Type matters

Safe and friendly? Expensive and powerful? Cool and experimental? Big name brands know that our perception of them can be radically influenced just by choosing the right typeface. We explore some current trends for using type to create brand personality.

Banks using 'chubby' typefaces. Extra bold fonts can create a friendly, approachable, unpretentious tone. NAB led the way with this when it rebranded recently, using the fattest, blockiest type yet seen in a retail bank headline. ANZ have continued the trend, smoothing off the sharp edges and bumping up the weight of the letters in their restyled logo. Westpac do it too. It's all about saying "We're not a hard-headed financial institution. We're playful, human, a bit quirky and on your level." Does it work, yes. Is it believable, well we'll let you decide!

Automotive brands calibrating their style to their target market. Mercedes Benz's tall, elegant serif font reeks of prestige and refinement. Porsche go the other way, and stretch out with a sleek, elongated typeface that's all about speed and exclusivity – a strategy also used with great success by some sportswear brands. One notable exception is Volkswagen, who use the same general-purpose san-serif font across all their range, making them the quiet, unpretentious Ikea of the motoring world.

Arts and entertainment reclaiming "respectable" fonts. Institutions have largely abandoned typefaces associated with stuffy tradition and formality, leaving these fonts to be taken up by those creative types working on the fringe, with varying degrees of irony. If you're reading something that looks like the title page of a leather-bound 19th century volume, there's a good chance it's promoting the latest psych-folk band or experimental fashion label.

What other brands have made an interesting choice with their house typeface?