How We Choose Typography For Every Project At Buzzvel: A Practical Step by Step Guide

Choosing typography is one of the most important decisions in any digital project. Type shapes how people read, feel, and understand what you put in front of them. It sets the tone before a single paragraph is read. At Buzzvel, we treat typography selection as a structured process, not a guess. We approach it with method, collaboration, and a lot of testing.

This article walks you through how we pick the right typefaces for each project. You can follow these steps yourself and apply them to your own design routine.

1. Start With The Brand, Never With The Fonts

Before we open any font library, we start with the brand. A font choice that looks beautiful but does not fit the personality of the client will break the experience. So our first step is to define the core traits of the brand.

We do this by answering a few questions:

• What values define the brand?

• How should users feel when they interact with it?

• What level of formality should the project communicate?

• Who are the primary users?

If a brand is young, playful, and community driven, we look for typefaces that show warmth and informality. If the brand is corporate or technical, we choose cleaner and more structured shapes. This alignment saves time later because it narrows the universe of possible fonts.

2. Define The Tone You Want Typography To Express

Once we know who the brand is, we define the tone of the typography. At Buzzvel we normally categorize tone into a few simple buckets, which help guide the early search:

• Friendly: Rounded shapes, open counters, lighter rhythm, often used for lifestyle products or customer first businesses.

• Professional: Balanced geometry, consistent weight, medium stroke contrast. Great for SaaS tools, agencies, and B2B brands.

• Elegant: Serif fonts with controlled contrast and detail. Ideal for luxury, editorial, or high-end brands.

• Bold: Strong geometric shapes, heavyweight options, tight design. Often used in marketing campaigns, landing pages, or brands that want energy.

These buckets sound simple because they need to be. Typographic selection gets complicated fast. Clear tone decisions give us a strong starting point.

3. Set Functional Requirements Early

We treat type as a functional tool. Before we care about beauty, we care about performance. A typeface must work well across the entire project, and that means defining requirements upfront.

Here are the functional checks we run at this stage:

• Readability on mobile: Small sizes should stay clear.

• Weight flexibility: We need enough weights to create hierarchy without forcing heavy visual contrast.

• Language support: If a client needs multiple languages, we confirm the typeface supports them.

• Licensing: Fonts must be licensed properly for the scale of the product.

• Page load: Web fonts need to load fast. A slow load kills UX.

These checks remove many fonts from the list. A smaller selection makes evaluation easier.

4. Start With Two Families Only

At Buzzvel, we rarely start with more than two font families. One for headings, one for body text. This helps us design a clean and stable system. If a third family is needed later, we add it with intention.

Here is how we define the roles:

• Heading font: Expressive, strong voice, sets the character of the project.

• Body font: Neutral, readable, stable across lines and paragraphs.

• Optional accent font: Used for highlights or short phrases.

Most projects work perfectly with two. More fonts can create noise, so we avoid it unless the concept calls for variety.

5. Use Our Internal Font Size Scale As A Starting Point

One detail that shapes our work at Buzzvel is our predefined scale of font sizes. We use a consistent set of sizes across projects because it keeps our designs predictable, balanced, and easier to develop.

This scale acts as the backbone for hierarchy. Headings, subheadings, paragraphs, captions and UI labels all have fixed points in the system. It speeds up the early stages of design and keeps the whole team aligned.

Still, we never treat this scale as a rule that cannot be touched. Typography is flexible, and every typeface has its own proportions and personality. Some fonts look too heavy at our default size. Others look too small. So even though we start with our internal scale, we adjust it as needed. When a typeface requires special tuning, we modify sizes, spacing or weight distribution to keep the system visually stable.

This balance between structure and freedom helps us adapt typography to each project without losing consistency.

6. Build A Test Sheet And Compare Options

Once we shortlist around five to eight typefaces, we create a test sheet. This is one of the most important steps in our process.

A Buzzvel test sheet includes:

• Headings in multiple sizes

• Paragraphs in different lengths

• Buttons

• Captions and labels

• UI components like form fields

• A sample landing section

• A dark background variation

• A mobile version

By testing in context, we see how fonts behave under real project conditions. Many typefaces look great on a marketplace page but fall apart inside the UI.

We place fonts side by side in the test sheet. Visual comparison makes strengths and weaknesses obvious. Some fonts feel stable at all sizes. Others feel too wide, too tight, or too light. The goal is to watch how the typeface behaves, not just how it looks.

7. Adjust Letter Spacing And Line Height Early

A font choice is not complete without spacing adjustments. Two typefaces can look completely different with the right or wrong spacing. We tweak:

• Letter spacing for headings

• Line height for paragraphs

• Spacing at small sizes

If a font works only when heavily adjusted, we reconsider it. Good fonts need minimal correction to thrive.

8. Test Real Words From the Project

The next step is to test with an actual copy. We take titles, hero messages, and paragraphs from the future product and rewrite the test sheet using those texts.

This helps us understand how the font expresses the brand voice. For example:

• A neutral sans serif might look strong in the alphabet, but once you test the brand’s main headline, it might feel too rigid.

• A serif might appear elegant in a paragraph, but once you test a CTA button, it might feel out of place.

• Real content reveals problems early, before we commit to anything.

9. Review With The Team

Typography is not chosen alone at Buzzvel. We bring the design team together and review the short list. Each designer brings a different eye, and this discussion helps refine the choice.

We evaluate:

• Is this typeface aligned with the brand traits?

• Does it communicate the tone we want?

• Will it work long term as the system grows?

• Does it keep consistency across platforms?

• Does it keep the interface clean under pressure?

This step ensures the decision is not based on personal taste. It is a design choice, not a preference.

10. Show Clients Only The Best Candidates

Clients should not choose between twenty fonts. That would overwhelm them and produce arbitrary choices. We show two or three options only. Each option represents a different direction, and all options are safe for the product.

We present them in real context:

• Hero sections

• Buttons

• Navigation

• Cards

• Quotes

• Mobile screens

Clients can see the impact of each typeface, not just its shapes. This leads to confident decisions.

11. Finalize Hierarchy And Create The Typographic System

Once the font is approved, we build a clear system the whole team can follow. This includes:

• Heading levels with exact sizes

• Body text rules

• Weight usage

• Spacing guidelines

• Alignment rules

• Use cases for accent text

• Accessibility requirements

A strong typographic system ensures consistency across all designs, from landing pages to mobile UI to marketing materials.

12. Document Everything

The final step is documentation. We add the entire typographic system to the design library and handoff materials. Developers need exact specs, and future designers need a clear reference.

Well documented systems make projects scalable. Typography stays consistent, even as new features, pages, or campaigns appear.

Final Thoughts

Typography is never about choosing a pretty font. It is about building a voice for the project, one that serves the brand and improves the user experience. At Buzzvel, our process blends strategy, testing, and teamwork. We look for typefaces that stay strong under real conditions and that help the product speak clearly.

If you want a reliable way to choose typography for your next project, follow these steps. Start with the brand, define tone, test in context, use a solid size scale, and adjust it when needed. That balance of structure and flexibility is the reason our systems stay solid while still feeling unique.