A new type of expression
Let expressive type do the talking
To meet the moment—and the media—our brand’s visual language affords the ability to be a little more artistic with typography. Aside from our reliable core brand fonts, you have the option to pair fonts, incorporate an expressive typeface into your piece, or to modify a brand font in a creative way.
But, that doesn’t mean you should go wild.
Be purposeful about your typographic choices, use tutorials to guide you, and keep legibility and contrast top of mind no matter what.
Choose wisely
When making any design choice, you’ll want to first consider who your target audience is, what your objective is, and the medium through which your execution will reach your audience. If your execution is part of a campaign, these decisions are even more important.
For greater depth into the typographic options available and how to leverage them, you can refer to our typography main page.
Spice up the brand fonts
With a little help from you, our core brand fonts are capable of doing a lot. Manipulating brand fonts is a great way to add expression to your piece while staying true to the IU brand. With unlimited tutorials out there, there’s no shortage of ways to stylize our core fonts.
A walk through one example: Altering existing brand fonts can bring playfulness to your execution. In this example, the designer added a wave effect to Benton Sans Condensed Bold, making the piece playful, inviting, and informal.
More ways to transform brand fonts
There’s no shortage of ways to artistically treat the brand fonts. Here are a few ways we’ve manipulated Benton Sans to add emphasis and expression.
These styles are only the beginning. You can use your imagination to create new treatments of core brand fonts in a way that best helps you achieve your execution’s objective.
Create a mood with expressive type
Pair expressive typefaces with the core brand fonts to imbue a distinct feeling into your creative execution. Custom fonts and typefaces should be used sparingly for headings and texture, rather than for extended passages of body text.
Limit use of expressive type to a single expressive typeface per piece.
What is considered expressive type:
- Hand lettering
- Non-brand typefaces
Do use expressive typefaces for:
- Headlines
- Subheads
- Graphic texture
Don’t use expressive typefaces for:
- Body copy
- Long passages of text
- Functional components, such as CTAs
Showing emotion with type
What is the message your type is conveying? Complement the idea you’re communicating with a typeface that helps support the tone or mood of your message. Here are a few tones that type can help visualize:
More on type
When it comes to typography, consider your options.
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Pairing fonts
Discover how to bring fonts together in perfect harmony.
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Using core brand typefaces
Our primary typefaces can tackle most of your marketing needs.