How To Choose The Best Font For Your Pitch Deck

So, you’re building a pitch deck for your start-up. But there are many factors to consider regarding the design aspect. Of course, images and graphs are critical components, but so is the font you use. The Brand Iron team has designed many successful pitch decks, raising over 5 billion in capital for clients. Below, we are sharing our top six fonts and how to choose the right font for your pitch deck.

So, what is the best font for a pitch deck? 

Well, that depends. The font you use can make or break your deck. It’s also a good indication of how potential investors view your deck by determining your company’s value. There may be 10 keys to a successful pitch deck, but the best font for a pitch deck depends on many factors.

First of all, we want to address why fonts matter.

• • Communication and Hierarchy: Your deck must show your specific brand voice, tone, and style, which should be easily distinguishable for your audience. The proper font choice, arrangement of content, and colors provide this level of communication. It also helps determine the information hierarchy. In a pitch deck, categorizing text according to its importance is vital. If it aligns with your brand, don’t be afraid to use different font types and sizes to establish the importance of each.
  • Visually Appealing: Your font should be clean and easy to read, matching your website and brand to a T. The font, size, and color you choose are vital to your text and helps readers distinguish valuable information. It’s also a great way to grab the attention of your audience. Around 75% of investors get distracted within the first 15-minutes of a pitch. If used effectively, typography can help keep their attention. Thus, highlighting the text of interest or using graphics with text is a creative way to use the font within your pitch deck.
  • Deck Harmonization: A repeated font pattern for each slide creates a visually appealing harmony. The alignment and correct proportion organize and declutter your presentation. In addition, it adds an artistic effect to your pitch deck. Depending on your brand, specific fonts set product tones and establish how content is comprehended. For example, is your business fun, playful, glamorous, educational, or more serious? Choosing the typeface that gets this emotional appeal across is critical.
  • Demonstrates Professionalism and Credibility: To show professionalism and gain trust, the correct addition of typography in your pitch deck is critical as it defines the importance of your content. When presenting your completed deck to investors, they will notice the effort and value created via font choice and graphics. A visually appealing presentation is more likely to maintain their attention and respect, securing the funds needed for your business.

Now that you know why font choice is an essential design element of your pitch deck, there are some things you need to consider when moving forward with your decision.

1. 1. How do you want to present your pitch deck? Depending on your specific brand, choosing a clean and simple presentation is typically your best option.
   2. Is your font choice easy to read? If your potential investors have difficulty following the text, you will lose their interest and possibly investment!
   3. Is this a font your team typically uses? Does everyone have access to the font? This aspect will either streamline your deck or slow you down. Using a standard font will make deck iterations and updates simpler.

Choosing the Best Font for your Brand

Suppose you use Microsoft Word or Google Docs to write. In that case, the font style or text is automatically set to Arial or Times New Roman. However, there are several font styles available to choose from. Most typefaces and their requisite fonts, however, fall under the serif or sans-serif style. And while the differences between the two appear minimal, there are key differentiators.

Difference Between Serif and Sans-Serif Fonts:

use decorative strokes extending past the ends of their letterforms. Designed to invoke feelings of history, tradition, honesty, and integrity; this font type is classic or formal.

Popular Serif Typefaces:

Transitional
Slab serif
Didone

Sans-serif fonts:

these are modern, highly legible, minimalist fonts that lack additional embellishments and have a clean, orderly appearance. This font style is casual.

Popular Sans-Serif Typefaces:

Neo-grotesque
Geometric
Humanis

When deciding, be sure to consider your brand logo. Is the font cohesive, and if so, what does it say about your brand and target audience? How will your customers view your font choice? Can they relate to it?

When finalizing your decision, keep in mind that using more than 1-3 font types in a pitch deck is not recommended, and be sure to keep your font size consistent. Aside from your headers and sub-headers, these should be larger. The color you decide on should also cohesively match your brand and website. And as mentioned in previous blogs, use the bare minimum of text.

Brand Iron specializes in telling visual stories, and our team has created several winning pitch decks. Below are the top 6 pitch deck fonts that our designers swear by.

Our designers chose the following two fonts because they have good legibility, spacing, and weight options:

1. Argentum Sans– is a sans-serif, geometric typeface branched from a version of Montserrat and is designed as a branding and editing solution. It has nine weights, from a sleek, thin weight to a solid, and a heavy-duty black weight option.
2. Cera Pro– is a sans-serif font driven by geometry. It has four weights, then to black, and brings simplicity and elegance to the forefront.

Two other choices that offer flexible-weight fonts that allow for display and copy usages are:

1. Proxima Nova-Is a sans-serif font created as a gap between sans fonts like Futura and Akzidenz Grotesk, providing contemporary proportions and geometric shapes. It’s a complete rework of the Proxima Sans typeface. It expands the original six fonts into a huge sans-serif font family with 42 fonts, seven weights, and three different widths with corresponding italics. It’s also one of the most popular web fonts due to its readability.
2. Work Sans– is a sans-serif based on early Grotesque faces, and the regular weight is optimized for on-screen text and print design. Recent updates added an italic style and a wide selection of OpenType font characteristics.

One option loved by our designers for its versatility is:

1. Gotham– it’s a geometric sans-serif typeface inspired by the art nouveau movement. This font family was released with ten fonts and italic styles that encompass serif and sans-serif letterforms. Gotham has eight weights and four widths: Regular, bold, black, and extra black. This font family is one of the largest and offers 66 variations.

However, the #1 recommendation font our designers suggest is:

1. FF Utility– is a creative, contemporary sans-serif. It’s very versatile and can be used for almost anything. This family has seven weights, from thin to black, and is designed to use weight for emphasis, like bold with light or black and regular.

Building a winning pitch deck takes a certain finesse. Your deck must be fine-tuned down to the last detail, including your font choice. As fonts are a communication method, it adds a visually appealing element outside of the creative images, assists with deck harmonization, and demonstrates your level of professionalism and credibility. Determining the font to put your brand forward to potential investors is vital.

The team at Brand Iron are experts at building successful pitch decks and helping clients bring out the best in their brands. We know how to choose powerful fonts that benefit your presentation. Such as the excellent legibility with Argentum Sans and Cera Pro and the flexible-weight options with Proxima Nova and Work Sans fonts. And finally, the versatility offered with Gotham and the more contemporary FF Utility fonts.

Whatever your brand needs to make your pitch deck come alive, Brand Iron is here to help.

Brand Iron is an independent, multi-faceted branding and marketing agency passionate about shaping businesses and transforming brands. We are a collective of independent thinkers, artists, and doers committed to forging unrivaled outcomes for our clients. And most recently, recognized as one of the best SEO firms in Colorado!