A strong visual mark — the symbol, shape, or image — used for your logo is both what people should recognize immediately, as well as an important factor in successfully setting your brand apart from your competition. However, choosing a font to complement your logo is just as important as choosing the mark. Even the best visual mark can fall short if it doesn’t have solid backup with a proper font. Fonts have personality, and a logo’s font must accurately convey the personality of the business’ brand. (Think about the simple difference between Helvetica and Times Italic.) As an example, we will spotlight our client, Merchant Construction Inc. In the Spring of 2008, Tom Merchant came to us looking for a strong logo to represent his company.
Tom had a vision. And he knows his business better than anyone. We love working wtih clients like Tom. As designers, we are collaborators, and Tom sharing his own knowledge and passion about his business was absolutely essential to creating a successful logo. His logo needed to represent the high quality work that his Bay Area construction company delivers and also communicate the essence of his brand: integrity. His target clients seek a trusted, responsible team whom they can count on to be on time and on budget. The logo also needed to be visually appealing on business cards, invoices, company vehicles, signage and other collateral. After meeting with Tom, where we discussed his company, the competition, and Merchant Construction’s current image, we were able to get to work! We were proud to help Tom begin to define his brand, beginning with the first impression: a professional, timeless mark.
The clever illustration of the San Francisco cityscape conveys Merchant Construction’s industry, craftsmanship, and artistry, as well as the fact that the company serves the Bay Area. So, for the logotype we chose Jack Condensed: a simple, sturdy font to represent quality, durability, strength. While there are many ornate or embellished fonts to choose from, such fonts would compete with the illustration.
The placement of a logo’s type can make all the difference in it being a success. In this logo, note that we created an even baseline — a foundation — to both visually complete the cityscape and complement the intricacy of the illustration. The type is balanced visually and centered on the vector drawing.
The result? An elegant, clever mark with an easily-readable, appropriate typeface. A logo that not only hit the nail on the head (I couldn’t resist)… but thrilled the client.
