A few great font ideas!

I absolutely love fonts! Fonts have such a strong effect on the outcome of a graphic design project. One simple change and your piece suddenly takes on a whole different feel and meaning. A mix of contrasting fonts can give the desired effect of drawing the eye to a specific part of the piece. It’s possible, however, to use too many fonts together. I’ve seen projects where 4-5 different fonts are used on an given marketing piece and it truly detracts from the message.

Below I’ve outlined a few great font ideas. Some are free to download for commercial use while others are available for purchase. I’ve tried to show you a nice variety of fonts: from a scripty, decorative font for titles and headings to more basic fonts perfect for larger areas of text. I’ve suggested where there fonts might come in handy and where they are best not used.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Carolyna Pro Black

This font is a beautiful thick script font from Emily Connors from Emily Lime Design. It’s a great font for highlighting something special on a project. I often use it for a header phrase (like the “Choo Choo” on our train birthday card) or for the name of the honoree for an event (the guest of honor for a baby shower, for instance). It is a bolder version of it’s sister font, Carolyna Pro and has a lot of fun ligatures and glyph alternates (for those who aren’t familiar, we’ll talk more about that later!). I wouldn’t recommend a font like this for longer lines of text, for any smaller paragraphs, or for titles that are in all caps.

You can buy this font for $89 on etsy.com or you can see more fonts from Emily Connors from myfont.com.

Nevis

I love finding great free fonts to use with graphic design projects. Nevis is a strong modern font by Ten by Twenty that works great for a variety of uses, especially when your project necessitates all caps. It’s free for personal and commercial use, though they do ask that you consider a donation or a link back to their site.

You can download this font for free on their website.

Carton

This font features strong slab-serifs which were inspired by traditional letterpress printing. Carton is perfect for use as a bold heading, smaller sub heading, or other title. I wouldn’t suggest using it for larger portions of text (such as paragraphs), as it will overpower your entire piece.

 

You can get this font for a donation in the amount you choose.

Junction

This font a sans serif font with a hint of flair in its curvature. It’s easily readable and can be used for written portions of text or even web content. It was designed by the League of Moveable Type who have plans to expand this collection to include non-English characters and a variety of weights and types.

Download it free on their website.

 

 

 

This font features a scribbled shading within a bold, eye-catching serif outline. I like this one for names on invitations (you can see it on our Red Tractor invite) or for important titles or headings. It has a definite hand drawn appeal to it and includes small imperfect scribbled guides. I think my architectural and design nature is really drawn to it for this reason. It’s free for both personal and commercial use.

 

You can download FFF Tusj from Font Squirrel.

——————-

For more great free fonts, you can visit Font Squirrel and browse through their huge collection of fonts, all of which are 100% free for commercial use. Before using any free font for your project, be sure to read through the license to verify that you are using it appropriately.

Also, our friends at Corissa Nelson Art have an article helping to explain how to install fonts and suggestions for additional fonts to use. Check it out.

 

So, do you have a few tried and true favorite fonts?