What is trending in 2022?
Font pairings are vital in today’s digital age. This is a curated list for 2022. Each of these pairings works for a variety of mediums and will be a strong choice for your next project. These are all open-source fonts and we owe Google many thanks for being so awesome about open source projects. Find them here.
Most designers know, but if you do not, open-source fonts are free to use personally and professionally and corporate work is able to hold these within your projects without having to pay for attribution or provide it everywhere you use it. In addition, these fonts work brilliantly for the web because they are optimized and they are installed in most major web browsers. This provides a simple means of using code to “call” the fonts from the servers that Google uses to store them.
Considerations
What to consider when putting together a pairing: First, we need to determine the audience. Second, the motif or the “vibes” of the composition. Third, is the fonts themselves. As we take a minute to step back we recognize that before we even consider aspects of the font such as font weight, character height, width, etc. we must have a clear direction. I will discuss what type of font characteristics to use when in a later article. For now, let’s get on with it!
Pairing 01
Poppinsbold. | Julius Sans One.
The best way to use this font is to use a couple of best practices. The first is to make sure that the font weight of Poppins is big and chunky, think big Chungus. The second is to make sure that the line height (distance between the two lines of text) is closer than normal. Third, is to keep the kerning about standard. I do sometimes deviate and put a little kerning in the Julius Sans One font if there are widows/orphans or if I am trying to get the line of texts to be the same width.
Pairing 02
Advent Pro bold. | Lato Normal.
In this pairing, I think that the futuristic motif comes through a bit. Advent Pro is one of my personal favorites and I feel as though it will be a trending font in the future. Let me dive into a couple of best practices. First, be sure to stay to the standard font weights for Advent Pro i.e. do not add strokes to increase the weight: either it works or it doesn’t. Second, utilize these fonts when you are looking for a modern contemporary or new-age minimal design aesthetic to help bring those motifs into a more “techy” and “clean” alignment.
Pairing 03
Lora regular. | Open Sans light, make sure it’s light.
This pairing is a beautiful one, and one of my favorites. It is a chic style that provides a luxury and minimal vibe. The biggest part about this font is to make sure that you use the light version of Open Sans. This might be a good time to explain that when you download a Google font you need to pay attention to the right-hand side menu and click into the font from the search tiled area to select or deselect certain weights and style iterations. That principle also applies to implementing these fonts into a site or an app, make sure that you have the right styles and weights.
Pairing 04
MontserratExtraBold. | Nunito Normal.
This pairing is one of my favorites for a corporation or small business. It is clean and undeniably modern. There is no disputing the pairing’s professional appearance and this works great on brochures and websites. The best practice for this font is to use some additional tracking- especially with Nunito. With the ability to add additional tracking this font is a brilliant choice for print and digital body copy because you can make sure to avoid any lines of single text or words that look unprofessional.
Executive Summary.
The power of typography is understated in today’s designs. We are coming off of trends like handwritten fonts and are now turning into clean and stylized custom typography. Don’t be afraid to utilize text effects and create a consistent look throughout. Elizabeth Carey Smith stated that “Type is branding. More designers should understand what an opportunity that is.” I echo her recommendation and would suggest that now, more than ever this is true- don’t miss the opportunity! That’s it.
Stay humble and hustle harder.
-Nate K.