Creating a Unique Mark With Custom Fonts

Skimming the opening paragraphs of a book on typography recently, I came across this line―"Typefaces are an essential resource employed by graphic designers, just as glass, stone, steel, and countless other materials are employed by architects." The author also talks about the direct link between industrial typefaces and the gestures of the body; in other words, the evolution from handwriting to fonts.

They're both beautiful ideas, I thought. The way that the "architectural" building blocks that make up our means of communication―our books, our signage, our advertisements―can be traced back to something as unique and personal as our handwriting.

Which is why customized fonts make a lot of sense to me. Of course there are millions of pre-existing typefaces out there, enough to cover an enormous range of applications and to convey anything, visually and textually, that you might need them to. Almost.

When you're creating an advertisement or logo for a product or company that means a lot to you, it's also possible that the typefaces that everyone else uses just aren't going to precisely represent the unique product that you've worked so hard to develop. And why settle for something cookie-cutter when you want your product to stand out from a sea of others?

There's a lot of handwriting in the world too, but when you see a note written by a person you love, you know that it couldn't have been written by anyone else. Seeing handwriting that you recognize and that you associate with a particular person is an irreproducible experience, a direct link.

So customized fonts can work the same way. Used effectively in your logo, packaging, or website, they can create a one-to-one relationship between what your company stands for and the design that people see. When people come across that font, they'll connect it with your product and no one else's. Your company will be represented by something as distinct, unmistakable, and evocative as your own handwriting.