The Best Free Fonts for Logos & Branding: Part One
Tracking down the perfect font for your logo or brand design project can be difficult. Finding a free logo font that fits the bill can be even trickier. Here, we’ve done the hard work for you, scouring the web for the very best free logo fonts to use in a range of branding projects, from luxury logos to start-up branding.
If you’re creating an identity for a high-end brand, tech business or retail or beauty company, you’re sure to find something here to make your project shine.
If you’re designing for a…luxury brand
High-end brands require logo fonts that are as luxurious as the products and services on offer. Convey an impression of aspiration and luxury with typefaces inspired by elegant eras.
Delicate sans serif fonts with traces of Art Nouveau and Art Deco styling look unfailingly stylish, while geometric sans serifs with a humanist touch balance contemporary design with a hand-crafted look.
1. Imperia
Influenced by Roman-lifted Trajan and infused with a classical, 1930s spirit, Imperia is a sans serif font with a traditional and noble feel, making it the perfect partner for luxury branding.
One style is available for free download here.
2. Mostra Nuova
Authentically Art Deco in nature, Mostra Nuova is inspired by lettering found on Italian Art Deco posters and advertising.
With a huge range of weights, all of which are free to download as web fonts, this is a flexible and charming typeface, ideally suited for online luxury branding.
3. Contax Sans
Created by Alex Kaczun in 2011, Contax Sans is a humanist geometric sans serif logo font with 1930s heritage.
Easy to read and quietly luxurious, this would work beautifully for high-end packaging and logo design.
4. Infini
An oblique, humanist sans serif logo font, Infini’s chunky character makes it supremely satisfying to look at, as well as offering excellent readability.
Four weights are available for free download from FontSquirrel.
5. Proza Libre
This elegant humanist typeface balances gentle curves with geometric proportions, making for an extremely chic font.
Lending subtle 1920s styling to logos, Proza Libre balances vintage character and contemporary crispness for a cutting-edge look.
6. Julius Sans
A delicate and ultra-minimal font from Chilean type foundry LatinoType, Julius Sans takes inspiration from 1930s display typefaces.
Best rendered in uppercase, this font would work particularly beautifully for hotel or spa branding.
If you’re designing for a…start-up or tech brand
Contemporary, cutting-edge and user-friendly—attributes many start-ups and tech brands aspire to, and these qualities should apply to your choice of logo fonts too.
Rounded typefaces communicate friendliness and usability, while clean and minimal sans serif styles keep logos looking fresh and tech-oriented.
7. Inter
Owing a stylistic debt to Helvetica and Avenir, Inter is a highly legible and clear sans serif logo font with an efficient and industrial design.
Adaptable for a range of media, from signage to apps, this typeface would be an excellent workhorse for an IT or engineering business.
8. Museo Sans
Sturdy, geometric and ultra-clear, Museo Sans is based on the extremely popular Museo, developed by Exljbris foundry.
Slightly rounded letterforms give the typeface a friendly and open look, and two weights, 500 and 500 Italic, are available for free download.
9. Cambay
A clean, no-frills font created by Indian type designer Pooja Saxena, Cambay features subtle curves and slants, to create a simple logo font with quirky relatability.
Team with a display font for brand identities to make the most of its highly legible and sensible nature.
10. Simpel
Designed by Janko Jovanovic, Simpel is a low-contrast, geometric sans serif with a liberal dose of diagonal angles, giving it a playful look. Perfect for branding apps and websites when a bit more personality is required.
If you’re designing for a…retail or beauty brand
With many retail and beauty brands turning their sights onto the millennial market, it pays to use a font that resonates with this audience.
The logo fonts below vary in style, but what they retain in common is a hefty dose of character and personality. From 70s-inspired chunky serifs to bouncy rounded sans, these fonts will inject your brand with energy and optimism.
11. Gilroy
A rounded geometric display font brimming with personality, Gilroy is youthful and bouncy while retaining clarity and cleanliness.
The perfect typeface for logo design, two weights, Light and Extra Bold are free to download from Fontspring.
12. Quicksand
Rounded logo fonts are exceptionally approachable because they mimic the naive qualities of type styles which are usually created with children in mind.
Quicksand manages to balance youthful naivety with a clean and contemporary style, making it a great pick for creating logos which are both friendly and professional.
13. Gnomon*
Created by Owen Earl of InDestructible Type*, Gnomon* is a web font with an added quirk—the shadow of text set in the font changes location throughout the day in relation to the time.
Novelty aside, Gnomon* is in itself an excellent display font, with a chunky, friendly and highly readable style.
14. Corda
Tap into the trend for contemporary 1970s styling with Corda, an elegant and breezy serif family with a flowing, curvy ductus.
Designed by Dieter Hofrichter and published by Hoftype, the Light weight is currently available for free download on Fontspring.
15. Nunito
A rounded typeface with varying thick and thin strokes, Nunito has a retro-inspired style which would look fantastic paired with more contemporary styling.
Available in eight, free-to-download weights, this is a versatile font which could be used across logo or branding design.
15 more Logo & Branding Fonts – Read Part Two
Looking for more typography inspiration? Discover our edit of the best fonts for magazine design here.