Branding your company may seem like a straightforward process to a non-designer – slap a word on a page in a font you saw on someone else’s logo, choose two or three colours and hey presto – instant recognition and global success. Easy.
Not the case!
Every element of your logo should be carefully considered and tweaked until the whole of your businesses vision and values stare back at you. Here we’ll look at how important the choice of font in your logo is by showing you some of the UK’s most recognisable brands with an inappropriate font replacing the real thing.
Irn Bru Logo in Comic Sans
Made in Scotland from girders? Not in Comic Sans. Now the UK’s second favourite soft drink looks more like a juice carton for babies.
Vauxhall Logo in Hobo Std
The quintessential British car brand looks more like a home brew beer stockist with this quirky font.
Tesco logo in Sail
Britain’s number one supermarket looks more like a budget interior store when we swap their famous capitalised sans serif for the scripted Sail.
McDonald’s Logo in Scribble Box
Brits eat 91 million Big Macs every year – would that figure be so high had they opted for this sketchy font instead of their word famous wordmark? McDoubtful.
Eddie Stobart Logo in Kid Zone
The UK’s motorway’s most recognisable brand would probably attract a different sort of clientele should they rebrand with this playful font – and we doubt they’d sell enough ice creams to justify that magnificent fleet of lorries.
British Gas Logo in Brush Script
Their prices should be enough to put most people off, but we think they’d probably struggle against their foreign competitors were they to adopt this scripted logo.
BBC Logo in Berthold Block Condensed
A national institution would be laughed out of foreign TV networks were they to present their award winning documentary programming with this typeface on their business cards.
Barclays Bank Logo in Azo Sans Uber
One of the world’s oldest banks has it right with their distinctive semi-serif font. We’re not sure they’d be the giant they are were they to opt for this chunky typeface.
Adidas Logo in Phosphate
One of the world’s most recognisable sporting brands – the three stripes instantly identifiable. But had they went away from the ITC Avant Garde and more towards Phosphate, they’d probably be mistaken for an extinct plant nursery.
The AA Logo in Alana
You’d expect the Automobile Association to turn up in a horse drawn cart were this their logo. Good job they chose this strong italicised sans serif.
All of the fonts shown here have their uses – Comic Sans is great for readability and is rightly used by schools, Phosphate works incredibly well to advertise nature reserves or zoos, and Block Berthold Condensed is incredibly versatile, you’ve probably seen it at Burger King or on movie posters. But a good designer knows the tools at their disposal and which is the right one for the job. Fonts aren’t there to look cool. They’re there to make your message as easily picked up as possible, so choose the right one and you’ve already halfway there.
