As an artist, I pride myself on being able to see and create beautiful arrangements and designs, using various elements.
Whether it’s painting, drawing, or sculpting, the tools you use to create beautiful designs matter as much as the way you put elements together to create works of art.
When it comes to font pairing, the tools are the fonts, and how you put them together is the pairing.
Even the most creative minds can experience creative blocks. So, we put together this list of 9 font pairing examples, in case you are searching for fonts for a design, and you need a little inspiration boost.
Font Pairing Explained
Before you jump into font pairing, you can check out this article I wrote recently about how the look of a website can positively or negatively impact SEO.
This will give you a small background as to why typography matters.
Think of font pairing like painting a masterpiece. It’s not enough to paint the most beautiful tree in the world, and then the most beautiful car right next to it.
Good designers always have to answer the question: how/how well are two elements going to fit together in my design.
Font pairing is the same. Two fonts can be the most beautiful fonts separately, but when put together, they can look off-putting, feel off-brand, or just plain look awful together.
How to come up with a successful font pairing
A successful font pairing is one that visually represents the brand and communicates it’s values, personality, and style.
But how do you begin to come up with one?
Coming up with a successful font pairing is an intuitive and personal process.
It starts with thinking about what fonts communicate what the brand is all about. Now, imagine a Law Firm website with a grungy, hand-written script font. Would that evoke security and trustworthiness? Probably not.
There’s also the technical side, which I won’t dive into today, but having a deeper understanding of typography, and how typography can evoke certain emotions in people, can help a designer make better font pairing choices.
But if you would like to learn more about how to pair fonts, and the inner workings of font pairings, below is the best article I have ever read on the subject.
The article is written by the team at Canva. It discusses 10 golden rules to live by when combining fonts.
9 Font Pairing Examples for your inspiration
Now, that we have the basics out of the way, let’s jump right into the 9 font pairing examples you can use to get inspired.
9. Poppins Bold + Lora
About Finreg Partners
Finreg Partners is a law firm that specializes in financial regulations in the fintech industry.
For this project, we needed fonts that were modern yet classical. So, we went with Poppins and Lora.
Poppins is a sans-serif font that falls into the new “Geometric” type. Fonts in this category tend to look and feel more modern than most of their sans-serif counterparts.
Lora is a serif font that falls into the “contemporary” category.
The combination of the modern (geometric) sans-serif font and the contemporary serif gave us the perfect balance of modern and classic we were looking for in a pairing.
8. Gilroy Bold + Noto Serif TC
About Builders Siding
Builders Siding Co is a roofing and siding company located in Chantilly, VA. The company specializes in the installation and replacement of siding, windows, roofs, and other home improvement items.
For this project, we needed fonts that were both bold and inspire trustworthiness. We wanted to tell Builders Siding’s customers, that they can trust this family-owned business with their home improvement projects.
Gilroy Bold is another geometric sans-serif font. Gilroy Bold is bold as the name suggests.
Noto Serif TC is a traditional serif font. These kinds of fonts are often associated with established, trustworthy companies.
The combination of those two fonts gave us the boldness and trustworthiness we were looking for in a pairing.
7. Gilroy Bold + Overpass
About R Nicole Collection
R Nicole Collections is a fashion eCommerce shop for handmade and custom made shoes and other accessories.
For this project, we were looking for modern, elegant and forward-looking.
Gilroy Bold was a perfect fit for the modern feel we were looking for.
We chose Gilroy Bold for it’s modern appeal but also to differentiate R Nicole Collections from other fashion eCommerce shops out there.
Overpass is also a modern sans-serif font developed by Delve Fonts. Thin, longer fonts tend to look and feel elegant. Overpass is a bit elongated, giving us the elegance we wanted.
That, along with the geometric Gilroy, gave us the exact pairing we wanted for this project.
6. Dm Serif Text + DM Sans
About ExpressBuildingBuyers.com
Express building buyers is a company that allows customers to sell their buildings, apartment complexes or set of apartments quickly.
For this project, we needed fonts that had a look and feel that was traditional & trustworthy, yet modern.
