// type is personality
If colour is the emotion of a logo, typography is the personality. The font you choose communicates who you are before anyone reads the actual words. A law firm and a toy company can use the same name — but with different fonts, they feel completely different.
Typography in logos is not about picking a font you like. It's about picking a font that fits the brand.
Key idea: You don't need hundreds of fonts. You need to understand the four main categories and when to use each one.
// the four categories
Serif — fonts with small strokes at the ends of letters. Times New Roman, Georgia. Feel: traditional, trustworthy, established. Good for: law, finance, publishing, luxury.
Sans-serif — clean, no strokes. Helvetica, Arial, Futura. Feel: modern, clean, minimal. Good for: tech, startups, healthcare, retail.
Script — looks like handwriting or calligraphy. Feel: elegant, personal, creative. Good for: beauty, food, weddings, boutiques. Use sparingly — hard to read at small sizes.
Display / decorative — unique, stylised, made for impact. Feel: bold, distinctive, memorable. Good for: entertainment, sports, gaming. Never use for body text.
If your logo uses two fonts — one for the brand name, one for a tagline — choose fonts from different categories. A sans-serif name with a serif tagline. A display name with a clean sans-serif sub-text. Contrast creates hierarchy.
// spacing and weight
Letter-spacing (tracking) — spreading letters apart creates an open, premium feel. Tight tracking feels dense and energetic. Most logo wordmarks use slightly increased tracking.
Font weight — bold feels strong and confident. Light feels elegant and minimal. Medium is versatile. Choose weight based on the brand's personality, not your preference.
Free font resources: Google Fonts has hundreds of professional-quality free fonts. Start there. Search by category — serif, sans-serif, display. Download and test before committing.
Go to fonts.google.com. Search for a font that fits the brand you described in Lesson 2. Download it. Type your brand name in that font using any text editor or Canva. Now try the same name in a completely different category font. Notice how the brand feels different? That's typography doing its job.