IFRC Brand System
  • Introduction
  • BASICS
    • Logo
      • Co-branding with partners and donors
      • Emblems and Movement logo
    • Colour
    • Corporate fonts
    • Icons
  • Core Brand Package
    • Key brand resources
    • Generic PowerPoint presentation
    • Virtual backgrounds
    • Banners, exhibition stands and posters
    • Stationery
    • Business cards
    • Merchandise
    • Printing technical specifications
  • House Style guide
    • Think first, write later: an A to Z
    • Jargonbusters
    • IFRC House Style and Guidelines
    • IFRC preferred spellings
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  • Montserrat
  • Open Sans
  • Arial
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  1. BASICS

Corporate fonts

Last updated on 25.02.2025

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Last updated 1 month ago

Typography is everywhere and it plays an important role in brand identity. As a humanitarian organisation, we must exercise extreme care when selecting fonts for our brand materials. Font choice not only represents our brand but also has the power to create either a very positive or a very negative experience for our viewers.

Key questions considered before selecting brand fonts

  • Is the font legible, ensuring readability for individuals with visual impairments?

  • Does the font family offer ample variations, providing flexibility in design?

  • Does the font include a sufficient number of glyphs (special characters)?

  • Does the font support multiple languages?

  • Does the font show proper character kerning (space between characters)?

  • Is the font available for free, and if not, what are the associated costs for licensing and installation?

After careful consideration, three typefaces were selected: Montserrat and Open Sans (to be used only for body text). If Open Sans is not available, Arial can be used as a substitute. Please note that both the Montserrat and Open Sans font families are part of the free Google Fonts collection, and Arial is one of the default Microsoft fonts.

Advantages of opting for Google Fonts include

  • High quality and legibility

  • Support for multiple languages

  • Extensive sets of glyphs

  • Proper character kerning

  • Free availability with open licenses for web and print

  • Ease of implementation on websites

Montserrat

Montser­rat is a ge­o­met­ric sans-serif type­face de­signed by Juli­eta Ulanovsky, in­spired by posters and sig­nage from her his­tor­i­cal Buenos Aires neigh­bour­hood of the same name. It is rather close in spirit to Gotham and Prox­ima Nova, but has its own in­di­vid­ual ap­pear­ance — more in­for­mal, less ex­tended, and more id­iosyn­cratic.

It is pro­vided in a to­tal of nine dif­fer­ent weights, each hav­ing eight fig­ure styles and small caps in both up­right and italic shapes.

Download Montserrat Typeface

Open Sans

Open Sans is a humanist sans serif typeface designed by Steve Matteson, Type Director of Ascender Corp. This version contains the complete 897 character set, which includes the standard ISO Latin 1, Latin CE, Greek and Cyrillic character sets. Open Sans was designed with an upright stress, open forms and a neutral, yet friendly appearance. It was optimised for print, web, and mobile interfaces, and has excellent legibility characteristics in its letterforms.

Download Open Sans Typeface

Arial

A contemporary sans serif design, Arial contains more humanist characteristics than many of its predecessors and as such is more in tune with the mood of the last decades of the twentieth century. The overall treatment of curves is softer and fuller than in most industrial style sans serif faces. Terminal strokes are cut on the diagonal which helps to give the face a less mechanical appearance. Arial can be used with equal success for text setting in reports, presentations, documents etc.

4MB
Montserrat.zip
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6MB
Open_Sans.zip
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Montserrat typeface preview
Open Sans typeface preview