Typography is not a finishing touch. It is the structural foundation of how your brand communicates. And most brands are getting it wrong in ways they don't realise.

The first and most common mistake is using too many typefaces. More than two type families in a brand system — three at an absolute maximum, and only with clear hierarchy — creates visual noise that reads as amateurism, regardless of how sophisticated the content is. Each typeface you add is a decision your reader's eye has to process. Restraint is a skill. Develop it.

The second mistake is treating body copy as an afterthought. Brands obsess over their display typeface — the one that appears in headlines and hero sections — while their body copy defaults to whatever system font came with the template. This is backwards. Your users spend far more time reading body copy than headlines. Invest in it accordingly.

The third mistake is ignoring type at different scales. A typeface that looks beautiful at 80px can become illegible at 14px. Your brand system needs to work at every size it will actually appear: on a billboard, on a mobile screen, in an email footer, in a legal document. If you haven't tested your type at those scales, you haven't finished the work.

The fourth mistake is poor line length and leading. Lines that are too long fatigue the reader. Leading that is too tight suffocates the text. These are not aesthetic preferences — they are readability science. For body copy, aim for 60 to 75 characters per line. For leading, 1.5 times your font size is a reliable baseline.

Typography done well is invisible. The reader doesn't notice the type — they just find themselves trusting the brand more than they expected to. That's the goal.

Typography is not a finishing touch. It is the structural foundation of how your brand communicates. And most brands are getting it wrong in ways they don't realise.

The first and most common mistake is using too many typefaces. More than two type families in a brand system — three at an absolute maximum, and only with clear hierarchy — creates visual noise that reads as amateurism, regardless of how sophisticated the content is. Each typeface you add is a decision your reader's eye has to process. Restraint is a skill. Develop it.

The second mistake is treating body copy as an afterthought. Brands obsess over their display typeface — the one that appears in headlines and hero sections — while their body copy defaults to whatever system font came with the template. This is backwards. Your users spend far more time reading body copy than headlines. Invest in it accordingly.

The third mistake is ignoring type at different scales. A typeface that looks beautiful at 80px can become illegible at 14px. Your brand system needs to work at every size it will actually appear: on a billboard, on a mobile screen, in an email footer, in a legal document. If you haven't tested your type at those scales, you haven't finished the work.

The fourth mistake is poor line length and leading. Lines that are too long fatigue the reader. Leading that is too tight suffocates the text. These are not aesthetic preferences — they are readability science. For body copy, aim for 60 to 75 characters per line. For leading, 1.5 times your font size is a reliable baseline.

Typography done well is invisible. The reader doesn't notice the type — they just find themselves trusting the brand more than they expected to. That's the goal.

Typography is not a finishing touch. It is the structural foundation of how your brand communicates. And most brands are getting it wrong in ways they don't realise.

The first and most common mistake is using too many typefaces. More than two type families in a brand system — three at an absolute maximum, and only with clear hierarchy — creates visual noise that reads as amateurism, regardless of how sophisticated the content is. Each typeface you add is a decision your reader's eye has to process. Restraint is a skill. Develop it.

The second mistake is treating body copy as an afterthought. Brands obsess over their display typeface — the one that appears in headlines and hero sections — while their body copy defaults to whatever system font came with the template. This is backwards. Your users spend far more time reading body copy than headlines. Invest in it accordingly.

The third mistake is ignoring type at different scales. A typeface that looks beautiful at 80px can become illegible at 14px. Your brand system needs to work at every size it will actually appear: on a billboard, on a mobile screen, in an email footer, in a legal document. If you haven't tested your type at those scales, you haven't finished the work.

The fourth mistake is poor line length and leading. Lines that are too long fatigue the reader. Leading that is too tight suffocates the text. These are not aesthetic preferences — they are readability science. For body copy, aim for 60 to 75 characters per line. For leading, 1.5 times your font size is a reliable baseline.

Typography done well is invisible. The reader doesn't notice the type — they just find themselves trusting the brand more than they expected to. That's the goal.