In what way are default typefaces like a bad nose job?

 

The digital age is certainly bringing sweeping changes to business communications both internally and externally, and seemingly all for the better. Web, social media, ppts, tablets and mobiles enable terrific functionality for everyone who wants it. But owning a Ferrari doesn’t make you a great driver, in fact it is more likely to highlight your shortcomings. The need to control quality of presentation and flow of information does not change and applies as much with new media as with traditional printed material.

 

The temptation to undervalue design in key communications is all too clear in output we see. Websites which appear as a clutter, a wild chocolate box of demanding images and buttons with no clear structure or sense of priority of information are not uncommon.
Worryingly, from the perspective of a lover of typography, organisations are beginning to use default fonts such as Calibra or Verdana as their corporate font, purely for reasons of functionality. There is no doubt about the usefulness of these fonts in digital situations where font choice is greatly restricted, but extend their use as a principal corporate font at your peril!

 

Your corporate image or brand, often creates your first impression as a company. Like your face, it carries immediate recognition to all who look upon it and your associated performance and achievements. Your logo, font, colour palette, design elements, wording, tone and quality of design are the features which make up that corporate face. In the world of typography (a world dominated by functionalists as much as by aesthetes) fonts such as Calibri and Verdana are at best clumsy and at worst, plain ugly. In other words, they're not creating a good first impression.

 

Good quality fonts are not just eye candy, in addition to displaying high quality on the 'face' of the user, they also pack the added punch of being technically smoother and easier to read, making the words flow through the eye which, when combined with good quality writing and design, become a pleasure to read and significantly upgrade the power and appeal of the end products.
Good quality fonts combined with a strong identity, good design, typography and writing will portray a respect-worthy, professional company with a powerful appeal and an attractive proposition, thus keeping you ahead of your competitors - by a nose.

 

That just leaves you to handle the demand.