Fonts And Life | Fonts Are Teaching Our Children

(On this page: Fonts Are Teaching Our Children.)

1. Fonts Are Teaching Our Children

   The logo for their brand for many years was nothing more than the name of the company written in a very carefully crafted and easily recognizable font...

   "Mommy, you went to Dunkin' Donuts?" said the boy, not yet three-years old, with his limited but growing vocabulary. And despite his normal recognition of products from a place often visited by the boy and his parents, his mother was surprised. She wasn't drinking the familiar cup of coffee or eating a chocolate-frosted donut. She was simply putting away bag of coffee grounds, the first she had purchased from the coffee giant, therefore the first her son had seen. She was astounded at his ability to read the words.

   Of course, he didn't actually read the words. But he did recognize the letters forming the words in very well-known characters. The logo for their brand for many years was nothing more than the name of the company written in a very carefully crafted and easily recognizable font. While they have recently added a steaming cup of coffee to the logo, the actual words, along with the bright colors, remain the eye-catching component of their brand. In this case, never straying from the use of the font Frankfurter has kept the vision of their signs, advertisements, packaging and products seared into the minds of people everywhere, including children. Their perfect cups of coffee and delicious pastries don't hurt either.

   But have they inadvertently done something incredible for our children? Have they played an integral part in the process of learning to read? Some might consider that a stretch, but consider the young boy recognizing the words, Dunkin' Donuts.

   A good way to observe children learning to read is to take a walk down Sesame Street. The logo of a street sign with the show's name written in Interstate Bold Compressed is easily one of the first brands with which a child becomes familiar.

   This program has always focused on teaching children the very basics of letters and numbers, practicing the constant repetition of letters, how they look and sound in every episode. And every child knows that the place to learn the alphabet is the thoroughfare they commonly call by name – Sesame Street. Now it's just a matter of whether they recognize the logo and put it all together that the letters for the words of their favorite show.

   Perhaps some do, but many children move on to different shows and characters to follow, each one branded with its own logo, and easily identifiable font. Turning from PBS, who used specifically designed logos instead of traditional fonts, to increasingly popular younger sibling of Nickelodeon, Nick Jr.

   Nick Jr. airs non-stop programming for children developing from crawling babies to walking toddlers. All of these shows feature colorful logos with the names branded in fun, child-friendly text. The popular singing group The Fresh Beat Band features a logo with just the show name written in something very close to, or a slightly altered, Popgod Regular.

   All of these shows, even the ones whose brand is primarily image-based, use specific fonts for the show name. Logos with images are certainly easy to recognize, but the words that are formed with letters in a familiar font are obviously just as easy to identify, even for a child who has not yet learned to read.