Why Clients Don’t Care About Fonts (and Why That’s Okay)

When I first started working with clients, I believed my job was not only to design but also to teach. I would explain why a certain serif communicated tradition, or how sans serif fonts felt modern and approachable. I thought this level of detail would help clients value the work more.

Instead, most clients just nodded politely and asked the real question on their minds: “Will this work for my audience?”

That’s when I realized fonts, while central to design, are rarely central to the people hiring us.

What Clients Actually Care About

Clients don’t hire designers because they want a typography lecture. They hire us because they want a business problem solved. Their concerns sound like this:

• Will this design make people trust my brand?

• Will this poster bring people to the festival?

• Will this campaign stop people from scrolling?

Typography plays a role in all of those goals, but clients don’t need to know the mechanics. They just need the assurance that the design will achieve its purpose.

Research supports this. A 2012 MIT study on typography and reading experience found that good typography improves comprehension and engagement without people even realizing why. Participants who read well-typed material reported feeling “focused” and “in a good mood,” even though they couldn’t articulate that typography was the reason. Clients feel the same way. They notice the effect, not the tool.

Speaking Their Language

This shift in mindset changed how I communicate design choices. Instead of talking about “x-heights” or “serif contrast,” I anchor my explanations in client goals.

• Instead of “This font has great readability,” I say, “This design will be easy to skim on mobile.”

• Instead of “This typeface balances modern and classic qualities,” I say, “This look will help your brand feel fresh but still trustworthy.”

• Instead of “This font pairing adds hierarchy,” I say, “This makes sure your audience notices the call-to-action first.”

The technical reasoning stays the same, but the framing speaks to what clients actually care about: effectiveness.

Lessons From My Own Work

When I worked on branding for international festivals, clients never once asked which typeface I used. Their questions were about visibility: Will the signage be readable from a distance? Will the flyers grab attention in crowded streets?

Typography mattered, but not as an abstract concept. It mattered because people had to process information quickly in real-world environments. In fact, eye-tracking research from Nielsen Norman Group shows that readers scan rather than read carefully, often following an F-shaped pattern. Clear typography makes this scanning possible, which is why fonts matter—but only insofar as they support the outcome.

I’ve seen the same pattern in wellness content. When designing posts around sensitive topics like mental health, no one asked me why I chose a humanist sans serif. What mattered was whether the design felt approachable, calming, and trustworthy. The font choice supported that goal, but clients experienced it emotionally, not technically.

The Designer’s Responsibility

Clients not caring about fonts doesn’t make typography less important. In fact, it reinforces why designers matter. We care about the details so they don’t have to.

Research by Google’s UX team has shown that users form judgments about website credibility in as little as 50 milliseconds. Typography plays a huge part in that split-second impression, even if users—and clients—can’t articulate why. That’s why designers must take responsibility for these choices while keeping the conversation focused on outcomes.

Fonts are not the headline of the design conversation. They are the invisible scaffolding that makes trust, clarity, and action possible.