Lesson 7: Advertising and the Press

Use of Fonts

When designing adverts and other promotional material, many people make the mistake of using too many different fonts. If you've spent all day producing identical business documents in Times New Roman, it can be fun to scroll through all the different font options which might be suitable for less formal writing, and it can be tempting to use lots of different interesting ones. However, an excess of font styles makes an advert look crowded and messy. You should never use more than four different fonts on any one page (no matter how big that page is), and ideally you should restrict yourself to two. It's quite acceptable to use different character sizes within the same font, and to use both standard and bold versions.

The type of fonts which you select say a lot about you and your business. In advertising, it's wise to stay away from overly familiar fonts like Times New Roman or Century Gothic because people associate these with boring formal reading and will not usually pay much attention to them. Heavier fonts which contrast more strongly with the background (eg: Arial or Luxi) make more visual impact. A fairly plain font is best if you want to convey a reliable, traditional business image. Handwriting style fonts (eg: Lucida or Arioso) can create an impression of elegance, but are best used in moderation (eg: just for your company's name) as they can be difficult to read. Small character versions of handwriting fonts are best avoided. Quirky fonts (eg: Actionis or Indigo Joker) are best reserved for businesses in the entertainment or design industries. If you intend to use a quirky font, make sure you view a large number of them before making your choice, because some of them are particularly well suited to specific industries (eg: Broadway for theatrical companies or Hydrogenwhiskey for computer companies).

Unless you want to convey a deeply radical, quirky sense of character (eg: when advertising a pop group) you should never change fonts in the middle of a word. You should endeavor to avoid changing fonts in the middle of a paragraph, except where that paragraph contains a single word which has its own signature font, eg: your company name.

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