Ever since Harlow Gale used psychological theories and scientific methods to study marketing and excel the process of persuasion back in 1895, psychology became an inseparable part of any successful marketing effort.

Even now, while client-centric marketing is taking its hold in this industry, psychology is still playing a crucial role when it comes to design. Logo design is not an exception. In fact, the only thing that has changed over the years is the attention span of an average user and the diversity and quantity of advertising content found around us, especially on the Internet.

Here are some key aspects of the psychology of logo typography and how changing something very small can mean a huge difference for the audience.

The Font Color

The psychology of colors in the marketing industry was always a subject worth exploring. It is no secret that different colors affect people in different ways. And not only that, but the same color has a different effect on people depending on their gender, age and geographical location. When you add the results of the psychological research to this, you’ll see how personal experiences, preferences, cultural differences and the context given at the time of seeing the color all have an effect on how the color will affect each of us individually.

With this in mind, choosing a color upon which you will build your brand identity is very important. So, here are some psychological effects that color appropriateness has on the viewers.

The sky blue font color is great option if you want to build a brand identity that will be perceived by people as honest, cheerful, original, and family oriented. Green stands for reliable, intelligent and successful, and this is why it’s very often found in typography logos of banks and other financial institutions. Colors from the red palette are used when you want to tell the viewers that your company is trendy, cool, spirited, imaginative, and contemporary.

When it comes to the gender of the target audience, you might want to consider different colors. For starters, you should know that men love bold colors, while women prefer softer ones. Brown, orange and purple are the favorite colors for men while women prefer orange, grey and brown. As you can see, there are certain similarities when it comes to color preferences. But we can see that there are many brands whose logos work outside gender stereotypes. Since logo design becomes really demanding, many companies are also outsourcing logo design to specialized creative studios.

Font Type and Psychology

People have similar responses to different types of fonts as they have for colors. This is why, in a certain sense, we can talk about the psychology of typefaces. In combination with the right color, your logo can invoke a powerful emotion.

Here are the 5 most common font types and which emotions, feelings, and associations they can inspire.

Let’s start with the Serif font family:

• Times New Roman is a great choice for companies who like to emphasize on tradition or traditional values.
• Trajan is associated with respect.
• Baskerville sends the message that the company is reliable.
• Georgia Italic inspires comfort.

The next big font family is Sans Serif:

• Helvetica Bold stands for stability.
• Franklin Gothic is associated with objectiveness.
• Calibri is associated with cleanness.
• Myriad Italic is considered contemporary.

The modern font family should also be taken into consideration:

• Futura – Strong message.
• Itc Avant Garde Extra light – progressive.
• Didot – Stylish.
• Century Gothic – Chic.

The display font family consists of:

• Cooper, which is viewed as friendly.
• Space Age Round is considered unique.
• Valencia is expressive.
• Giddyup is amusing.

And the last family is the Script font family:

• The Bickham Script font is considered incredibly elegant.
• Edwardian Script inspires affection.
• Lavanderia increases creativity.

Font combinations are also a great way to inspire certain emotions in the audience. And there are some really nice examples that can testify to this.

There are also many other inspiring ways to catch the viewer’s attention. Kerning is one of them. Manipulating the space between letters and playing with certain letters by rotating them by 180 degrees is an excellent way to attract viewers and let the logo tell them your company’s story.

As you can see, all the elements of a logo add up to the final message that you want to send to the viewer. Not only that, but a well-designed typography logo will catch attention and the gestalt of its elements will have a different impact, depending on the font, white space and color.

The gestalt of this element also inspires viewers to add a specific meaning to a logo. This is why many agencies advise to conduct several pilot studies in order to get feedback that will point out if there are any discrepancies between what you want to tell with your logo and what the viewers are hearing.

Human attention is still the subject of many studies and we can certainly expect to see some new discoveries being made in this field.

Written by Sam Makad: Sam Makad is a business consultant. He helps small & medium enterprises to grow their businesses and Overall ROI. He is associated with Artworkadobe.