How Important Is A Font For Aesthetically Pleasing Logos and Graphic Design?

Christine Zhu
3 min readMar 24, 2021

The other day, while helping to create a minimalist design, I once again realized just how much a font could change the design of a graphic or design entirely. Everyone’s sense of aesthetic is different, and what is considered ‘aesthetically pleasing’ certainly changes with time as well, but the smallest things like a font could make a huge difference. It’s why people now make fun of Comic Sans and it’s typically no longer used in graphic design unless as a joke. So here’s what I discovered in my font journey:

Text stating HELLO est. 2021 in Comic Sans font

This font is:

  • Comic Sans.
  • Mostly for fun. I couldn’t resist a “graphic design is my passion” joke in here too.
  • A meme, even now in 2021.

As you’ll see, this font wouldn’t work amongst the other contenders that are coming up.

Text stating HELLO est. 2021 in Times New Roman font

This font is:

  • Times New Roman, the first font we decided to test out.
  • Fine, but that’s it.
  • Boring. But inoffensive
  • Generic, and missing something.

It could be better, but there’s not much to it overall. Thinking that maybe sans serif wasn’t what we needed, I tried cursive.

Text stating HELLO est. 2021 in calligraphy font

This font:

  • Is a cursive font that mimics a calligraphy look.
  • Conveys a different image entirely.
  • Wasn’t the clean, sleek look I was trying to go for with our design.
  • Displays something more cute and whimsical, but wasn’t what I needed.

After this, I decided I wanted to go back to a sans serif font — but which one? The thing with sans serif fonts is that it’s difficult to discern what it is about it that’s wrong since they all seem so similar. But I decided to try a few different ones, and eventually found the one I fell in love with.

Text stating HELLO est. 2021 in Vogue font

This font:

  • Closely resembles the iconic Vogue logo font!
  • Is a sans serif font that is much thinner, taller, and looks overall cleaner.
  • Fits the minimalist design that I had in mind, but also feels stylish.

Even though it’s similar to Times New Roman in its design, it’s almost entirely different as well. This was the font I ended up using! The logo I created will end up on a sweater, and after suffering through staring at sans serif fonts for too many minutes, I finally found one I would be happy to wear around proudly.

Fonts are important when creating logos and in aesthetically pleasing graphic design. Which is why I don’t mind spending hours clicking through the various fonts on my computer, and scouring the internet for the font that I’m seeking out, but haven’t quite found yet. But when I do find it, and everything clicks in place, it’s a moment of revelation that always feels great when I look back at the finished product.

Originally posted on xenanguyen.com

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Christine Zhu

Hello! I'm Christine, currently a senior at the University of Connecticut with a passion for writing in all forms.