Every experienced graphic designer knows that typography makes or breaks an ad or logo. Imagine for a moment the instead of Disney having their signature font it us the Hitman font (VG or Movie). OR the other way around, the serious look of the Hitman font, replace with he Disney font.
Sure they look good but even without prior knowledge of either brands an emotion is still conveyed with each font style. Starting with Walt Disney’s: Playful, Curvy, Smooth. Now Hitman’s: Sharp, Movement, Elegant.
Selecting a type face should be the first or second most important choice when considering your typographic. When selecting a font consider why your creating it, to get this information talk to the client. Never be afraid of the client. They have all the information, if they don’t know at lest why they are there, turn them away, it is not worth the headache. After examining the reasons to why they are there, think about the history (this is more for corporate id’s, the everyday garage sale sign post on the side of the road… not so much). You’ll find that as you receive this information, idea’s of themes start popping into you head *write them down, you’ll forget.*
Now that you have a list of adjectives, a sketch, or a phase you can tackle the fonts. Two options: 1 make the text yourself (It’s hard, time consuming, and boring *PASS). 2 Go to dafont.com. Select a category that best suits your needs (don’t bother with the search unless you know the name of the font, it doesn’t work off a description database, only file names). Just under the categories and page numbers is the custom display tools. Type the title or text you wish to use. Set number of fonts per page to 50. I like to show the variants, just in case, you can too. With size follow these basic guild lines: for names use Large, for titles use Medium, phrases use Small, and for small paragraphs use Tiny. If you text contains text based symbols then you might want to check accents and Euro, if you don’t mind substituting another font for it’s symbols then leave unchecked. Sort by is your choice. Scroll through and download the one that catches your eye.
The rest is really up to you. My only advice is to allow for coworkers to review your work through out the course of the project. Don’t feel obligated to use the advice but you might find it help. Make sure they know that your asking for their opinion and not for them to take over the project (unfortunately some people take it personally when you don’t use their ideas). Also when listening to your coworker’s advice or the clients thoughts, Keep Your Mouth Shut until addressed to speak. Why, because your not going to be able to walk the client’s costumers through the project so don’t walk your clients either. That’s it, good luck.