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Monotype designed a pair of custom typefaces for global market leader in steel wire transformation and coating technologies, Bekaert, creating a bold, modernist design that speaks to the company’s extensive history and industrial heritage. The typefaces are an integral part of a company-wide rebrand, led by Interbrand and designed to support Bekaert’s ambition to be the leading partner in shaping the way we live and move: safe, smart, sustainable.

It’s that time again. You’re at your desk, and it’s time to begin your new design project. First, you have to choose a font. To begin, you scroll through a list of fonts online and find yourself bombarded by the multitude of options. The number of fonts available is overwhelming. After several hours of researching, you finally find one type family you like, but you’re not sure how it will translate to mobile view. You jump to another option, but wonder if the font style will align with your target consumer.

When you’re a designer, it’s thrilling to create a new brand or update an existing one. You get to be creative! Strategic! You get a chance to make your mark!
In addition to deciding on a color palette and imagery style, you get to choose foundational typefaces for your brand. But font selection should not be based on looks alone.

Today’s brands must keep up with a fast-paced digital world and navigate a “new normal” that’s still emerging from the worst of the pandemic. The last few years shifted everyone’s digital expectations, how brands operate, and in some cases, impacted their business models.

From a supercharged creative team to account managers, a Monotype Fonts subscription empowers every role in an agency.

Font. Music. Imagery. Colors. These elements are all integral to creating digital assets and marketing campaigns. Like Cinderella, however, only one magical font will fit a specific project or campaign. If a marketing or creative team finds what they think is the perfect font that helps express the message behind the effort, everything else seems to fall into place–except for legal font licensing.

Rebranding a business is not for the faint of heart. It’s an enormous operation that requires significant time and investment while offering the possibility of totally revitalizing a brand.

As a disclaimer: There are no big secrets here, no giant revelations from my 20 years of design and type experience, but it may be helpful to see how someone else goes about the process of narrowing down their font options. Once you start giving focused thought and deliberate time to choosing fonts, your choices will get better.

Learn how to take styles from our 2023 Type Trends and apply them to your own designs.