Top 20 Most Influential Fonts in Graphic Design

What comes to your mind when you think of Coca-Cola and FedEx? Apart from their products and services, I think what everyone remembers about them is the logo. Both these firms have fantastic logos, something which their customers adore and identify with. And behind these and many more such amazing logos are the amazing fonts which made those designs possible.

Fonts are the ones that help a text or design stand out. There are a huge number of different font types available. Some of them have been used and adapted by designers and organizations for decades, making them the most influential fonts in graphic design. This list is about those fonts. Check them out.

1. Helvetica

Graphic designers from around the world would agree that Helvetica is the most influential as well as the most widely used font till date. This sans-serif typeface was created by Max Meidinger, a well known Swiss designer and Eduard Hoffmann.

Helvetica has various versions for Latin, Greek, Japanese, Hindi, Hebrew and more. World’s top brands like AT&T, American Airlines, Microsoft and Toyota have chosen this font type in their marketing campaigns. You can download the original Helvetica versions here on Linotype.

2. Futura

Futura is another sans-serif typeface widely used in graphic design. This font is based on geometric shapes and used in logos, displays and books where the text size needed is not significantly large. It was first used commercially in 1927 when it was released by the Bauer type foundry.

There are different versions of this font like the Futura Black, Futura Display, Futura Condensed etc. Check all the versions of Futura here.

3. Garamond

Garamond is a very old typeface said to have first created for the French King Francis I in the 1540s. Since then this style serif typeface has been used in various forms across the world. The modern version which is the most popular is called Adobe Garamond which finds its place in textbooks and magazines. You can also find it in the different editions of Harry Potter.

4. Bodoni

Bodoni, which is named after its creator Giambattista Bodoni is primarily used for headlines and logos. It has been used in books for the last three hundred years. One of its versions, which was designed by Chauncey H. Griffith, is called Poster Bodoni. This version finds use in posters and big displays.

Since Bodoni has an aesthetic look, it is also used in decorative text. Hilton Hotels uses this typeface in their restaurant menu content.

5. Frutiger

Frutiger was first used at the Charles De Gaulle International Airport in France for their new signage. It was designed by the Swiss designer Adrian Frutiger and you could see this font being widely used in signage, symbols, displays and similar design work.

The font has many variations and available as sans-serif, serif and ornamental typefaces. You can also find it on many websites and web 2.0 apps.

6. Trajan

Trajan is an influential font which is widely used in movie posters and promotions. Trajan Bold, one of the versions of this font was used in the posters of many great movies including Titanic. The font design is inspired from the fonts inscribed on emperor Trajan’s column (a monument in Rome) and derived its name from the same.

This font was designed by Carol Twombly in 1989 for Adobe. Check out its different versions here.

7. Myriad

Myriad is another great font designed by Carol Twombly (and Robert Slimbach) for Adobe in the nineties. The best use of this font could be found in all Apple products and marketing campaigns as it is Apple’s corporate font (although lately some of the Apple’s products have used other font types).

Myriad has many versions like Myriad Pro, Myriad Web, Myriad Wild and more.

8. Minion

Minion is a serif typeface which is used in educational materials in many universities. Designed by Robert Slimbach for Adobe, it has many variations like Minion Expert, Minion Cyrillic, Minion Pro, Minion Std Black and more.

9. Bembo

Bembo font first featured in Cardinal Bembo’s book De Aetna, which described his journey to Mount Aetna in Italy. This was way back in the 14th century. Since then this serif typeface (old style) has gone through many variations and also inspired the development of Roman typography.

The modern face of this font was designed by Stanley Morison in 1929. There are different versions of this font like Bembo Italic, Alt, Expert etc which are used for various purposes.

10. Baskerville

The next influential font in the series of serif typefaces is Baskerville. Designed by John Baskerville from England (and named after him) in 1757, this font was the result of an experiment to improve upon some other typefaces, mainly Caslon.

Baskerville’s different designs and its different sizes are used widely in books, especially text books and other form of printed educational materials.

11. Rockwell

Rockwell is a variation of the geometric slab serif design primarily used by Egyptians in the early nineteenth century. It was first used by Monotype Corporation in 1934 and since then has found its way into many popular products including Time magazine and Apple’s Tiger operating system.

The font is used mainly for headlines, short text and posters.

12. Verdana

While Verdana may not find love among graphic designers today, no one can deny that it is one of the most influential fonts which has contributed immensely to web graphics and design over the past two decades. Designed for Microsoft in the year 1996, it was and still continues to be one of the core fonts of the web.

13. Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic is one of sans-serif fonts designed by the celebrated American typeface designer Morris Fuller Benton. This font has various versions with different widths and is used widely in advertisement campaigns, displays, billboards, books and other such forms of media.

14. Times New Roman

Who can forget Times New Roman when creating a list like this one. Probably the most ubiquitous typeface ever, Times New Roman is used extensively in books, magazines and various other forms of printed material. The font was designed by Stanley Morison and Victor Lardent, and it first appeared on 3 October 1932 in the issue of the famous British newspaper, The Times.

15. Gill Sans

Gill Sans first appeared in England in 1928 when it was introduced by Monotype. This sans-serif typeface was originally designed by Douglas Cleverdon and later adapted developed by Eric Gill. Inspired by Edward Johnston’s font design for London Underground, this font finds use in a variety of products and designs like Mac OS X and some Microsoft products.

16. Univers

Univers, a font designed by Adrian Frutiger has lots of similarities with Helvetica. Univers’ design is such that it can be easily read from long distances when compared to other fonts. Hence you could find it being used for signage and by various airline companies. Some of the prominent firms which used this font are Swiss International Air Lines, Deutsche Bank and Frankfurt airport.

17. Clarendon

Clarendon is an old slab serif typeface developed in the early nineteenth century in Great Britain. During that period of industrialization, this font was used by a huge number of establishments in England and other European countries. Recently, it came into prominence when the well known restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday used it in their re-branding initiative.

18. FF DIN

DIN means Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardisation). FF DIN is a modern font designed by a Dutch designer and is being used lately by many prominent firms as part of their corporate identity. Some of those firms include Adidas, JetBlue Airways and American Eagle Outfitters.

19. Avenir

Avenir is another font in the series of popular fonts designed by Adrian Frutiger. The font is classified as a geometric sans-serif typeface and used widely in printed matter where it adds style and clarity to the text. Like the other fonts, this one also has many versions to choose from.

20. Warnock Pro

Warnock Pro was designed by Robert Slimbach and named after John Warnock, the co-founder of Adobe Systems. Considered as one of the most influential typefaces designed in the 21st century, Warnock Pro is a part of an opentype font family which has various versions and used in many products (ex - Adobe CS).

Tags: art tools, fonts, graphic design