20 Most Famous Fonts (And How to Get Them)
Now that we all live in a world where we’re surrounded at all times by marketing logos and people trying to sell us something, sooner or later you’ll start to recognize the fonts used in those logos and to get a feel for what you like and don’t like if you want to create a logo of your own.
It’s a good idea to create your logo before you create your webpage and to make sure it matches your business service or product in style, character and appearance. Part of your design process should be studying well-known logos to try to understand why they stand out and why the designers used the font they did.
It’s undeniable that the font called Helvetica, invented in Sweden in 1957, is the all time most-used font for brand recognition. Some of our best known products use Helvetica in their logo, including Microsoft, American Airlines, Staples, Jeep, Motorola, Dole, and Mattel – to name just a few.
There are hundreds – maybe even thousands – of fonts out there and each one often has several variations. To save time, check out these additional 19 now-famous fonts; they worked for the company involved and they might work for you. Each font is linked to the site where you can download it for your own use.
- Twitter: Pico Alphabet (Modified)
- Digg: FFF Forward
- Flickr: Fruitiger Black
- YouTube: Alternate Gothic No.2
- Facebook: Klavika (Modified)
- Google: Catull BQ
- Yahoo: Yahoo Font
- Hulu: Futura MDd BT (Modified)
- Mapquest: Cheap Motel
- Linkedin: Myriad Pro Bold
- Skype: Helvetica Rounded Bold
- Myspace: Arial Rounded Bold
- Wikipedia: Hoefler Text
- Ebay: Univers (Modified)
- MsnBC: Gothan Medium
- IMDb: Impact T
- Adobe: Myriad Condensed Bold
- Paypal: Verdana Bold Italic
- Netflix: Graphique Pro
If you find a logo that you like but don’t know the name of the font used, there is a handy online tool that might help. What The Font is a service provided by MyFonts.com, one of the biggest font suppliers on the Internet. Besides the catchy name, the tool is very helpful in identifying an unknown font used in a logo. Just upload an image of the font and you’ll get a list of possible font name matches that you can compare to known fonts online.
There’s no guarantee that just because you choose to use a font from a famous logo yours is going to become instantly recognizable too. After all, a great service or product backs up each and every one of these well-known logos and they wouldn’t have endured if the business wasn’t what it promoted itself to be.
Sonia Mansfield is the content editor for PsPrint and editor of PsPrint Design Blog. She likes to write, do yoga and make nerdy “Star Wars†and “Simpsons†references. PsPrint is an online commercial printing company specializing in cheap printing. You can follow PsPrint on Twitter @PsPrint
Just to clarify – Helvetica’s from Switzerland, not Sweden.
Love type and this is quite useful – have a look at my site http://www.cyondesign.com and check my typography timeline that I created as part of my BA.
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