In an age where type foundries and independent typographers are creating more high-quality fonts than ever before, it seems like every typeface we could ever need has already been created. With so many options at our fingertips, it is easy to assume that there isn’t much of a place for custom type anymore. However, there are times when pre-existing fonts miss the mark, and a more tailored solution is needed.
At Designsensory, we love custom lettering because:
It’s timeless.
From the beloved Coca-Cola logo to some of our newer brands (Hello, PopFizz!), hand-rendered type is an art. When it is done beautifully, it can stand the test of time to represent an unchanging promise in a changing world. As type styles ebb and flow, there’s something relatable that still stands about type that is hand-drawn.
By changing its color, Pop Fizz’s logo can have a variety of looks—while the letters themselves are unchanging.
It’s custom.
Typographers make typefaces that are supposed to be used for a variety of projects. By nature, their letterforms have to hold up, regardless of the order in which someone types them. Although there are accommodations, like glyphs and ligatures, that can give alternate styles of letters, they still can come up short because the fonts still have to work within such a tight system. With type drawn by hand, we can avoid some of those problems by writing just the letters we need, allowing them to be a lot more free-flowing than generic letters.
Soak in Roane’s logo allows for the “OA” to be larger, while still keeping the stroke width in scale. Because we knew the letters we needed, we could make the logo centered around using the letterforms themselves.
It shows personality.
Your brand can cut through the clutter when it has its own je ne sais quoi that gives it its distinct appeal. In a digital age, it’s refreshing to have something that feels human and personal. Whether hand-lettering has wobbly letterforms, uses uneven strokes, or is perfectly-drawn, these subtleties can say more about the nuance in a brand’s personality than a typographer who made a font without your company in mind.
In a collaboration with Jon Contino, the Tennessee Vacation Guide has soulful type, with a musical flair.
It’s unique.
Remember when Lobster hit? It seemed like a cute, cursive font that could be a good tool to keep in our collective back pocket. However, its massive overuse made it kitschy far too quickly for it to ever become a staple. Unfortunately, every font out there is prone to this kind of overuse, and often the best way to protect your brand is to go for something a little more out of the ordinary, a little more unique and a whole lot more lovable.
As it turns out, there weren’t spooky enough typefaces for us to use for Boo At The Zoo’s logo so we took it upon ourselves to make the scariest logo ever with hand-rendered type.
Sometimes premade type is the right solution for a brand or a project, but for those times when readymade typefaces aren’t the answer, hand-rendered type can still save the day, just as it always has … and just like Designsensory. We always love a shameless plug, so hit us up for some jazzy, handmade typefaces!
Creativity meets common sense. When I say common sense, I don’t mean obvious. Graphic designers have a way of creating things that should have been obvious from the things that, in actuality, aren’t. That is what I call gaslighting—kidding! The brain of a graphic designer sees abstract pieces in practical applications. But they also see things as they are. Great designers take strategy and tactic to deploy something beautiful. In logo world, sometimes designers take a person, place or thing, whatever is relevant to the desired brand, and turn it into beautiful iconography. Get ready for examples: 
