Are you pulling your hair out trying to choose the perfect fonts for your logo, website or brand?
If so, I am going to show you a Fast, Simple, and FREE trick to make it a LOT easier. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to pair fonts like a pro (and without having to pay a designer big bucks!)
I’ve gathered some of the best font combinations that you can use for your logo, website or other marketing needs. These are all fresh for 2021, yet timeless enough to last for generations.
Check it out… I promise you’ll be glad you did.
You’ll want to make sure to grab this FREE font pairing guide to follow along:
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If you've ever struggled to find the perfect fonts for your logo, your website, your marketing, or any other part of your business, I'm going to show you how to make it easy. I get it. This is a task where you can easily waste so many hours scouring the internet, feeling frustrated, confused, and maybe even a little hopeless for taking this on in the first place. The news is you are not alone. I'm a professionally trained designer and even I've struggled with this before. And that's why I've created eight font combinations that you absolutely cannot go wrong with.
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They're super professional. I've handpicked them myself, so they're up with the current trends, but also classic enough to last you over the years. They're super easy to use. I've gone the extra mile, and I'm going to show you how these combinations work in both logo and in paragraph styles. And by that, I mean, you'll know how your headlines, your sub-headlines, and your body copy all are going to appear on your marketing materials and on your website. And best of all, everything is absolutely free.
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Commercial fonts can get expensive quickly, but everything I about to show you is free and available in Canva, which is a free program that's super easy to use and very friendly for people who are not professional designers. And before you ask, no, I have not been paid to say this about Canva. It's just an awesome free resource, and I'm happy to promote it.
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But before we get to that, if you're in the market for more design hacks that will help make your marketing look great and ultimately help grow your business, don't forget to tap the subscribe and notify button so you never miss a beat. And as for me, I'm Leslie, co-founder of Brand Therapy Sessions. I've shown dozens of people when I'm about to show you, and they've gone on to create beautiful logos, websites, and social media assets for their business. We're about to go through eight combinations.
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But don't worry, you're not going to have to take any screenshots or notes or hit pause every two seconds trying to remember what I've just said. I've gone ahead and created a template for you. So everything you see here, you can actually access yourself and play around with your own text. Everything about it is absolutely free and you can access it in the link below this video. And I assure you, you're going to want to grab it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to wait. Good. Let's dive in.
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Once you've clicked through, you'll see a window like this, and all you'll have to do is click the option to use template. And in the case that you don't already have a Canva account, you can either sign up really simply with Google or Facebook, or you can manually set up with your own email. But before we get into it, I'm curious, what is the first thing you're going to design with these font combinations? Here we have it, the moment we've all been waiting for, my winning font combinations in Canva.
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For the sake of this presentation, I've redone our channel logo, Brand Therapy Sessions, in each of these different combinations so you can see how much the choice of font can impact the first impression of your brand. First up, we have two of my personal favorites, Hatton and Poppins. This combination works well because there's a strong contrast between the two styles. This helps create a visual hierarchy, letting readers know which text to read first. Hatton is a trendy, but lasting font.
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It gives a bold impression, while the delicate details of each letter pair perfectly with the thin letters of Poppins. This combination gives off a very professional and feminine impression. It would work well for a company with an ideal client avatar, also referred to as an ICA, who is likely female in her thirties to late forties, who is drawn to modern design that has a unique personality to it.
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On the next slide, we see how the combination would work throughout the rest of your website and marketing materials. Hatton would be used in the headlines to catch the viewer's attention and Poppins would support in subheadings and body copy, assuring complete readability when you shrink down to smaller paragraphs and for any of you scratching your heads, trying to figure out what the heck you're reading, no, I did not drag my elbow across the keyboard. The text I've used in these examples is called lorem ipsum.
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Lorem ipsum is dummy texts that designers use as a replacement when the real text is not yet available. It has no meaning. However, the sequence of letters and fake words looks very similar to real text. This allows me and you to focus solely on the typography and the design. You'll see this used in each of the examples I show you. Following this, we have agrandir and, again, Poppins. This combination, much unlike the previous, gives off a punchier and more animated energy. Looking at this logo, you know we're about to have some fun.
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The thick lettering of Agrandir with its unique curves on the letters like the R and the S make this logo one to remember and will definitely stand out in instances where your logo is one of many. The choice to include Poppins in this combo is because, A, there's great contrast between the fonts, and B, because both of these fonts are wider. You can see this in the E and the A of Poppins, how they're both based off of a circle. The same thing goes for agrandir. They compliment each other well.
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As for website and marketing layouts, I recommend using Agrandir for both headlines and sub-headlines in different weights. And for those of you who don't know, weights mean how heavy, meaning how thick, the letters are. Both the header and subhead are in the same font family, and I selected different weights to create an interesting contrast. Poppins is again used for the body copy to help keep things light and easy to read.
