Your logo design is a visual representation of what your brand stands for. Thanks to the internet, more eyes are paying attention to logos than ever before, which is why it’s critical that your logo clearly communicates your unique message.

We’ve talked about the principles of good logo design, and simplicity is one of the core elements. Therefore, including too much text in your logo is a mistake that you don’t want to make.

While some of the most recognizable logos are simple in nature–Apple, Coca-Cola, and Google, for instance–you’ll notice that they include the company name in the design. The font that each company has chosen in these logo designs plays an important role in telling the brand’s story.

Choosing a font for your logo design is no easy task, and much more thought needs to go into this process than just selecting a font because you think the typeface looks nice. Instead, your font must be consistent with your branding strategy and the message that you want to convey.

Here are several important questions that you need to ask yourself to help you choose the best font for your logo design:

1. Does the mood and personality of the font match your brand’s values?
Consider the feel of your brand. Are you professional and uptight, or would words like “playful” and “laid back” better describe your business? Font choices such as Garamond and Clarke will convey a professional feel while a font such as Crayon Crumble is more playful.

2. How does the font choice for your logo pair with the font selections that you’ve used in other aspects of your branding?
Your font choice for your logo needs to work well with all of your other font choices for content. While there’s no need to strictly use one font for all of your branding, your font choices must complement each other.

3. How does the font translate across different types of media, colors, and sizes?
One of the reasons why Verdana has become such a popular font choice for logos is because it works well in all mediums.

4. Do you have to strain to be able to read the text?
There are so many great-looking fonts to choose from that offer the “cool” factor. However, some of these fonts can be difficult to read, especially with longer sections of text. Font choices such as Crimson and Frutiger are easy see regardless of the size of text. As a rule of thumb, if people have difficulty trying to read your choice of font, they will believe that your company is difficult to do business with.

Addressing these questions will help you to narrow down your selection of fonts so that you can choose one that best compliments your branding strategy and message that you want to convey. Never underestimate the value of consistency as your choice of font will become more synonymous with your business over time.