Logo Design Typography in Logo Design 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is a 'wordmark' logo?
- A logo that uses only the company's name in a distinctive typeface (Correct answer)
- A logo that combines an icon with text
- A logo built from abstract shapes
- A logo that uses only initials
Correct answer: A logo that uses only the company's name in a distinctive typeface
A wordmark is a text-only logo where the company name is set in a carefully chosen and often customized typeface.
Question 2: Which type of typeface is generally associated with a classic, authoritative brand identity in logo design?
- Serif (Correct answer)
- Handwritten script
- Display decorative
- Monospaced
Correct answer: Serif
Serif typefaces convey tradition, reliability, and authority, making them popular for law firms, newspapers, and luxury brands.
Question 3: What is 'kerning' in typography?
- Adjusting the space between individual letter pairs (Correct answer)
- Changing the overall font size
- Modifying the height of capital letters
- Setting the line spacing between rows of text
Correct answer: Adjusting the space between individual letter pairs
Kerning is the manual adjustment of space between specific letter pairs to create visually even spacing throughout a wordmark.
Question 4: Why do many professional logo designers convert text to outlines before finalizing a logo file?
- To prevent font substitution issues when the file is opened on another computer (Correct answer)
- To allow color changes
- To make the text editable later
- To reduce file size
Correct answer: To prevent font substitution issues when the file is opened on another computer
Converting text to outlines (or paths) embeds the letterforms as vector shapes, ensuring the logo looks identical on any system regardless of installed fonts.
Question 5: What does 'tracking' (also called letter-spacing) refer to in logo typography?
- Uniform spacing adjustment applied across a range of characters (Correct answer)
- The vertical height of uppercase letters
- The curve of round letters
- The weight of the font stroke
Correct answer: Uniform spacing adjustment applied across a range of characters
Tracking adjusts the overall spacing between all characters in a word or block of text, affecting the openness or tightness of the wordmark.
Question 6: Which font category is best suited for a tech startup logo aiming to appear modern and clean?
- Sans-serif (Correct answer)
- Blackletter
- Slab serif
- Script
Correct answer: Sans-serif
Sans-serif fonts lack decorative strokes, giving them a clean, modern, and minimal appearance widely used by technology companies.
What is a 'wordmark' logo?