So, we went with Dm Serif Text and DM Sans. Having both fonts belong to similar font families gave us the unity we needed in a design.
But, combining a sans-serif font with a serif one gave us the contrast we needed between traditional and modern.
5. Calistoga + Source Sans Pro
About lucasso.me
Lucasso is one of the websites I built for myself. This a website I used to showcase my paintings and try to inspire others to be creative.
For this project, I needed fonts that SCREAMED creativity.
Calistoga belongs to the “display” category of fonts. The beautiful curves that make up this typeface not only say “creative” but also give it a friendly look/feel.
This typeface says “I’m creative, I’m friendly, I’m down to earth”, which is exactly what I was going for.
I paired it with Source Sans Pro, which is another sans-serif font. I choose a sans-serif font here because sans-serif fonts are easier to read on screens.
I specifically chose Source Sans Pro because the strokes are a bit more free-flowing than most other sans-serif fonts, which adds to the creative/friendly look and feel I was going for.
4. Pacifico + Roboto Light
About And A Leash LLC
And A Leash is a dog daycare company in Tampa, FL. I’ve done some research and they are the highest rated dog daycare in that part of Florida (*high five to And A Leash*).
For this project, knowing the company is a dog-friendly place, we wanted fonts that felt friendly and welcoming.
Pacifico belongs to the category of typefaces called “script”. This category of typeface is the one that always looks handwritten.
These handwritten-looking typeface often reminds us of handwritten letters from before technology, which often brings feelings of warmth & friendliness.
I paired this font with Roboto for two simple reasons:
- They look good together.
- Roboto is a sans-serif font, which makes it easier to read on screens.
3. Playfair Display + Quicksand Light
About RegConcile
RegConcile is another law firm specializing in financial regulation including general consulting, anti-money laundering (AML) ect.
For this project, we wanted to make the finished project put the words “trust”, “authority”, and “modern” in the minds of the customers.
So, we chose Playfair Display, a serif font that looks more modern than other serif fonts. We essentially killed three birds with one stone when we chose this font.
We paired it with Quicksand Light, a sans-serif font that helped us accentuate the modern feel of the design.
2. Playfair Display + Overpass
About Social Register Network
Social Register Network is the premier business networking organization exclusively for business owners, executives, young professionals, entrepreneurs & influencers.
Full disclosure, we are a corporate sponsor for Social Register Las Vegas. But, rest assured it’s not why they are included in this. We really are proud and happy about our font pairing for this design.
For this project, the owner wanted the finished website to look classic, elite, but modern.
So, we turned to our friend Playfair Display again. At the time, it was the font that was going to accurately capture all three adjectives the owner wanted.
This time, however, we paired the serif font with another font we’ve discussed in this article previously: Overpass.
We thought this lengthier sans-serif font would add a bit of elegance to the overall design, which would make it look and feel more elite.
1. BW Darius + Nexa Bold
Call me biased, but this might be the best font-pairing we have ever come up with.
For this project, I wanted something bold and creative. While looking for fonts, I stumbled upon BW Darius. As soon as I saw this typeface, I knew it was the one.
This font says both bold and creative. Additionally, the fact that it’s a serif font adds the trustworthiness factor to the design.
I paired BW Darius with a sans-serif (Nexa Bold) font for readability reasons, but also because it looked great next to BW Darius.
Additional Resources
So, there you have it. It’s our list of 9 font pairing examples for your inspiration. But, wait. There’s more.
If you’ve stumbled upon this article, that means you want to learn more about design either for your business or just for self-improvement.
Here are additional resources to help you learn more about fonts and font pairing.
Where to find fonts
Below are a few links where you can find fonts, both for free or to purchase.
NOTE: Most of the fonts we used for our design are free. Depending on your project and/or budget, feel free to check out some paid options. They often are better quality, and you’d possibly be helping a starving artist. 🙂
Additional Font Pairing resources
In addition to the website above to help you find fonts, here are more websites to give you even more inspiration for font pairing.
That’s all folks. I truly hope you like the article and that it was somewhat helpful to you. If you have any feedback or any other suggestions for font pairings, leave a comment below.