Picking the right font! Helpppppp

wingnut4

wingnut4

Member
Hey Guys

Right so I find myself spending a long long time picking a font to use for my different clients work. I spend wasteful time trying to find the right font. Has anyone any guidance on how I can cut this time down! Or what your tips are, or what you usually do? It uses up so much of my time that I might as well be getting paid £2 an hour lol

Thank you!!

Claire
 
Let them pick the font. Point them towards any of the font providers with a bit of guidance and let them loose. If they choose a premium font they pick up the bill not you.
 
Not necessarily true, a lot fonts these days do not allow transferance to another person and stipulate that it needs to be bought by another party doing the work too.

You really need to stick to the EULA of the fonts.
 
Good point.

Still doesn't change the suggestion that you let the client choose the font (and the colours). That way when they complain at a leter date you can show them the email they sent you.
 
I used to have this problem all the time. I've had clients pick fonts they like in the past, and they often don't work in context. Many lack basic punctuation or symbols and look weird when you actually use them. Often what a client likes is the style or emotion feel they associate with that font. Nail down what they're looking for and it's a lot easier to pick. Same goes for you. You can spend hours looking through fontbooks but if you don't know what you want the font to say (not literally, but visually) then you'll go round in circles.

Now, I tend to just have a collection of fonts I re-use and are comfortable with, rather than always trying to pick a new font every time. Craig Ward once described fonts to me as being a designer's tools. You don't need a toolbox full of fancy gadgets if you can do the same job with a couple of spanners. Basically just pick a few fonts that have different feels or uses. Get to know which situations, styles, feels, etc they are appropriate to and build on that collection as and when it's needed. I know which are best for body copy, which have a traditional or luxury feel (both serif and sans serif), which are informal but not childish, which are rounded, narrow, etc etc.

I still need to source a new font from time to time but it gets a lot easier when I know in my head what style I'm looking for.
 
Paul Murray said:
I used to have this problem all the time. I've had clients pick fonts they like in the past, and they often don't work in context. Many lack basic punctuation or symbols and look weird when you actually use them. Often what a client likes is the style or emotion feel they associate with that font. Nail down what they're looking for and it's a lot easier to pick. Same goes for you. You can spend hours looking through fontbooks but if you don't know what you want the font to say (not literally, but visually) then you'll go round in circles.

Now, I tend to just have a collection of fonts I re-use and are comfortable with, rather than always trying to pick a new font every time. Craig Ward once described fonts to me as being a designer's tools. You don't need a toolbox full of fancy gadgets if you can do the same job with a couple of spanners. Basically just pick a few fonts that have different feels or uses. Get to know which situations, styles, feels, etc they are appropriate to and build on that collection as and when it's needed. I know which are best for body copy, which have a traditional or luxury feel (both serif and sans serif), which are informal but not childish, which are rounded, narrow, etc etc.

I still need to source a new font from time to time but it gets a lot easier when I know in my head what style I'm looking for.
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Thank you! Thats great advice :) Ive started keeping a notebook with different fonts that I like or use (I know I should do this on the computer but i like writing things down!) Ill reorganise my fonts and then try and organise them in a way that I can use certain ones.

thanks guys :)
 
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