corporate body fonts

philjohns

Senior Member
HI all,

Need a bit of a hand.

I've been asked to select a few body fonts that could be used by a large company as their main body font.

Need to be clear and simple (as you'd expect!).

Any ideas?
 
For the web? That'll be a tough one as a corporate face would rarely be used for anything other than display, and a display face as body copy is a pretty poor idea.

If you're setting up new branding then use a decent face for display (something on Typekit maybe?) and just use Arial/Calibri/something-that-works-well-as-body-copy for the body.
 
Thanks Harry,

Sorry, should have explained a little bit more.

Not setting up a branding, I know one of the guys that works for the company so told him and i've a search/think/ask around for the names of a few fonts that could look good as a body font. Not necessarily for web...
 
Well ideally you'd pick one that would work on the web and print so as to maintain consistency. I'm currently in love with Calibri which works well as both. However it's not a Mac font…
 
Harry said:
Well ideally you'd pick one that would work on the web and print so as to maintain consistency. I'm currently in love with Calibri which works well as both. However it's not a Mac font…

It's a nice font but does seem to upset macs (even ones with it installed). god knows why!

Im liking DIN at the moment but with the only options being Regular or Bold, it can be quite restrictive.
 
Good question Phil! I often use Akzidenz for body copy which is a very flexible font in loads of different weights. Vag is a nice alternative too, a bit more friendly than some fonts, not so corporate, guess it depends how the company want to be portrayed. Myriad is another favourite of mine, very modern, contemporary and simple. If they have a small budget you might be interested in my latest blog post, highlighting some great free fonts out there at the moment...
dave will design - a freelance graphic designer based in Liverpool: Mining for fonts
 
The main font can be anything you want, you choose it to fit the brand.

On the web use the font where you can, where you can't use a websafe font.

Don't limit your choice to what's safe, use what is right.
 
Well, one could write a rather lengthy essay about this, and I am sure many have ... For the web, there are two possibilities: stick with the system fonts (Arial, Helvetica, Times, Georgia), or use a web font (@font-face) for display. No real alternatives, because a font on screen has to have good hinting. No use choosing a classy typeface that people tire of seeing on their screens.

For printed material there are also many things to consider: Does the typeface have all the glyphs you need, say, for writing in foreign languages if needed, or setting foreign names? Does it go with the wordmark? Does it match the company’s identity? Is it well designed (not too many around that fit this description)?

For a good read on typography and typefaces take a look at Robert Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style. I do not cease to be amazed by this insightful book.
 
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