When you think of the logo and visual identity of companies like Airbnb, Coca-Cola, IBM, Apple, and Netflix, what’s something they all have in common? They all use a custom font typeface, or custom typography, to distinguish themselves as a brand.
Many brands, companies, and services use custom typography in their visual marketing and branding. Custom font design can better showcase a brand’s character and personality than a standard typeface. It’s an incredibly powerful tool because it can retain the brand’s essence even when the logo icon or colors are eliminated.
A unique, personalized font design can be an integral part of a brand’s personality, visually representing who you are as a brand and what you represent.
What Does Custom Font Design And Development Involve?
There can be varying steps involved in developing custom typography for your business. Typically, font development involves the creation of unique typefaces and character sets, which can be broken down as follows.
Custom Typeface Design
Custom typeface design is the creation of an exclusive typeface created for a particular entity. A brand can decide to have a new, unique type design created or modify an existing typeface to create something more personalized for its visual identity.
Custom Character Sets
Frequently when you want something that captures your brand, the standard character set won’t totally fulfill your specific requirements. In this case, brands will often employ a designer or illustrator to customize their character sets. It could include a type of Eastern European language letterform or several non-Latin characters to meet multinational requirements.
What Is The Process Involved In Creating A Custom Font Design?
When you’re going through the process of having a custom font designed, it is similar to the overall branding process. The first step always comes down to research. You and your designer or illustrator will need to understand your brand identity, what you’re trying to accomplish, and what the current landscape for custom typography is within your industry.
Then, conceptualization will come next. It combines this research with ideas for representing the key attributes of the brand through the typeface. These prototypes will be tested to ensure that one of them conveys the personalization and proposition behind your brand in the best way. From the options developed, you can choose a final typography to go with.
Brands that want to pursue a typeface customization route have three different options to choose from:
- Commission the creation of a custom typeface
- Take an existing typeface and adapt it to meet your brand’s purposes and identity
- Choose an existing typeface from a type library
So, which is the best approach? Well, as you might guess, it all depends on the brand, its goals, budget, and preferences. After all, a typeface is a crucial component of a brand’s visual identity. It helps to convey a specific tone, message, and personality all in one.
Let’s explore each of those options a bit more.
Custom Typeface
The most customizable option, custom typography, allows for the best personalization. One of the primary benefits of a custom typeface is that your brand will own it. Once the design is complete, you’ll own the intellectual property of the typography, and it cannot be used elsewhere without your express permission. In this way, the type becomes synonymous with your brand. You won’t have to settle for a design or style because you’ll be able to work with a designer to create something that meets all the requirements of your current and future technological needs. Custom typefaces are frequently a good choice for companies undergoing a rebranding or just starting out because they can assist to define and energize their visual identity.
Modified Typeface
You can also go with a modified typeface. This option involves taking an existing typeset and adjusting it to fit a particular need or aesthetic. However, it’s important to note that there are limits to how much a type can be altered. Modified typefaces can be a good option for a brand that wants something unique but doesn’t have the money or time to invest in custom typography, potentially because of an upcoming product launch or rebrand. As stated, it’s important to consider the amount of customization you’re able to make to these typefaces and determine if it would be better to just create your own.
Library Typeface
Lastly, you can use a library typeface. When it comes to fonts and typefaces, there are tens of thousands of options in the world. These fonts are ready and waiting to be licensed and used in your branding. Using a library typeface is a fast and easy solution when you don’t want to go the custom route. However, while there are several designs to choose from and a graphic designer could help you pick one for your brand, it will never be wholly unique to your brand, and you do run the risk of another company or business using it.
How To Get Custom Typography For Your Brand
Not everyone has a professional graphic designer or illustrator on their staff who can help them create custom typography for their brand. The skill to create a unique typeface that captures a brand’s personality, is clear and legible, and possesses all the requirements to be used across platforms isn’t something everyone has.
Bringing on an employee is usually not in the budget for individual creators, smaller entrepreneurs, and brands that are just forming. What’s more, it can be hard to find the right person for the job on freelance marketplaces because you can’t vet their quality and the timeframes for completion can vary greatly. Because the typography will be something you’ll be using over and over, you’ll also need to be sure you get the right types of files to use your typeface however you need to, and what if you don’t know which file types those are?
Worse, you could wind up settling for something you don’t truly love if you don’t have the skills to create something yourself or the fund to hire someone directly to do it for you. Choosing a font you don’t totally love to represent your brand could wind up costing you a rebrand down the line.
For an affordable option where you can work with talented illustrators and get a host of other services for your branding, including custom logos, characters, social media ads, video, and even copywriting, an all-in-one creative service platform like Flocksy has it covered.
When you need high-quality custom typography and other illustrations for your business’s visual identity as well as video editing, graphic design, copywriting, and more, a Flocksy flat-rate subscription gives you the assets you need for an upfront monthly fee. You’ll be able to focus on other important jobs, knowing that your custom brand typeface will showcase your brand personality to a T.
The most beneficial part of working with Flocksy’s comprehensive services is the no-contract, all-in-one format. No more juggling a graphic designer, illustrator, video editor, and freelance copywriter. Your entire creative team will all be in one place.
Getting Custom Typography At Flocksy
With Flocksy custom illustration services, beginning a “custom typography” project is simple. From the intuitive Flocksy dashboard, you can start your project and get results in roughly 24 to 48 hours. Soon, a personalized typeface will be yours.
So, how do you kick off your custom typography project?
First, go to the project request page by clicking on the “Create new project” button. You’ll see it right on the main Flocksy dashboard. Then select “custom illustration project,” and from there, you’ll want to find the option for custom typography. You can also use this category for your avatars, mascots, characters, and brand illustrations.
From typography to illustrated logos to character and storybook illustrations, our team of talented artists can handle it all.
When you start your project, it’ll be best to provide as many details and references as you can in the large text box on the brief page. You’ll want to include which font styles you like, your inspiration fonts, the personality and message of your brand, and what vibes or feelings you want the typeface to evoke.
Your illustrator will be able to create something truly unique and impressive for your brand when they know your brand’s purpose, its style, and its personality. They may even be able to offer helpful suggestions to ensure your typography maintains legibility and integrity across formats and platforms.
Soon, you’ll have a professional typeface ready to use across your branding that’s been put together by someone with the skills and know-how to get the job done right. For the highest quality and most effective custom brand illustrations, work with the team at Flocksy. You’ll see results in no time.
If you are undertaking a complete rebrand or starting your brand from scratch, having the right typeface to support your visual identity is an important decision. At Flocksy, we’re thrilled to help guide brands toward their best brand identity now and into the future, so start your custom typography project today.