Fonts for Luxury Brands
We’ve talked about fonts for fashion here on the blog before. And there’s a big overlap between the kinds of fonts used in fashion (especially the high-end stuff) and those used for other luxury brands.
It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a recent trend towards simple and unfussy sans serifs even for well-established luxury brands like Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent — something highlighted in a recent New York Times piece, When in Doubt, Tweak the Logo, by Aileen Kwun.
High contrast fonts aren’t the only kind that immediately bring to mind fashion or luxury fashion, but their long association makes them an obvious shoe-in. However, high contrast doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re stuck with the so-called Didone typefaces, like Bodoni and Didot. We have many other options that still speak to luxury. Here are some of my recommendations for typefaces that can be used effectively for luxury — or aspiring luxury — brands. Let’s kick off this series with three quality typefaces available from the ILT font store:
Magnat
Here’s a very contemporary sans serif design that blends Didone-esque contrast with Grotesque proportions. René Bieder’s Magnat superfamily is a great example of a shapeshifting hybrid family of typefaces that takes inspiration from genres rooted in disparate aesthetics and different historical periods. The result is novel, fresh, and luxurious. Available in a lower contrast text family and two display families — Head and Poster — the latter exhibiting the highest level of contrast (save that one larger sizes where that contrast sparkles). You can read more about Magnat in Fonts in the Twilight Zone, and in Steven Heller’s Font of the Month.
Erotique
For an edgy and contemporary display typeface with tons of character, take a closer look at Erotique from Italian type foundry, Zetafonts. High contrast letters with some thoroughly modern ligatures (especially cool for logos or word-marks), hairline connections, and scores of alternate letterforms. If you’re looking to buck the growing sans serif branding trend, then Erotique could be just right for you, and could be an especially good choice for high-end but younger aspirational brands that want to stand out in a sea of sans.
Lavigne
Retype’s Lavigne is a Didone-style typeface but with some gorgeous organic touches — most evident in the terminals (the ends of strokes). This aspect of the design means that the typeface appears less rigid and feels warmer than the typically austere Didones. Lavigne comes with Text and Display variants, which is useful when you need to display copy without having to reach for another font family.
Stay tuned for part two…
Related:
Fonts for Human-centered Branding
Why Bodoni for Fashion?
Photo credit:
Laura Chouette
