Font nerds are always welcome in the graphic design community. Typography is an obsession for most graphic designers, and with good reason. Perhaps more than any other design element, type has the capacity to make or break a design. 
For beginners, there are two fundamental elements of type to know about. 
One is typeface, which is the word used to describe a characteristic design style applied to a set of letterforms. Sounds complicated, but you know and use some common typefaces all the time, such as Helvetica, Ariel and Times New Roman. A font is the digital version of a typeface that’s created to make it usable on computer software.

What Is Typeface and Why Does It Matter?

For many graphic design projects, typefaces are intrinsic to the success of the design, helping to set a mood, style, and a clear way of presenting information. For brand identities, in particular, a well-chosen typeface can reinforce the consistency of the identity, making designs feel uniform and ‘on-brand’ across a wide range of media.

How to Create Consistent Branding with Typography?

The second part of type to be aware of is typography, which describes the way in which typefaces are arranged to create a typographic design. Thoughtfully constructed typography is an artform in itself, and when executed well can make your layouts feel effortless and orderly. Typography is created through designing a hierarchy (in which an order of size and weight is established) of type, before additional design processes might be applied, such as color contrast and other type effects—shadows, underlines, textures. 

​Tips for Choosing Appropriate Typefaces

1. Think About the Basics
​All designs need a strong visual hierarchy, graphic balance, and a clear overall tone. All of this comes from strong typographic choices.
Think about the piece you’re creating and the audience for whom it’s intended, then pick out fonts that tick off all those objectives.

2. Use Beautiful Typefaces to Influence Decision-Making
If you choose fonts that are illegible or easily misinterpreted, the chances of your customers buying your product greatly diminish.
Yes, Helvetica is overused. However, that didn’t occur by chance. It transpired due to its clean aesthetic, its visual appeal, and its immediate ability to command a certain level of sophistication.
We don’t advise jumping on the bandwagon and using Helvetica for everything. We do believe, though, that it’s important to pick typefaces that make your mouth water if you want to enhance your ability to convert customers.

3. Manipulate Your Copy
Okay, so this one is a little technical, and likely too long for a list of tips, so we’re only going to brush the surface with this one.
Once you’ve picked your typeface(s)—choosing more than one typeface, one for headers and another for copy, will create a more well-rounded piece—it’s a good idea to consider typesetting, or the manipulation of text composition.
This involves working with the text by adjusting the spacing between characters, words, paragraphs, and line breaks to give a unique style to your designs. Even standard word-processing software, such as Microsoft Word, comes with some typesetting abilities. 
So, with a little additional work, you can have your copy looking utterly stunning in no time, and totally bespoke to your piece or brand.

4. Subvert and Misdirect
Up to now, we’ve focused on interpreting the right aesthetic, tone, mood, or message through the use of complementary typefaces. 
However, as with everything in design, sometimes you may want to purposefully break those rules to create a contrast, evoke a certain type of feeling, or simply surprise your reader with an unexpected font choice.
Once you’ve learned the rules, you can break them, and in doing so, create even more opportunities for drawing readers in, converting visitors into paid customers, and more.
When creating marketing materials, it’s super easy to get fixated on imagery, graphics, or animation, and push typography off to the side. But, as we’ve seen, engaging type choices before you do any of those things can result in a piece that’s much more compelling.
Typography should never be an afterthought. Instead, treat it as the star of the show, like those theologians did all those centuries ago, and the rest will follow.