Letterhead Fonts That Reveal Your Company's Style

Your letterhead, or stationery, says everything about your company with just a few graphics and text. Focusing on fonts, you can craft a concise and compelling communicator with the right typeface selection. Here's how to use letterhead fonts that reveal your company's style:

Define your style

First and foremost, you must identify exactly what your company's style is. Perhaps you're a firm rich with tradition or a contemporary organization promoting modernity. You might want to be regarded as the long-term industry leader or as a reformer on the cutting edge of your market. Maybe you want to appear safe, kindhearted or comforting. No matter what it is that you are, you can use fonts to project that concept onto your letterhead recipients.

Choose a unique font

A lot of people use Futura, Helvetica, Century Gothic and other mainstream fonts for letterhead. There's nothing wrong with that, except that because these fonts are so popular it can be difficult to make a statement with them (even for the best designers). Instead, try some unique fonts created by designers such as LetterHeadFonts.com, which routinely outputs creative fonts sometimes completely original and other times based on previous popular fonts. The following typefaces can give your letterhead just the look it needs to gracefully grab attention:

• LHF Alarm Block
• LHF Alarm Block
• LHF Angel
• LHF Bulldog
• LHF Classic Roman
• LHF Enchanted
• LHF Gloria
• LHF Hick Sticks
• LHF Milkman
• LHF Sadey Pants
• LHF Silent Movie

Craft a custom font

If you can't find the perfect font to complement your business style, don't worry. You can always design a custom font that is 100 percent uniquely yours to use. This is what branding is all about, and when it's pulled off right potential customers can tell who an advertisement is from at a glance just by seeing the font. It takes a special designer and a robust branding campaign to achieve this level of visibility and the recognition that comes with it, but in the end it's worth it because you will have elevated yourself to the ranks of industry leader (much like Microsoft and Nike – custom fonts). If you're not a graphic designer, creating a custom font can be a long and expensive process so make sure you're committed to it before you begin. At the same time, minor changes can be made to existing fonts – such as adding a swirl or tilting the text – to turn it into an original font without as much expense. Helvetica Neue has undergone many transformations because it is easy to customize and it still looks great. In the long run a custom font is the best option for branding purposes, and it depends where you are in the business cycle whether you want to make the investment now or later. Marketing is not only about what something says, but how it says it and even how it looks when it says it. Choosing the best letterhead typeface to showcase your company's style can mean the difference between trash can and shaking hands, so take your time and choose wisely.