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This layout could work great for a company whose values are friendliness, trustworthiness, modern, quirky, and energetic, with an ICA that could be either female or male. The first thing I recommend when using this combo is to play with color. Adding your brand palette will bring this to life and make it feel unique to your biz. I try using one color for all of the text and then play around with some different background colors to amplify the personality and uniqueness of your site. Next up, we have Abril Fatface and the Google classic Roboto.
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As you can see, Abril is a striking serif font, and serif font means a little feet at the end of each letter. Serifs are awesome for businesses that are looking to give off a professional, trustworthy, academic, and traditional impression. Old school serifs have a tendency to look dated, whereas Abril, especially when paired with a sans serif like Roboto, establishes a modern look. These two fonts work great together because they're both a little condensed, meaning the letters are slightly compact.
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And though they are very different, their narrow foundation is the same, allowing them to compliment each other very nicely. Here, you can see how this combo would come to life outside of the wordmark. I've set Abril as the headline font to grab people's attention. One thing to keep in mind when using serif fonts is that once you start using them at all different sizes, AKA your headlines, then your sub-headline, and your paragraph, the design can start to look clunky as there are sometimes too many little details floating around on the page.
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This is why I chose Roboto as the supporting text to assure readability and also keep the design looking clean and current. Following this, we've got Open Sauce and Public Sans center stage. Compared to the last combo, this one is extremely minimal and inclusive, appealing to a wide range of people of any age, gender, or occupation. The simplicity of this wordmark will appeal to clients that are drawn to modern and utilitarian design aesthetics. I love Open Sauce because at first glance, it could pass for a number of other fonts.
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But when you take a closer look, you can really appreciate the type foundries commitment to clean and straight lines. Example being the R that is pin straight compared to other sans serifs like Helvetica. As we make our way over to the paragraph style, you can totally imagine this font combo on a website for a more contemporary company. Super clean, no extra frills, and would work amazingly well with a photography forward website, as it's strong enough on its own, but will definitely not steal the show from the photos.
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Public Sans acts in a supporting role. This is an awesome and neutral font that comes in many different weights. Up next, we have DM Serif Display paired with DM Sans. This duo strikes the perfect balance between traditional and contemporary. The serif is elegant and bold, but less feminine than some of the previous examples. The triangular serifs give Brand Therapy Sessions a strong, knowledgeable, and stylish vibe. And when paired with DM Sans, you immediately catch the modern twist. This can appeal to a mature and academic crowd of any gender.
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Another detail I really like about this combo is how the thinnest part of the letters is the same thickness as the tagline. The paragraph style for this combo has a strong sense of character when using the serif for headlines. The choice to use DM Sans as a subhead helps keep the serif feeling current while keeping any clutter at bay. While I was playing around with the previous combo, I gave DM Sans a turn in the spotlight and came up with this pairing. Its counterpart, Open Sans. DM Sans is geometric and low contrast, meaning very uniform lines.
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It's intended to be used for smaller tech sizes. But when enlarged, it transformed into a very elegant and sophisticated sans serif. I love the shape of the S. This paired with Open Sans, another Google font, creates a nice contrast in weight, establishing a visual hierarchy and gives the wordmark a feeling of light and airiness. I could see this combo at a modern yoga or a Pilates studio, or even a salon. It definitely gives off a more feminine vibe from a company that is polished and very structured. The same goes for applying the combo to paragraph styles.
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The roundness of the DM Sans headline gives a friendly, modern, and personable feel to the page. The circular E, the rounded Ts, and the unique G inject some personality without distracting the reader. The choice to use Open Sans Light for both the subhead and the body copy helps create visible contrast between the two fonts. Open Sans was optimized for print, web, and mobile interfaces. It has excellent legibility, making it perfect for larger blocks of text. Here we have another pair, Lora and Public Sans.
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Lora, the serif, is a modern serif with a very romantic storytelling quality. When you look at this, it feels like we're about to dive into some great literature or a discussion around art. It appears traditional without feeling dated. Coupling this with Public Sans pulls this wordmark away from any associations with the past and places it in a stylish and forward-thinking category. Unlike the other examples I've shown, I've created this layout using all caps for the headline.
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I wanted to share this with you as all caps headlines can be very popular among brands. Typically, when you read an all caps, it can sometimes register as if the brand is screaming, which depending on your business and the personality of it, it could come off a tad aggressive or maybe just overly energetic, turning potential clients away. Lora, although very beautiful in lower case as well, has a tall and humble quality in all caps that softens the tone and volume that you might read the headline in.
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Using Public Sans in the subhead and body copy allows the viewer to enjoy all the beautiful details that Lora has to offer without distracting the eye. Okay, that was a lot. And if you're tired, I do not blame you. But not to worry, I've put everything you've just seen in the template below this video. I promise you'll be laughing at how easy it is to use. I've really done all the work for you, meaning no hunting, searching, or crying over fonts anymore. And again, we're just getting our channel started.
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So if you liked this video, it would be super awesome if you could hit the subscribe and notify button. It lets us know that the content we are creating is of value to you, and it also helps expand our reach, meaning we'd be able to help more business owners and professionals. Thanks for sticking with me. I hope you have an awesome day.
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