One of the things that messes up a design faster than almost anything else is the choice of fonts. Lots of fonts. As many fonts as the person feels he or she can use. The result is a fragmented mess that screams “amateur!” to anyone who reads it.
There are good font choices, and bad ones, but the first bad choice is “Lots!” There are almost no ads, magazines, fliers or other documents that need more than two typefaces, one for headlines and subheads, and one for text. In the last few days I’ve seen a small product label with five different typefaces on it, and a newsletter that used a different font for almost every paragraph. In both cases, the only thing wrong with the design was too many fonts. The rest would have worked fine. So I thought it was time to make the point again.
It helps if you recognize that every piece of type on a page, label, flier, website or billboard has a voice. That voice can be LOUD or soft, stern (like Times Roman) or elegant (Palace Script) or playful (Comic Sans – the font designers love to hate). Like the voices in a choir or the instruments in a band, the collective voices of your text can be in unison, can harmonize or can be a cacophony.
How about this: a barbershop quartet with kazoo, electric bass and washboard accompaniment? It might work as comedy, but it will never be taken seriously as music. In the same way, a page that has 24 point Arial Bold titles, 16 point Times Roman Bold Italic headlines, 12 point Verdana text and various subheads in Palace Script or Comic Sans might also work as comedy, at least to designers. But it will never, ever look like a professional or aesthetic communication to anyone.
Just because you have two hundred or so fonts on your computer is no reason to use them. Really.
Make good font choices. Never use more than two on a page without seeking professional advice. Trust me on this.
