Fonts are my favorite part of any design project. Fonts can make or break your brand [project]. If you’re not a designer, it can be overwhelming to pick a font combination that works for your brand.

Fonts or type suites are complex. It’s not enough to find a font and start using it. To make it truly yours, you need to customize it by playing around with the spacing.

This can be a lot of information, I know. But I want you to understand that this guide can only help you so much. Like anything else in your brand, choosing a type suite comes after you have developed a brand strategy. If you don’t have a brand strategy or think it might be time to update it, check out this post.

So you have your brand strategy. Now let’s pick a font!

Define the budget you have for fonts. Unless you’re choosing a free font, like Google Fonts, you need to think about licensing. Yup, fonts require you to have a special license depending on your usage for that type. If you want to learn the specifics about font licensing, this article breaks it down well. Think about what you’re going to use this font for, and have a budget for the license. 

Pro tip: if you’re doing this for your brand, remember you need more than one font. Try choosing 2 free [or lower expense] fonts and one high-quality font.

Warning: Font licenses can get expensive. You can find yourself paying anywhere from $20 up to $1000’s for a font. 

It takes a long time to pick a font and font combinations. Take your time researching before committing to anything. I know it’s hard because there are a ton of beautiful options for type suites, but take your time! Check out a few websites that are within your budget. Two of my favorites are this one and this one. 

You found a combination of fonts that you love! If you’re lucky, the artist offers a free download to try out the font before committing. Play around with the spacing and letter case of the font. Decide if you’re going to use all capital or regular case. How will the spacing look? There’s a lot of customization that goes into a font. Take your time with this and play around with it a lot. Ultimately, you’ll want to have clear rules on letter case and spacing for your font.

And you’re done! Now you have a beautiful type suite or font combination to use. Maybe you’re making a new type suite logo and needed the perfect font. Or you have a flyer you want to share with your client. Regardless of the reason, you need to pick the right font for your project. Use these steps after creating a strategy and trust me, picking a font will be a fun hobby!

What are your favorite places to find fonts? Let me know in the comments.