Typography is one of the most underestimated components of a brand.
Developing or evolving a brand today offers more typographic possibilities than ever before. High-performance open source fonts sit alongside established retail fonts and custom-developed typefaces. The selection has rarely been this vast, yet rarely this complex.
The crucial question is not which font is best in principle. It is far more important to determine which typographic solution will support a brand's identity in the long term while meeting the organizational, technical, and economic requirements of the company.
A typeface is much more than a tool for displaying text. It influences how a brand is perceived, often long before the first sentence is read. It can convey precision or approachability, technological expertise or artisanal quality, restraint or confidence. Typography communicates attitude and shapes a brand's character. That is precisely why its selection should never be left to chance.
Not every brand needs a custom typeface. However, every brand should consciously address the question of what kind of typographic identity it wants to develop and what role the typeface plays in its brand perception.
Companies today generally have three different approaches available to them. Open source fonts, commercial font families, and individually developed corporate fonts each have their own strengths. Which solution is the right one depends less on personal preference and more on the brand's requirements.
Open source fonts have evolved tremendously in recent years. Many are impressive in their high design and technical quality, support numerous languages, and can be used in a cost-effective manner. For many companies, they are therefore an excellent solution. At the same time, a strategic question arises. The more widely a font is used, the more important it becomes to ask how a brand develops its own typographic identity. This does not necessarily arise from a different font, but often only through the conscious use of typography—through hierarchies, typesetting systems, white space, visual language, and the interplay of all design elements.
Commercial font families offer enormous design variety and are continuously developed by professionals. For many companies, they represent the ideal middle ground between individuality, quality, and cost-effectiveness. The decisive factor here is less the individual font and more its long-term suitability. Does it support all required languages? Does it work equally well in office, web, and print environments? Does the licensing model match actual needs, and can it be maintained economically for future requirements? A careful evaluation of these questions creates the foundation for sustainable decisions.
A custom font goes one step further. It is developed specifically for an organization's requirements and creates a typographic system that consistently supports a brand's identity. At the same time, it enables maximum design independence and long-term, unrestricted use. However, it is not an end in itself. Its greatest added value arises where scale, internationality, and long-term use justify the development effort and the typeface can make a lasting contribution to brand management.
In our work, the decision therefore does not begin with a font, but with an organization's requirements. How international is the company? Which media play a role? What are the technical framework conditions? What role does differentiation play in the competitive environment? What developments are to be expected in the coming years?
Only when these questions are answered can one judge which typographic solution best fits the brand in the long term. The goal is not to favor a specific solution, but to find the one that best supports the company's strategic goals and offers enough scope for future developments.
Open source, retail, or custom typeface. None of these solutions is superior in principle. What matters is that the choice is made consciously and fits the brand's identity. Design is never neutral. It influences how people perceive an organization and what attributes they ascribe to it. Unconscious design therefore also creates an unconscious impact.
A good font strategy does not begin with selecting a typeface. It begins with the question of what attitude a brand wants to convey and how this attitude can be implemented consistently, economically, and technically across all applications for many years to come.
We have addressed many of the aspects described here as part of a project with MANN+HUMMEL examined.