you are looking to the audience for investment on an idea or a company and you can't even get your headings to line up page after page, how are they supposed to feel about investing with you?
2. Make you look professional. If you are presenting a recommendation to upper management or a board of directors and you have clip art images strewn throughout, are they supposed to take you seriously or try figure out where on their fridge to post your 'art'?
3. Make you look capable. If you try to communicate a concept by embedding a certain graphic, sound or video into your presentation but it never seems to work smoothly (or at all), how is your audience supposed to feel about your ability to see things through without error?
4. Make you compelling. If you have a clean, well designed presentation, that runs smoothly, you will hold the audiences attention - at which point your presentation will come down to your content... which is what it's supposed to be about, right?
5. Make you effective. If your presentation is properly designed and crafted, a good creative person will know what information to highlight and how to make those points ring true with the intended audience. That's important, right?

With all these benefits, you would think that hiring a creative team to build this for you would be a no brainer... but, often is the case where someone feels that they can do it internally and save the couple of bucks. What is the cost of lost credibility or a lost sale, or a lost investment?

Doing your own presentation is a great way to have your audience set very low expectations for you and what you are presenting. And, it doesn't take much effort for a creative professional to polish a presentation up, if even just to get some consistency throughout.

Even though, we used power point presentations as an example, hiring the right person for the job applies to just about anything in business. But when it comes to marketing your company, internally or eternally, you need to put your best foot forward and do everything you can to ensure your brand is exemplified and that people trust and believe what you present, on a screen or in an ad.

So, the next time you are planning to make a presentation, ask yourself if it's important that people hear your message and believe it. Then give a creative agency a call.