How I Used Great Kings Font in a Real Branding Project
I had just started a branding project for a small craft brewery, and the mood board was leaning towards bold, industrial, and slightly vintage. I opened a blank logo draft in Illustrator, and my usual sans-serif standby felt a little too safe. I needed something with more character, more weight, more presence. That’s when I remembered Great Kings sitting in my font library. I dropped the name ‘Iron & Oak Brewing’ onto the canvas, and the project immediately shifted direction.
Great Kings is a display font that doesn’t whisper; it declares. Its thick, solid letterforms are cool and confident. The personality is unapologetically bold, evoking a mood of strength, tradition, and craft. There’s a slight retro flair to its blocky construction, but it feels modern in its cleanliness. This isn’t a fussy font. It’s a straightforward, powerful tool for making a statement.
The First Mockup and Logo Application
For the brewery logo, Great Kings became the sole typeface. The thick letters naturally filled space, creating a logo mark that felt substantial even at a small size on a business card. The boldness conveyed the robustness of their product. I used the standard uppercase letters for the main logotype, and the weight of the font meant I could simplify the rest of the identity – no need for extra graphical elements. The font itself was the graphic.
But the real magic for this project came from the glyphs and swashes. Because Great Kings is PUA encoded, accessing all those alternate characters was seamless right within my design software. For the ampersand in ‘Iron & Oak’, I swapped in a more ornate swash alternation, which added that single point of vintage detail without overwhelming the bold core. It provided a custom feel without any manual illustration work.
Building Out the Full Brand System
Once the logo was locked in, I started applying Great Kings across the entire brand system. Its role was clear: headline and accent.
On packaging – the bottle labels and can wraps – Great Kings was used for the brewery name and the beer variant names (like ‘Blackstone Porter’). On a physical mockup, the font held incredible readability from a short distance, its thickness standing out against busy backgrounds. For the supporting information (ABV, tasting notes), I paired it with a clean, neutral sans-serif. This created a perfect visual hierarchy: Great Kings shouted the important stuff, and the sans-serif quietly explained it.
This pairing principle extended to everything. For their website header, the brewery name in Great Kings anchored the page, while the navigation and body text used the same sans-serif. On social media graphics for new releases, a single line of text in Great Kings became the focal point over a product photo. It ensured consistency and instant recognition across every touchpoint.
Testing in Real-World Applications
Before finalizing anything, I always test a font in practical scenarios. I mocked up a shop sign. Would those thick letters hold up when enlarged and viewed from down the street? Absolutely – they gained a sculptural quality. I placed it on a merchandise mockup, like a t-shirt. The bold letterforms translated perfectly into print, retaining their integrity.
A key observation was that Great Kings works best in short-form applications. It’s a display font, not a body text font. Using it for a paragraph would be overwhelming and difficult to read. But for headlines, logos, product names, and callout phrases – it’s exceptional. It elevates those elements, making them feel premium and intentional.
The included glyphs also meant I could add subtle variety within the strict brand system. On a poster for a brewery event, I used a different alternate ‘G’ for ‘Great Beer Festival’ to give that specific piece a slightly unique, yet brand-coherent, flair. This flexibility is a huge practical advantage in client work, allowing you to tailor the font for different contexts without breaking visual unity.
Practical Advice for Your Project
If you’re considering Great Kings for a branding project, start by defining its role. Is it your primary logo font? Your headline font? Once you know that, find its supporting partner. I’ve found it pairs beautifully with:
- Clean, geometric sans-serifs for a modern, industrial feel.
- Classic serifs for a more traditional, authoritative vibe.
- Simple handwritten or script fonts for a craft-focused, human touch, provided you use the script very sparingly as an accent.
Always test it on the specific mediums your client will use. Open it in your software and test the alternates. Type out the actual client name and key phrases to see how the letterforms interact. Check the licensing for your commercial use case. Then, build from that strong, bold anchor.
In the end, for that brewery project, Great Kings wasn’t just a font I chose; it became the cornerstone of the brand’s visual voice. It delivered the professionalism and recognition the business needed, with the character that made it memorable. From the logo draft to the final can in someone’s hand, its bold, cool confidence never faded, and that’s exactly what a great display font should do.
