How do you say “snow” and “fun” in a graphic design through font choice? During a recent design project, we were tasked with creating a non-denominational holiday e-card that screams “winter holidays” without a religious connotation. After many attempts, we ended up with a good balance with the chosen font in our layout.

This design exercise reminds me of something I have been noticing a lot of lately in the form of political campaign signage, and what it makes me feel. Here are some examples we’ve been seeing so much of lately and what I FEEL as a graphic designer, when viewing the typography associated with the candidates’ signage:

Signage Font Notes: Bold, traditional serif. Light lettering knocked out of dark background: high impact. Contrast of scale and style.
What It Says: Careful balance. Instant impact with soft appeal. Feels contemporary, with a nod to tradition.

Signage Font Notes: Super bold, heavy, semi-serif. Single font throughout. High impact white on dark background color.
What It Says: Confident. Boad typeface feels positively capable. Extremely heavy.

For all types of projects, it is important to be aware of how font choice is crucial to the emotional response of your audience. We find this to be true everywhere from the fonts we choose for our websites, to the typeface used for the word marks and logos we design.